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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

If your child is an excellent swimmer, how did you get there?

130 replies

ABakersDozen · 07/02/2015 07:50

Just that really. My child is very slow to swim. I am so keen for him to learn as it is a life skill and could save his life. He has no fear of the water, just not really getting it yet.

Children in his class (Y2) are swimming 100 metres! If you have a child swimming to this level, what did it take?

Did you start them swimming as babies, do they have a weekly lesson, one to one coaching (with you or a teacher), do you swim religiously even in school holidays? Did you do other activities to work on 'core strength'? I have friends with DD's who say gymnastics has helped with swimming because they have strengthened their core. Am I just not putting enough thought and effort into this?!

OP posts:

kathryng90 · 07/02/2015 09:05

My daughter (9) has just finished swimming lessons. In her last lesson she swam 30 lengths of the Olympic sized pool. She loves to swim and has had weekly lessons since age 5. However at her first lessons she screamed all the way through and was very wary for the first term.

My son (4) has just been asked to 'perhaps try again next year!' He doesn't like swimming!

WeAllHaveWings · 07/02/2015 09:12

Didnt start ds in lessons until he was 6. A work colleague told me - 1-1 lessons are expensive but they work out cheaper as they learn quicker.

We did a 20 minute 1-1 lesson (£14) for 10 months and at the same time a group lesson (£4) every week for around 15 months by which time he was doing rookie life guard and swimming 20 lengths in pjs. He would jump up two badges at a time (Stanley).

1-1 lessons speed things up and are invaluable at teaching good technique which group lessons in our area don't. Group lessons were good to learn beside peers and get badges but can be very slow, ds was learning beside other kids that had been in them for 3-4 years. Also, because he learned relatively fast and kept progressing badges he remained motivated to keep trying to get better each week.

JsOtherHalf · 07/02/2015 09:19

DS went to baby swimming from 14 weeks old. He then has had private swimming lessons ( as one of up to 10 or 12) since starting school. For several years we were members of a gym where we took him once a week too.

He is a good swimmer for being 8 according to his instructor, but he is not brilliant. He likes swimming, and likes the badges. He is a class with lots of kids 2 or 3 years older, and whilst he isn't as strong as them, he listens to what he is being told, rather then messing around.

happyis · 07/02/2015 09:35

My year2 DS 7yrs has been swimming weekly since he was 12 wks old. He has amazing confidence, and loves swimming but is only just starting to get "it".

His 5 yr old brother is a natural!

Despite swimming from such a young age, neither are any further on skill wise than the others in their groups who have started swimming much later. The only difference is in confidence. My two have absolutely no fear of water (just as bad as too much fear imo)

I think the main factor is developmental maturity - physical and cognitive. Ds1 has always been a bit slower to meet developmental stages Ds2 was always earlier

Starlightbright1 · 07/02/2015 09:47

My DS was a water baby..He has always loved the water and had lessons on and off. He made no progress at all in the local pool lessons now he has them with a swim school he is coming on in leaps and bounds.. He has an elegance about him..

He is a very un co ordinated child./not very good at most sports but loves swimming.

Can I also add the people whose kids do the 1000 meters are the unusual not the usual. My DS is one of the top boys..The one I have been told is closest to him has had a lot of 1-1 lessons , crash courses over the school holidays etc.

Silvercatowner · 07/02/2015 09:53

I used to teach swimming and tried to teach one child who swam a foot under the water - that seemed to be his natural buoyancy level. Very challenging - the breathing technique was interesting and I'm not sure we ever found a way to teach him to swim and breathe.

twinkcat · 07/02/2015 10:03

My ds can only swim under water at the moment. He is progressing well with one to one lessons. I have found one to one lessons to be well worth the money.

Toomanyexams · 07/02/2015 10:05

Both my DDs are excellent swimmers. (800M at 7 yrs old is excellent for me!)

I took them to swimming lessons from the time they were babies. It was a pain getting us all dry and dressed after lessons. We swam almost every Sunday as a family at the leisure centre. We were really committed and weren't lazy about skipping lessons or Sundays.

I personally don't love all the wet stinky washing, or the pain of getting dressed in a grungy leisure centre etc. But my husband wouldn't let us shirk!

I think swimming frequently and consistently is the key.

CrazyTights · 07/02/2015 10:07

Perseverance. My eldest was terrified of the water but got over it and chose to do competitive swimming at age 7. My youngest always loved the water but doesn't like competitive swimming, they are about to start work as a life guard.
We just kept going swimming week in, week out and did the whole lesson thing each week as well.

HamstersDontHaveFeet · 07/02/2015 10:12

Is swimming going to become the new mn reading levels?

vanillavelvet · 07/02/2015 10:14

What structure are the classes you attend? My DD attended group lessons where the teacher stood outside the pool shouting instructions. DD didn't progress well at all and eventually we found lessons where the teacher is in the pool with them. It made a massive difference and she's a competent swimmer now at age 6.

DH tries to take her once a week too and reinforces what she is taught at the lesson.

Toomanyexams · 07/02/2015 10:18

It's unusual for a child to have no fear of the water but not to make progress, usually, being afraid to put their face in the water or to take their feet of the bottom is 90% of the problem. What does the swimming teacher say?

tomandizzymum · 07/02/2015 10:26

My oldest three are great swimmers. They were not always and I persevered with weekly lessons, especially as school didn't start them until year 3!!!! I'm sure in the 80's it wasn't like that. They improved whenever they had the opportunity to swim everyday (holidays, halfterm intensive courses and finally moving to a tropical country).

CrazyTights · 07/02/2015 10:33

Hamsters probably, you know us MNer's love to boast about how wonderful our children are.

My swimmer is going to be at the Olympics...or so she tells me. Of course she's right

spababe · 07/02/2015 10:34

Both children had lessons with a very good teacher who was in the water with them. There was about 8 in the class. One DS learnt to swim easily this way and one struggled. I switched the second DS to private lessons and he came on in leaps and bounds. It was £15 for half an hour at the LA pool compared to the other lessons which were about £8 but then in a 30 min lesson with 8 children you are only getting about 5mins of time with the teacher.
Both can swim very well indeed and for us it is important as we live near the sea and have a river at the end of our road.

lljkk · 07/02/2015 10:34

DD had a rough start. Went to public pools several times a month from 5 months old with fearless older brother, she refused to go in water without adult or floatie to cling to. Sobbed & collapsed thru lessons at 5.5yo.

~ 6yo swimming with friends, finally dared to take feet off bottom & get face wet. Tried lessons again...

She raced thru levels, 5000 metre badge at age 10yo. From 11yo swam with a competitive club.

I don't think Anything is Key! Just keep gently encouraging & trying. I never learned to swim properly until I was an adult & got my first goggles. Sometimes the solution is blind to other people.

DS2 did a great impression of failed drowning when he was 5-7yo.

merlehaggard · 07/02/2015 10:41

My middle child got to level 10 and has just stopped the swim club aged 12. We just persevered through the lessons. She half heartedly discussed quitting at around level 6 but her swim teacher said that he would want his child to go to at least level 8 to really feel that they would competent enough to go swimming alone as teenagers. She will never be a competitive swimmer but is very stylish. She is by nature very competitive and I could see that she was swimming as fast as she could, but still, many children overtook him when racing just in her own swim club. She's really stopped because she has other interests and she knew it was never really going anywhere.

She was always very average in her swimming ability, sometimes got stuck on a level for ages, sometimes her friend over took her, and sometimes she overtook her friend but in the end, she learned to swim well simply because she had a good swim school and attended lessons regularly from 4 1/2 until she got her level 10 when 11.

Toomanyexams · 07/02/2015 10:42

vanilla's point is a good one. It's pretty horrible to be in the pool feeling vulnerable while an adult barks at you from the side.
spababe is right about private lessons, they might be expensive but very efficient for boosting your DS if they are available.
lljkk is right about the goggles. They can make a huge difference. And of course also right about consistency and gentle encouragement.

windchime · 07/02/2015 10:45

My DS had a few formal lessons and truly took to it like a duck to water. MY exH started taking him weekly to the pool and he just copied him. I think he may have a natural aptitude for it, though. At 14 he now swims in the sea and is very strong. My DD, however, has had about 100 formal lessons and still cannot get the hang of it. We can't all be good at everything, I guess.

merlehaggard · 07/02/2015 10:45

I also think 100m in year 2 is unusual. I don't think my daughter was that until year 3/4 at least and when she did swimming at schoolshe was in the top school swim group with a third of the class of all similar abilities.

Toomanyexams · 07/02/2015 10:57

I don't think there is any need for children to be able to swim 100M continuously at yr2, but it is easily possible. It's just 4 lengths of a standard lap pool. I grew up in the tropics and this was the norm. A child doesn't need particular flair or aptitude to do it. They just need to be taken to the pool a couple of times a week consistently.

A lot of families probably have other priorities. But if swimming is yours right now, you really need to get him in the water a lot. That's what it boils down to.

CrazyTights · 07/02/2015 11:12

*lljkk 5000m badge?! that's 200 lengths so presumably you mean 500m?

Hakluyt · 07/02/2015 11:19

As I have said before, the swimming lesson industry is equalonly to the bottled water industry in it's ability to convince us that something optional, but probably nice and desirqble is an absolute essential that we have to give them huge quantities of money for.

SoupDragon · 07/02/2015 11:26

Bottled water is unlikely to save your life (certainly countries excepted)
Being able to swim might.

Hakluyt · 07/02/2015 11:28

Being able to swim th width of a warm swimming pool in a swimming costume isn't likely to save your life either.

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