Swimming lessons - gazing into the abyss

[Carrotsurprise]

My god, how many years does this go on for? My DD started swimming lessons at the start of year 1 now she'll probably be moving up to stage 3 at the end of term. It runs for 50!!!!! weeks of the year. Every bloody Monday evening all year bloody round. And I'm on maternity leave! When I go back to work we'll have the juggling a toddler making sure one person gets home for him and the other goes to swimming. Then one day it'll be time for him to start lessons. Every Monday evening except Christmas, for like ten years? Right? Are swimming lessons really non-negotiable??

We do Puddleducks, although DS will move up to their swim academy classes soon.

I have heard the ‘oh just take them swimming yourself’ line on MN a lot and a) you can’t with more than one child and b) a lot of the time you just don’t; life gets in the way, it’s a hassle sorting costumes and towels and getting there so it doesn’t actually happen, whereas weekly lessons do.

Baby swimming lessons are definitely a racket. If you enjoy them and find it fun they’re great, but I can see how people are going every week for 5 years and their child still can’t swim, because they started when they were 6 months old.

I think it depends massively on your definition of being able to swim. For some on this thread I would suggest swimming means flailing all 4 limbs about, and hoping to move forward.

Like others, my eldest went through all the stages, and now goes to a swim fit class. Her stamina and technique is great. I can "swim", but with nothing like the technique or ability she has. When she goes "fun" swimming, she loves to troll the men trying to show off lane swimming in the fast lane - she beats most of them without trying, and is a tiny wee thing. The glares she gets! Many get out the water...

You cannot learn a strong technique in multiple strokes in 6 lessons one summer holiday. Nor do you do it on your yearly 1 week holiday to Turkey.

But if you're not bothered about a strong technique then fine. But if you do, you need regular lessons for more than a few weeks.

At my local pool you can't do lane swimming until you're 11. My daughter is a damm sight better swimmer than some I see doggy paddling up and down but won't technically be able to do it for another 4 years

I agree about Better swimming. As I said in PP moving up levels is arbitrary and they've never moved my daughter up until I've asked the swim lead. She's currently in Silver but i know from her 1 to 1 lessons she's at Gold or Academy level. It's the lifesaving etc. that they never seem to actually teach or test that stops her progressing up.

I totally agree. I took my kids age 5 to an 8 session course and they could swim by the end. Only ever used armbands if we were on a pool and I was alone with both and I didn’t allow them in the deep end unattended until they were properly confident and around age 12 - even now I always watch them in a pool. But they could swim unaided by the end of the course. My older son used to go swimming a lot with me and he learned all the strokes with me, he is really good in the water. My younger son who is 9 is confident in the water and can swim lengths etc alone. I mean, we spend a lot of time in another (hot) country so they need to know how to swim when we go there. I don’t see why any child needs to learn how to swim for a year unless they want to be athletes.

Different kids have different abilities and will take different amounts of time to get to a set standard and you as the parent has to decide what that standard is.

My eldest two stopped going once they could swim lengths in the 25m pool with ease - I stopped the lessons as much as anything because they crammed so many kids in the lesson and they barely got to swim more than a length or so. it got to a point that I didn't feel they were progressing.

My youngest was an increduibly nervous swimmer and we changed her lessons to a small local school pool where the instructors were in the water with the children and the classes were small. They were so lovely and understanding with her and she did eventually get to a point that she could swim lengths in the (not very deep) 10m pool - she was probably about 10 by this point. There wasn't really opportunity to progress there and she looked very out of place with all the much younger children in the class - I also didn't feel she would get anything out of the classes at the big pool.

I have to admit whenever I go past the big pool I am very thankful that I don't have to do that anymore!

There is far more to swimming lessons than just getting the basics, most kids especially those taught by their parents dont learn to breathe properly and splash far too much.
DC both passed their bronze medallion at 14 and their NPLQ at 16. They were not interested in competative swimming, but loved being in the water and DS particularly has gone on to do lot of watersports. DD did lifeguarding and taught swimming at Camp America, she also used to volunteer at a SEN swim sessions on a sunday. DS worked as a lifeguard through 6th form and uni until he got his career job.
I had adult lessons for over 15 years because it made me go swimming , i was a competant swimmer when i started! I still learnt so much and really enjoyed it.

I think it depends massively on your definition of being able to swim. For some on this thread I would suggest swimming means flailing all 4 limbs about, and hoping to move forward.

Well yes, but that is swimming. Just like when a parent excitedly says their child has learnt to ride a bike, it means they have learnt to stay upright and steer without falling off, it doesn't mean they're in line to enter the next Tour de France.

The OP was asking whether swimming lessons are "non-negotiable". Most parents want their children to be able to stay afloat and propel themselves forwards for a reasonable distance to allow them to save themselves if they fall in a pool, and have fun at the pool of a weekend. Anything beyond that goes beyond "essential life skill" into "niche hobby" - which is absolutely great for those who enjoy it and are good at it, but I don't think parents should be pressured into thinking it's essential for every child.

This is the thing we're complaining about though, that swim teachers may be better than parents at teaching technique, but loads of time is being wasted faffing around doing handstands and forward rolls. Yes, do it for a bit of fun if the child is keen, but most swim schools are really strict on this stuff and so it holds a child back from actually progressing and doing the actual life skill stuff that's useful in an emergency.

No one is drowning because their butterfly arms aren't quite coordinated, or they can't do an underwater pirouette.

To use your analogy, wobbling up and down the road, weaving wildly from one side to the other is just about riding. Flailing about and just about getting to the other side of the pool is just about swimming.

Neither can be called competent.

If they want to ride their bike to school, they need to be competent riders, having practiced and learnt the rules of the road. They need to understand how to be safe with cars around them, and taking junctions/turnings safely. Completing their Bike Ability is a great start.

And if a child falls into water, I would much rather they were competent in the water, having experienced swimming in clothes, and already practised in taking their shoes and heavy clothes off in the water so less chance of drowning.

On that basis, for me, non negotiable. For others, its a risk they agree to take.

It is so important. Mine learnt much faster when I found a 10 day course, so there was not the gap between lessons. That really gave the jump from getting through a length to competently swimming. We still go every week.

I’d try and get your son in at the same time (but different level obviously). That way you should be able to chip a few years off the decade. I feel you though, we do swim club on Monday too. 😐 On the bright side swimming is a life skill and well worth nailing when kids are young (and accident prone).

Dunno if you can with such a little baby (took DD from 3 months) but I swam when DD had lessons for years. Just did lengths at the same time. Obviously with a baby that's much more challenging but just a thought.

As I said earlier children vary. When I had two children I knew the perfect way to do it. An olympic gold medalist commented on my son and how good he was at a sponsored swim, he was four and swam like a fish. Then I had number three and had to admit my first two were just naturals and number three was the opposite.

Well, I had assumed your description of "flailing their arms about" was an exaggeration for comical effect... obviously you'd want your child to be able to do a solid and steady stroke of some kind. But I don't think children really need 10 years of weekly swimming lessons 50 weeks of the year, learning perfect technique. Only the ones who really want to take it seriously.

For example, most people I see doing lengths at the pool are just doing a slow and steady breaststroke, without any particular regard for form or technique. I am the same - I was taught front crawl at school but I don't like it so I stick to breast stroke, but I can easily swim a kilometre that way without much effort.

Swimming in clothes etc. is a good idea... but that's why I suggested OP should find a course for her child where they do survival skills like that. Again, no need to spend ten whole years perfecting their butterfly stroke for that.

I think progress has a lot more to do with their administrative convenience/ waiting list than individual progress. Dd has never done some of the "aquatic skills" supposedly essential for Silver level but was moved up at the same time as a bunch of the other kids. I don't really mind, as she now spends her lesson beetling up and down the pool, which is the whole point, and it's a perfectly appropriate level for her actual swimming ability, but I wonder why they bother with the other stuff.

Incidentally, she has just turned 8 and hadn't set foot in a pool (or even a deep bath) until she was 4, so it's not been too much of a slog, but I'm certainly not going to pay for lessons beyond Year 6.

As others have said, if your child wants to play football at county/national level they will need really excellent technique. If they just want to play in the park with their mates they don't. It's the same with swimming. If your child wants to swim competitively, then they need really good technique. If they just want to be able to swim competently enough to enjoy the water safely, they only need basic skills. They need to be able to float, swim around 25 metres, not be scared of going under water. Someone quoted numbers of children who drown each year in the UK above and it was tiny.

Mostly, when people (mostly adults) drown by falling into fast moving water or similar, being able to swim or not is irrelevant as even the strongest swimmer wouldn't be able to save themselves, or it's the cold water shock that kills, or they drown due to hitting their head diving.

The RNLI even have a safety campaign about how, if you are in danger in water DO NOT SWIM, but FLOAT instead.

Having great butterfly technique is entirely pointless unless you are going to swim competitively and no swimming teacher (who definitely doesn't have a speck of self-interest in pushing the 'swimming is a life skill' line) will ever convince me otherwise.

You had swimming lessons for 15 years?!

Yep. Parallel Universe.

Exactly. Nobody needs 10 years of swimming lessons (50 a year!) to be able to learn to swim. Utterly batshit.

People getting hung up on "10 years" I did mean a few years for DD and then a few years for DS when he's about 5 or 6 so I won't be done with this for about 10 years. I don't expect DD to be in swimming lessons for 10 years. I least I hope not!

Yes , it was advance adult swim class. Same people for most of that. Mostly drills and a bit of life saving

Haha mine has been - though technically it's training rather than lessons now as she's on a squad. It's all consuming. I have never seen so many swimming pools.

To me it’s absolutely pointless
I enrolled DD in lessons age 4 and paid for over a year - she hated it and never progressed
I have always loved swimming myself and took both DC often from being 4 months old
When DD was 5 I stopped lessons and took her and DS 3 myself they soon learned to swim and have never looked back
DD is 30+ now and we still swim together twice a week

It costs more but 1 to 1 lessons are a game changer - they get where they need to be a lot faster than group lessons.