Techniques I use for anxiety

Legos! Legos! Legos!

Who knew those little blocks could have so much power? I started using blocks in my swim lessons 6 years ago, and they've been a game-changer! Before that, I was always searching for something to help my swimmers visualize their progress.

You might have seen me with my stacks of blocks. Sometimes it's a group effort to move 10, sometimes each kid has their own stack of 5, and sometimes they just want to build towers! There are reasons for the different ways I use them, but ultimately, I'm giving the swimmer control of the pace of the lesson.

Each stack represents the skill we're working on. The kids know that once the stack is gone, we move on to the next skill. This can be exciting because they might not love what they're doing, or nerve-wracking because they want to know what's next. Either way, they know where we are in the lesson.

That's exactly why I continue to emphasize the blocks. It's a concrete way for me to tell the swimmer to stay focused on the task at hand, not to look ahead or dwell on what's already happened.