To be totally fed up of swimming lessons

[User97532468]

Both DC have had weekly swimming lessons since a couple of months old. DS1 was really good and by 3.5 he was swimming without aids and had his 20m badge. At 4 he got fed up and stopped trying or was just not being challenged enough. We changed pool to a smaller group and he seemed to improve but then went backwards again. Had another recent change of teacher and pool and again little progress, he is however now loving swimming again.

DS2 has never been confident but is making good but slow progress.

The thing is I’m just so fed up of it all. The lessons aren’t cheap and whilst I do believe swimming is an important life skill why is it taking so bloody long to get them to a point where I think right we can stop lessons now and just take them on our own.

So I guess I’m wanting opinions on when you stopped or when will you stop swimming lessons? Also what is the best way of getting them to a decent safe levels without spending however many more years doing the weekly lessons?

More than 400 people accidentally drown every year in the UK and it's the third highest cause of child death in the UK.

This Nordic study suggests that there is indeed a correlation between ability to swim and safety from drowning: injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/22/Suppl_2/A97.2

Here's an American study with a similar finding: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4151293/#!po=7.50000

So to be honest @BertrandRussell I do think it's pretty important kids learn to swim from a safety perspective.

Our pool used to do a thing called Waterproofing, which involved teaching children to float, to tread water and how to turn and grab the edge if they fell into water. Now that’s useful

This should be taught anyway in lessons.

Floating, grabbing edge and climbing out should be taught in the very first level.

I don’t know why you don’t get the life skill bit tbh as it’s been explained enough to you.

"I don’t know why you don’t get the life skill bit tbh as it’s been explained enough to you."
No it hasn't.

People have said that swimmibgbus fun and opens doors to other activities. I agree. I just don't think years of expensive and obviously in many cases ineffectual lessons at 4 is the best way to playing water polo at 15. If it's treated as an activity like any other-football or ballet- then fine. But it's not. It's regarded as something vital. Parents feel guilty if they can't afford swimming lessons. Kids are made to go whether they want to or not. As I said, best marketing exercise ever.

YANBU. I totally agree and I am in the same boat (excuse pun)

DD can swim, I could stop her lessons. But she enjoys it and tbh if I stopped the lessons she'd never get to go (I don't enjoy swimming)

DS still cannot swim. So he has to continue to go. He doesn't enjoy it and wants to stop! I've told him when he can swim a length we can stop.

I just don't think years of expensive and obviously in many cases ineffectual lessons at 4 is the best way to playing water polo at 15

Err I don’t think most people actually think that.

Swimming lessons are vital. I was a swimming teacher and coach. I know they are vital. I’ve seen why they are vital.

Have you ever pulled a child that was drowning out of the water? I mean really downing as in actually on the bottom of the pool? I have. Drowning is so so preventable, yes parents do need to be vigilant but on occasion the child slips the net and as parents we should try and give our kids the best tools should something disastrous happen.

You see it as a marketing exercise

I see it as giving a child some degree of a chance if they get in to trouble I’m water.

“I see it as giving a child some degree of a chance if they get in to trouble I’m water.”

There are people on this thread whose children can swim a length butterfly but not tread water. Children who have been doing lessons for a year and still can’t swim. There are people talking about technique.

Floating, treading water and turning and grabbing are potentially life saving. Learning the 4 disciplines isn’t.

I never thought 1.2.1 lessons could make such a difference but they really do. In three lessons my son with appalling technique had cracked breathing and was swimming so much better

I stopped ds’s group lessons last year. He had spent about eight years in swimming lessons and hadn’t completed the levels.
I was sick to death of attending these lessons so paid for one to one. He has made so much progress

Floating, treading water and turning and grabbing are potentially life saving. Learning the 4 disciplines isn’t

They are not ‘potentially’ bert they are.

Learning the four disciplines isn’t necessary for water safety, but lots of children enjoy doing them. The ASA, who most of the pools regulate with factor all the styles in. And to tbh I don’t understand your aversion to then.

I suppose it’s what you want out of your lesson. If it’s just basic swimming for safety then book 1-2-1 if it’s for exercise, enjoyment stay with the class.

He had spent about eight years in swimming lessons and hadn’t completed the levels

Wow. How old was he when he started? It’s normal for a four year old to start lessons and to have completed the stages by 9 earlier if going in to club. I hope you spoke to your swimming coordinator at obviously the poor teaching practice.

There are people on this thread whose children can swim a length butterfly but not tread water. Children who have been doing lessons for a year and still can’t swim. There are people talking about technique

I don’t believe that to be true. If anyone is skilled and strong enough to swim a length fly, treading water isn’t going to be a problem

Once mine can swim 25m reasonably confidently they can stop. Unless they want to become actual competitive swimmers.

"And to tbh I don’t understand your aversion to them"

I don't have an aversion to them. What I have an aversion to is the conflation of swimming as a competitive discipline and water safety. So parents are sold a narrative of swimming being a vital, life saving skill and end up paying for years of expensive lessons which are nothing to do with water safety. It's a way of keeping people on the treadmill because they think they are putting their children at risk if they don't. If your child loves swimming and wants to learn the technical side of it and you can afford it, then that's great, carry on with the lessons.But the unspoken message is that you're a vas and neglectful parent if you don't.

Swimming is a vital life saving skill. You may not agree but I know it is.

I’ve never heard of an unspoken message that your neglectful if you don’t pay for years worth of lessons. I dont know where you have heard that from or why you feel like that.

Swimming is a conflation of safety and competative swimming and even just advanced swimming. Which lots of adults like as our pool is always rammed in the morning. Why learn a skill and not do it effectively? If you don’t learn it properly at the fundamental stage it just transfers to the next stages and then that’s when kids lose heart or struggle.

My DD had a swimming party when she was 8, all the kids could swim. Or so I thought... One girl, whose mother didn't mention she needed to wear armbands (nor did she supply them) had to be pulled out of the pool by a lifeguard.

When I told the mum afterwards she laughed and said "yeah she's not a strong swimmer".

I'll carry on paying my £80 a term I think.