Sculling Circles
Floating on the back, swimmers use only their hands to spin slowly in a circle – learning how sculling supports and moves the body.
- Stages
- Stage 3, Stage 4
- Difficulty
- Developing
- Skills
- Back Float, Rotation, Sculling
- Equipment
- None, Noodle
- Age
- 5–99 years
- Group size
- 1–10 swimmers
- Time
- About 4 minutes
- In a lesson
- Skill Development 1, Skill Development 2
- Shared by
- SwimShare Resource
Safety notes
- Space swimmers so they can turn freely.
What it develops
- Use simple water safety skills
- Scull to support and to travel
How to run it
- Swimmers float on the back, arms by the sides.
- Hands make small figure-of-eight movements by the hips.
- Push more with one hand to turn in a slow circle.
- Complete a full circle each way.
Teaching cues
- Hands by your hips.
- Little figure eights.
- Stay flat.
Make it easier
- Noodle under the knees.
- Scull sitting in a noodle chair.
Make it harder
- Scull head-first across the width.
- Scull with legs in a tuck.
Common faults
- Big arm sweeps.
- Hands too far from the body.
Corrections
- 'Stir the water beside your pockets.'
- Guide the hand movement standing first.
Assistant / L1 role
- Stand beside a swimmer and move their hands through the figure-of-eight a few times before letting them try alone.