Joining a club team at 5ish is appropriate at that level.

Take a look at Swim Farm. They have small groups at all different levels and 5 or 6 different practice options each week. Not sure if they’ll be doing it again this year, but last year they also had 3 time trial meets where the kids got goody bags and ribbons, which my kids loved. The guy who runs it is a head coach of one of the Arlington NVSL teams.

A swim club with a pre-competitive "team".

Goldfish in Falls Church - there's no age restriction on progressing. Once she can swim a 25 unassisted, look into a developmental swim program associated with a larger club (Swim With Beth probably too far away from Arlington, but maybe a York Swim School or Mini Marlins group).

Anonymous wrote:Try York Swim club. I think they use the age at the end of the year. As long as your child will be 5 by then, I think it could work. You need to get on it though-groups will fill up.

My DC (though definitely not as young as yours - congrats on the progress!) was allowed to "swim up" in FINS when they were ready for a practice group beyond their age. You could always approach FINS for an evaluation, and they do private lessons, too.

One thing that might be exciting for your DC is to prepare and constantly look forward this year to summer swim: even pre-team can be boatloads of fun, and it sounds like your DC might be able to qualify for a regular/full team, depending upon your pool's requirements.

Finally, once DC is 5 or can register as a 5yo, you could also look into stroke and turn clinics.

All of this presumes that DC is at the level where they are able to swim some kind of freestyle (or are getting to that point). If DC is just generally more comfortable in the water than classmates (plunging under, fetching toys off the bottom, etc.) - which would be a totally legitimate and exciting place for a 4yo to be - then it might be harder to find that next phase immediately. You could try bridging with private lessons in that case. Many wise voices on this board have observed that clustering lessons close together tends to produce much better progress than spreading them out weekly. You might be able to accelerate DC significantly with the right teacher.

Try York Swim club. I think they use the age at the end of the year. As long as your child will be 5 by then, I think it could work. You need to get on it though-groups will fill up.

Our 4 year old loves to swim and has been doing the Arlington County swim classes for about a year and a half. The thing is, she is currently in their most advanced level for kids under the age of 6…. She is naturally competitive and likes to be challenged so I don’t see her staying in the same level, learning the same things over and over until she turns 6. She will get board and lose interest.

What are some other options we could consider that would be challenging but age appropriate?