Swim teacher correcting daughter's stroke more than other children's

[Maiasaurax]

I recently moved my daughter to a different swim school. She had nearly completed stage 6 at the previous swim school. She also swims with a swimming club. She had an assessment to see which level she would be at the new school and was assessed as Stage 7. Teacher commented at the assessment that she is a very good swimmer for her age (8 at the time of assessment and has just turned 9). She also said as Stage 6 still swim widths and my daughter is lane swimming with swimming club she didn't think there was much point putting her there. She has the teacher that did the assessment for her lessons. She is younger than the others in her lesson and is a fair bit smaller both in height and build. Despite this she manages to keep up with them. I have noticed though, the teacher pulls her to one side and corrects her stroke much more than the other children. I know her strokes aren't perfect and I am not complaining about this at all, as it is after all why I pay for lessons. Some of the other children aren't being corrected at all though, while my daughter is a number of times a lesson. I am wondering if it's a simple matter of my daughter has more flaws in her strokes and that is why she is being corrected more? Or if there is something else. I know nobody but her swimming teacher can definitively answer that. Just wondered what other people's thoughts on this would be.

Maybe she sees your daughter has potential and wants her to learn properly and not develop bad habits. As long as it’s constructive I would be over the moon if my daughter got that sort of personal attention in a class.

I’d be delighted. She’s getting lots of help to be a better swimmer!

It sounds like she's somewhat 'in between' the two classes and rather than hold her back, the teacher is giving her extra attention to make sure she's up to speed with the higher one.

Is her manner constructive and kind, or short? If it's not a pleasant experience and is ongoing, probably consider discussing whether it's the correct level again, but if she's advising her in way that helps her confidence then let it pan out and explain to DD that she's moved to this swimming school and sometimes the levels in different schools don't exactly match up, so it's not her, she just needs a bit of extra coaching.

Well done, your child is amazing. 😏

Maybe your daughter has picked up some bad habits from the previous teacher and so needs correcting more than the children who I presume have been in the teacher's group a while. If it was still happening in six months I'd think it was odd but if she's new to the established group I'd think it was to help her catch up with the others.

Swimming teacher teaches child to swim….shocking.

I think the question is if the correction is constructive. It might be your daughter is worse than others it might be she has real potential and needs to finesse areas. If you are really concerned could you ask the teacher?

I know nothing about swimming but I used to run kids performing arts classes. A girl joined our musical theatre classes who also took ballet elsewhere. She was very talented. When they did cornerwork I noticed the teacher being very picky with this girl, correcting the smallest details. It was because she was capable. The other children, that level of detail would have been too much/confusing for them at that stage.

In dance you always want to be the student who gets corrections. I would imagine that this translates to swimming.

This is definitely a good thing. She is a good swimmer and the teacher wants her to be even better. What’s the point in leaving her do it wrong?

I would see it as getting more 'teaching' not more 'correction'. She could be not quite at the level so getting more for that reason, or she could be showing high potential and getting more for that reason. Or it could just be that she's new so doesn't have the same history with the same teacher and they're establishing principles the others have already heard repeatedly.

My child is 7 has had three years of lessons and still can't swim 5 metres.

Stop looking for problems where there are none.

Innit

If she's new they've likely already gone through this stage with kids who have been in club for a while

This.

She's learning to swim, not trying for the Olympics. Let the instructor do her thing - you'll be thanking her later.

When she starts competing her strokes need to be perfect, especially with regards to turns or she'll be disqualified. If the other students are only recreational swimmers then they won't need to hit every mark.

One of my biggest gripes with group lessons was my son's technique not being corrected. So agree with other posters that this is very positive!

In this case I'd be moving to 1-2-1 lessons

So how much correction is she getting at the swim club? Personally I would say this is a good thing, can you give an example of what she is being told?

Bear in mind that if the swim club is not correcting then all she is doing by doing lengths is embedding poor technique. My experience is that swim clubs are keen to get members as cash cows, don't start her too young OP, get the joy of swimming and stroke technique first.

Thanks for all the replies, especially constructive ones.

For those that have asked, her teacher is nice and friendly with the corrections. My DD was a bit upset about it after her first lesson. I told her it was a good thing and that's why we pay for lessons, so that she can improve. She has been ok since.

I am a bit of a worrier and do tend to overdo think things though. I guess I was worried her teacher was thinking she had put her in the wrong level and she should be a level down. Then my mind went through the full multitude of reasons people have given here as to why she was receiving more correction on technique. Her previous teachers have all been pretty even with the attention they gave each kid. Her coach at swimming club, might focus one week on something with one child, but the next week something with another. People are right though, whatever the reason she is being given the extra help, it will help her improve her swimming, which is a good thing (so long as she isn't being put off by it). As long as my daughter keeps being happy, I will try and relax and stop worrying as to why she is receiving the extra advice.

You really need to work on your anxiety because you need to be able to model a healthier approach to your daughter. The amount of overthinking and worry you put into this—what if the teacher had put her in the wrong cohort? So what?—is astonishing. Practice realizing that your child’s stroke instructions are not life or death issues.

@1apenny2apenny Nothing wrong at all on what she is being corrected on in the lessons. Things like she over rotates when breathing in front crawl. Something I know she does and swimming club have also worked with her on. It is more the amount of advice she is being given. I am used to much more balance between the kids.

She started swimming club after having to give up football due to knee problems. It was very much her choice to do and they have been really good with her. She loves it. She just does the one (1 and a half hour) session with them and her half hour lesson. She would be in the water more if we'd let her. Swimming club do correct her technique, but equally they correct other children's. Her coach can be strict, but also recognises they are kids and they do have fun. One week they were practicing swimming against a bungee cord. For some reason my daughter found this hysterical (which makes it very hard to swim when your laughing so much). Her coach was very amused by this and was laughing along with her to the amusement of most the parents watching. It also costs not much more for her hour and a half session than her half hour lesson. I am sure clubs vary, but I'd say she's in a good one.

@LostittoBostik I am sorry your child is struggling to learn to swim. I have seen other children have this problem with group lessons. I think they are good for teaching strokes, but children often need more 1 to 1 attention to initially get swimming, so I agree with @savvy7

Corrections are good. What I would say though is that I withdrew my daughter from leisure centre lessons when she joined a swim club as it was confusing having two different styles of teaching. She was getting frustrated that the leisure centre was teaching her stuff the swimming club absolutely did not want her to be doing eg swim club wanted a bent elbow for front crawl, leisure centre teacher wanted straight arms. Leisure centre were doing activities with head out of the water, swim club was trying to break that.

I’d also question why a stage 6 class was still doing widths and what that means re the level of the stage 7 class. At my pool, stage 4 are swimming half lengths from the deep end and stage 5 lengths.

She’s prob in between a 6 and 7, and being younger maybe she simply does need more support. Appreciate all the attention, that’s why you pay for lessons