Home › Artistic Swimming – Stage 8
Support Scull on the Spot
Hold a back layout completely still beside a floating marker using a support scull – the skill behind every stationary artistic position.
- Stages
- Artistic Swimming – Stage 8, Artistic Swimming – Stage 9
- Difficulty
- Developing
- Skills
- Sculling, Body Control
- Equipment
- Float, Floating Toys
- Age
- 8–99 years
- Group size
- 1–16 swimmers
- Time
- About 5 minutes
- In a lesson
- Skill Development 1, Skill Development 2
- Shared by
- SwimShare Resource
Safety notes
- Markers spaced well apart; standing depth or confident swimmers only in deep water.
What it develops
- Standard and support sculls
- Sculling in a variety of positions
How to run it
- Each swimmer floats in a back layout with their head next to a floating marker.
- Using small figure-of-eight sculling near the hips, they try to stay level with the marker for 15 seconds.
- If they drift head-first, the palms are pushing towards the feet too much; if feet-first, towards the head.
- Repeat, aiming to finish exactly where they started.
Teaching cues
- Palms push down and out, then down and in.
- Wrists flat for no travel.
- Hips up.
Make it easier
- A small float between the ankles.
Make it harder
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Lift one bent knee while staying on the spot.
Common faults
- Drifting head-first.
- Hips sink as the swimmer concentrates on the hands.
Corrections
- 'Flatten your wrists.'
- 'Tummy up while your hands work.'
Assistant / L1 role
- Reset drifting markers and tell each swimmer whether they finished head-side or feet-side of the marker.