Swimming lesson problem

black-saturn

Becles what would you have done if he didn't come back up again? TBH I think it was a very irresponsible thing to do. Children have drowned in bath water. Your lucky it turned out in your favour. It could so easily have gone the other way.

Becles

I was standing right next to him so he was in no danger.

stressedoutmum

My six year old went two swimming lessons for a year and a half and is still wearing armbands. He used to do his own thing in the pool and the teachers told me they were not allowed to be strict with him so I stopped the lessons. He loves water, is not frightened of it at all, would go on the scariest water rides if you let him. However as soon as we take his bands of he refuses to swim as he says its too difficult and creates a scene in the pool. We have tried asking him to practice for 5 minutes then have his armbands on and although he agrees to this he just does not try at all. Its very frustrating but we are really keen on learning him to swim for his own safety too.

hillbilly_4

black-saturn wrote:

My daughter and I had a very bad experience with swimming lessons..........

.............Needless to say my daughter didnt want to go there anymore and I had paid £37 for the course of lessons

Had similar circumstances to this ourselves, had 2 lessons out of a course of 12, then a change of instructor who upset son so much he made himself sick, when mention was made of his next swimming lesson being due he became hysterical.

After contacting the Sports Centre to complain about the 2nd instructor and telling them we weren't happy with lessons we were offered 3 one to one lessons in replacement of the 9 we wouldn't be taking in the group session. Accepted these, one to one instructor was great, she let me go in the pool with them so that son not so scared. Ended up having a few more with her so son got his confidence back.

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

This is a fairly large (in terms of number ) concern there is the woman who runs it, several coaches, and about a dozen schoolgirls,some are good some are not really interested,they are more concerned with chatting to each other, the lessons are held at a local school pool,the minimum depth is about 4 ft which I think is part of the problem, according to the link an earlier reply posted to Association of swim schools or similar, beginners lessons shouldn't be in pools exceeding 2 ft,and I can assure you I am not exaggerting, the first 2 girls who were sisters were great but they pass them onto others who seem to have no respect for the child or parents wishes, we had specifically stated that our daughter did not want to swim on her back yet and that we wanted her to become confidant on her front first,I had to remind them of this on several occasions.

pavlovs_dog

i never learnt to swim until the yr6 swimming lessons.

we were separated by ability - beginners, intermediate and advanced.

i cannot stress how embarrassing it is to have to wear armbands in front of your peers. the instructors were completely unsympathetic to my phobia of the water (i couldnt swim because i was phobic, but i was phobic because i couldnt swim!) and because they made no attempt to resolve this situation, i didnt get anything out of the experience.

it was the school outward bounds adventure holiday at the end of yr6 where i finally realsied i could just about swim - but even now more than a decade later, i can barely do much more than doggy paddle, and am terrified of getting out of my depth which for a woman in her 20s is nothing short of mortifying)

when on holiday in florida last month, it took two sessions in the pool for the swimming coordination and courage to try to come back to me. i made a point of going for a swim every day, and by the time we left i had just about managed to swim a width of the pool.

sounds paltry doesnt it, but to me it was a major achievement. :j

i'd love to go for lessons, but between the price and horror stories of unsympathetic instructors im not overly eager. then again, i'd love to try snorkelling and scuba diving, so it is a means to an ends i guess, and something i really should get around to (if anyone can recoomend a good pool/instructor in the cardiff area, please PM me!)

all i can say advice wise is to help your child get back on that horse as quick as possible - dont force the issue, but the sooner she gets her waterwings back the better she will feel. if you dont have any other children to accompany her, perhaps you could offer to take on of her friends. take them in the shallo end and play lots of games with them to build up their confidence.

please dont leave it until the degrading experience of yr6 swimming lessons! even if she doesnt learn to swim for a yr or two, feeling comfortable in the water is, in my experience, half the battle!

Becles

Zaphod_Beblebrocks wrote:

they pass them onto others who seem to have no respect for the child or parents wishes, we had specifically stated that our daughter did not want to swim on her back yet and that we wanted her to become confidant on her front first,I had to remind them of this on several occasions.

I'm just playing devils advocate here - not picking on you personally or intending to cause offence.

You've sent your child to swimming lessons with (I assume) qualified coaches, because for whatever reason you've decided you don't want to teach her yourself. Fair enough - mine have gymnastics and football lessons as I could never teach them either sport!

However then you tell the coach how you want your child to be taught. What happens if someone else has a child who only wants to swim on her back and not her front?

I've had smiliar disagreements at football, where for example, some parents think that teaching children to slide tackle is wrong because they get hurt and they want them to play a gentle game. Football is a tough physical contact sport, and I want mine to learn how to play properly, not just muck about with a ball as they can do that at home.

Like I said this isn't intended to cause offence, just trying to put across an alternative view for discussion.

Spendless

Zaphod_Beblebrocks wrote:

This is a fairly large (in terms of number ) concern there is the woman who runs it, several coaches, and about a dozen schoolgirls,some are good some are not really interested,they are more concerned with chatting to each other, the lessons are held at a local school pool,the minimum depth is about 4 ft which I think is part of the problem, according to the link an earlier reply posted to Association of swim schools or similar, beginners lessons shouldn't be in pools exceeding 2 ft,and I can assure you I am not exaggerting, the first 2 girls who were sisters were great but they pass them onto others who seem to have no respect for the child or parents wishes, we had specifically stated that our daughter did not want to swim on her back yet and that we wanted her to become confidant on her front first,I had to remind them of this on several occasions.

I was wondering about depth of pool earlier. The leisure centre where my son has done well has a small toddler pool as well as the main one. The 1st 3 levels of swimming are done in the smaller pool. Due to being 5 my son started at the 2nd level, but even when he became very confident and could swim he remained in the smaller pool until he passed level 3. Though all the local authority pools have swimming lessons. Only certain pools have the smaller pool as well. Perhaps you should look for a leisure centre that does have a small training pool.

At sons swimming all levels have certain criteria that the children have to pass before moving to the next level. There is so many to a group. I think it's between 6 and 8. As all the children are taught at the same time I don't think the instructor would be able to not teach one to swim on its front at the parents request, if the others are being taught that particular thing.

I do see what Becles has said though. I know of some parents who have took issue that one of the instructors "shouts" at the kids. I've had this instructor, she isn't 'shouting at the kids' she is trying to make her voice heard whilst they are swimming to correct their stroke Funnily enough when she booms 'well done' in the same tone, no one complains.

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

The only reason we didn't want her taught on her back is because it really upset her and the main purpose was to get her to a level where she could save herself if she fell in some water, the swimming on the back was setting her back several weeks each time they tried it hence the request to leave it until later.