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What Stroke Should be Taught First? |
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Speedy Ray is an extraterrestrial character currently visiting earth with a mission to teach Earthlings to swim. His host on Earth is the imaginative Eduardo Ferre, founder of 'Swimming Nature'. The interesting thing about Speedy Ray's lesson plans, apart from the use of aquatic animals to designate the achievement level, is that Speedy Ray advocates teaching back crawl first, that is, prior to teaching front crawl. Back crawl is the first stroke to be taught as a whole stroke. Prior to that Speedy Ray makes sure that every earthling gets fully adapted to the water first and perfects the body position in front and back floats. There is little doubt that some human beings have also contemplated teaching back crawl before front crawl. However, Speedy Ray has actually implemented the idea on a large scale with great success in the Swimming Nature programs.
Two questions arise from Speedy Ray's success. First, why might teaching back crawl prior to front crawl lead to faster learning in swimming? Second, if it is a superior approach, why has it not been adopted universally as the standard? One doesn't really require extraterrestrial intelligence to find answers to the first question. Two 'C's spring to mind - confidence and complexity. It is counter intuitive for beginning swimmers to put their face in the water. How can one concentrate on learning a new skill when one is worried about maintaining a life preserving flow of air to the lungs! Being able to perform the skill of front crawl swimming is dependent on being able to breath and being able to breath is dependent on being able to perform the skill. So we are expecting beginners to overcome their fear of having their face in the water while concurrently learning two interdependent skills simultaneously. Sure, we use progressions and break the complex skill into simple parts such as learning the head turning action while kicking with a kickboard, swimming short distances without breathing. However, to integrate the sub skills into a fluent whole is far from easy. The beginner has to weld several actions together with appropriate timing. These are the kicking action, arm action, body roll, and head turning action. In the attempt to do so the natural tendency is to simplify the task by doing one or more of the components in an incorrect manner. Habits of incorrect technique are developed and are subsequently resistant to correction. A common fault, we have all observed, is the head being lifted rather than turned to the side. The advantage of teaching back crawl first is that many of the sub skills are well developed and can transfer to the more complex task of front crawl swimming. In back crawl it is not necessary to have the face in the water. Hence there is a comfort level that allows the learner to concentrate on the skills themselves. Learning back crawl as a whole stroke before front crawl increases fitness and avoids the anxiety associated with learning to breath with the face in the water. The kicking action can be mastered and good timing developed. A rhythmical kick that harmonises with the rhythm of body roll develops easily in the absence of the conflicting skill of having to turn the head to breath.
After becoming reasonably adept at back crawl the beginner is well placed with a framework of skills to facilitate rapid learning of correct technique in front crawl. Intermingled with learning the back crawl the swimmers learn lateral breathing as an entirely isolated movement. This develops the timing of the head turning and breathing. By the time the back crawl has been learnt swimmers have the confidence, stamina and basic skills to master the front crawl readily. To answer the second question, that is, why has back crawl first not been adopted universally as the standard, one needs to look at sociological factors rather than concepts of skill learning. When children and parents think of being able to swim they automatically imagine that being able to swim is covering a set distance in a prone posture, that is, doing front crawl. So this is what they crave. Swimming instructors are naturally keen to oblige so that the family has this sense of achievement as soon as possible and to procure the positive feedback that is good for business. Speedy Ray has overcome this temptation and exemplifies patience. His motto is not merely to enable earthlings to swim a set distance, but to 'swim in a beautiful way'. Perhaps we should follow Speedy Ray's example to ensure that children not only learn to be safe in the water but learn to swim with good technique.
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