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How do we teach "safe" abdominal
exercises for shallow water
without using equipment

You can easily challenge the muscles of the abdominal cavity in shallow water. With the primary focus on core stabilization, you first of all have to get your clients in good neutral postural alignment. Then any and every traveling exercise that you do will challenge the core muscles to work as stabilizers. Use water walking, water running, and travel in all the different directions. Engaging the abdominals in stabilization is an outstanding way to improve strength for posture and abdominal cavity compression. Without equipment, the primary resistance is the water. It is a perfect "piece of equipment" because it is constantly variable, and very accommodating for all abilities. I can vary the level of resistance by moving the water with different sizes of surface areas, changing the speed of movement, adding power to moves. It really is that simple! To work on strengthening the abdominals by doing targeted strengthening exercises,   I simply apply basic anatomy and kinesiology. There are 3 movements that the abdominal muscles perform: spinal flexion, lateral flexion, and spinal rotation. I plan a selection of exercises that perform those movements against a resistance for strength gains. For example, standing spinal rotation with the arms sweeping through the water to create resistance. Pelvic tilts while walking are excellent……..as if you are pushing the water along with your pelvis. Tuck jumps can be good, but only if you do the pelvic tilt as you tuck, otherwise you might only get hip flexion and you don't want that. The best way to set this up is start in a tucked position, low in the water, so that you have already pre-set the hip flexion and can re-establish neutral position. Then come off the bottom of the pool by using reverse spinal flexion. The knees should rise because of the contraction of the abdominals, not further hip flexion.