Time to give up swimming lessons?

[woolleybear]

DD 6 has just completed stage 5 swimming lessons during which she mainly swam 10-15m at a time.

She has tried two of the stage 6 classes at the swimming school and it has really dented her confidence as the whole lesson is done over at least 25m at a time, sometimes 50m at a time.

She is quite happy doing this in front or back crawl but was much slower (and much smaller) than the rest of the class.

She has struggled and been even slower when trying to do 25-50m of breast stroke or butterfly, becomes exhausted, and then gets even slower for the rest of the lesson. Every time the rest of the class get a rest she is finishing her length/s, gets no rest and then is further behind.

The teacher has said she is not ready but hasn't really made a sensible suggestion for an alternative.

I realise she needs to work on her stamina but why do they need to swim so many lengths when they only have to be able to do 25m of one stroke to pass stage 6!

She has always loved her lessons but I'm beginning to wonder if she has got as far as she can for now.

[WeAllHaveWings]

ds(8) is doing STA Shark level 3 at swimming just now (in each lesson they swim about 10 x 25 metre lengths of the pool and do some life saving/diving).

Can remember when he moved to STA Goldfish/Angelfish he found the amount of swimming he had to do quite hard and plateaued for a while and we thought he wouldnt get any futher. He particularily struggled with breathing properly and couldnt manage long distances.

We were lucky as there were affordable one-to-one lessons at our pool (£11 for 20 mins) so kept up group lessons and also had some one-to-one's each week where they worked on his technique and breathing which made swimming the distances easier. Improving his technique meant his strokes were smoother, more controlled, more efficient and used less energy so he could go further.

[BackforGood]

I think it would be a shame to give up lesson if she's struggling with even 25m tbh. Whenever you move up in anything, you are bound to find it difficult, having gone from being at the 'top' of your group, to being at the 'bottom' of the new group.... happens when you change schools or sections in Guides or Scouts, or in any sport where people are taught according to ability.
Would she be willing to go swimming with you at another time in the week to start building her stamina ?

[iseetinselandtantrums]

I wouldn't say give up but I would say have 3-6 months break. She's not ready according to the teacher so just do a bit of recreational swimming. DS had a few breaks as he went up the grades and it wasn't a problem. At our local pool they have to be able to swim 25m reasonably competently to get out of grade3 because in grade 4 they are in a roped lane in the middle of the pool with no side to grab on to.

[woolleybear]

Thanks, I will look into how much some private lessons are. She doesn't struggle to swim 25m, she is quite happy doing 50 at front or back crawl she is just slower than the rest of the class, and gets progressively slower as the lesson progresses as she didn't get the rest time as the rest of the class had. The teacher has said she can't go in that class so that is why she needs to have an alternative, rather than her getting used to it. One of the children who arrived for one of the lessons was in secondary uniform, dd is year 1 so she is going to be slower!

[realcoalfire]

I would just take her to regular swimming sessions with lots of fun and a bit of distanc3e swimming, just so she can build up her stamina and strength.You will be able to spot any major problems with her strokes yourself.

[lljkk]

Friends just kept their child in Level 5 for longer, in your case, until their child was ready to go up. No harm in it and keeps the skills and technique sharp.

[Sommink]

The reason they are trying to cover greater distances is because in stage 7 they have to cover the 25m in every stroke, 50m in one stroke and 200m in a mixture of 3 strokes without stopping, so a huge stamina build is needed compared to completing stage 5 they only need to do 10m of each.

If you feel that level 6 is currently pushing her to far speak to the teacher about her either moving back to level 5 to build more confidence, asking if she can have more of a rest during the sessions or if the teacher themselves have any more suggestions? Sometimes we are hard to get hold of so ask if you can leave a message and contact number for them to get hold of you.

I know from teaching this stage myself that it is a big jump, especially if she has moved into a class of children who have already been in stage 6 for a term or 2. I currently have one child who is really struggling to keep up in stage 6 mainly because all the other children have been there for at least a term or more and will be moving up and they are new to stage 6 this term if that makes sense?!

Ihope she starts to enjoy swimming again soon, thats all most swimming teachers want!