In this video lesson, Swimming Instructor Phillip Toriello teaches how to teach a child rhythmic breathing in the water.



Video Transcript: PHILLIP TORIELLO: "Hi, this is Phillip Toriello, and this is how to teach a child rhythmic breathing. After you've worked with a child in teaching them how to use straight legs and pointed toes, basic pop-up breaths, and their big arms as far as the reach, catch, pull, push, it's now time to start focusing on rhythmic breathing. The best way to start is go ahead and utilize the staircase, where you can put the child's hands on the stair on the first step, and they can simply put their face in the water, blowing their bubbles out, and then taking a breath every three strokes. Generally, the way I work is that if a child knows how to count to three then you can teach them the basics of one, two, three, turn their head to the side, put their ear on their shoulder and their cheek in the water to take that side breath. As they become more comfortable doing that on the step, then you can basically hold onto their feet; putting them just underneath your armpit, and locking their feet; keeping their feet afloat, and then they can work on it going across the pool. This provides a child a finer sense of balance and coordination through the water, and actually doing the rhythmic breathing on their own. So the basic principle is one, two, three, turn your head to the left, and then one, two, three, turn your head to the right to learn that basic principle of rhythmic breathing. Then, as the child becomes more comfortable, you can have them hold onto a noodle; using their arms one at a time, which will really help reiterate that reach concept, and then they can kind of just take the time with pushing the water back, reaching for the sky, and also implementing that kick at the same time. To learn more about rhythmic breathing and working with children, 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.