Swimming lesson problem

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

Hi,
My daughter has been having swimming lessons at a local pool.
She is only 5 and I feel they have been over the top with her treatment.
Two of the girls whom teach were great with her and had built up her confidence getting her to the point where she would attempt to swim a few feet without armbands then the problems started, she was passed on to one of the other girls who on her first encounter got her to jump in off the side and let her go under and "bob up". The next week she kept pulling away trying to force her to swim further and let her go under twice.Then she was forcibly turned on her back when she did not want to try this....more tears.
This meant her going back with the first girl,all fine this week till 10 mins from the end when they moved her again and this ended up with a girl taking her to the middle of the pool which she can't touch the bottom in and trying to wrench her hands off her,my daughter was sobbing and grabbed the rope but her hand was forcibly removed from this,I banged the window so hard I thought it would break and told them to get her out,it took 5 minutes to calm her down and all the woman who runs it would say was that they weren't trying to get her to do anything that she could not do.
Needless to say she isn't going again, has anyone else had similar experiences, I am assuming this is not the normal way it is taught, I have pointed out to the woman a couple of times that the fact that she can't touch the bottom worries her but she says it is better if they can't as they learn quicker!

Jay-Jay_4

Gosh, I would've flipped if anyone had done this to my daughter. :mad: I really really would have torn a strip off her.


It certainly seems thike her 'teaching methods' are inappropriate for your daughter and all she is doing is knocking the confidence out of her and making her afraid of water.

I took my daughter to lessons when she was 4 or 5 and she did really well until the teacher stopped her from holding on to the side where she couldn't reach the floor....my daughter panicked and had to go back to wearing more arm floats again. :mad:

I stopped the lessons and started taking her swimming myself. I bought her some floats, goggles and we took a small toy which we dropped on the bottom of the baby pool. It didn't take long before she was able to go underwater to pick up the toy and she was confident swimming in water no deeper than 2 ft. Once she was confident she happily chucked herself into the big pool without a care as she knew that she could 'stay afloat'.

Now she's ready for proper swimming lessons as she's confident that she's not going to sink.

Looking back I think that swimming lessons are a waste of time until the child can stay afloat and feel confident in the water. The confidence comes from playing and the staying afloat is a by-product of the confidence. Swimming seems to come last.

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

I have written to the woman outlining my opinion and I did say that had this happened at school I would have reported it but who do you complain to about privately organised swimming classes?

meglan

i agree with jay-jay.

i used to take a 4 year old to swimming lessons (i was a nanny for ages).
He loved it!!!! the kids all were allowed to progress in their own time.
Do those girls have previous experience with children at all, because an experience for a little one like that could scar her for years and give her a phobia of water!!!! I get quite cross thinking about it!

Children are supposed to enjoy activities be encouraged, have a great time. The teachers need to be patient cos every child is so different and they learn things at different rates!!!

There should be an educational department you could complain to, what about asking social services who to speak to, because that swim school will see a lot of children every and they could be having a bad affect on a lot of little ones!!!

Hope you find a lovely place for your little one to enjoy! :j

Spendless

My own son has done wonderfully well since starting lessons earlier this year but he was very confident in the water before he had lessons.

Ask around see if another parent can recommend a particular pool/course. Popular ones round here do tend to have a few months waiting list, so put the name down and use time whilst on waiting list to take them to pool yourselves to build confidence.

funky-footprints

agree with jay-jay, not knocking ops post, but i honestly think swimming lessons should not start until a child is confident and happy in the pool, and thats starts with silly little games in the shallow end, and I mean realy silly little games. my 2 are both having lessons now (2&4) and in both cases the class is assesed after 4 lessons, anyone seen to be not comfortable or progressing goes back to the previous class, as there is no point pushing something as important as swimming. there are 4 in thier class, and in my daughters case 2 little boys are going back to mother and todder for the rest of the term as they wont let thier mums from the side of the pool, they are sobbing before they even get in the pool, which doesnt exactly help thier confidence in water, and they havnt got as far as putting thier heads under water yet, let alone go deeper than thier knees.

I hope this incident doesnt destroy your daughter confidence, the actual technique sounds quite similar to my sons lessons, but he was almost swimming before we took him to lessons, so not being able to touch the bottom didnt concern him as he knew how to stay afloat. the waiting list for thier swimming club is huge, because it is so successful. Take your daughter swimming and build her confidence up again. good luck. xxx

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

Classes were advertised as beginners and they have one teenage girl per pupil,the problem is some are just too pushy.The original 2 were great but some of the others are less caring, will try to find a class at a smaller pool

black-saturn

My daughter and I had a very bad experience with swimming lessons. I signed her up for a course of them at the local sports centre. On the first lesson they told her to take her armbands off and then put a hula hoop under the water and told her to swim through it. I was trying to get the instructors attention as I somehow thought she wasnt aware that she couldnt swim but there was so much noise in there she couldnt hear me. After a few seconds of my daughter telling the instructor she didnt want to do it the instructor grabbed hold of her head and shoved it under the water and then shoved her whole body through the hoop. My daughter came out the other side gasping and crying. After the lessons we always went in the cafe while her hair dried a bit and while we were in there the instructor came in and I had a word with her. She said that this was the way they teach all the children and they all learn to swim in the end. I thought it was a very harsh way to treat a child especially on her first lesson so I told her my thoughts and she got very stroppy with me.

Needless to say my daughter didnt want to go there anymore and I had paid £37 for the course of lessons. I contacted the sports centre about getting my money back but they said that I couldnt have it. So I wrote them a strongly worded letter about the way she was treated and threatened to write to my MP. A cheque arrived soon after that and I think the instructor was sacked!!

Gingham_Ribbon

I think she is unlikely to be a trained instructor, given her behaviour.

I would try contacting whoever runs the pool the lessons took place in and asking what qualifications swim instructors should have if they are working there.

I'm sorry your daughter went through that. I'm sure she will go on to be a confident swimmer given the right instruction.

This link may be of use? http://www.sta.co.uk/

black-saturn

Well actually she is now a confident swimmer. All that happened 4 years ago and since then she has been on 2 holidays where there are swimming pools and learnt on her own. So you don't need lessons afterall.

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

Just sounds like they all subscribe to the sink or swim theory,perhaps I'll try myself,we have already spent £100 with them, she was so upset last night she wet the bed,something that hasn't happened for 2 years!