Teaching teenagers can be a challenge as a swim instructor, and you’ll often find they become disinterested or disengaged from the lesson. Despite this, it is important they continue to learn vital swim and survive skills. Here are some simple ideas you can use to keep them making waves in your lessons:
Mix it up
Mix up your lessons by switching strokes each week, dropping old drills and keeping your lessons flexible. This is an easy way to ensure your students remain interested; as the contents of each lesson will be a surprise, not something they have been dreading all week!
Keep it real
A great way to teach teenagers rescue and personal survival skills is through real life scenarios. These can be as simple as pretending they have to swim under a boat that’s on fire as a group, or attempting a rescue with limited equipment around. It is a great way to get your class working together and have them thinking about the applications of the skills you are teaching.
Challenge them
As soon as you mention the word challenge, teenagers jump with excitement. Turn skills such as treading water into a challenge by asking the question: How long can you tread water for? Can you do it with one hand in the air? The best part, is they won’t even know they are being assessed!