Welcome to Nelly Narwhal’s Level 18 course and what a variety of skills your child will be introduced to this term! We hope that you both enjoyed your time with Dipper Dolphin in Level 17 and that you are ready for Nelly’s challenges ahead. 

Level 18 overview:

In our front crawl stroke work sessions, we will further develop the concept of ‘sideways breathing’ with the use of noodles to support the children in the water while they practice the skill. Shortly thereafter the children will try this breathing technique while swimming the full stroke. This technique, when mastered, will have enormous streamlining benefits, which is vital for all swimming strokes.

We will be getting more precise while swimming backstroke this term with a new exercise called ‘little finger entry’. This skill is designed to show the children the correct hand position for entry to the water in order to maximise the underwater phase of the arm stroke.

More breaststroke practice this term will be combined with a very familiar lifesaving skill, so we will be doing ‘breaststroke - starfloat - breaststroke’ which does exactly what it says on the tin!

Now that the children have been introduced to snorkels, this term we will show them how to clear their snorkel of water using our ‘whale blow’ method. As usual we teach this skill using child friendly terminology and in small easy steps. We will also introduce airway control with our ‘frog tongue’ skill. This exercise is designed to teach the children how to reduce the possibility of a small amount of water being inhaled after clearing the snorkel, and is an essential skill for all snorkelers.

And then there is the biggie......’Racing dives’. About time say the children! All of the dives we have taught the children in previous levels have been preparing them for this most exciting of dives and now they are ready so “Take your marks.........”

Nelly is beside herself with excitement and can’t wait to see the children try these, and many more new skills this term!    

Not many people know what a Narwhal is (Nelly thinks she is an underwater Unicorn) so if you would like to read more about Nelly Narwhal and her adventures to your child, please click below and we'll take you off to her informative and educational animal story.

Level 18 skills:

The following are Nelly’s top five skills this term. There are loads more too but not enough time or space to list them all much to Nelly’s disappointment. She was keen on the idea of a top ten!

Front Crawl – Sideways breathing - Unilateral

To improve streamlining and the children’s stroke, we will try 2 new exercises involving sideways breathing this term. The first will be with floats (called noodles) to allow the children to focus on the breathing technique alone. This is followed by their first attempt at including this technique in the full stroke. Unilateral is breathing to one side only and, after practice and in future child levels, we will change this to bilateral, breathing to both sides, for better balance and streamlining.

Goggles off entries

During the ‘Self Rescue and Survival’ session this term we will ask the children to remove their goggles while doing their warm up. This helps to reduce the children’s dependency on goggles while swimming and teaches them to remain calm if they were ever to, accidentally or on purpose, fall into water without goggles. Nelly says that she doesn’t wear goggles all of the time!

Scull head/feet first

To keep the children engaged, we have a new way for them to move through the water this term. Sculling is lots of fun and, because it is done on the back, makes it easy to breathe while moving to a point of safety so it has lifesaving elements too as well as streamlining benifits.

Grabstart/racing dives

As mentioned above, it is time to “Take your marks........Go”. While teaching this, the most exciting of dives, we will be focussing on the children’s angle of entry to the water and the following streamlined position underwater for an efficient and effective start to any swim. We then combine this dive, later in the term & in later levels, with the appropriate strokes for further practice and fun.

Snorkel clearing

Mastery of snorkel clearing and airway control will allow the children to eventually dive underwater while snorkelling, come to the surface, and clear their snorkels of water without lifting their heads out of the water. As outlined above, we introduce these concepts this term, and we have many additional skills in later child levels to allow the children to practice these techniques while having fun in the pool. So parents, you had better get practicing yourself, you don’t want to be left behind!

Is that swim bag getting a bit full and heavy? Is your towel looking a bit old and tired? Then we have the solution for both. Have a look at the microfibre towels in our web shop which are lightweight, incredibly absorbent and dry very quickly. They are even useful when soaking wet because all you have to do is wring them out and they are ready to go again. Supplied in their own storage pouch, they are a great addition to any swim or gym bag.

To view this product please click below and we will take you there.

When you are nearing the end of Nelly Narwhal’s Level 18 course, don’t forget to book into Humphrey Humpback’s Level 19 course fur further educational fun in the pool. Humphrey has a packed programme ready for you both to enjoy!

Humphrey is a big boy, in fact some would say he is a giant, and when he enters the water he makes a big splash! We will make a big splash too next term with our ‘Giant step’ entry. This is a heads up lifesaving entry, used when we are unsure of the water depth, and it is a big hit with the kids too.

We have two new floats to try during our ‘Self rescue & survival’ session for balance and control in the water as well as a more challenging version of ‘Treading water’ which builds the children’s stamina, water confidence and self rescue abilities.

We also have new breaststroke and backstroke skills to practice, helping to improve on your child’s stroke work and swimming ability, including a combination of both strokes for lifesaving reasons.

In addition, we have our usual distance attempts to look forward to next term and underwater photographs are available in Level 19 as well.   

Humphrey is keen to take you both through all of the skills above and more, so don’t forget to book into his Level 19 or Humphrey will ‘have the hump’!