swimming lessons-will they go on forever?!!

[unpaidcleaner]

My dd is 8, has been going to swimming lessons since she was 4. She's good in the water, i'd say she can swim, but has more to learn. She's getting fed up with going, but I don't want her to stop before she's an independent fully capable swimmer. She can't take a break from the lessons because there's a big waiting list and they'd give her place to someone else and if she wanted to go back she'd be on the long waiting list.But how do i know when we reach this point? how many more years should we expect her to carry on, and what if she gets more & more fed up with it?

Hmm, will she get more with the school? My dd has just started a years worth with the school. She is year 3.
She might get into swimming once she has been to the pool with her school friends and you can tempt her to stay on by saying when you are older you can come here with your friends at the weekends. Clutching at straws...

aha
you are ME!

ok my ds super confident, jumps in etcetca dn VERY posrty in all other areas
is 8 cna swim a lenght but is vertical!
have spendt a fortune on lsessons - my aim being a lenght of a recgonisable stroke not looking liek he is riding a bike

BEST THING EVER is we have started individual lesons at local pool at a time that suits us!! in open pool time buit thats fine .
lessons cost £15 a half hour but the cnancge is unrecogsnisable in tow sessions
eh loevs the teacher and swimmign is no longer inhis " relgation zone" as he put it.

ill ytell you with ds3 i am not going to btoher with group lessons at all

his shcoll teacher (they do a year in year 3) says he si much improved apprently

thanks to both for replies. i think my dd IS ok at swimming, but dont swim well myself and find it hard to judge. and she has loved it in the past. i think she's going off it now because she's started swimming with the school. Well, they just mess about in very shallow water - so she loves it - it's just a splashing session with her mates for half an hour, so she would, wouldn't she! Loved the idea of bribing her with promise of going swimming with her mates - i think that could work!

should i just let dd stop going to her swimming lessons if she moans at me enough? It just seems like 4 yrs of lessons wasted if she just stops but is it worth the hassle? Do school swimming lessons really teach you anything? mine never did, i didnt learn to swim till i was in my 20s, after years of school swimming lessons!

i tlel you save yer money for a few well timed indiviual ones

ok ds1 now ( as of this pm)doign beautiful FRONT CRAWL FGs
complete with breathing

MY 4 all go and the oldest is 12. They have really really busy-lives BUT I insist on swimming. ds1 is a beautiful swimmer, confident, fast, and i think it can only be of benefit to him in the long run. The others are getting really good to.

I know DS1 will aske to stop in september but I wil lnot let him!!

They are part of a swimmming club btw.

and they have swimming at school as well

My two DDs are brilliant at swimming. They put me to shame with their technique and speed. They have been having lessons for just under 4 years now but once they knew how to swim they then concentrated on all the strokes, breathing correctly, diving, etc. I have paid for the odd individual lesson with a teacher who is particularly good at body alignment and breathing. They are now 7 and 10 and the eldest is interested in competing!
I'd persevere with the lessons as it is a joy to see them not just swim (which is what I do) but to swim effortlessly and with style.

yes my point tis that for ds1 who found swimming hard as he seemed to not have the strength
did not porsper in group lessons but these indivdual ones were fab

totally agree yoyo. my kids are better swimmers that me.

I have never given individual lessons..they just go to swimming club and that is that!!

aha..yes obviusly good then PUG, but I woudl continue with group and invidual in that case tbh

mine seemd to spend more time waiting for other kdis in group ones

lol even his posh ones wiht half the boden mum s htere

I think we have been very lucky with our groups - max of six children but very often only two or three. Agree with you re: strength as DD2 is whippet thin and it is only in the last 5 or 6 months that she has developed the stamina. I am hoping she will move up to the next group in September when she will do lengths for the entire session as she is rather bored with being the most able in her current group (she likes a challenge!).

thast intersting re thinness
in trutht hese lessons came a t the right time as he was getting hcaked off wiht it and we were sick of draggin ourselves there for no results really
ds3 will just do these lesons i htink.

we must have spent a fortune on elssons
£50 a term for 4 years!

we have buy 3 get one free with our lesson

fucking expensive though. hundreds a year

ds has just started lessons and I've noticed that he is by far the thinnest in the class, and just doesn't float! So he has to work harder to be the same as some of his more rounded classmates!

DS1 is 8 too, he's had weekly lessons for just over 3 yrs, plus the odd crash course, and swimming with school. He's not a stylish, athletic swimmer - and never will be, it's just not his forte. He wouldn't take his feet off the bottom until he was 6! But he did his 400m last year, can dive after a fashion, snorkle, can approximate all 4 strokes in his own way, etc., so if he wanted to stop lessons now I'd let him. I thought he was going to pack it in this Easter actually, but he chose to carry on.

It's good exercise for him, and I'm pleased he still enjoys it; but I certainly wouldn't turn it into a battleground if it was no longer fun for him. (Besides I don't enjoy taking them, and with two at different times it just seems to dominate my Sundays at the moment!)

Beetroot at what point (age) will you let them give up swimming? My two are both at/beyond the point where I'm happy for them to stop if they want to, in that they are both competent enough that I'd be OK with them doing any water based activity. I think ds (also 12) might stop soon, he's a competitive swimmer and has a bit of a love-hate relationship with it at the moment. Part of me hopes that he'll continue a while yet as I think lots of aerobic exercise in your early teens is good for your health, but equally he has many other (mostly unsporty) interests too and they are all demanding more of his time. Just wondered how long you think yours will keep going for?

Back on the subject, unpaidcleaner, my view is that unless your child is enjoying swimming or needs the exercise, there's no point in continuing lessons past the point at which they are competent enough to be able to safely do any other water sports. Now how much exercise a child needs and exactly where that competency point is are open for debate, and I guess everyone has their own views. For me the swimming point is having completed the first 'lengths' class in our club. Generally speaking swim teachers won't move a child to 'lengths' until they have a fairly good mastery of the three main strokes (not fly) as if you do the strokes tend to go to peices a bit over the longer distance and you end up reinforcing bad habits rather than good ones. I like my children to have done the first lengths class to have developed a bit of swimming stamina.

snorkie, I really don't know. He is in Pre squad at present. When he gets put up into the squad, maybe he can choose what he will do. He is meant to train twice a week but due to choir commitments he only does 1. Because of music and choir he does not do as much sport as I would like him to, so I guess I am hanging onto swimming as a good form of exercise and release for him.

I'm thinking much the same as you beetie. Not sure school games lessons alone provide quite enough exercise. Singing might be almost aerobic at times for your son, but it's not quite the same as 'proper' exercise. My ds used to be quite sporty but is now leaning more towards music and sedentary activities.

I'm thinking much the same as you beetie. Not sure school games lessons alone provide quite enough exercise. Singing might be almost aerobic at times for your son, but it's not quite the same as 'proper' exercise. My ds used to be quite sporty but is now leaning more towards music and sedentary activities.

oops!

i think it is something that happens in year 7. and maybe they get back into it in yer 8 or 9. ds1 always wanted to be in the rugby or cricket team but now avoids it if he can, shame as he is really good

Mine stopped after about a year and passing her first basic test (overseas). She didn't enjoy it much and did a deal with me that she'd pass her test and then stop. I think dd needs to continue otherwise the whole effort (and the expense) was wasted. I'm letting her have a few months off now and then I plan to start again in July.

Maybe change teacher? Is that a possibility? Or go with a friend? Think part of the reason dd found it so boring was that it was EXACTLY the same routine every single week. Every week there'd be different kids there, it was never a real group. I'm considering trying a different school or maybe a club.