Kids swimming lessons - slow progress and been going for years!

[bananasplitsallround]

My DC are 9 and 7. Both have been to group swimming lessons since they were 5 years old. Progress just seems so slow. My youngest still can’t really swim very far, maybe 10 meters in a pool where he can touch the bottom. Eldest just got his 400m badge. But this is after 4 years of weekly lessons!

Some of the same kids are still in their class so they aren’t necessarily progressing any faster either.

I never had private swimming lessons as a child. At primary school I think I had a couple of half terms of lessons. Never went swimming with family unless on the annual beach holiday. But I was a relatively confident swimmer by around 10/11 years.

Are years of weekly lessons really necessary to learn to swim confidently these days or have I just been suckered into committing to lessons that would never have made a difference to their ability to swim in the end anyway?

AIBU to stop my older child’s lessons?

Maybe we just started too young?

When is the right time to stop?

The water safety risk always plays on my mind hence why we just keep going. Any advice welcomed!

400m at age 9 is good!

What type of lessons are they? Proper club, council or a private swim school? If private are they following an ASA or Swim England programme or their own?

Must be either the way they're taught, or a confidence thing
Don't think I ever had a proper swimming lesson I could just swim.
School lessons were about more confidence, strength and distance.

Some kids it just takes longer to click. My kids had friends who were at the same swim school as them - same teachers, same approach etc. My youngest got 50m badge before her 6th birthday. My eldest had a friend who was almost 8 before he could manage it.

Mine both started at 4. I think its normal to have several years of lessons if you want them to be strong swimmers. I had lessons from about age 4 or 5 to about age 10. I would ideally like mine to do 1.5 or 2k distance before quitting lessons.

I was suckered in by this for too long as well. I definitely think it is dragged out for longer deliberately now to make more money, as my older children didn't take as long. The best advice I got for learning to swim is frequency. Once a week for half an hour (less when you take into account time spend standing waiting for their turn) and using floats isn't enough. It is why so many who never had lessons still learned to swim on holiday.

Spend the money for lessons on a family gym membership and go every day for a week or as often as possible in a short space of time for longer than 30 minute and that is the key. Free play in the water, dive toys, walking/striding/swimming races by widths and they will just figure it out on their own.

What are the teachers like? We tried a couple before finding the right place. A lot of the swim schools around us have young uni students or high school students teaching. Who are absolutely lovely and a lot of fun... however, it was a game changer finding a place with only extremely experienced swim teachers mostly 15 years teaching +. My son's swimming has completely transformed! Yes more expensive but it's been so worth it.

@User28425 great advice. I think you’re onto something there. Maybe I’ll give that a go.

@JazzyBBBG, my eldest is at a private swim school that follows its own programme. Class sizes are small. My youngest at a council run one which follows Swim England. I sometimes think the teaching is better at this one although classes larger.

Can you afford one to one lessons? My daughter didn’t swim well at the age of 12 and used some birthday money towards a short course of private lessons. She improved really quickly and went do a life saving qualification when she was a bit older. Swimming is a great skill to have

Dd can swim like a fish these days but it was a slog until about year 4. Then she had a growth spurt, including in her brain, and things just smoothed out.

However, for anyone else reading this thread and considering whether or not to stop swimming lessons, please read this www.royallifesaving.com.au/about/news-and-updates/news/2025/oct/parents-urged-to-consider-a-second-dose-of-swimming-lessons-before-high-school

I think a lot of children can't learn to swim with half an hour once a week. It's really nothing.

Frequency is important for most kids. And if you want them to swim far, they need to spend a lot of time building up the endurance. So they need to spend an hour or more at a time, imo.

You need to take them to just regular swimming sessions at the pool, not only lessons

Then the will really get it

In terms of improving, there is a lot of swimming technique that children can’t learn until they are over 10. A lot of children make big leaps at 11 or 12.

There is definitely value in getting them safe and confident in water. Lessons are often the fastest way to do this. However, between 6 and 10 years old, you are just as well taking them for a splash about as a family as lessons. Lessons make sense if you don’t want to have to get in though.

My kids all started weekly swim lessons at the council pool aged 4, and stopped once they could do all the strokes over a long distance with good technique and tread water for ages etc. So stopped about age 10-12.

We also went every week for a family swim from when they were babies, and swam daily on holidays. At school they only had an hour’s lesson, weekly for 6 weeks in KS2, and lots of the kids still couldn’t swim well when they left primary school.

My teenagers are all strong swimmers in the pool and in the sea. I think the lessons were worthwhile, but definitely need extra time in the pool to practice, have fun and gain confidence.

My daughter had a similarly slow trajectory and I’m baffled by it. I learned to swim in a hotel pool on a fortnight’s holiday when I was 8 or 9. And ended up a strong swimmer. I have no idea how it has become normal for it to take years of lessons these days.

Do you take them to the pool regularly, as well as to lessons? That makes a huge difference? DS was moving up quite slowly, but then after spending a lot of the summer at the pool he moved up 3 levels (old Scottish level 1 to 8 system) and was straight into swimming club the next term.

Like what?

My ds started age 4 in a Swim England class at our local leisure centre, 9 kids per class. They definitely aren’t stringing things out as there are waiting lists to join the classes!

My ds started quite slowly, he was quite young and didn’t always listen to the instructions. I would watch the class really closely (from the pool balcony) so I could hear what the teacher was explaining to the kids and often he didn’t do what was asked. Since he got free swimming at the pool with his class membership, once he got to age 5 I took him swimming once a week too - sometimes at the “floats” fun session, sometimes for the family swim where there’d be lots of parents teaching kids to swim.

I bought a float and some dive toys and we would mostly play, then I’d make sure he did around 10 minutes of proper swimming during the hour. It makes a difference when you can be in the pool demonstrating and really focusing on that one thing your child is struggling with.

Anyway that gave him water confidence and got him swimming underwater a lot, also he would spend a lot of time out of his depth jumping in and trying to touch the bottom of the deep end. He also did his first 25m length with me - they haven’t even attempted it in his class yet!

I think that the extra swimming has been a game-changer since you don’t really get much chance to practise in a 30 minute lesson of 9 kids! He is now age 6.5 and halfway through stage 5 so I’m pretty happy with his progress.

Both of mine swim for a club now and the progress that they made when going from 30 mins of group lessons (with a lot of standing around) to 1-2 hours of solid swimming was phenomenal. Perhaps your oldest is ready for that now?

I do agree that it’s about frequency but maybe treat it like driving or music lessons- you wouldn’t ideally just have one lesson a week, it’s best if you also practise in between.

I only had school lessons and could already swim well by then BUT my technique is horrible and I now only really do one stroke so would recommend lessons for technique with practise in between!

So your eldest can swim well?
Your youngest just sounds like they need half a term of 1:1 lessons in the deep end. It will be cheaper than doing another two years of group lessons.

I think your mistake was starting formal lessons too young OP (sorry, this is rubbish advice because theres nothing useful you can do with it!).

In my area pools are run by Better, group swimming lessons are £32/month for 30mins a week plus the child can swim for free whenever they want.
The foundation stage (red/amber/green, correlates to stage 1-3) is in the teaching pool, up to 8 kids per teacher, loads of waiting, not much swimming. I see so many kids start lessons aged 4/5 and end up stuck in red/amber for ages learning basic water confidence. So much depends on the group dynamic too - sometimes the kids click and push each other on really positively, sometimes they mess about.

I like swimming and enjoy taking my kids (and I've used this as an excuse to get myself swimming membership so I can go whenever I want, which I love!) so we go often as a family and just muck about with us and friends. Didn't start eldest with formal lessons til 7, went straight into green and now after 2 years of lessons is nearly finished gold (stage 7?). He's sporty, but also has had plenty of swimming time outside of lessons to practice as we make the most of our memberships. That helps a lot. It hasn't felt like a slog, probably cos he never got stuck for ages in the baby pool.

Youngest is 4 and can swim about 10m survival doggy paddle(!) but won't put her head under the water yet. I don't plan to start her with lessons til I reckon she's roughly at green standard and can get something out of it.

Like everything in life, I think it’s all about practice.

My DD has half hour lessons once a week and progress is fine, but not amazing. But every year after we go on holiday and after she has been in the pool or sea everyday for a week or two, her ability and confidence increases significantly and she is moved up a level. She doesn’t particularly enjoy lessons, but I insist she continues until I feel confident she is fully safe in the water. So we are going to take her swimming once a week so she has some extra practice and hopefully she’ll learn more quickly and the (expensive) classes can end!

Agree with taking them in between but try changing instructor or see if you can find a private one, possibly who can take both at same time as eldest it's most likely fine tuning and practice. Will be more expensive per lesson but such individualised instruction will almost certainly guarantee faster improvements and therefore cheaper overall.

My 4 year old progressed a lot in the summer when we were taking her swimming a minimum of 3 times a week but since September it’s been just her swimming lesson some weeks and at most one other swimming session - I find she has actually regressed and is swimming less independently and asking for floats more. I find she needs time to practise what she learns and ideally within about two days of the lesson so it’s still fresh in her mind or I am more or less trying to reteach her again.

We are lucky we have a decent sized garden. We got a big pool £130 for the garden and in summer they get so much pool time and confidence. They learn more in that time then they ever did with expensive lessons. If you can afford to have 1 to 1 that might be beneficial. We just found the 30 min group of 6 ones rubbish it equated to maybe 8 minutes if that of focused swimming.

Sorry OP, didn't actually answer your question!

If your eldest is doing 400m that sounds like thats roughly Gold/Stage 7? Thats a great basis for starting to do much more interesting water based stuff, and for swimming for fitness. Also don't lose sight of the fact that your eldest is doing pretty well. Getting to that stage at 9 is unusual round me - 2 kids out of 60 in their year were at that level when mine did school swimming recently (most couldn't swim at all).

Whether you stop lessons now depends on what you want them to get out of it. Is it basic water safety? Confidence for doing watersports? Interest in getting faster/competing/keeping them out of trouble as teens? Option to get future work as a lifeguard?

And also depends on whats available - what does continuing lessons look like at your pool? Do you have a local swimming club/lifesaving club/waterpolo?

Is going to swimming stopping them from doing a different activity you'd like to do? Do your kids enjoy it?