• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Studio Guide

Tips for Teachers & Students

  • Home
  • Dance Life
  • Blog
    • Management
    • Teaching
    • Dance
    • Swimming
    • Gymnastics
    • Martial Arts
  • Contact Us

Swim School Goals: Helping Your Students Develop Physical Fitness Goals, Part 3

Last updated on March 2, 2023 by The Studio Guide Staff Leave a Comment

young children practicing kicks in swim school

In Part 1, we considered the various aspects of physical fitness as well as the most significant area of cardiovascular endurance, which is an area in which today’s children often struggle. In Part 2, we talked about the unique challenges that children face as well as the importance of healthy habits such as nutritious food choices and regular physical activity. Of course, much of your swim school students’ lives will be lived outside your pool and the constraints of swimming lessons and competitions. So how can you help your swimmers establish healthy habits? We’re about to discuss just that.

group of young swim school students with teacher

Do What You Do Best

As a swim school instructor or coach, you have influence. Encouraging healthy habits are about wielding your influence in a way that impacts your swimmers for the better. Certainly, as you aim to extend your influence into additional areas of your swim students’ lives, you may feel insecure at first. But that’s okay. You’re not responsible for the healthy habits your students choose, but you are in a position to help them make better choices.

When it comes to encouraging any kind of behavior, you simply do it the same way you are used to doing it. How do you normally motivate your swimmers? You’re probably used to using words of affirmation, celebrating their efforts and improvement. Of course, the greatest motivation for healthy habits will be in their swimming endurance as well as health benefits your students will reap later in life.

Make sure any tangible rewards you offer aren’t unhealthy foods, which would, of course, be counter-productive. Even if such foods are occasional treats, using them as rewards can encourage an unhealthy association of junk food with good behavior – by extension linking healthy foods to punishment.

swimming lesson kids practicing their diving

Improvement Is the Goal

Like most life skills, healthy habits aren’t an exact science. But by tracking them and becoming more regular about them, each of us can make strides toward greater physical fitness. Perhaps you can provide a blank calendar for your swimmers and encourage them to chart some form of physical activity for each day. If a child who otherwise was engaging in no physical activity in the week records 5 minutes per day, 3 days this week, that’s progress! Celebrate it! Then maybe challenge him or her to go for 10 minutes 3 days next week. If a child usually eats a sugary snack every afternoon but makes healthier choices 2 days this week, that’s worth celebrating, too!

In addition to verbal kudos, you could help promote healthy habits among your swimmers by rewarding them for filling out a check sheet with physical activity or healthy food choices. You could also offer to help them create an individual fitness plan to help them get to the point of meeting the recommended 1 hour of physical activity per day, including 3 hours of strength training per week.

Filed Under: Swim, Teaching

Additional Articles

boy learning how to martial arts kick
Teaching Life Skills: Resilience, Part 1
Teaching Life Skills: Resilience, Part 3
Teaching Life Skills: Resilience, Part 2
swimming lessons students practicing for instructor
Swim School Goals: Helping Your Students Develop Physical Fitness Goals, Part 2
happy students in swimming school
Swim School Goals: Helping Your Students Develop Physical Fitness Goals, Part 1
group of young swimmers in training with kickboards
How Old Should a Child Be to Begin Competitive Swimming? Part 2

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

seventeen + 10 =

Primary Sidebar

Lyon Financial
X10 Home Automation

Dance Recitals & Competitions

  • Streamlining Your Dance Recital Planning
  • Dance Competition Planning: Find a Theme that Shines
  • Weighing the Advantages and Disadvantages of Dance Competitions

Dance Gear

  • Top Dancewear Companies & Dance Clothing Designers
  • Ballet Shoes for Beginners

The Dancer’s Body

  • Dancers: What It Means When Your Body Snaps, Crackles & Pops
  • Four Steps for Healthier Sleep
  • Dance Kinesiology - Understanding the Dancer's Body
Lyon Financial

Popular Articles

  • 6 Steps to Choreographing Your First Dance Solo
  • How Old Should a Child Be to Begin Competitive Swimming?
  • Dancer Life: What To Do When Bullying Happens To You
Lyon Financial

Recent Posts

  • Teaching Life Skills: Resilience, Part 1
  • Making Dance Recitals More Profitable Than Ever
  • How to Deal with Parent Confrontations, Part 2
  • The Importance of Protein for Dancers
  • Teaching Life Skills: Resilience, Part 3
  • Nutrient-Rich Snacks for Dancers
  • How to Deal with Parent Confrontations, Part 1
  • Healthy Snacks for Dancers: Summer Edition
  • Teaching Life Skills: Resilience, Part 2
  • A Dancer’s Diet: 2 Ingredients to Avoid

Join the Conversation

  • John Wall on Dancer Life: What To Do When Bullying Happens To You, Part 3
  • Hugo Rodríguez on How Old Should a Child Be to Begin Competitive Swimming? Part 1
  • caitlyn aldridge on Ballet Shoes for Beginners
  • caitlyn aldridge on Ballet Shoes for Beginners
  • Hannah on Happy Feet for Dancers: Basic Foot Care

Copyright © 2023 The Studio Guide · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer · Sitemap