Home › Artistic Swimming – Stage 9
Poolside Arm Rehearsal
Rehearse a routine's arm movements and counts sitting on the poolside before trying them in the water – common practice in artistic swimming.
- Stages
- Artistic Swimming – Stage 9, Artistic Swimming – Stage 10
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Skills
- Rhythm, Synchronisation, Artistic Movement
- Equipment
- None, Poolside Speaker
- Age
- 8–99 years
- Group size
- 1–20 swimmers
- Time
- About 4 minutes
- In a lesson
- Introduction / Warm-up, Skill Development 1
- Shared by
- SwimShare Resource
Safety notes
- Keep swimmers warm – short dry rehearsals; seated well back from the edge if not dangling feet.
What it develops
- Move to counts and rhythm
- Create simple choreography
How to run it
- Swimmers sit on the poolside with feet in the water, facing the teacher.
- Learn an eight-count arm sequence slowly, then at tempo.
- Perform it together on the counts; then in pairs facing each other.
- Get in and perform the same arms while eggbeating or sculling.
Teaching cues
- Learn it dry, then wet.
- Exact counts.
- Arms finish to the fingertips.
Make it easier
- Four-count sequence.
Make it harder
- Two eights with a change of direction.
Common faults
- Different arm shapes in the group.
- Losing the count in the water.
Corrections
- 'Copy my shape exactly.'
- 'Say the counts in your head.'
Assistant / L1 role
- Stand facing the group and demonstrate the arm sequence alongside the teacher, mirroring it so swimmers see it the right way round.