Swimming advice

[lagrangethetortoise]

Advice please from any swimming parents. My eldest dc has just turned 7, currently attends the local swim school once a week for half an hour and swims weekly with school. They are quite good for their age and working towards swim stage 5 but this means they are in a class with children two or three years older at her time slot and is finding it hard. They are of slight build so I think they are lacking the physical strength. The past few sessions they have been a bit upset after the session as they found it hard. It might just have been end of term tiredness. Should I try and just keep encouraging and empathise the challenge is a good thing? I don't want to put them off by it being too hard.

I could see if there is a group at another time with more equal ability but the current time slot works really well with other activities so I don't really want to change it if possible. Younger dc also has a lesson at the same time and getting slots at the same time is really hard.

I've briefly looked into other options and seen the local swim club in the town slightly further has a stroke development program for stages 4 and above, maybe they would be better off there?

They do other activities which hopefully will build their body strength as they grow.

Any thoughts appreciated

Its a massive jump between St4 and St5 isn't it? I'm wondering how my 8yo who is about to graduate St4 will keep up with her sister in St5 (10yo... they are both behind due to Pool closures for Covid).
Sorry, no advice, just sympathy.

What time of day is the class? Sounds like it might be late? Half an hour of intense swimming is tiring, that's normal and hopefully they will improve stamina. Maybe find time to swim for leisure too another time in the week/weekend?

Is it possible for you to take them once a week to practice what they are learning in the class?

DD is only stage 3 but I was looking ahead at the stages the other week and noticed that the expectation between stage 4 and 5 was a big leap. It might help your DC to feel more confident if they practice just with you in between.

Current class is 8am but they are always up before 6 every day. We like this time because it will never clash with other activities, parties, days out. My younger dc seems to suffer with the early session time (complains they are tired) but not the older one

It's not clear which child you are referring to with your latest post about younger and older - are they both swimming at 8am? Do they wake naturally at 6am?

They both swim at 8am and older one (working towards stage 5) is always awake naturally before 6. The younger one ( duckling 4) almost always awake before 6.15

Apologies, to be clearer, the way the swim school works is they split the pool up so about 6 groups swim at once and they group the children at each time slot based on ability and size of group paid for. It is possible to pay more and get 2-1 or 1-1. This does mean not all children in a group are at the same level.

They are quite good for their age and working towards swim stage 5 but this means they are in a class with children two or three years older at her time slot and is finding it hard. They are of slight build so I think they are lacking the physical strength.

Think very carefully before putting them in a swim club. If they find the sessions physically hard at stage 5 they will find swim club harder. If possible go along and watch a swim club session. At out club even the 7 year olds are swimming upwards of 40 lengths a session and no session is shorter than an hour.

Doesn't sound like dd is ready for a swim club. If they are in a pool split in to 6 it sounds like they are not currently swimming lengths? Which will be expected at the club. As a pp said it's a big jump so might just take a bit of getting used to. Get the instructor to feed back whether they think she's maybe been moved to seeing or just needs a few weeks to get used to it

I'm a swimming teacher it doesn't necessarily boil down to age but stagmia and ability. For instance I have a 6 year old that started in my stage 4 class and has now in stage 6 I also had a 7 year old I teach who is now in stage 6 both boys are swimming now 100 metres. Both boys are very active do sports one is already in a swimming club and the other boy does football and gymnastics so their standard of fitness is very high. Different places have different criteria for their staging programme ours at the end of stage 5 they have to swim 50 metres front crawl, 50 metres backstroke 25 metres breastroke and 10 metres butterfly we swim in lanes it sounds like he swims across, you say the class is 8 could you get a later one? Speak to the swimming teacher about your concerns.

Can he swim 25 metres op?

Thanks everyone.

Yes they can swim 25m, however their group only gets to use 20m of the pool with the last 5m divided off for the little beginners. Occasionally they let them use the whole length to check they can do 25m.

I'll see how they go the first few weeks back and if still struggling speak to their teacher and see if there is a later time available.

I'll also try and fit some sessions in at local pool to practice.

They also do gym and dance but will also try and encourage building up general stamina etc.

To be honest OP i would look for swimming lessons where they use the full 25m all the time, you can't build up much stamina with only doing 20m at a time and public swimming sessions are hard to get any proper distance swimming in.

Hello

Find a swimming lesson elsewhere. Try your local leisure center.

Stage 5 is technique heavy so swimming 20m is fine if really focusing on nailing the technique. My eldest did after school lessons she spent a year stuck in stage 5 but looking back she nailed her strokes before building stamina & then joined a club at age8 went straight into competing. Youngest DDdid club lessons they pushed swimming lengths when she hadn’t really nailed her technique and she got tired and more frustrated not being able to keep up. Taking them yourself an extra half hour a week to play have fun and work on one bit of technique a week plays huge dividends if they are likely to want to swim longer distances more efficiently.

If you only get 20metres and not all the time they aren't going to be building stamia it's alot that extra 5 metres. At my work I'd be expecting them to complete 25 metres front and back at the end of stage 4 and then doubling that in stage 5. I'm guessing your lessons are in a school pool? I'm a school swimming teacher aswell as a learn 2 swim teacher and I can always tell the kids that swim in smaller pools than those than swim in 25 metres pools they lack the stagma needed when completing lengths as they are used to swimming widths.

Can I ask the swim teachers why the kids would need to be doing 25-50m to get out of stage 5 when the requirements only seem to be 10m of the different strokes. I’m just curious as there seems to be so much variation. Is it because otherwise the gap to stage 7 would be too big?

My 5yo has excellent technique but no stamina so I think it will take her a while to get out of stage 3 but less time for stages 4/5 in theory but interesting that the expectations re distance are likely to be higher than the outcomes might suggest.

OP I think it’s hard when they are much younger. Mine is in the same position and it is quite obvious but I think they just have to crack on and accept it might take them longer than the older kids to progress.

Bunnycat101 Swim England Framework is just guidance but difference providers set their standards some introduce breathing earlier and distance which I think is a good thing and not left till stage 6/7. Kids are encouraged to complete the full staging programme to be confident and competent swimmers. 10 metres isnt enough to get themselves our of danger. I'm also a school swimming the standard is 25 metres by the time they leave year 6.

Tbh 5 years old is the starting age for stage 1 the fact they are already in stage 3 is very good. Our stage 3s have to swim 10 metres in our big pool in deep water. I do have very young swimmers in higher stages and one 7 year old in extensions but they are very rare and and tend to be with 10 year olds.

Bananarama21 Thank you, that makes sense as I think my school do a lot of the breathing work earlier. Mine does really well for the float work/drills and backstroke but you can tell the gap is massive between her and the older ones when they’re doing front crawl. I think she’s a bit of a pain in terms of classes tbh as they tried to keep her in stage 2 for as long as possible and she really needed to go up by the end but at the same time, she’s not really strong enough to be doing lengths in the main pool.

Bunnycat101 There could have been a reason why she was in stage 2 so long sometimes its a case of making sure the fundamentals are right, coordinating their arms and ensuring they are blowing bubbles and a strong leg kick. Our stage 2 have to swim 5 metres frontcrawl without stopping and on their back 5 metres I would only move a child up who had a strong front crawl and could breath by lifting their head up keep kicking and out their face straight back in otherwise they won't progress at the same rate as everyone else it's frustrating as a teacher when you get a child moving up that can't control their breathing and arms and struggle in stage 3, does your child gasp for air alot during lessons? That would be an indication that she's not controlling her breathing when swimming by either holding her breath, or blowing bubbles too fast and running out of air or not taking a breathe before she starts swimming.

I have worked at different places one where we taught breathing to the side in stage 3 alot of kids ended up struggling as they just didnt thave the leg kick strong enough and would be in stage 3 a year. Where I work now we teach it in stage 5 and they tend to pick it up alot better in my experience as they are bigger and have a stronger leg kick. Swim England breathing is introduced in stage 6 which is too late in my opinion.

I have two swimming boys, a stage 6 boy (he's 7) and a club swimmer (age 10). My experience is that swim lessons are very variable! If this class isnt working, I'd just try another! With my boys, I started getting them swimming in lessons twice a week from stage 5, which builds up stamina and skill much quicker than once a week - also means you can find another lesson without cancelling the first, in case second class turns out not to be any better! But if it is, then if you keep going with both, they tend to catch up on the other one! Might be worth considering :)

Good luck! :)

I would investigate the swim club, if they take from stage 4 then they obviously have a learn to swim section.

Both my daughters swim in a club and I must admit I find it hard to relate to a lot of the things people say about swim clubs as they are relaxed and supportive. Also talking to parents from other clubs at galas they don’t seem vastly different.

I think these high-powered sounding clubs are the exception not the rule, at least from what I’ve seen.

Teateaandmoretea

There's different levels of swim club based on ability. The higher the level more intense training it becomes.

Well obviously, that’s the point I’m making. My daughter’s county level though.