Seven is pretty young. Part of swimming is gross motor skills, a neurodevelopmental issue. At that age, it’s normal for kids to have a fairly broad range of coordination, strength, and endurance.

The other issue is the quality of instruction at camps. Counselors are usually teens and young adults. They are selected for willingness, attitude, and desire to work for below minimum wage. (Camps are exempted from wage floors.) Counselors can have great hearts and provide the younger children with a lot of fun activities. However, they tend not to be trained in coaching or pedagogy. Their instruction isn’t always effective, or sometimes it’s just not the right fit for all kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are past that age but when they were young most parents, myself included, put their kids in the winter/spring swim lessons at the Y to prepare for summer swimming (mainly for safety).

+1. We don't use the Y, but we do lessons every winter/spring.

+2. My 8 yr old could not pass the described test and has been in weekly small group swim lessons for 3 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Camp is fine for trying new things and having fun but it’s not a good way to learn anything in depth

I agree on this.

This. Especially lake swimming. You say swim lessons over 4 years but at least the first 2 years, if not 3, were nothing more than water introduction and basic swim stuff. Nothing to actually train her to be able to pass this test. So maybe half of last summer and however many weeks she's been there this summer is really the only time she's had the real lessons to get her to pass this test. It's not enough. If you continue with lessons throughout the year she will have no problem passing next summer.

Also, where is she struggling? Treading water? The return? DS' camp is pretty strict with their deep water test and they have to swim halfway out, tread water for a minute without their mouth going below the water, and then swim back. They can have 1 15 sec pause going swimming out and 1 swimming in, head has to remain above water. They can do side swimming, they cannot doggie paddle. DS passed when he was 7.5 but he was pretty much the only one that age. I've been teaching him swimming year round since he was a baby.

Anonymous wrote:Camp is fine for trying new things and having fun but it’s not a good way to learn anything in depth

I agree on this.

Camp is fine for trying new things and having fun but it’s not a good way to learn anything in depth

My kid had weekly lessons during the school year from age 3-9, and he passed a strenuous "deep end" test at age 8, even though he was able to swim from age 5 on; he tried the test a ton of times before he passed, and it was stressful and probably a waste of time -- he didn't have the endurance yet. Swimming lessons at camp didn't hurt, but he made real progress during those school year lessons. The endurance demands of swimming are a lot, and, in my son's case (in case this is relevant), he also had asthma.

Anonymous wrote:While camp might give swim lessons, you shouldn't be expecting them to teach her to swim. Swim team or swim lessons while at home is how she'd pass the test and how her friends are doing it. Camp for a few weeks for 4 years plus messing around in the pool won't teach her.

This. Takes hundreds to thousands of hours swimming to become a good swimmer.

She needs swim lessons during the school year. Camp isn’t really “teaching” her to swim and you shouldn’t expect that. She has only done 2 6-week swim lesson sessions, ever and you somehow expect to be extremely proficient?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you practice the treading water part? My kid's camp had a 1 minute treading water component to the test and lots of kids failed it because its just not something they do regularly - even kids who were top of the swim team. Practice.

Yes we practice - we don’t have a pool but some friends do and we go on vacation. She’s had swim lessons 2x at 6wks each. Something isn’t clicking.

OP - I was a competitive swimmer. It came very naturally to me. I introduced both of my kids to the water early. I was shocked at how long it took for them to get comfortable in the water, and while they can both swim they are not what I would consider strong or intuitive swimmers. They would def not be in the deep end at age 7. I would just give your daughter time and stick with it. My kids took lessons for years.

My money would be on simple physical endurance as the root cause, combined with the other factors PP’s mentioned.

I think treading water is a terrible outdated technique for actual water survival (as compared to physical training/testing). There are much better more effective modes of drownproofing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While camp might give swim lessons, you shouldn't be expecting them to teach her to swim. Swim team or swim lessons while at home is how she'd pass the test and how her friends are doing it. Camp for a few weeks for 4 years plus messing around in the pool won't teach her.

Ignoring your condescension, part of the camp's purpose is to teach the kids to swim. What do you think "instructional swim" is? And it isn't four week, it's eight weeks over four years - that's a lot of pool time. Someone should learn to swim with that amount of instruction.

Nix the attitude, OP. I'm not the PP you responded to. My kid needed one-on-one private instruction to learn to swim. He had motor issues and ADHD. Even if your child is entirely neurotypical, some kids just don't learn well in group settings, especially in more casual camp settings. Maybe this camp isn't actually good at teaching kids to swim, and those who pass their test have instruction on the side. Who knows?

But the answer is to pay for private instruction elsewhere. It's going to get dangerous for your child if she can't keep up with her peers.

8 weeks over 4 years is nothing. WSI PP and for some of my kids it took 4 years of year-round weekly lessons in a pool plus 7 weeks every summer of *daily* lake lessons before they passed all of their tests and could go to deep water.

It is ok to go slow. Lake swimming is a really big deal and you don’t want to shortcut safety.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While camp might give swim lessons, you shouldn't be expecting them to teach her to swim. Swim team or swim lessons while at home is how she'd pass the test and how her friends are doing it. Camp for a few weeks for 4 years plus messing around in the pool won't teach her.

Ignoring your condescension, part of the camp's purpose is to teach the kids to swim. What do you think "instructional swim" is? And it isn't four week, it's eight weeks over four years - that's a lot of pool time. Someone should learn to swim with that amount of instruction.

Yeah. Take that with the suspicion it deserves A few weeks of camp isn't magically going to teach a kid to swim out in a lake, tread water, and come back. And by the time camp rolls around the year after that, the kid who hasn't practiced will have forgotten everything.

Anonymous wrote:7yo DD has been going to the same camp for four years. They swim 2x a day, one instructional swim and one fun swim. She still hasn't passed her deep water test. They have to swim freestyle to the middle of the lake, tread water for one minute, and swim freestyle back. This isn't easy, obviously - I don't know if I could do it but at the same time, she's had all of this swimming instruction plus other swim time on family vacations - is this camp not teaching her in the most effective manner or is this typical? And no, she isn't the only one who hasn't passed the test but other friends started passing it last summer and she is no where close to being able to tread water for 1min.

I am sure that when she was three and four it wasn’t real “instructional swim” - more like “get comfortable in water.” I would expect her to pass next year.

Lake is different. I have been a WSI and taught in both pools and lakes, the latter at summer camp. I have had year-round swim team kids who just couldn’t translate pool skills to the lake, and other kids who started as relatively weak swimmers but had only ever swam in the lake who became very reliable strong lake swimmers.

7 is little and stopping in the middle of open water and treading water is physically challenging for a kid who usually has a walk to grab after a lap. My DD has some friends dealing with this right now and still struggling at age 10-11. I’m an open water swimmer and I see adults also struggle with this when they try their first open water swims. The mental side of it is even harder.

You’ll need to do a lot more swim lessons at home to build endurance but it would also be good to try to vacation somewhere where you can get her more comfortable with non-pool water.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you practice the treading water part? My kid's camp had a 1 minute treading water component to the test and lots of kids failed it because its just not something they do regularly - even kids who were top of the swim team. Practice.

Yes we practice - we don’t have a pool but some friends do and we go on vacation. She’s had swim lessons 2x at 6wks each. Something isn’t clicking.

I think you have unrealistic expectations about how well your young child should be able to swim after a couple of years of sporadic swim lessons.

Plus, treading water for a minute in a lake is hard.