In this video lesson, Swimming Instructor Phillip Toriello teaches how to swim the sidestroke. This is a good stroke to learn when swimming in order to keep the head above water and help with rescue swimming.



Video Transcript: PHILLIP TORIELLO: "Hi, this is Phillip Toriello, and this is how to do the sidestroke. The sidestroke is a wonderful stroke for those who want to swim through the water with ease, and keep their head up the whole time. It's also an excellent stroke for lifesaving skills if towing someone in a cross-chest carry through the water. You'll be able to place the person on your hips, and keep their head above water; resting on your shoulder. Now, to do the sidestroke what you're going to be using is a scissor kick, where you'll have your low lower hip towards the bottom of the pool, and you'll have your other hip up towards the top. It'll just be a scissor motion like so, so you'll bring your legs up and slice through the water. The other aspect of it is the arm motion, which a lot of people kind of get messed up. But if you think about it as picking an apple out of a tree, putting it into your other hand, and putting it into a basket as you're doing your kick it'll come quite naturally. If you watch videos you'll notice people just gliding through the water. What they'll be doing is keeping their heads looking towards their hips so they can kind of maintain their balance through the water. To learn more about sidestroke please contact your local swimming expert."

1. How to Swim the Freestyle Stroke
2. How to Swim the Breaststroke
3. How to Swim the Backstroke
4. How to Practice Etiquette at Public Pools
5. How to Teach a Child to Swim
6. How to Swim Underwater
7. How to Flip-Turn When Swimming Freestyle
8. How to Flip-Turn When Swimming the Backstroke
9. How to Swim the Butterfly Stroke
10. How to Do an Eggbeater Kick
11. How to Swim Head-High Freestyle
12. How to Swim the Sidestroke
13. How to Swim the Trudgen Stroke
14. How to Turn While Swimming the Breaststroke
15. How to Survival Float
16. How to Teach a Child to Float in the Water
17. How to Teach a Child the Back Float
18. How to Teach a Child to Kick in the Water
19. How to Teach a Child Rhythmic Breathing in the Water
20. How to Teach a Child the Crawl Stroke
21. How to Teach a Child to Dive
22. How to Teach a Child to Tread Water
23. How to Prevent Swimmer's Ear
24. How to Improve Your Breaststroke Kick
25. How to Breathe While Swimming Freestyle

In this video series, Swimming Instructor Phillip Toriello gives 25 video lessons on How to Swim. Learn how to swim the breaststroke, the backstroke and freestyle. Get tips on how to do flip turns for each type of swimming stoke and find out how to do swimming kicks like the eggbeater kick. Want to get the kids involved in swimming too? Find out how to teach children to swim with tips on teaching the survival float and child diving. Swimming is a useful skill and a fun activity that provides great exercise for all.