Kid is still stuck at Pro1, 2 years later at Goldfish

[Anonymous]

My kids started swim lessons at almost 4 at a community pool with a lifeguard. Did that for 3 years, private lessons and were still scared of the water. Not much progress. Then during covid my husband took them to the pool for 2 years. Now kids are 11 and have been at Goldfish for 2 years. One is in Pro2 and one is still stuck at pro1. They do one weekly class

Has any of your kids been like this?

[Anonymous]

Op again. Goldfish is until 12 years. What do we do if they don't learn basics by then?

[Anonymous]

Some kids never take to swimming. I would focus on life-saving techniques for him like how to Tread water, floating his back and so on, just so he is not at risk of drowning . He just may never be a swimmer.

[Anonymous]

Once a week for 30 minutes isn't enough for some kids especially if there are 3 or 4 kids in the class. Essentially you are getting around 8 minutes of attention. It is better to do 5 days a week for a two week session of at least 45 minutes.

Isn't pro 1 you can at least swim 20 feet? If your kid can do that they need to be swimming for lessons longer than 30 minutes.

[Anonymous]

They need consistent time in the pool. My kids learned swimming by going to the community pool and getting in with us. Like take them every afternoon or evening and get in with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need consistent time in the pool. My kids learned swimming by going to the community pool and getting in with us. Like take them every afternoon or evening and get in with them.

This. Join a summer pool (and team) where they are practicing 5 days a week for 6-7 weeks. Add in private lessons.

[Anonymous]

Goldfish is such a scam

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need consistent time in the pool. My kids learned swimming by going to the community pool and getting in with us. Like take them every afternoon or evening and get in with them.

+1

My kids all needed heavy exposure to the pool to progress- like a summer of going pretty much every day. One made huge progress on a week long vacation where he was in the pool pretty much all day every day.

[Anonymous]

If you don't live somewhere with a neighborhood pool to join, this can become tough to solve. I am still on waitlist for a pool near me 5 years after moving to the DMV. That combined with covid has made it hard for one of my kids to become a reasonably good swimmer (his brother, in contrast, is on a year round swim team)

[Anonymous]

At that level, you need private lessons 2-3 times a week during the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At that level, you need private lessons 2-3 times a week during the summer.

Not the OP but if you don't belong to a pool, this is really hard to arrange.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand the issue, OP.

Goldfish Pro1 level requires your child to be able to swim 20 ft, on their own, in both freestyle and backstroke, with good rhythmic breathing in freestyle and reasonable ok and control in backstroke. Pro2 requires the same but for 40 ft, plus 20 ft of dolphin kick and breaststroke kick.

To graduate from Pro2, you need to be essentially "legal" in freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke, as this qualifies you for their competitive swim team. The vast majority of students never do this, as most kids don't become competitive swimmers. Some summer swim leagues don't even require that level of ability to participate.

So... your kids can swim. They are safe in the water and have reasonable swim skills. They are not competitive swimmers. Given that they didn't take to swimming very quickly, this is a pretty good result and I would be happy with it. They aren't going to swim for a club team or swim competitively in college. If they really wanted to make a high school team, they could probably keep working at it and get there. Do they like swimming? Is this something they want?

You are describing the very common experience of discovering your kids are proficient but not competitive at something. It's okay.

[Anonymous]

I would also recommend a couple weeks of private lessons over the summer. Some of the local clubs offer this.

[Anonymous]

If you took lessons all the way up to an advanced level you are qualified to teach her. I did this but at a younger age so I don’t know if the 11 year old will be ok with it.

Do you know her strengths and weaknesses?

[Anonymous]

Switch it up - find another swim class with more frequent lessons. With my younger kids. - my son never got tap tap roll over for months at GOldfish and they would never move him or do anything. We moved to a place where they have swim class at school and he learned with never a mention of tap tap roll over - we still mention it and laugh.