Swimming schools like Into the Swim offer various classes to teach kids essential swim skills and how to be safe around water. Once your child learns the basics of swimming, they can progress through the various levels until they are swimming like fish!

All classes offered at Into the Swim are specialized to each student’s strengths and needs. This allows students to get even more from their classes! Thinking about signing up? Below are seven lessons swimming classes will teach your child.

1. Back floats

Back floats are the foundation of healthy swim skills. Why? They require the body to relax and reduce a child’s fear of drowning.Once kids are able to relax in the water, it’s easier for them to swim. Plus, infants as young as 6 months old can learn this skill because it’s not based on muscle memory or motor skill development. Back floats are about relaxing.

2. Front crawl

The front crawl is freestyle swimming, which is what kids do when they first start swimming. Controlling the arms, legs and breathing is a lot to do at once, after all! Once kids have basic swimming skills and are ready to let go of Mom and Dad, they can try out freestyle swimming.

3. Survival stroke

Kids in our swimming classes must pass the survival stroke or “float test.” By learning these skills, kids are able to float and breathe for an extended period of time. This way, if they ever fall into the water, they’ll know what to do until help arrives.

4. Backstroke

The backstroke is one of the easiest swimming strokes for beginners, which is why we start with this. Plus, this swim stroke allows swimmers to keep their head out of the water the entire time, making it less intimidating for kids.

5. Breaststroke

The breastroke or “frog kick” is another fun and easy-to-learn swim technique introduced early on. Kids like this one because they can keep their head out of the water a large portion of the time. We find kids are able to master this stroke when they pretend they’re frogs.

6. Butterfly

Once kids have an introduction in the backstroke and breaststroke, we introduce the butterfly. The butterfly is considered one of the hardest strokes because it uses a lot of energy, but we start small by breaking it down into achievable goals.

7. Sidestroke

Even though the sidestroke isn’t as popular as other swim strokes, we add it to our lessons. The sidestroke can be used for long-distance swimming, which will be helpful if your child wants to swim long distances one day.

Also, something very important to note is that we do not teach doggie paddle to our students. This is due to the fact that doggie paddle is not a proper swimming technique. If a child is not coordinated enough yet to complete a legitimate stroke on their own, they will not be able to get out of trouble; therefore, they should not be swimming in water above their head until they can complete the proper basic techniques.

Taking the above into consideration, swim lessons are an excellent way to keep your child active while teaching them essential swim and safety skills. To learn more about our swimming lessons, contact Into the Swim today.

7 Lessons Swimming Classes Teaches Your Kids