Water Fun: Fitness and Swimming Activities for All Ages

Swimming participation in the United States rose to 58 million in 2005, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. A popular activity for both fun and fitness, swimming is now easier to learn, enjoy, and use as exercise with Water Fun. Including more than 100 stunts, skills, games, and workouts that may be tailored to meet specific needs, this book has something for every age and skill level.

To help beginners gain confidence in the water, basic water exercises that may be performed in a vertical position are provided, along with workout options that do not require participants to be fully submerged in the water. Water Fun also includes activities for exercisers who want to transition from water exercise to swimming. Athletes, along with instructors, coaches, and athletic trainers, will also find sport-specific and cross-training activities to enhance their conditioning regimens.

With a complete collection of individual and group activities that require little, if any, equipment, Water Fun has everything water exercisers need to become more comfortable and skilled in the water.

Terri Lees has been teaching aquatic activities and coaching swimming for more than 30 years. She taught and coached high school swimming for 12 years and spent 13 years at Wichita State University as the aquatic coordinator for campus recreation, where she taught and created aquatic programs for students and instructors.

Lees has been a contributor to the American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor and Swimming and Diving texts and served as an on-camera host for the Aqua Fitness video. She is currently the chair-elect for the Council for Aquatic Professionals of AAHPERD and has presented at numerous state, district, and national conventions. Lees also serves as the chair for the development committee of the aquatic fitness instructor credential. She is a master teacher of adapted aquatics and a master instructor of aquatic fitness for the AAHPERD Council for Aquatic Professionals.

Lees is the aquatic supervisor at North Kansas City Community Center in North Kansas City, Missouri. She is personally involved as a competitive swimmer and is coaching a 50+ age-group team at the community center. She has designed and created all of the water exercise programs for the center and provides personal training in the water for people with disabilities.

“...this work is much more than simply a book full of various drills, activities, and games. I think that many aquatic practitioners, both novices and experienced instructors, will want to add this text to their professional libraries.”

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education (May 2007)