Jump and Turn
Swimmers jump in, turn straight back to face the wall and swim to it – the essential safety habit after any entry.
- Stages
- Stage 3, Stage 4
- Difficulty
- Developing
- Skills
- Safe Entry, Water Safety, Jump Entry
- Equipment
- Hoops
- Age
- 5–12 years
- Group size
- 1–10 swimmers
- Time
- About 5 minutes
- In a lesson
- Introduction / Warm-up, Skill Development 1, Skill Development 2
- Shared by
- SwimShare Resource
Safety notes
- Check depth and that the landing area is clear before every jump.
- Follow your pool's procedures for jump entries.
- One swimmer at a time.
What it develops
- Jump in safely and return to the side
- Use simple water safety skills
- Enter the water in different ways and return to the side
How to run it
- Swimmers stand at the edge, toes over, in water of a suitable depth.
- Jump out and land on two feet (or go under and come up).
- Immediately turn round to face the wall.
- Swim or kick back and hold on – then exit safely.
Teaching cues
- Look forwards, jump out.
- Turn to the wall.
- Swim back and hold on.
Make it easier
- Jump holding the teacher's hand.
- Jump into shallower water where feet can land.
Make it harder
- Jump further out so there's a longer swim back.
- Jump, go fully under, surface and swim back on the back.
Common faults
- Swimming away from the wall after surfacing.
- Jumping up rather than out, landing near the edge.
Corrections
- Ask swimmers to shout 'wall!' as they surface.
- Place a floating hoop as a landing target.
Assistant / L1 role
- Position yourself at the landing point, slightly to one side, to reassure nervous swimmers and be close if anyone struggles, while the Level 2 supervises the group from where they can see everyone.