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

[ABakersDozen]

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?!

Can anyone tell me whether this is normal, son has had lessons since he was 5 , he is now 8 and always loved water very confident but only got his 25m .

I feel the instructors don't push the kids into distance and building their strength up, instead there is about 8 kids and 2 instructors taking 1 kid across the width of the pool one at a time , so don only goes across the width of the pool not the length about 7 times in half hour.

Is this normal?

exmrs, no that doesn't sound normal. In fact, it sounds like a waste of money.

DD (7yo) swims lengths and can swim anywhere from 500 to 1000m in her 45 min lesson, depending on what stroke they are focussing on. She is ASA Stage 8.

DS (3yo) swims widths and typically does 6-8 widths front and 6-8 widths back in his 30 minute lesson. He can swim on his back completely unaided and is close to taking his float discs off on his front too.

Yep. I spent a lot on swimming lessons. It probably matches what my SIL spent on a pram.
Different people have different ways of doing things.
Baby's are a big market.

Apologies, I do know it's babies.

Our two have never had lessons but we do go swimming at least once a fortnight - not going regularly enough is a big problem in this country where the weather doesn't encourage swimming.

Our DD1 is very skinny & couldn't really swim on the surface until she was 7 but we got her a pair of goggles & encouraged her to swim underwater, which improved her confidence & meant she could get around the pool (& is now not at all worried about being out of her depth). DD2 is fatter so floats better but she too likes swimming underwater.

Our advice was avoid armbands as you can't really develop any sort of stroke wearing them. Get some dive sticks & goggles to make underwater swimming fun - we used them in the bath before taking them to the pool. If you have a very skinny child who's bum doesn't float then a swimfin is very good for leaving their limbs free but helping with buoyancy. If you're outdoor swimming, then a wetsuit also provides extra buoyancy too.