Swimming lessons

[jelly79]

What age is best to start swimming lessons? I take my 2.5 years old DS swimming every weeks and he is still very frightened of the water (although getting better) but I want to start proper lessons to help him and have mixed opinions on when best to start ...

4, once they are in the pool without a parent. Before that is just confidence building/play which can be acheived by going regularly to the pool in my experience

Mine both started at about 3.5years although had been in the water quite a lot previously. To be honest, I'm not sure if it was worth the money! Their swimming always improves loads after our holidays when they've swum every day so I wonder if they'd have been just as good if they'd stuck to that and maybe some 1 to 1 or intensive swimming lessons in the school holidays rather than 30 mins every week. They have enjoyed it though and are really confident in the water now.

About 4, I'd agree. Younger than that they are very unlikely to be able to focus on the teacher's instructions and process what is being said.

Ahhh thanks for the replies! I think I will just take him more often to build his confidence and wait for lessons till he is a wee bit older :)

Mine started at 1. I didn’t notice any progress until 3.5 (and that was followinga. 2 week holiday in the pool)

4 I'd say.

Just focus on enjoyment for now, confidence will come from enjoyment. I’d think about lessons when they are about 4 and ready to be in a group away from you and able to listen to instructions from
another adult

When they go into reception so 4/5

Children under 4/5 don't have the right body proportion to effectively learn technique. Big heads, short limbs etc

You’re in a funny age band as lots of the 21/2 year olds in lessons will have been doing it since they were babies through baby swimming and I don’t think it would be a great experience to start him with confident 2 year olds. Once he hits 3 he can start independent ones but if he’s not water confident I wouldn’t recommend it at that age.

Mine is an an advanced pre school class of 3/4 year olds and they are all doing really well (mine did a length of the teaching pool last week without floats) so they can learn before 4/5. The beginners pre-school class at my leisure centre is very gentle but they ask that kids are water confident before starting. The beginner school age classes (red hats) seem to have more of a range but progress quicker. I think it is just easier to deal with a bigger range with older kids. Like others have suggested 4/5 would seem sensible.

Thank you!! This has helped as I've had mixed thoughts about the best thing to do!

We went swimming today and just had fun and it was great! He seemed a bit more confident so I'll just concentrate on that for now as I really enjoy taking him! He actually wanted to go today 👊

My dd was petrified of swimming so at 3.5 I signed her up to 1to1. She’s still fearful of putting her head under water (always has been since being tiny) but she’s came on loads I. 4 weeks. Once she gets some confidence I’ll stop the 1to1 and sign her up to group lessons

I did Parent and Child lessons with DS2 from aged 2 (led by an instructor but no expectation to do it all, it was very play based). This was in our local pool, pay as you go, not Turtle Tots or the like. DS2 then went into Ducklings classes at 3, and the teacher was the same one as our previous lessons so he already knew her.
DS1 started lessons aged 4, and went straight into Stage 1.

We moved them both to 1:1 lessons last year as DS1 just wasn't progressing (he has a habit of dicking about and the teachers just ignored him rather than pull him up on it). Both of them have benefited from the move. They have nowhere to hide, so are focused for the full lesson. We had planned to only do 1:1 for six months to accelerate them and then move them back to group lessons. We can't imagine going back to group ones now. We like the flexibility that 1:1 gives. For example, DS2 (6) was technically still in stage 2 as he hadn't done a couple of things he needed to tick off, but was awarded his 25m front crawl badge as he and his teacher had been working on that instead. As a parent I couldn't care less if he can do a log roll, I'd rather he could swim a decent length. In group lessons he wouldn't have had the opportunity to swim 25m until around stage 5.

I agree with the comments about just going with him regularly and not making it a big deal. 1:1 lessons are great for building a relationship with one teacher in a calmer environment if he's still nervous in a few years. That said, our Ducklings and Stage 1 group lessons were lovely and the DC liked playing games in them with other children.

4 for learning to swim however I put dd2 in from 2.5 because she loved it and i HATE swimming. Well actually I don't I love it abroad in the sea or pool when it's 38c outside but not so much in barely heated pools in Scotland. It was the only way she'd get regular swimming. Both my dc could swim at 4 though so it wasn't a total waste

I would say take him yourself until he is confident enough to jump in by himself, put his head under water, blow bubbles and be out of his depth using a woggle to keep him afloat.

We put DD in in reception but she was petrified and got moved to the nursery class and even there she refused to get water on her head. After a few very grateful weeks of poolside sitting we stopped.
Went back when she was 7 and she learned in a matter of weeks and skilled stage 2. She was never a natural fish and would kind of flop sideways when doing the front crawl. She finished the stages and rookie lifeguard in 4 years though and stopped this year when she got to secondary school.
So in conclusion, it is when your child is ready and if they have the body for it. There are some 6 year olds in squads doing laps like they're 14. There was so some 13 year olds in DDs stage 4 class.
I do think those baby/toddler classes aren't worth it though, you could easily do that yourself and they're often v expensive.

Sorry, few very tearful (screaming) weeks.