PE

The Sophomore swimming unit has three basic objectives:

Safety-RULE #1 AROUND WATER IS SAVE YOURSELF FIRST

Fitness-How to use swimming to improve fitness

Fun-Having fun while improving your swim stroke and becoming more efficient in the water.

Rules of the pool

No running

No hanging on the lane lines

No food gum or drink

No shoes on deck

Proper bathing attire only (1 piece suits and no cotton t shirts)

No diving in the shallow water

Never any phones on deck- never!

No touching the basketball hoop, rim, net.


Apply Levers to your swimming

The farther your arms are forward the longer your lever is. Often compared to a teeter totter as a way to see the balance we are looking for in the water. A balanced swimmer swims on the surface of the water. 


Front Crawl/ Freestyle

  1. Balanced body position- finding the center of buoyancy. Often compared to teeter totter or a first class lever as a way to see the balance we are looking for in the water. A balanced swimmer swims on the surface of the water. 

  2. Roll to breathe and head down so you see the bottom of the pool

  3. Arms, always one arm out in front, arms recover and get ready for the next workload, out of the water. 

  4. Flutter kick on the surface of the water with mostly straight legs.

  5. Full length of pool


Safety Week


Extension Assist-The shepherd’s crook is a required piece of equipment for all publicly attended facilities and is the easiest most effective device for making an “extension assist”.

  1. Lower the rounded end into the water

  2. Push/press it into the victim’s gut

  3. Put weight on back foot

  4. Pull victim in slowly, hand over hand

  5. Safety while practicing and testing.


Ring buoys are also required for all publicly attended facilities.

  1. Step on the float end of the rope with your non-dominant foot out front.

  2. Have excess looped rope in an open non-dominant hand.

  3. Throw a buoy underhand, like horseshoes for accuracy.

  4. Throw a buoy past the victim.

  5. Use rope to pull the victim to the side, slowly, hand over hand. 


Backstroke (a competition Stroke)

  1. Balanced body position- finding the center of buoyancy. Often compared to teeter totter or a first class lever as a way to see the balance we are looking for in the water. A balanced swimmer swims on the surface of the water. 

  2. Chin up, ears in water

  3. Arms, hand enters pinky in, thumb out 

  4. Kicking the water out of the pool, upward motion is the propulsion of the kick

  5. Full length of pool


Elementary Backstroke (least amount of “work” needed, recovery stroke)

  1. Balanced body position- finding the center of buoyancy. Often compared to teeter totter or a first class lever as a way to see the balance we are looking for in the water. A balanced swimmer swims on the surface of the water. 

  2. Arms- in water recovery for this stroke

  3. Kick-knees together, heals back, turn out toes, snap heals around and back together in a snapping motion

  4. Glide-minimum of 5 second glide insures proper timing of pull and kick

  5. Full length of pool


Red Cross 5 Skills to Save Your Life in Water


1. Step or jump into the water over your head. 

2. Return to the surface and float or tread water for one minute. 

3. Turn around in a full circle and find an exit. 

4. Swim 25 yards to the exit without stopping. 

5. Exit from the water. If in a pool, be able to exit without using the ladder.




Over 4,000 people drown in the US every year. 


Rule of Progression and Progressive overload and how we applied them in the pool. (hint-this is our cardio days and the way we have gradually added more stress to each week)


Gradually adding more stress in one of the 3 areas of time, frequency, or intensity. (Each week we decrease the time to complete the laps and that increases intensity and increase the intensity by also giving you more lengths to complete)



Progressive Overload- is the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training.


The increase in warm up lengths from 4 lengths to ten or more, the increase in cardio day lengths, increase in the number of push ups are all examples of progressive overload.