2 years of swimming lessons and DS still can't swim a width - what next?

[Preminstreltension]

So DS (who will be 6 in August) had a year of swimming lessons in a 2-1 class. The other child was better than him but he did ok. I had to stop that as it was too expensive.

This year he's been in a small class - between 7 and 3 kids each week. He also had a week of 1-1 lessons in October. And he still can't swim. He seems to be regressing. I've complained about the lack of teaching continuity which is part of the problem but the other kids are getting on with it, progressing and moving on while he's going nowhere, literally.

It looks as though he doesn't kick hard enough so he sinks after one or two strokes.

He is comfortable in the water and enjoys the lessons but I can't keep spending without any progress.

What do I do? Get a private 1-1 teacher for another set of intensive sessions? Keep plugging away in the class? We've had plenty of swimming based holidays and he loves the splashing but is not making the leap.

[ReallyTired]

Can the nanny not nag him to maintain effort/ progress. Bribery often does wonders at this age.

[dragonfly007]

Sounds like my ds, 3 yrs of swimming lessons and he still struggles to complete 5m. Tried everything including completing levels several times and taking a break of 12 weeks, that was the worst idea! He lost confidence and the set back was huge, he is now swimming with 4 year olds :-(

[enigmacode]

preminstrel,
DS only learnt to swim with 1:1 lessons. Teacher was great, in the water with the child for the full 30 min. DS was 8 at the time. This was the only thing that did it. It was cheaper than piano lessons and it may save his life one day :)

[FannyFanakapan]

we had this with DS2. We moved him from the leisure centre lessons to a swimming club. He moved up very quickly. The swimming clubs have a vested interest in getting your child into competitive swimming as soon as possible, because thats their raison d'etre whereas the leisure centre just want you to keep paying the money every month ...also leisure centres can keep kids at lower levels because they don't have space in more advanced classes.

[PourquoiTuGachesTaVie]

Have you ever tried him in the deep end?

My 4 year old can't swim if you put him in the shallow end because he knows he can put his feet down so he does. He can swim half a length in the deep end unaided however. He's just coming up to the end of his first year of swimming lessons and we take him swimming at the weekend most weeks.

[Methren]

We had this with DS1 at a similar age - long phase of almost no progress in a small group lesson (despite an excellent teacher).

I found this site which has some great videos that break down the skills necessary for swimming into manageable step-by-step chunks and demonstrate how to teach them. I took DS1 swimming myself for a few sessions and used the exercises from the videos and he improved enormously. If you can find some time to take your DS swimming it might be worth a try.

In my DS1's case, a lot of it was to do with body position - he couldn't get himself horizontal in the water and so kicking wasn't propelling him forwards very efficiently.

(Promise I'm not just plugging the website - I found it by googling and it really was very helpful.)

[IceBeing]

The stopping problem seems to me to be to do with head position. If they get there head fully in the water than they go forward. If they try and keep their heads out, they sink.

I have been going swimming almost every week for 3 years with DD, and just now as she is turning 4 she suddenly gets it. Although, as others have noted she is much much better at swimming in the deep end when she knows she has to concentrate!

I am no swimming teacher but I recently helped two girls a bit older than DD to get going...they had been having lessons for a year with no progress and together me and DD got them doing some proper swimming in about an hour....it wasn't about the yelling 'kick' it was about lavishing them with praise for getting their heads down and moving. I think the swim teachers where we are are very good on technique but rather poor on actual genuine encouragement and praise for success!

[Preminstreltension]

Can you believe at our stupid pool you are not allowed to take children under 8 out of their depth. I tried this last year during one of my attempts to teach him and got told off. FFS.

I think it's a good point actually. As is the head position. DS had grommets at age two so had them in for his first year of lessons and we had to faff around with earplugs and ear bands.

When the grommets finally came out he didn't really like floating on his back and I think he didn't like the sensation of water creeping into his ears because we'd avoided it for so long (he's fine jumping in and submerged - just not ears level with water). His ear s are fine now but maybe that's still causing him to have an odd position in the water.

Hmm. All very useful!

[Mistigri]

Sometimes just leaving it is the best advice.

We don't swim regularly because we have no local pool with sensible opening hours, though we swim outdoors in the summer (both DH and I are good swimmers).

DS took ages to learn to swim despite my efforts to teach him (as mentioned above body position was part of the issue, due to lack of natural buoyancy). A couple of years ago we went on our summer holidays with some friends, to whom I had described DS as a non swimmer. There was a pool at the apartment. DS got in the pool and on the first day swam 50 lengths without stopping! (not full lengths - prob about 12 metres - but even so ...)

Dunno what happened but plainly he knew what to do, it just needed a "click" for it to all come together - a bit like the process of learning to read.

[fruitscone]

Preminstrel - I laughed at your comment about the swimmers' body! This sounds like my DD - she looks like the perfect swimmer - wide shoulders, lean muscular long legs and she has a good level of fitness.

But her swimming lessons drove me to despair! She was like a sack of bricks in a pond. Her body was too vertical (legs dropping) and her wide shoulders seemed to have no power in them!

She also regressed after getting quite close to being able to swim.

I got my triathlon-swimming friend (former lifesaver) to do some 1:1 with her and she too was flummoxed.

Finally she can now swim one length. But not easily and she doesn't have good enough technique to progress beyond that. However she loves going to the pool and diving and doing handstands etc, so I remind myself that at least she has lost the fear of water. One thing that helped was getting her a snorkel as she is good at swimming underwater. It just all goes pear-shaped at the surface!

You have my sympathies.

[ReallyTired]

I have two children. Ds really struggled with learning to swim. He had a year of one to one lessons before he could swim. In that year he went from not being able to swim 5 metres to being stage 4 standard. However dd is the complete opposite and has flown through the swimming levels. I feel that my experience shows that parenting has very little to do with how a child gets on with swimming.

Incidently dd has not got the perfect swimmer's body at all. She is very petite and slim. I am sceptical that a particular body type makes children better at swimming in the early stages. Dd does have excellent coordination and it helps that she does not have glue ear.

I feel that the quality of teacher has more of an affect that anything else. Dd is currently in a class of nine, but she has a good teacher who makes sure that every child understand what they need to do. There is a difference between being a very good swimming and a very good swimming teacher. Dd's teacher is good at spotting what a child is doing wrong and explaing what they need to do. Incidently dd's swimming teacher has excellent technique herself when swimming.

I feel that weak swimmers really need a seperate class to children who are naturally talented. In an ideal world a swimming class would be grouped by both age and ablity. Dd has just turned six and and there is a nine year old boy in her class. It is humilating for a nine year old boy to be overtaken by a six year old girl. I really feel for him because he reminds of my son.

[Schrodingersmum]

You could take a look at the swimfin, I taught both of my children to swim using this. Child one, natural swimmer was half way there and used it for a month. Child two some level of dyspraxia benefitted enourmously from its help and was swimming within 2 months. There are video's on youtube showing how it works, it was designed by a swimming instructor

[LovelyFriend]

we have a swimfin too - DD1 really took to it and it did help her a lot.

DD2 is not so keen on it, but if I can get her to wear it it works well.

It really helps them learn how to hold their body properly in the water.

[Gaytime]

OP I hear you! DS (7 years) burnt through cash at a dozen swimming schools and made no progress with cranky teachers who said he was unteachable. Finally, we found an excellent swimming school - PM me if you want the name - with great teachers. They are eye wateringly expensive BUT DS made slow process in weekly half hour 1-1 lessons in ASA Stage 2. However the major break through were daily one hour 1-1 lessons in a summer crash course. DS went from floating to swimming laps of 100 metres in three days. I attribute the break through to the right teacher and sufficiently long lessons ie one hour. By accident, DS was given an hour lesson then DS requested it as he said it allowed him enough time to learn and practise a new technique (and play games in the pool). It's extremely difficult to learn anything without enough regular repetition. If I had my time again I would have put DS into daily individual one hour lessons two years ago and saved a lot of aggro and cash.

[Hardtoknow]

There are posts on here from me a year ago despairing of then 4.10yo DD's complete lack of progress after a year of group lessons. I think it came down to:

• disinterested teachers
  
• lack of time in the water (a 30 min weekly lesson but probably no more than 12 mind actively swimming due to registration, ratios & fun time)
  
• not wanting to (and not being made to) put her face in the water so her body position was all wrong
  
• being in her depth so able to walk & no one picking up on it
  
• knowing she was one of the worst in the group & getting worried & tense which made her body position worse
  
• the noise
  

We started 1:1 lessons a year ago and she can now do 25m front crawl & breastfeeding stroke and is almost there in backstroke, can float in various positions, go down for sinkies provided it's not deeper than 1.5m, jumps in happily & has no issue with putting her face in the water. Given that we only have lessons once a fortnight, it hasn't been much more expensive.

[Ludways]

I paid my way through uni teaching swimming in Florida, my advice is to leave it a year or two, if he's happy in the water and he can do the emergency float, (on his back chin up, bottom up, arms out to the side) then he'll be ok leaving it till he's stronger.

[MyFriendsCallMeOh]

I'm an Austswim (Australian qualification) teacher. I can't say what the issue is without speaking to your ds and seeing him in the water. However, the "swimmer's build" issue is interesting. Build isn't really an issue unless you are a competitive swimmer or an Olympian so I would forget all the wide shoulder / big feet chat. Body composition is much more important. I have worked a great deal with babies 6 months + and the reasons why they find it so easy to "swim" is lack of fear and % body fat (chubby babies and toddlers float much better than lanky school children).

If your ds is slim build, he will sink like a stone (fat floats, muscle and bone sink) and he will need to work harder to stay afloat. Good technique (kicking from the hip, not the knee, floppy ankle) and good body alignment will help. A good teacher will be able to help with this through drills and games. When he's swimming, does he swim towards anything? Maybe swimming in his depth is an issue. Ime, little kids who can't touch the bottom in the shallow end make fast progress and if your ds was my student, I'd see what he was capable of just out of his depth. Keep up with the swimming lessons, try to go between if you can manage at the weekends but keep it fun. He will get there.

[Sallyhasleftthebuilding]

Your child needs to learn to float, when they can float, they can swim. When he goes to bed, ask him to relax every mussel, then move one toe, and get him to tell you what he feels. It takes a lot of mussle to move that one toe. Get him to relax again, and breath. Tell him to be able float, he needs to be this relaxed. Almost asleep in the water. Ask the swimming instructors to concentrate on it.

[MyFriendsCallMeOh]

Some people with little body fat cannot float that way, they need propulsion in order to stay afloat....

[Sallyhasleftthebuilding]

They need confidence that they`ll stay up. Once they float, they find swimming under water difficult.

[BellsaRinging]

It just takes some children (a lot) of time. The key may be regular swimming (i.e. more than once a week) after that many lessons. Both of mine had loads of lessons, but actually 'learnt', as in swam more than a stroke or two, on holiday when they were in the pool every day. My niece and nephews were the same. Does your pool do a week's intensive course in the holiday? Our local council one does, and it's cheap (c£30-less if you have a passport to leisure card). Or alternatively, can someone take him every day for a week?

[Hellionandfriends]

DS was the same but with 1:1 made huge leaps and bounds

[BikeRunSki]

Ds cracked it at nearly 6 when he moved into a pool where he couldn't touch the bottom. And we tend to go once a week outside lessons.

[manchestermummy]

Same story with DD1. I'll never forget that lesson. The lot of them were in the shallow boom pool and persisted in putting their feet down. The teacher ordered them out, told them to march to the deep end of the main pool and made them jump in. I was as dd1 was 5 and at that point she was quite certain she was never going to swim in the deep end ever. Progress to that point had been painful.

She's nearly 8 and a good swimmer now. Doesn't much like lessons but tough!

DD2 has progressed faster - she's 4 and has her 10m. She's starting a new block of lessons soon at a pool she can't reach the floor of. Not told her yet...

[Preminstreltension]

thanks again for all the extra advice.

Just to answer a few points - he's not lanky and lean! He's big for his age with a big head and big hands and feet but definitely on the soft side.

At our pool they will not let under 8s go out of their depth even with a parent . I'm thinking he needs one to one with someone who gives a shit rather than the succession of utterly bored twentysomethings we've had so far. The lessons have been just as hardtoknow describes. If he is out of his depth for any reason he can manage about two strokes of doggy paddle before he starts to panic and sinks. He can float on his back though - and actually on his front as well. He can do all the elements of swimming including turning over in the water - apart from actually swimming .

The manager of our pool agreed that the lessons and the teacher turnover had been very poor and she watched him in a lesson and agreed that it was being badly managed. She suggested that she take him for one-to-one sessions for six weeks to see if that would help. I was really pleased - that was two months ago and I've tried to contact her every week since then and she's mysteriously not answering .

I am definitely going to pursue the 1-1 and maybe for an hour. Gaytime I've pmed you.