Another way to make an impression is with a simple tape measure.  This can be your secret weapon in teaching streamline.

Have your swimmer lie down on their back and then ask, “How tall are you, anyway?”  And they’ll give you a number, and you’ll say, “How tall is your mom or your dad?” 

So then you say, “Do you know that, in the water, you are actually taller than your dad?” 

So you ask them to make a streamline, with one hand locked over the other hand and their back nice and flat.  And you measure them again and they’re 18 inches taller.

So you can say, “You are 5 feet 4 inches when you stand up, but in the water you are 7 feet tall.  Wow!  Now that is what I want to see when you push off the wall every time.”  

The tape measure lets you give your kids their “water height” and it makes a big impression on them.    If you record everyone’s water height on a chart by the side of the pool, you have another visual to point to when they are not streamlining correctly.


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Tape Measure