Range of skills, alternating strokes front crawl and backstroke, floating
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can swim front crawl and backstroke with my arms recovering over the water.
Key learning points
- Move: quality swimming using a recognised swimming stroke requires balance and control.
- Move: recovering your arms over the water enables you to reduce the resistance created by the water.
- Think: using a long arm front crawl pull with arms recovering over the water increases distance travelled per arm pull.
- Feel: self-motivation enables us to enjoy moving in the water.
- Connect: working with peers to provide feedback aids improvement.
Keywords
Front crawl - a recognised swimming stroke using alternating arm and leg action on the front, with arms recovering over the water and breathing to the side
Backstroke - a recognised swimming stroke using alternating arm and leg action on the back with arms recovering over the water
Floating - the ability to stay on the surface of the water without sinking
Common misconception
Moving your arms faster makes you swim faster.
When learning front crawl and backstroke pupils must have opportunity to catch the water and feel the water so that they are able to pull as much water as possible.
Teacher tip
Pratice the arm action at school, ideally pratice the action in front of a mirror. Use peer observations to encourage the pupils to identify why some pupils are travelling further off each arm pull when swimming front crawl and backstroke.
Equipment
mixture of floating objects, large round floating mat
Content guidance
Additional qualification required
Risk assessment required - physical activity
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Prior knowledge starter quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Which gas do we need for our muscles when exercising?
Q2.What should your ankles be like when performing an alternating leg kick?
Q3.What do you call the process of moving air out of the lungs?
Q4.Where does your face go when doing a push and glide?
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Why is it important to recover the arms over the water when swimming front crawl?
Q2.What can you do when getting feedback to improve your performance?
Q3.Why is it important to keep the arm close to the ear when the arm recovers over the water when swimming backstroke?
Q4.What does being in a long stretched floating position reduce?
To help you plan your all physical education lesson on: Range of skills, alternating strokes front crawl and backstroke, floating, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your all physical education lesson on: Range of skills, alternating strokes front crawl and backstroke, floating, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom.
Explore more key stage 2 physical education lessons from the Swimming: strokes, distance and safe self rescue unit, dive into the full physical education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.