to ask how to get my daughter swimming lengths?!

[FawnFrenchieMum]

DD9 had swimming lessons up to stage 5, did ok but was taught in a small private pool so never swam any ‘full’ lengths of a normal pool. She’s missed all but 3 or 4 of her school lessons due to Covid.
She can swim but gets tired after a couple of lengths, we have a membership and are trying to go regularly again now there’s no booking etc.
Whenever we go and the life guard who taught her very briefly at school is there, she is allowed in the deep end. If we go when some of the others are there. After a few minutes they always ask her to go back to the shallow end as they see her ‘dipping’ a bit on full lengths.
How am I going to get her confidently swimming lengths if she’s not allowed to swim them?! I don’t really want to put her back in formal lessons at the pool we swim in as they don’t get much chance to actually swim still.
I thought about private lessons again and ask to purely work on distance and stamina rather then badges but that would be back in the small pool, I think a lot of it is mentally it looks so much further then going up & down a small pool.

@OlivePenderghast

Can she do widths out of her depth so that she can have a short rest when she gets to the other side? Then build up to doing two widths etc without a rest. If she’s out of depth she won’t be able to rely on putting her feet on the bottom so can build up confidence without dipping.

She can reach the floor all the way up to ‘no non-swimmers sign’ which they make her stay behind.

@horseymum

Can she start by swimming from the deep end to the shallow end, getting out and walking back to deep end. That way, as she tires, she is in shallow water and can recover her breathing whilst walking back along the side. It sounds like her stroke isn't very efficient if she is tiring even though quite fit. Maybe a couple of private lessons would help.

The life guards won’t let her do once they have seen dip at any point during a length.

I'd consider getting her a few one to one lessons and then hopefully that will correct anything she's not doing right

Sounds like I need to get tougher on the width sessions (without putting her off!) or get her back into some formal lessons. Wish I could find some private in a full size pool.

Please don't take this the wrong way but does she need to be swimming lengths at this time.
I say this because we got ds1 to be an adequate swimmer but confident in the water (fun pools, swimming pools) He resisted any attempts to improve his style and strength to the point where he quit.
We let it go and then in his early teen years found his way back to swimming and worked his way to competition level.

Similar thing happened with Ds2 and cycling. The minute we said he didnt have to do it he calmed down and learned.
I think you are right about the length seeming daunting though

Agree with a pp, focus on technique to make swimming less effort.

Ds had 1-1 lessons and the instructor who spent many lessons with barely any swimming, instead they were in the pool with him physically showing and handling him to learn exactly how to move arms, hands, feet, head, and breathe effectively. His front crawl is amazing (to me a non swimmer!) and he glides through the water with barely any splashing.

@horseymum

Can she start by swimming from the deep end to the shallow end, getting out and walking back to deep end. That way, as she tires, she is in shallow water and can recover her breathing whilst walking back along the side. It sounds like her stroke isn't very efficient if she is tiring even though quite fit. Maybe a couple of private lessons would help.

This is how they do it at my DCs' pool. Stage 4 is generally lots of widths with a monthly lengths week where they go deep to shallow and walk back. Stage 5 is backwards and forwards doing lengths.

It's tricky because some people do need to have the comfort of putting their feet down removed and often find deep water easier.

She just needs practise to build stamina not necessarily lessons. My youngest was at a school with its own pool when he was 9, was told he was a weak swimmer and needed extra lessons to catch up with his class. In fairness he was a year younger than his classmates having passed a scholarship exam (free place) a year ahead at 6. I paid for a terms worth but he hated them and didn't improve, to be honest couldn't really afford them either so i took him once a week myself to the local council run pool which he enjoyed more. Very quickly he overtook me and was doing 50 lengths to my 25, weirdly seemed to get a buzz out of doing more each week with a trip to the sweet shop on the way home added incentive😉 try a another pool perhaps where the lifeguards aren't as quick to make her go to the shallow end, so long as your with her and she's safe they might leave you to it!

@notacooldad

Please don't take this the wrong way but does she need to be swimming lengths at this time. I say this because we got ds1 to be an adequate swimmer but confident in the water (fun pools, swimming pools) He resisted any attempts to improve his style and strength to the point where he quit. We let it go and then in his early teen years found his way back to swimming and worked his way to competition level. Similar thing happened with Ds2 and cycling. The minute we said he didnt have to do it he calmed down and learned. I think you are right about the length seeming daunting though

I don’t care if she can do length after length after length. We swim for fun generally, usually me, my friend and both our daughters. The adults tend to do two lengths and then the girls join us for the next one. We arn’t able to do this if after a few lengths if they instructor tells her to stay in the shallow end.

She doesn’t swim in the shallow end though, just puts her feet down and messes around.

Well, tell her to stop messing around and start swimming. You don’t need a teacher to tell her that.

What @Hellocatshome said, generally this would indicate her technique isn’t right and she should have more lessons.

Where we are all the swim teams have their own learn to swim programmes and they get the kids ready for swimming competitively rather than the arbitrary swim stages that don't teach the correct techniques.
I'd look for one of those as an extra for her to build up her stamina, you can be really sporty and still struggle with swimming fitness.

If you just want her to enjoy swimming I’d suggest teaching her head-above-water breaststroke - I swim a lot but that’s still what I did if I wasn’t training!

There is a difference between able to swim a few lengths and being able to swim a few lengths competently. Many people (most people judging by our local pool) are unable to do the latter, thrashing around with heads out of the water etc.

If you want your child to be a competent swimmer, it's worth the investment in some private tuition to ensure the basics are in place. Then work on the stamina.

i don’t care if she can do length after length after length
…
We arn’t able to do this if after a few lengths if they instructor tells her to stay in the shallow end.

Does your daughter feel pressured in this situation of maybe feeling is spoiling things as you can’t all do lengths. Could that affect her swimming?

Is your daughter embarrassed to be doing widths if her friend is a better swimmer and playing up due to that?

Our swim team has lessons in a full sized pool, we take swimmers from this level and train on stamina and form. You can’t swim efficiently without a good stroke but you also need some stamina in order to practise enough to improve form.

A swim team will be focused on future competitors so will often be more exacting on form than standard lessons, which are often (quite reasonably) focused on swimming for safety. DS has had his breaststroke pulled apart and rebuilt by a swim team in order to improve his speed.

Ask around if the teams have a teaching section, it may need to be a slightly larger team. I may be able to offer some pointers depending on where you are in the country.

I think you need to swim alongside her, assuming you would be capable of getting her to the side.
You could have a float to pass her if she needs a bit of help.
Teach her to stay close to the side and swim directly to the side and rest if she needs to.

I find this a bit strange. The only time I've seen kids asked to leave the pool was when barely able to swim kids were jumping off the blocks at one end whilst the dad was swimming lengths.

Assuming you're in the "free" half of the pool and not the half reserved for lane swimming, I can only assume that they don't think you're supervising closely enough. Are you giving your whole attention (you say you go with a friend) and are you so close that you can touch her? If you are, then just say she's with me and see what they say. If not, then you need to supervise her more closely.