If you’re like me, around the age of eight and nine comes a little bit more complacency where swimming lessons are concerned. Your child can swim. They have probably done a swimming carnival and managed the 25m, if not the 50m race.
They swim with their friends at the pool and you don’t keep your eye on them 100 percent anymore. They have swum in the surf and while they may not be hugely confident, they know what a rip is.
And so, in our uber-busy lives of after-school activities, the question of whether kids really need to keep doing swimming lessons begins to surface around this age. I couldn’t tell you how many mums have asked me when the age is that you can stop swimming lessons.
No one tells you as a parent when it’s OK for your kid to stop swimming lessons. Photo: iStock.
Kids start to drop out
I assumed it was around nine or 10 but that was before I chatted to Tilly Bellklemm, a learn to swim instructor, Nippers manager and Surf Life Saving athlete.
She says she sees kids start to drop out at age 10, but ideally they should be doing lessons until they’re at least 12 or 13. Now, that surprised me. But her reasoning is spot on.
“I think personally I grew up swimming since I was so small and didn’t stop until I was 18,” she said. “Swimming in the ocean where we live, it should be at least 12 or 13, when you are comfortable with them swimming at the beach with friends.”
At what age am I going to let my child go swimming with their friends? Photo: B PHOTOGRAPHY/Unsplash
It’s not considered cool to go to swim lessons
And isn’t that the perfect gauge? Ask yourself, at what age would you be happy to let your child go to the beach with friends and know they’d be confident and safe? It’s very likely not going to be at the age of nine or 10.
But it turns out I’m not alone in getting pushback from my nine-year-old child about continuing swimming lessons.
“I have a drop (in attendance) from the age of around 10,” Tilly said. “Kids start to not want to come and it’s not as fun for them anymore. It’s not cool. So, I do find parents drop out of swimming quite early.”
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She also said it’s important that they do nippers – even if it’s just one season.
“So they know where the rips are and what a rip is and how to help themselves, how to get out of it.”
Australian kids need to be confident swimmers to go to the beach with their friends. Photo: iStock.
Lessons also about endurance
It’s about building endurance, not just being able to do a stroke. If lessons are not possible, Tilly advised to keep kids swimming constantly.
“Even if it’s not a proper swim class get into the backyard pool or the local pool. It’s about keeping their fitness going. As soon as their child can swim 25 metres parents say ‘oh well, we’re done’, but it doesn’t work like that. You want them to be able to swim 50 metres and to have that endurance.”
As for taking our eyes off our kids at the pool at a certain age, Tilly said parents always need to be watchful.
“When you’ve rescued a kid and the parents haven’t even noticed, it’s pretty bad… and you have to say ‘Did you just realise that your kid’s just been rescued?’ You should always keep an eye on kids in the ocean and the pool. The water is such a dangerous place.”