For children 3-4 years of age with little or no prior experience. Develop repetitive movements and water exploration skills necessary to swim.
Purpose: Orient to aquatic environment; create a sound foundation for aquatic and safety skills.
 | Understand the basic water safety rules
| Know the fundamentals of using a life jacket
| Know how to handle a cramp
| Know how to get help
| Perform reaching assists without equipment
| Enter and exit water independently
| Fully submerge face for 3 seconds
| Blow bubbles
| Bounce in chest-deep water (bob) to chin level 10 times
| Walk 5 yards in chest-deep water, maintaining balance
| Float, while supported, on front & back
| Kick, while supported, on front & back
| Practice basic alternating arm action | |
Purpose: Expand on fundamental aquatic locomotion and safety skills.
| Perform reaching & extension assist from deck
| Assist nonswimmer to feet
| Be familiar with rescue breathing
| Move from standing to horizontal position
| Hold breath and fully submerge head for 3 seconds
| Float or glide on front, unsupported, for 5 seconds
| Float or glide on back, unsupported, for 5 seconds
| Submerge to retrieve object in chest-deep water
| Explore deep water, with floatation support
| Enter pool into chest-deep water and stand
| Perform flutter kick on front & back (support optional)
| Turn over from front to back and back to front
| Float on back while finning with hands
| Practice back crawl arm action
| Perform combined (kick & arms) stroke front, 5 yards
| Perform combined (kick & arms) stroke back, 5 yards) | |
Purpose: Increase swimming skill competency; practice safety and non-swimming rescue skills.
| Understand safe diving rules
| Bob in water slightly over head to travel to safe area
| Jump into deep water with life jacket on
| Jump into deep water from side of pool
| Demonstrate the Heat Escape Lessening Posture for 1 minute
| Perform "huddle" position with other participants for 1 minute
| Know how to open airway for rescue breathing
| Retrieve an object from the bottom in chest-deep water
| Perform 15 bobs in chest-deep water
| Do back crawl, 10 yards
| Do elementary backstroke kick, 10 yards
| Dive from the side of pool from kneeling and compact positions
| Tread water
| Reverse direction while swimming on back
| Coordinate arm stroke for front crawl while breathing to the front or
side, 10 yards
| Perform front glide with push-off, 2 body lengths
| Perform back glide with push-off, 2 body lengths
| Reverse direction while swimming on front | |
Purpose: Develop confidence and competency in strokes and safety skills beyond preceding levels; introduce breaststroke and sidestroke.
| Become familiar with CPR
| Demonstrate Rescue Breathing (without mouth-to-mouth contact)
| Perform rotary breathing
| Practice deep water bobbing
| Experiment with buoyancy and floating position
| Demonstrate diving from pool side, from both stride and standing positions
| Practice treading water with a modified scissors, modified breaststroke
and/or rotary kicks (2 minutes)
| Demonstrate turning at the wall
| Perform the following: | Front crawl, 25 yards with rotary breathing Back crawl, 25 yards Elementary backstroke, 10 yards Scissor kick, 10 yards Sculling on back 5 yards or 15 seconds Breaststroke kick, 10 yards |
Purpose: Continue stroke refinement; introduce butterfly, surface dives and springboard diving.
| Understand rules for safe diving from board
| Know how to recognize spinal injury
| Know hip/shoulder support for spinal injury
| Continue refinement of front crawl, back crawl, elementary backstroke,
breaststroke and sidestroke
| Demonstrate alternate breathing
| Swim under water 3 body lengths
| Tread water 2 minutes with 2 different kicks
| Perform the following: | Feet-first surface dive Breaststroke, 10 yards Sidestroke, 10 yards Elementary backstroke, 25 yards Dolphin kick, 10 yards Front crawl, 50 yards Back crawl, 50 yards Stride jump entry Open turn on front and back |
Purpose: Develop maximum efficiency and endurance for strokes; introduce flip turns.
| Demonstrate throwing assists
| Know how to roll a spinal injury victim face up
| Perform turns: | Speed turn and pull-out for breaststroke Sidestroke turn Breaststroke turn Flip turn for front crawl Tread water for 3 minutes, 1 minute without hands, 2 minutes with hands
| Perform the following: | Front & back crawls, 100 yards each, with turns Breaststroke & sidestroke, 25 yards each Butterfly, 10 yards Breaststroke & sidestroke turns |
Purpose: Encourage lifetime fitness; refine strokes learned in previous levels; develop springboard diving skills; learn advanced rescue skills.
| Demonstrate an in-water rescue using equipment
| Demonstrate how to check heart rate
| Know conditioning principles
| Demonstrate treading water for 5 minutes
| Retrieve diving brick in 8-10 feet of water
| Perform the following: | Continuous swim, 500 yards Breaststroke, 50 yards Front crawl, 200 yards Sidestroke, 50 yards Swim under water, 15 yards Butterfly, 25 yards Back crawl, 100 yards Backstroke flip turn Tread water for 5 minutes |