What level did you let kids stop swimming lessons?

[strawberryurchin]

I was reading you're meant to keep them in until stage 7, but weekly lessons (now at stage 4) are getting a bit much for us to facilitate in terms of time commitment, energy etc and wondered if we might give up earlier.

Obviously I want to encourage her to be a strong enough swimmer.

Do you think it's feasible we could give up sooner and maybe I could go swimming with her myself more regularly instead?

DD doesn't really love going either. She can swim unaided, up to stage 4 level of competence.

Mine are level 8/9 but are at secondary school. They said they want to finish once this bank of paid for lessons is finished as they get sick of doing butterfly.

Unless they are aiming to be a competitive swimmer then whenever they can swim confidently and keep themselves safe in the water. DD did a year of lessons and was able to do 50m back/front and breaststroke by the end, as well as basic lifesaving + swimming in clothing training provided by school. Imo this is more than enough

This is an old thread but seemed better to resurrect as I posted on this a year ago when I felt my daughter was definitely not ready to stop. She is now 8 and in stage 6 but it feels like the teaching isn’t brilliant other than water safety which is done really well. It’s feeling like more and more of a con (eg has been doing lengths for years, can dive and swim with tumble turns but hasn’t ticked off 25m on the portal for stage 6). She’s also doing a session with a swim club that is infinitely better teaching but they don’t do water safety.

My dilemma is do I now stop the leisure centre lessons which include water safety to just stick with swim club that doesn’t? I always wanted her to complete the stages but the lessons seem completely detached from the competencies now and it’s just getting a bit frustrating. It just feels quite hard to stop when you’ve done it for so long and feel like you should keep going.

Why dont you email the swimming school, pointing out how long she’s been going and mentioning the things you say here and see what they say.

In the end, is she a competent swimmer? She sounds good. Would a swim club be useful for allowing g her to build stamina and distance? There might be another swim school that can deliver distance building and the other stuff you’d like. Most places have a number of swim schools and as you go beyond the basic levels, have more places available.

For lots of people, ince the kids get the kind of level she’s at, it’s more about continuing to swim. Time and oractive can build strength and stamina.

Once I was confident that if they fell in a body of water they would be able to swim. And also once we knew they'd be fine on holiday and at water parks etc.

Actually they carried on a little longer than that as quite enjoyed them but then Covid happened and other than school lessons haven't had any since.

Mine all stopped before they went to high school - I was happy for them to do so as they all knew how to swim and could dive in 'properly' (a skill I never learned to needed them to for some reason). I just wanted them to be able to save themselves if they fell in a river or canal, not that we lived near any but that was my 'level'!

It depends on the child. Swimming a few lengths was always my minimum which is probably stage 5. I have one who did all the way up to 7 and wanted to continue so is now doing 8-10. The other is in stage 5 and I think I would encourage him to go to 7 if he still enjoys it because he's not a super swimmer.

IMO once your child can swim 50 metres if they don't enjoy lessons then that is the time to stop them.

Mine are 12 and 16 and haven't stopped yet. Although to be fair the 16 year old is doing lifeguard training and 12 year old is doing club ready training prior to trying out for lifeguarding.

When they got to Bronze Medallion at 12 and then again NPL qualification at 16.
Both DC ended up working as lifeguards in their teens

I live in Cornwall and most children get up to a level 6. Then lose the ability to swim much at all due to not going swimming frequently enough…

So you’ll only be a “strong swimmer” if you maintain your weekly swim (or 2 weekly, monthly, whatever)

Sea swimming just comes down to spotting rip currents and rocks. The rest is common sense and knowing how to float.

Ideally everyone would swim all the time but with our lack of pools, the expense & actual poo and tampons in the sea - it isn’t feasible to keep it up for many families

Stopped at the end of stage 4. I’m confident she’s happy in the water, can swim 50m and knows how to float on her back etc for safety. She really didn’t like the lessons by that point so we stopped once she had a core confident skill.