Are we ready: the entry test
Ready when: nothing, this is the first card.
What you are learning
Whether the child is ready for diving lessons: swimming 25 m without help, and being calm in deep water without goggles. Diving coaches ask for this before the first lesson, because every entry ends in deep water.
Words on this card Entry, Tread water
- Entry
- The moment the diver goes into the water.
- Tread water
- Staying upright in deep water by moving the legs and hands slowly.
Show it first for the one teaching
- Point out the deep end, the lifeguard and the side the child will swim to.
- Show the back float: lie back, arms and legs spread, tummy up.
- Show treading water: upright, legs moving slowly, hands pressing the water.
Your part while they practise
Watch from the edge; do not coach technique.
Step by step
- Swim 25 m unaided.
- In deep water, float on the back with no goggles while you count.
- Tread water for the time the coach asks.
- Swim to the side and climb out.
How much: 1 test 15 min a session 1 day a week
Say one thing Pick one line from "What you will see" for today and say only that.
The game: Ready test
Score each part of the test, and beat your best next week.
Who plays: the child against their own best; you count; a lifeguard on duty.
How to play, turn by turn
- Turns
- Swim 25 m
- Float on the back in deep water for up to 30 seconds while you count aloud
- Tread water for up to 30 seconds
- Swim to the side and climb out without help
- Fair play
- A child still learning to swim does the floating and treading in water where they can stand, until ready.
- Points
- 4 points for the 25 m without stopping; 1 point for every 10 seconds of floating; 1 point for every 10 seconds of treading water; 1 point for a calm climb out.
- Fouls
- No points for that part
- Holding the side or a float
- Goggles on for the deep-water parts
- Standing on the bottom
- Winning
- Beat your best score; 11 points is the full test.
- 4 points for 1 star
- 8 points for 2 stars
- 11 points for 3 stars
Easier or harder
Swimming lessons first.
Add a streamlined push off the wall.
What you will see, and what to say
- the child panics without goggles
Eyes open under water, slowly
Practise with the face in at the shallow end first. - the child stops at 15 m
Rest on your back, then go on
Float, breathe, then swim on.
Self-check
25 m unaided and 30 seconds comfortable in deep water without goggles.
Stop and get a coach when
The child cannot meet the test; go back to swimming lessons.
Fitness for this
Warm up first: how to warm up, at workonfitness.com. For strength and stretching, its exercise library shows each exercise step by step, with an easier version.
This card trains swimming ability, water confidence.
awiseathlete.com/sports/diving/diving-b1