Year-round Swimming
Suzy Balderston Aug 29, 2019
With outdoor pools closing and school is now in session, it's understandable why many would think the swimming season was over until next year, but that would be where you are wrong! Continuing swimming lessons year-round helps to maintain and build confidence and independence. Discontinuing lessons through the winter months typically results in a decline in a child’s confidence and independence in the water, as well as a drop in technique and stamina. When you enroll your child in swim lessons only during warmer months, they may forget the things they learned which means you’ll need more summers of lessons to get back to the level they were.
As our children head back to school, and our lives as parents get busier, it is important to remember that the ability to swim efficiently is a lifelong skill that can save your child’s life. Like learning any subject in school, such as reading or math, learning to swim is a process that requires ongoing repetition and practice.
YEAR-ROUND SWIMMING BENEFITS
#1. Skill Maintenance
By enrolling your child in year-round lessons, you ensure that their skills continually improve and don’t need to be relearned each summer.
#2. Consistent Skill Building
When children remain in swim lessons throughout the year their ability to learn new skills increases because they continually build on the skills they have already established.
#3. Physical Fitness
Being in swim lessons throughout the school year offers children a fun and healthy way to exercise with a relatively low risk of sports-related injury.
#4. Academic and Developmental Benefits
Children who consistently participate in early childhood swim lessons experience more advanced cognitive and physical abilities than other children.
#5. Improved Coping Skills
Children who learn to swim at an early age are more comfortable coping with new or unfamiliar situations. As children learn to overcome fears and insecurities in the water, they build confidence in their ability to deal with unknown circumstances.
#6 Social Skills and Friendships
Children build relationships with their instructors and new swim friends. As children meet new people from season to season or when they move to a new level, the consistency of the pool and program provides a safe setting for a child to develop social skills and to build new friendships.
