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Swimming lesson plans for beginners: 15 structured lessons you can use today
Five minutes before your beginner class walks onto poolside, you don’t want to be scrambling to piece together swimming lesson plans for beginners. These ready-made, downloadable plans give you a clear, confidence-boosting session from that first nervous step into the water through to basic strokes. Spend less time planning and more time teaching while your swimmers float, blow bubbles, kick and paddle their way to real progress. Here’s how these structured lessons guide beginners from simple water confidence to front crawl, breaststroke and backstroke.
Why these lesson plans work
- ✅ 15 complete, structured lesson plans - designed specifically for new swimmers
- ✅ Progressive skill development - each lesson builds naturally on the last
- ✅ Clear teaching points and coaching tips - so you're always confident
- ✅ Printable, ready-to-use PDFs - use from your phone, tablet, or clipboard
Swimming Lesson Plans For Beginners: What you get
Building water confidence in beginners is essential to making progress, and confidence-building can be broken down into these key areas and are all included in my swim lesson plans for beginners:
Here’s exactly what you’ll get when you download:
✔️ Lessons 1 and 2: Getting comfortable in the water
✔️ Lessons 3 - 6: Building confidence, including beginner floating drills and underwater confidence drills.
✔️ Lessons 7 - 11: Basic front and back paddle
✔️ Lessons 12 - 15: Basic front crawl, breaststroke and backstroke
When you reach Lessons 12–15 and begin introducing basic breaststroke, these beginner breaststroke drills slot perfectly into your session to reinforce timing and body position.
Each lesson includes objectives, step-by-step teaching instructions, drills, teaching points and tips, and plan has an assessment grid to help track progress.
Click here for full details and how to get your copy of these plans.
Ready-Made Swimming Lesson Plans for Beginners to Download and Print
Ready-made lesson plans for swimming teachers that take the hard work out of planning.
Click here for Free Sample Lesson Plans and preview.
Build Your Swimming Teacher Toolkit
Save time and teach with confidence using ready-made bundles of lesson plans, drills and teaching guides - designed for every teaching level.
Lesson Plan: Getting Used To The Water
The first sample swimming lesson plan below aims to get the beginner used to the water. This will be one of the first swimming lessons that a swimming teacher will teach a complete beginner.
Lesson 2: Getting Used To The Water
Aim: to get used to wetting the face and moving around in the water
Equipment: buoyancy aids, floating toys and watering cans
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Exercise/Activity Entry: swivel or steps entry Warm up: Holding the poolside, bouncing up and down 1. Walking to collect a toy and return it 2. Jumping through the water to collect a toy 3. Splashing water into the air 4. Pretending to wash the face 5. Blowing a toy across the water surface 6. blowing bubbles at the water surface Contrasting activity: Washing hair with a watering can Holding the poolside and kicking the legs Exit: using the pool steps |
Teaching Point take your time slowly at first take your time Small jumps catch the water wet your hands and wet your face deep breath and blow blow gently close your eyes splash your feet take your time |
The full lesson plan including timings is in the image below.
For a full set of 101 swimming lesson plans, click here.
Lesson Plan: Confidence Building
The next sample swimming lesson plan for beginners below, aims to develop confidence by introducing breathing and submerging.
The full lesson plan including timings is in the image below.
Lesson 4: Confidence Building
Aim: develop confidence by introducing breathing and submerging
Equipment: buoyancy aids, floating toys and sinkers
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Exercise/Activity Entry: swivel or steps entry Warm up: Holding the poolside and kicking the legs 1. Holding the poolside blowing bubbles 2. Cupping water in the hands and pretending to wash the face 3. Breath holding and submerging the mouth and nose 4. kicking legs and blowing bubbles (holding the poolside, assisted or with buoyancy aids) 5. Kicking with buoyancy aids to collect a toy (with assistance) 6. kicking and blowing a toy across the water surface Contrasting activity: Assisted sitting dive, face up (with buoyancy aids and/or assistance from teacher or assistant) Submerging to collect an object Exit: using the pool steps |
Teaching Point take your time slash your feet blow gently wash your face deep breath and hold it all in kick and blow floppy feet kick and blow gently lay your chin on the water eyes open take your time |
For a full set of 101 swimming lesson plans, click here.
Lesson Plan: Front Paddle
The next sample lesson plan for beginners aims to learn the basic movements needed to swim front paddle, before progressing to front crawl for beginners step by step.
Lesson 4: Front Paddle
Aim: to learn the basic movements needed for front paddle
Equipment: buoyancy aids and sinkers
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Exercise/Activity Entry: swivel or steps entry Warm up: 2 widths with buoyancy aids (assisted if necessary) 1. Push and glide with a woggle 2. Sitting on the poolsdie edge kicking 3. Kicking using a float under each arm 4. standing on the poolside practicing arm movements 5. walking through the water using arm actions 6. walking through the water using arm and blowing bubbles Contrasting activity: Supine star float Submerging to collect a toy or object Exit: using the pool steps |
Teaching Point take your time slash your feet push off like a rocket point your toes floppy feet reach and pull fingers together blow gently as you pull relax and stretch out deep breath and stretch down take your time |
This is a great lesson for progressing to front crawl for beginners. The full lesson plan including timings, is in the image below.
For a full set of 101 swimming lesson plans, click here.
Why These swimming Lesson Plans for beginners?
- ✅ Save hours of planning
- ✅ Teach with structure and confidence
- ✅ Keep students engaged and progressing
- ✅ Get instant access and lifetime use
- ✅ Risk-free download
Frequently Asked Questions
- Are these lesson plans suitable for adults?
- Yes, while written for children, the structure and progressions work across age groups.
- What equipment do I need?
- Only basic poolside equipment like floats, toys, and watering cans.
Ready-Made Swimming Lesson Plans for Beginners to Download and Print
Ready-made lesson plans for swimming teachers that take the hard work out of planning.
Click here for Free Sample Lesson Plans and preview.
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Thanks for checking out my website and all the information here about learning to swim and teaching swimming. I really hope you have found some inspiration and support. If you're as passionate about teaching swimming and learning to swim as I am, feel free to follow me on any of these channels: Cheers!  |
Thanks for checking out my website and all the information here about learning to swim and teaching swimming. I really hope you have found some inspiration and support.
If you're as passionate about teaching swimming and learning to swim as I am, feel free to follow me on any of these channels:
Cheers!
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