Any longer swim lessons available - longer than one hour?

[Anonymous]

DH says there are places that teach swimming in one day? I cannot seem to locate any with lessons longer than one hour?

[Anonymous]

For what ages? It's generally hard for someone to keep up the learning for a long time. Additionally, it's recommended that the person taking lessons gets to the pool in the off time and practices some time as well.

[Anonymous]

This is like asking, are there any piano lessons longer than an hour to teach kids to play in a day? There are all day and overnight swim camps for competitive swimmers, but they are for kids used to swimming 3000 yds plus in practice.

If they have all day free to learn to swim, take them to a pool and let them play all day. Learning to swim quickly starts with loving the water and being comfortable with submerging and diving in play.

[Anonymous]

If you’re new to swimming, don’t start by trying to swim for hours on end. You won’t like swimming by the end! And won’t know how.

Short, frequent lessons are better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For what ages? It's generally hard for someone to keep up the learning for a long time. Additionally, it's recommended that the person taking lessons gets to the pool in the off time and practices some time as well.

Adult and child (10).

[Anonymous]

That's nonsense. No, you can't learn to swim in a day. For older kids/adults who know how to swim, yes, you can get stroke clinics that last an hour ...but that's about most people's maximum. Forcing this will only make them hate it.

[Anonymous]

You get out and swim for an hour straight and then report back to us. Ready for 7 more hours of swimming?

[Anonymous]

Are you looking for fundamental "learn not to drown" type classes or lessons where a coach/instructor works on each stroke/technique. If it's the latter, there are probably Olympians who still have swim lessons if that puts things into perspective.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s possible to do in one day depending on the kids age and if the are used to being in the shallow end of the pool , will willingly float and will submerge themselves willingly. Then yeah I think they could get the basics of freestyle by learning the stoke and then practicing it while at the pool in one day. They aren’t going to be amazing but they will be able to swim.

[Anonymous]

Op here. The very basics survival in the water types of skills for an adult and 10yo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. The very basics survival in the water types of skills for an adult and 10yo.

As PP have said, this doesn't exist in one day. With swimming, as with many other skills that require coordination and muscle memory, repetition is key. Look into classes from your local county (most have Adult learn to swim classes) or maybe a place like SwimLabs where you could probably book an adult and child joint private lesson (this will be more expensive). There's no such thing as a bootcamp approach to swimming that I've heard of personally and, if there is, as a parent of swimmers and a coach and swim instructor, I personally wouldn't recommend that method. In terms of a water safety class (this is more likely to be what it is termed - no one would offer "survival" classes in the context of swimming), that may also be offered by the county or potentially via the Red Cross?

[Anonymous]

It's not one day, but the St. James offers 3 day swimming camps in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s possible to do in one day depending on the kids age and if the are used to being in the shallow end of the pool , will willingly float and will submerge themselves willingly. Then yeah I think they could get the basics of freestyle by learning the stoke and then practicing it while at the pool in one day. They aren’t going to be amazing but they will be able to swim.

I doubt it... not for most anyway. Learning to swim is very much like learning language - the earlier/younger you start, the more readily and quickly they will learn. Sure, there are always some outliers but they will be few and far between.

There is a HUGE psychological and emotional component to learning how to swim. If a child has reached the age of 10, or older, an adult, there is going to be not a small amount of fear/baggage that they have acquired that will need to be de-programed and overcome in order to learn how to and master just the basics so as to be minimally safe in water that is over their heads and just several strokes from a wall safety. There is no shortcut here - just time and exposure and then more time and exposure. If you can get a teacher that knows what they are doing and there is chemistry/trust between the student and teacher, the process will be more efficient but it won't be a day and probably won't be a week either.

This is why it is so important to start early and often.

Good luck and keep us posted on what you find and end up doing and how things turn out.

[Anonymous]

My kids made the most progress with a summer MoCo swim class that met 3-4 times a week for 2 weeks. That got them comfortable in the water ataryong basic stokes and then lots of free time at a oool and later swim lessons once a week to improve stamina and technique. We found that once a week at the beginning wasn’t enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids made the most progress with a summer MoCo swim class that met 3-4 times a week for 2 weeks. That got them comfortable in the water ataryong basic stokes and then lots of free time at a oool and later swim lessons once a week to improve stamina and technique. We found that once a week at the beginning wasn’t enough.

I totally agree with this--we did something similar on the West Coast before we moved out here, so I don't know the equivalents here. But we did something that was like 90 minutes/day, 5 days a week for two weeks. My kids could swim by the end.