Water safety advocate and Olympic swimming coach Laurie Lawrence said “Learning to swim must be fun. Force, fear or intimidation have no place in the teaching of swimming”. Most experts agree that quality swimming programs should focus on the child's development and readiness to learn swimming and water safety skills.
Many experts recommend using what is called systematic desensitisation, if your child is afraid of water. This involves taking baby steps to get them from a place where they are fearful of swimming to being a confident swimmer. Talk to your child and map out the journey in tiny steps.
By their 4th birthday, most children are ready for swim lessons. At this age, they usually can learn basic water survival skills such as floating, treading water and getting to an exit point. By age 5 or 6, most children in swim lessons can master the front crawl.
Swimming lessons are great for children of any age because they provide a safe, gentle form of exercise indoors. Whether it's winter or summer, your kid can enjoy burning off some energy and increasing their overall health by participating in swim classes. These lessons don't have to be competitive, either.
18 to 24 months: Children start being able to swim longer distances, turn unaided and even climb out of the pool, swim independently around adults, and pick up rings off the bottom of the pool.
On average, it takes our students around six years to learn to swim at a Stage 7 level. They generally join us at age four or five and reach this level by the time they're ten or eleven.
While learning how to swim for average adults usually takes only a few months, children who are learning how to swim usually require around 1 year of consistent swimming lessons (or around 52 lessons) to learn how to swim.
Level 5: Beginning Strokes (Average ages 5 years to 8 years)
Primary Focus and Goals: In Beginning Strokes our swimmers are zooming thru the water using their Freestyle.
Children start having the physical and psychological developmental readiness necessary to learn swimming strokes between the ages of five and six.
For More Consistency: 2-3 Times a Week
Obviously, visiting more frequently usually means that kids will see their abilities advance more quickly.
Every six-year-old should be able to "move continuously" in water for five metres, according to a new swimming benchmark designed to reverse the "shocking" fall in swimming and water safety skills among school children.
5 years: Child is capable of swimming freestyle with side breathing and backstroke for 30 feet. 6 years: Child is capable of swimming a 100-yard individual medley (25 yards of each stroke: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle) competently.
Development At 7 To 8 Years Old
By now your child should be able to swim freestyle and can also swim back stroke. They should also be able to perform turns, jumps, and splashes. Your child should have good upper body strength and be able to swim one length without stopping.
Force, fear or intimidation have no place in the teaching of swimming”. Most experts agree that quality swimming programs should focus on the child's development and readiness to learn swimming and water safety skills. Remember, it's fun not force in quality swimming lessons.
A fear of bathing (called ablutophobia) and water, it turns out, is a very common toddler phobia, and usually shows up around ages 1-2. There's a reason for that: During these years of rapid brain growth, toddlers develop what seems like a hyperawareness of their surroundings.
Among the benchmarks are the recommendations that children should be able to swim continuously for at least five metres by six years of age, 50 metres by 12 years and 400 metres by 17 years.
Level 4 & 5 - usually 6 - 12 yrs old
Kids must be already be able to: Swim a “good” freestyle with side breathing a full lap (2 lengths) without stopping.
Young kids aged between 2-3 who get private lessons for 30 minutes per week can generally swim confidently within 12 months. Children aged 3+ years taking private lessons for 30 minutes per week can be expected to be able to swim in around about 6 months or about 20-30 hours.
As well as being a great form of cardiovascular exercise, swimming just 30 minutes a week can help to guard against heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Supports the body. Water supports up to 90 per cent of the body's weight.
It takes about 12 to 20 lessons for young children to learn and perform basic swimming strokes, skills, and safety habits. At 4 years old, children should already have the cognitive and motor skills to learn proper swimming skills such as treading on water, floating, and swimming towards an endpoint.
It keeps kids active.
Encouraging children to swim helps develop a healthy lifestyle at an early age. Once children learn the trade, they can jump in a pool at any time and benefit from a low-impact, high-intensity workout. It truly is a sport you can do for life.
Plus, all the splashing and playing they'll do in the water helps strengthen their joints, too. And it's not only your child's skeletal muscles that get stronger when they learn to swim. Swimming also strengthens their heart, lungs, and blood vessels, too!