RANGER AQUATIC SWIMMING LEVELS
Level One: Water Exploration
Purpose: Orient to aquatic environment; create a sound foundation for aquatic and safety skills. This level is designed for non-swimmers. The students should be willing to participate in a class. Children start to develop good attitudes and safe practices in and around the water. There are no prerequisite swimming skills.
Skills to learn in this level:
• Enter the water independently
• Exit the water independently
• Submerge entire face for 3 seconds
• Blow bubbles
• Bounce in chest deep water (bob)
• Walk 5 yards in chest deep water, while maintaining balance
• Float, while supported, on front and back
• Kick, while supported, on front and back
• Push off side of pool
• Glide on front and back
• Practice alternating arm action
• Understand the basic rules of water safety
• Knows how to get help
Level Two: Primary Skills
Purpose: Expand on fundamental aquatic locomotion and safety skills. Students begin to learn the basic aquatic skills, such as floating without support, rhythmic breathing, coordinated arm and leg movements (to lay the foundation for front and back crawl) and experience swimming in the deep water.
Skills learned in this level:
• 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 flotation support
• Enter pool into chest-deep water and stand
• Perform flutter kick on front and back (support optional)
• Turn over from front to back and from back to front
• Float on back while sculling with hands
• Perform combined kick & arm stroke on front for 5 yards
• Perform combined kick & arm stroke on back for 5 yards
• Perform a proper push off and streamline glide
• Beginning phases of treading water
Exit skills – Step from side into chest deep water move into a front for 5 sec., roll over to back float, return to standing position, then move to a back float for 5 sec. and return to standing position.
Push off and swim using arm and leg actions for 3m. Push off and swim using arm and leg actions for 3m on back
Level Three: Stroke Refinement
Purpose: Increase swimming skill competency; practice safety and non swimming rescue skills. Children continue to learn and utilize the front and back crawl, continue to develop rhythmic breathing and survival skills (bobbing, underwater swimming). Students learn the fundamentals of treading water, rules for head first entries and the mechanics of diving.
Skills learned in this level:
• Understand safe diving rules
• Bob in water slightly over head to travel to safe area
• Jump into deep water from side of pool
• Can demonstrate survival float for 1 minute
• Retrieve an object from the bottom of the pool in chest-deep water
• Perform 15 bobs in chest-deep water
• Dive from side of pool from kneeling and compact position
• Tread water 30 sec.
• Perform a push off and streamline glide for 2 body lengths
• Perform a push off and streamline glide on back for 2 body lengths
• Reverse direction while swimming on back
• Reverse direction while swimming on front
• Coordinate arm stoke for front crawl while breathing to the front or side 10m
• Can do back crawl for 10m
• Can do elementary backstroke
Exit skills – Jump into chest deep water from the side, swim front crawl for 10m with face in the water and rhythmic breathing pattern to front or side, maintain position by treading or floating for 30 sec., swim back crawl for 10m
Level Four: Stroke Improvement
Purpose: The object of this level is to develop confidence in the stroke learned thus far and to improve other aquatic skills. Children continue to improve and refine freestyle and backstroke skills and improve endurance. Children are also introduced to the elementary backstroke, breaststroke and sidestroke. Standing front dive is further perfected and practiced.
Skills learned in this level:
• Practice deep water bobbing
• Experiment with buoyancy and floating position
• Perform rotary breathing
• Demonstrate diving from pool side, from both stride and standing positions
• Practice treading water with a modified scissors, modified rotary kick
• Tread water for 1 min.
• Demonstrate turning at the wall
• Perform freestyle 25m with rotary breathing
• Perform backstroke 25m
• Elementary backstroke 10m
• Sculling on back 5 m or 15 sec.
• Breaststroke kick 10 m
• Scissor kick 10 m
Exit Skills – Perform feet first entry into deep water swim freestyle 20m, maintain position for 30 sec. (floating or sculling), swim elementary backstroke for 10m, swim breaststroke 10m, treat water for 30 sec., swim backstroke for 20m
Level 5: Stroke Refinement
Purpose: Continue stroke refinement, children begin to perfect basic swimming strokes and increase distance able to swim. New skills introduced are butterfly, surface dives, open turns, flip turns and rescue breathing.
Skills Learned in this level:
• Demonstrate Rescue Breathing (without mouth-to-mouth contact)
• Know how to recognize spinal injury
• Know hip/shoulder support for spinal injury
• Understand rules for safe diving from board
• Swim underwater with 2 different kicks
• Demonstrate standing front dive
• Demonstrate long shallow dive
• Demonstrate alternate breathing
• Continue refinement of freestyle, backstroke, elementary backstroke, breaststroke and sidestroke
• Tread water 2 minutes
• Feet first surface dive
• Stride jump entry
• Perform a breaststroke pullout
• Breaststroke 10m
• Sidestroke 10m
• Dolphin kick 10m
• Elementary backstroke 25m
• Freestyle 50m
• Backstroke 50m
• Open turn on front and back
Exit Skills – Perform shallow dive into deep water, streamline 1 body lengths kick and breakout into freestyle, backstroke or butterfly. Swim freestyle for 50m maintain position for 1 minute in deep water swim elementary backstroke for 25m, swim breaststroke 25m, treat water for 60 sec., swim backstroke for 25m
Level 6: Stroke Proficiency
Purpose: Develop maximum efficiency and endurance for stroke. Skill proficiency for those who can perform freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, sidestroke and butterfly turns and dives. Advanced skills for those who can perform good freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and sidestroke turns and dives.
Skills learned in this level:
• Demonstrate throwing assists
• Know how to roll a spinal injury victim face up
• Shallow dive from side, streamline 2 body lengths then begin freestyle
• Swim underwater 15m
• Tuck and pike surface dives
• Survival float 2 minutes
• Back float 2 minutes
• Flip turn for freestyle and backstroke
• Tread water 3 minutes, 1 minute without hands
• Freestyle 75m
• Backstroke 75m
• Elementary backstroke 50m
• Butterfly 25m
• Breaststroke 25m
• Sidestroke 25m
Exit Skills – Perform a shallow dive into deep water, swim front crawl for 75m, maintain position on back for 2 min in deep water (float or scull)
Swim backstroke for 50m tread water 2 min and swim 25m breaststroke
Level 7: Advanced Skills
Purpose: Objective is to refine strokes so children swim with more ease, efficiency, power and smoothness over greater distances. Encouraged lifetime fitness; learn advanced rescue skills
Skills learned in this level:
• Demonstrate an in-water rescue using equipment
• Demonstrate how to check heart rate
• Know conditioning principles
• Perform a dive from diving board (tuck or pike)
• Tread water 5 minutes
• Retrieve diving brick in 8-10 feet of water
• Continuous swim 500m
• Butterfly 25m
• Breaststroke 50m
• Sidestroke 50m
• Backstroke 100m
• Freestyle 200m
• Swim underwater 15m
• Freestyle and backstroke Flip turns
