Lesson Setup

Before any stroke is taught, five habits set the tone for safety, behaviour and learning. They take 60 seconds and they're non-negotiable.

• 1
  Introduce yourself

  A quick "Hi, I'm Sam, I'll be teaching you today" — the additional use of standard ice breakers is TSA best practice.

• 2
  Set your rules

  State 2–3 simple rules up front. For example:

  • I NEVER want to see your head under the water when you are waiting at the wall or hanging on the lane rope.
  • Swim along the lane rope at all times. NEVER swim down the middle of the lane.

  Clear expectations stated early prevent most behavioural issues before they start.

• 3
  Set yourself up at half way

  Stand at the midpoint of the teaching area, not the end. From here you can see and reach every swimmer, and no child is ever more than half a lap from you.

  By acting as the platform you can adjust the distance to be swum by each individual swimmer. I.e. if they need extra help with their freestyle technique or are a smaller child, you can move closer to the wall to reduce the distance.

• 4
  Call each swimmer by their name and tell each swimmer what you want them to do, every time

  Remember that teaching swimming is important but putting on a performance for parents watching is almost as important. Calling a swimmer's name and telling each one what you want them to do for each lap is a non-negotiable part of TSA lesson delivery.

• 5
  Rotate swimmers around you

  Send swimmers off in a continuous rotation — when one gets to the flags call the next one — so each one gets your feedback as they pass, rather than queuing and waiting. This keeps the group active and gives you a natural point to correct technique.

Freestyle Refresher

Every breaststroke lesson opens with 6 × 25m freestyle. It's your chance to reinforce good freestyle and fix any freestyle stroke model issues.

• 1
  Eyes down

  Looking at the bottom of the pool keeps the face in the water and the neck relaxed — the default head position for the whole stroke. Head position directly affects body position.

• 2
  Chin on chest

  Tucking the chin lengthens the body line and reinforces "eyes down". This is the most common correction in freestyle. A lifted head drops the hips and legs and turns the stroke into hard work.

• 3
  Head still

  The head is the "rudder." If it rocks side to side, the whole body wobbles off balance.

• 4
  Eyes looking along the water to breathe

  When breathing, eyes skim along the surface rather than lifting up — this keeps the rotation small and the body balanced.

• 5
  Chin to shoulder

  This breathing rotation pivots the chin toward the shoulder rather than lifting the head forward, allowing minimal movement and efficient breathing.

• 6
  All together — perfect freestyle

  Once each piece is automatic on its own, swimmers combine them into one continuous stroke. This final step is the test that the earlier cues have become habit.

  Feedback for each child should be specific to their stroke, and what they can't remember will indicate what needs further reinforcement from you.

Backstroke Refresher

Backstroke requires a horizontal body position and a continuous, alternating rhythm, similar to freestyle. This is the opposite of breaststroke (simultaneous movements with a pause), which is why teaching its motor skills can be difficult.

• 1
  Head back — hips up

  Ears in the water, eyes to the ceiling, hips floating near the surface. If the head comes up to look at toes, hips drop and swimmer sinks in a "V".

• 2
  Straight leg kicking with feet bubbling water

  A continuous flutter kick from the hips, with relaxed ankles so the feet break the surface and "bubble." This keeps the legs near the top of the water and the hips up. Feet should NEVER be dragging along the bottom or be well under the surface.

• 3
  Hands swapping

  One arm recovers over the top while the other pulls underwater — continuous and alternating, so there's always a hand moving. It's very important not to allow hands to catch up at the hips (like you teach them in freestyle). If hands catch up at the hips they lose momentum and sink.

• 4
  Little finger first

  The hand enters the water pinky-first, close to the body. This reduces splash and sets the hand up to "catch" the water efficiently for the pull.

The Two Fundamentals

Every cue in the next three modules — kick, arms, and combining — exists to support two simple checks. Get these two things right and the stroke works, whatever the details look like in between.

• 1
  The hands MUST stop at the front

  After every pull, the hands come together and stop, fully stretched out in front. That stop is the glide — it's the moment the kick's propulsion gets to do its job. If the hands don't stop here, the swimmer is missing the glide entirely, and the stroke turns into a constant, tiring motion with nothing to show for it.

• 2
  The head MUST come up the instant the hands come apart

  The moment the hands separate to start the next pull, the head should begin rising to breathe. This is the timing check. If the head doesn't come up here, there's no connection between arms and legs — the swimmer is very likely sinking, and may be finishing each stroke underwater with no way to come up for the next breath.

Ballerina Feet, Heels Up, Slowly Around, Stop

Breaststroke kick is widely agreed to be the hardest motor skill in this whole stroke development journey. Almost every problem traces back to the feet: around 99% of first-time Breaststroke 1 swimmers point their toes to the sky when they first bring their heels up, and around 95% finish the kick with one ankle turned in and the other turned out. Either way, the feet have no real connection with the water — no propulsion, and the swimmer sinks.

Below is the cycle, viewed from behind the swimmer as they float face-down. The "ballerina" foot shape — heels touching, toes rotated outward, and feet flexed — is set before any movement starts, and held all the way through to the stop.

What each cue is really doing

• 1
  Heels together, toes out — "ballerina feet"

  This is a foot shape, set before anything moves. It's the direct opposite of the pointed-toe, straight-leg shape almost every beginner defaults to. If a swimmer's feet aren't in this shape, you MUST use your hands to move them into it — there isn't time to fix foot shape mid-kick once they're swimming.

  Most kids won't know how to flex their feet. Ask for them to show you flexed feet to test if they do. They should FEEL the muscles on the tops of their feet working to maintain flexed feet the whole kick.

• 2
  Heels up to your backside

  Knees bend and heels draw up — while keeping the ballerina shape from cue 1. Knees stay roughly hip-width apart; if they splay wide, that's a "frog kick" forming, which adds drag instead of propulsion but is not the most vital step.

• 3
  Ankles out, toes down

  The turned-out, flexed feet from "ballerina" become the paddle for this phase. This is the cue that most directly fixes both common errors: it stops toes pointing skyward, and keeps both ankles turning out together rather than one in, one out.

  This will remind them again to have their feet flexed. Repetition is key to allow them to take in the new information.

• 4
  SLOWLY kick your heels around to the back

  The propulsive phase — but the word that matters most is "slowly." A fast, snappy kick almost always collapses straight back into one ankle in/one ankle out. Keep it slow and controlled, with ankles staying turned out all the way round.

  When practicing the motor skill, or moving a child's legs for them, DO NOT allow them to kick around if their feet are not flexed. Hold them by their ankles with thumbs on the inner side and fingers on the outer side, and stop their legs from moving further if they have lost their "ballerina" feet. If you have your hands over their feet the whole time, how will you know if they are capable of flexing their feet themselves?

• 5
  STOP

  Legs come together fully extended and stay there for "100, 200" (slowly counting and allowing the legs to float back up towards the surface). This is Fundamental #1 in action — the stop is the glide, and it's where the kick's propulsion actually gets used.

Teaching progression

Arms — Breathe — Stop — 100, 200

Where the kick is the unfamiliar part, the arms are the part kids over-do — pulling like freestyle, all the way past their hips. Breaststroke arms are small, quick, and finish with a full stop in streamline. This whole module is really the first of the Two Fundamentals in action: hands stop at the front.

What each cue is really doing

• 1
  Arms

  From streamline, hands sweep out and down, then scoop in toward the chest — a small circle in front of the body. The whole pull should stay in front of the shoulders. If hands travel back past the shoulders or hips, the arms are doing a freestyle pull, not a breaststroke one.

• 2
  Breathe

  This is Fundamental #2: the head comes up the instant the hands come apart — right at the start of the pull, not partway through it. Say the cue, "Arms, Breathe" quickly as they do it to indicate how fast they should bring their head up. Watch for the head going back down again as the hands come back to the front for "Stop."

• 3
  Stop

  Hands shoot forward together back into streamline, and the body pauses there — Fundamental #1. It's the same streamline shape as the kick's glide phase, just reached from the arms.

• 4
  100, 200

  A spoken count said during the stop/glide — it gives the pause a length and a rhythm. The glide should be long enough for their hands to come up to the surface of the water. No one should open their arms if they are still under the water.

Teaching progression

Teaching Connection

The secret to combining arms and legs is connection — the legs need to start moving fairly soon after the arms start moving. Without connection, a swimmer sinks. And if they sink and finish the stroke underwater, how do they ever get their head out as their hands come apart at the start of the next stroke? It becomes a cycle that gets worse, not better.

Warm back in

Start with one rotation each of breaststroke arms (Arms/Breathe/Stop/100-200) and breaststroke kick (the ballerina cue chant) on their own — a quick reminder of each pattern before combining them.

Teaching connection: the drill

This drill exaggerates the timing so swimmers can feel what "connection" means before they have to do it at full speed.

Long glide breaststroke

The full stroke uses the same connection, but now the kick happens once per cycle rather than twice — and there's a real glide afterwards.

Troubleshooting

At a glance, almost every breaststroke problem you'll see shows up as one of two things: the swimmer finishes the stroke underwater, or the swimmer does everything "right" but barely moves.

Kick-specific patterns

Knowledge Check

Eight scenarios you're likely to meet in your first few weeks. Pick an answer to see feedback — there's no time limit, and you can come back to this any time.

Quick Reference

Download or print this page for your first few breaststroke lessons using the button at the bottom of the page.