When to stop swimming lessons, according to a swim teacher

This checklist is a good guide...

Swimming is a valuable skill that every child should learn, not just for fun but also for safety reasons and to set a strong grounding of competency for adulthood. One of the decisions parents often deliberate over is when it’s ok to finally stop sending children to swimming lessons.

A report by Royal Life Saving Society Australia found that an estimated 40 per cent of children leave primary school unable to swim the length of an Olympic swimming pool.

Swimming is a complex skill

Pulling children out of lessons too early, before they have had the opportunity to fully develop their skillset, can have negative consequences for the child’s swimming ability as well as their overall confidence and safety in the water, said Ebony Matthews from JUMP! Swim Schools.

“It may appear that your child knows how to swim, but are they old enough for those skills to stick and not regress when they stop? And have they really developed all of the advanced skills that are needed to keep them safe?

“Swimming is a complex skill that takes time and practice to master and at the tail end of their learning journey, the skills they are learning can be less obvious to parents but are no less important.

Freestyle is only a small part of swimming

“Often parents will pull children out of lessons when they are able to do a lap of freestyle, but freestyle is only a small part of the swimming skillset, and it also takes time to become a strong swimmer. Doing a single lap of freestyle in a pool environment is very different to swimming at a beach or in a river, swimming without goggles and keeping yourself alive in rough waters.”

As children progress, swim teachers work on developing all sorts of other competencies including survival strokes, advanced water safety knowledge, rescues and building up appropriate muscle strength and fitness levels so children can swim, float and tread water for longer periods, which may one day save their life.

“Unfortunately, we often see parents return to swimming lessons after pulling their children out, usually because their child has been involved in a water-related scare.”

So how do you know if your child has reached a basic level of competency in the water?

Checklist to help decide to stop swimmings lessons or not:

• Understand and respect safety rules for a range of aquatic environments
• Knowledge of entering and exiting the water in a range of different environments. What’s considered safe and elements to be aware of at a pool are different to a river or the beach, for example.
• Float, scull or tread water for 15 minutes and signal for help
• Swim continuously for 1km without the need to stop at the edge
• Surface dive, swim underwater and search to recover an object from deep water
• Respond to an emergency and perform a primary assessment, including checking for breathing and pulse and victim responsiveness
• Rescue a person using a non-swimming rescue technique with non-rigid aids (like a towel or clothing)
• Perform a survival sequence wearing light clothing. A survival sequence involves recovering from a fall in entry; face down, rotate on to back, float, scull and tread water for 1 minute, swim 25 metres to a point of safety and secure self, climb out to exit.

“Ultimately, the real benefits of swimming skills for drowning prevention are seen in children’s teen years, when they are more likely to swim with friends than under your supervision,” said Ebony.

“And remember, swimming is also a great form of low-impact exercise that can improve children’s cardiovascular health, strengthen muscles and improve flexibility – so keeping up the lessons offers so many benefits.”

JUMP! Swim Schools is a network of boutique pools across Australia where children can learn to swim in a calm and caring environment designed for optimal learning.