5 year old swimming issues

[Kath27]

My 5 yr old dd has been having swimming lessons for months. Although her dad & me are really upbeat & positive she is so timid in water, by far the most in her class. Other children younger than her are making visible progress and moving on to the next stage so are others in her school class. I know she's her own person & try not to compare children but I'm worried it's becoming a mental thing. She's had no bad experiences but a necessary life skill and something that should be enjoyable is turning into torture each time we go. Should I back off completely or try to get her to try . The lessons are turning into a waste of money I feel so sorry for her when she's upset but then she said today ' if you buy me such & such I'll jump in' so now I'm worried I'm getting played ! Any ideas ?

[PisforPeter]

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[MrsPnut]

We were in the same position years ago and we switched to 1 to 1 lessons. Suddenly dd had no where to hide and when she messed about she got called back to do it again. She did 2 terms of lessons and jumped two groups in that time. She then had group lessons for a few years and has gone back to 1 to 1 lessons and again it has corrected all the lazy stroke habits she'd picked up and she is now at the end of the staged classes and is working at building up stamina and doing tumble turns for squad swimming.

[Kath27]

Thanks for the good advise will try private instructor, good to know we're not alone :) x

[morechildrenplease]

We were too. 3 years with an expensive swimming school that taught in very small groups and no progress. The difficulty with swimming schools is that they often employ the same technique with each child which doesn't always work with the timid kids. I did a lot of research and found the most amazing one to one teacher. My child swam literally the first lesson. I could have cried - think I did actually!

[Kath27]

That's lovely to hear thank u think 1-2-1 is definitely the way to go x

[TeenAndTween]

Do you take her in-between lessons at all? How is she then?

If she is not confident when just with you in the water, maybe drop lessons for a term but build up confidence with you, then try lessons again a bit later?

[lexyloub]

I'm another voting 1-2-1 it will help with her confidence and the instructor can take the lesson at your dd pace rather than the rest of the class. It's pricey but well worth it in the long run. I wouldn't take her swimming yourself in between until she's gained some confidence in the water

[Kath27]

In reply to teen and tween, she's a lot happier when myself her dad & little brother go but only at the playing stuff. When we try to get her to do something constructive she goes back to timid mode. The comment about 1-2-1 being expensive is spot on but will be worth it in long run. It can't be anymore wasted than what we've done so far !

Thanks again everyone

[TeenAndTween]

We used to play games to get DD2 to practice.

e.g. sharks - we would walk towards her clapping our hands on the surface of the water being a shark. She could only escape by lying on her back kicking her legs. As long as she did that the shark couldn't get her.

We also did races with massive headstarts.

We also did bribery - spend 5 minutes practicing at the start then fun and games, then her choice of snack afterwards.


If she is confident with you (when not practicing) then the timidness is learned behaviour. I'd still have a break, then start again with 1-1, and explain that now she was older she would be fine and confident!