How to Know it's Time to Stop Swimming Lessons

If you are reading this blog, there is probably a reason you are wondering if your child should stop swim lessons. A good place to start would be to identify why you are asking this question. It is important to identify why you originally signed your child up for swim lessons in the first place and what your goals for him or her are. If the child is old enough, you should include them in the process too. Are they there to learn basic water safety, keep up with their friends playing Marco Polo, or to become the next Michael Phelps?

You will want to think about what kind of water skills match your goals for your child. If your family regularly visits the beach, you will want your child to be able to swim at least a couple hundred yards, just in case they get swept away in a riptide. The child who wants to keep up with their friends in the community swimming pool may want to learn how to dive, do an underwater somersault, and do dolphin dives. It is important to communicate this information with the child’s instructor.

Whatever your goals are for your child, you will know that they are ready to stop swimming lessons when they have met their goals. Below are a few things to consider when you are thinking about when to stop swim lessons with your child.

DO NOT Stop if They Are Still Working on Water Safety Skills

Are you confident that if your child fell into a pool without stairs, they would be able to get out? If they suddenly found themselves underwater, would they be able to surface, identify an exit, and safely swim there? If they are in open water would they be able to float, tread water and perform side stroke for a extended period of time? If not, your child is not ready to stop swim lessons.

Swim lessons will not drown-proof your child, but it is the first layer of protection in drowning prevention. The American Academy of Pediatrics lists drowning as the leading cause of injury death for children ages 1 to 4 and the third leading cause of unintentional injury death for children and teens over 4 years old.

As noted above, it is also important to consider what kind of aquatic environments you expect your child to encounter and the amount of time in the water they will spend. A child who regularly goes kayaking needs a higher level of swimming competency than a child who only ever visits the pool in your backyard.

It is Time to Move to a More Intensive Program

Your child has learned all the strokes; they swim lap after lap; there does not seem to be anywhere left for your child to go in swim lessons. They are probably ready to move to a more intensive swim program.

These kinds of programs include competitive swimming programs or stroke clinics where they will spend multiple days a week doing a mix of workouts aimed at improving stroke technique, speed, and endurance. While one-on-one swim lessons with an instructor experienced working with advanced swimmers can help your child improve technique, most children do not take swim lessons often enough to see the benefits of an intense swim program.

Your Child has Met Their Swimming Goals

If your child is water safe and they have met your goals for them, then it should be a matter of what the child wants. If they have their own swimming goals they want to pursue through swim lessons, then great! Have a conversation with their swim instructor about their new goals.

If they have met your goals for them and seem ambivalent about or actively dislike swimming classes, then it is probably time to call it quits. It is not worth the time, money and stress it takes to put an indifferent kid through swim lessons when they have already met the level of swimming competency you and your child were aiming for.

Do Not Quit Lessons if Your Child is Not Progressing

Determining when to stop swim lessons is a very personal decision and depends on your child’s individual needs and interests. Do not quit a learn to swim program simply because your child is not progressing as quickly as you had hoped. There are a number of measures you can take to remedy this, and your child’s swim instructor should be able to talk to you about them. A good place to start would be to talk to the child’s swim coach about your needs and your concerns.

Switch Instructors if Your Child is Not Making Adequate Progress

If the instructor is unable to talk to you about ways to ensure your child’s progression, it may be time to switch to a different instructor. A swim instructor that mainly focuses on teaching basic water safety might not be able to teach your child butterfly, and the advanced swimming instructor might not be able to teach your child the skills they would need for dive team.

With the right instructor, adequate communication, and enough time your child will be able to achieve almost any goal you have for them. With a solid understanding of why your child is in swim lessons, you will know whether it is time to quit or tie to make a change.

Liz Kunkel

Sunsational Swim Instructor in Philadelphia, PA

I have spent 11 years as a competitive swimmer and have 5 years of experience teaching swim lessons. I have experience teaching lessons to all ages from toddlers to seniors. I mainly compete in sprint freestyle and backstroke. Outside of swimming, I am a junior at Bryn Mawr College studying Political Science and studying for the LSAT.