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Swimming

Swimming is one of the most popular sports in the world. Unlike other sports, swimming is a life skill that is taught, first, to ensure safety and, secondly, for sports and competition purposes. Swimming covers a great variety of swimming skills, from short sprints to longer events and relays. Coaches receive training to enable them to coach swimmers of all abilities, from strong fast competitors to swimmers who require assistance or floating devices in order to compete.

Rules

Learn about the official Special Olympics Northern California rules and adaptations. 
2024 Swimming Rules (pdf)

Governing Body Rules
Learn about the World Aquatics official swimming rules (worldaquatics.com)

RESOURCES (includes Videos)

Preparing for Practice

Swimming Glossary (pdf)

Swimming Warm-up and Stretching (pdf)

Dry-land Training (website)

Planning a Training Season (pdf)

Planning Seasons & Training Sessions – Free to join (pdf)

Conducting a Safe Training (pdf)

Assessing Swimmers (pdf)

Equipment (Videos)
Attire and Equipment (pdf)

Using a Kickboard

Using Fins

Using Pull Buoys

Relay Exchanges

Individual Strokes (Videos)

Streamline Basics

Introduction to Freestyle (Front Crawl)

Introduction to Backstroke

Introduction to Breaststroke

Introduction to Butterfly

Introduction to Individual Medley (IM)

Turns (Videos)

Open Turn

Basic Turns for All Strokes

Freestyle Flip Turn

Backstroke Flip Turn

Individual Medley Turns

Drills (Videos)

Freestyle: Finger-Tip Drag

Freestyle: Catch-Up

Freestyle: Zipper

Freestyle: One Arm

Freestyle: Closed Fist

Backstroke: Shoulder and Head

Backstroke: Underwater Work

Using Backstroke Flags

Backstroke: Arm Technique

Breaststroke: Various Drills

Breaststroke: Dry-Land Kick

Breaststroke: Underwater Work

Butterfly: Drills

Butterfly: Left, Right, Together

Training for the Individual Medley (IM)

Dives (Videos)

Steps to Perform a Dive Start

Racing Dive Starts

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    Created by the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation. Authorized and Accredited by Special Olympics, Inc. for the Benefit of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.

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