Swimming Kick & Streamline Practice Plan for 11 and 12 Year Olds

Kick sets learn pacing, the dolphin sends its first waves, and walls get marks to hold. The legs become managed assets.

Easy swims, two rockets, one board width, one back-kick width. The engines idle.

The management skill: six board widths at deliberately EVEN effort (times guessed, loosely checked, evenness graded over speed), thirty-second rests; then two streamline-kick lengths at the same even standard. Legs that pace survive practices; legs that sprint-and-die decorate them.

The fifth stroke meets its body: standing waves (chest pressing, hips answering, the motion traveling down), then push-off dolphin glides (rocket shape, two-to-four gentle whole-body waves, surfacing early and happy), four launches. Shallow, playful, comfort-gated: the wave's rhythm is the entire introduction.

The combo: push-off, two dolphin waves, surface into freestyle finishing the length, three reps. The race-legal future (underwaters into swimming) previewed as play.

The rocket held to standards: push-offs gliding to a CHOSEN mark before the engine starts, four reps, the shape graded at the mark (still squeezed, still straight). Then kick-out counts: streamline kicks counted before surfacing, the count logged. Walls get measured; measured walls improve.

The hidden hinge: seated ankle points and circles (thirty seconds each way), kneeling ankle sits (gentle, brief), then one board width feeling the floppier feet. The flutter's flexibility, farmed in minutes.

Logged: even-set grades, dolphin launches, kick-out counts, glide marks. The engine room's book grows honest.

What to watch today: the dolphin chased too deep. The wave's joy invites depth-and-distance contests, and the home version stays SHALLOW and brief on purpose: extended underwater work (hypoxic games, long kick-outs) belongs to coached decks with supervision protocols. Two-to-four happy waves is the complete home dose; the team pool owns the rest.