At what age could your DC swim 50m?

[ClaireFromWork]

DD has swimming at school. She got her 50m badge in year 1 and has just gone into year 3 and been put into the group that swims widths with woggles. I've been led to think by her old swimming teacher that she was a good swimmer and she's gutted that she's gone into the lowest group.

I'm wondering at what age children who are good swimmers get their 50m so I can see if her previous teacher was spinning me a yarn or not.

[DorsetKnob]

DD was swimming 6/7 25 me lengths in a her swimming lessons just after she truned 5 so recepetion year. She is good though and ahead of most of her peers in groups.

[basildonbond]

Mine were 5 (reception) but by 6 were swimming 20 or so lengths in a lesson - two are now competitive swimmers, so much better than most of the other children at school

Some teachers just push children through distance badges as it makes parents feel they're getting their money's worth but they don't actually teach them proper technique

[lunar1]

DS1 is just 4 and can swim 50m, he doesn't have a badge for it though as i think their technique has to be good to get it. He is in a stage 3 group. the tend to give the distance ones out when they do the same stage a few times.

[DeWe]

I got my 800m badge at the start of year 2. Sheer determination to catch up with dsis (who was definitely irritated). I've never been a particularly good swimmer, can do distance if I have to, but nothing more.

Dd1 swam 50m at age 5yo, year R, but she'd had lessons for a year at that point.
Dd2 (year 3) can swim 50m, just about, but only has had 3 lots of lessons in the second half of the summer term (outside school). She swims like a submarine She could manage 10m in year 1.

Dd's friend was picked out as having talent by a swimming school in year 1, a year before they usually took children on. She (I think) had her 250m, but more importantly had a naturally good technique and could do all sorts of other stuff like diving.

If other children have been having lessons and your dd gave up in year 1, then it's certainly possible she was considered good in year 1, and now a lot have overtaken her.

[Wafflenose]

DD1 was 4 when she got her 50m for backstroke. Now at a week off 7, she has swum 50 lengths of front crawl (1250m), is in Stage 8 (behind a few of her peers in fact!) and swims about 50-60 lengths in her hourlong lesson.

DD2 is now 4 and can swim about half a width!!

[whiteandyelloworchid]

my dd is five and can swim about 175m but she loves swimming.

[brass]

so surely all this confirms is it depends on how old they are, how long/many lessons they've had and how fussed they are to move up.

[whiteandyelloworchid]

yes and how muscular they are and how much they naturally enjoy it
and how coordinated they are

[purplepenguin86]

My nephew has just gone into Year 3 and swum 1000m in his lesson last week (35 mins - they just had to swim as many lengths as they could in the time - they do that once a term) but he is like a little fish! My niece is a year older than my nephew and can't swim anywhere near as well. I think it is completely individual - there is no age they should be doing things like this, as they all have their own talents.

[sausagesandwich34]

DD1 was 6, DD2 was 8

DD1 started swimming lessons at 4, DD2 started at 5 but spent the first year being pursuaded to put her fac in the water

in our area they don't do distance badges, they do dolphin badges and for each one you need to do a certain length in 3 different strokes so it's much more about technique than distance

[BackforGood]

I'm not sure how a load of proud mummies on the internet telling you at what age their children got their 50m badge is that relevant - surely you should be taking the evidence (certificate probably) to the school and saying - look, dd could swim 50m 2 years ago, there seems to have been a bit of a muddle as she's been put in with the non-swimmers (if indeed she has, mine were using floats to work on particaular aspects of their strokes long after they could swim a good deal further than 50m).

[RedHelenB]

Think it probably boils down to technique not being secure.

[crazymum53]

Could it be that they expect them to swim this distance in more than one stroke. dd could manage this distance using front crawl and breast-stroke but was moved down a group for not being able to swim back-stroke!

[lljkk]

I imagine group placing depended on technique not speed or distance. DD's mate is faster than DD but was still in L6 when DD went to L8, because DD's technique is better.

DS2 could have swam 200m at 5yo but in the most God-Awful way. Perfect imitation of "failed drowning". He could probably swim 1000+m now (age 8), but can't escape Level 4 because he's still lopsided.

[FranSanDisco]

As a mother of two competitive swimmers I am told it is technique, stamina then speed that matters. Being able to swim 50 m in say front crawl doesn't make you a 'good swimmer' as there are 4 strokes to perfect and the earlier children learn good breast stroke and butterfly the better. DD was 7 when she swam 1 mile so you might think she'd be fabulous now at 12 yo?? Well she swims competitively but is pretty average compared to some of the talent out there. She enjoys it though so she carries on which to me is the main thing.

[Woozley]

1. She only started lessons at 5.5 so not bad.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

DD is a good swimmer should really go to club, but she doesn't have the drive for it. Her school has had swimming lessons every since summer from reception it took them till year 3 to discover that she can swim all 4 strokes legally including biphasic freestyle. Prior to that nobody had asked them to swim a particular stroke so she didn't.

[AChickenCalledKorma]

Talk to her teacher and ask how they decided the groups. And check what she is actually doing.

For example, my 10 year old daughter can swim 400m, is at stage 6, and has massively better stroke technique than I will ever have. But during her swimming lessons, they still spend about half the time swimming widths with various types of floatation device, while they are working on technique. They don't do lengths because the pool is divided into four zones, from shallow to deep, so that different groups can be accommodated.

[fulhamswimschool]

Hi
There isn't a certain age that children get their 50m badge but it does sound like she is in the wrong group, depends how many widths they swim on a regular swim.

Victoria

[ReallyTired]

Technique is more important than having a 50 metre swimming badge. My daughter hasn't got any distance badges yet inspite of being in the swim club. She has to swim all four strokes to ASA standards to get a distance badge. She can easily swim 50 metres at the age of seven, but swimming all strokes consistently to ASA standards is a really tough challenge.

[Sleeperandthespindle]

Take this with a pinch of mumsnet salt. There are many, many more 4-7 year olds (and older) who CAN'T swim 50m Jan those who can!

[ReallyTired]

There is a huge physical difference between a four year old and a seven year old. Especially between a child who has just turned four and a child who is almost eight. Most seven year olds can learn to swim quickly and easily. Lots of seven year olds have the stamina to swim 50 metres. The quality of their technique depend on the quality of teaching and practice the child has had. Very few four year olds have the stamina or coordination or strength to swim 5 metres.

Even top level competitive swimmers do a lot of work with floats in training sessions. The use of a float allows the person to focus on an aspect of technique. The floats are used for drills rather than to keep the person afloat.

[ReallyTired]

This is truely nuts

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-548138/The-year-old-girl-swim-400-metres.html

I think that pushing a small child so hard could damage her health.

However lots of seven year olds can swim 50 metres. It's about having the opportunity to learn. Many seven year olds can run a mile and swimming 50 metres is far less challenging.

[Didiplanthis]

My dd was 5 when put in a lengths class she was tiny compared to the other children and really struggled with stamina - she came out exhausted. I asked for her to go back to a basic technique class after 9 months when she really made no progress. 6 months in she is so much better and bigger and is going back to the first group in a much better place. So she was doing 50 m at 5 but I don't think I would count it as a success !

[mj1987]

My friend says she was able to swim 1 mile at age 5 (that is 64 25m pools). Does that seem feasible?