Swimming Lessons

For more than 160 years, the YMCA has nurtured potential and united communities across America to create lasting, meaningful change. Everything the Y does is in service of building a better us. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is to teach youth, teens, and adults to swim, so they can stay safe around water and learn the skills they need to make swimming a lifelong pursuit for staying healthy.

Swim Starters

Accompanied by a parent*, infants and toddlers learn to be comfortable in the water and develop swim readiness skills through fun and confidence-building experiences, while parents learn about water safety, drowning prevention, and the importance of supervision.

Stage Description: 

Water Discovery Introduces infants and toddlers to the aquatic environment.

Water Exploration Focuses on exploring body positions, blowing bubbles, and fundamental safety and aquatic skills.

Swim Basics

Students learn personal water safety and achieve basic swimming competency by learning two benchmark skills: swim, float, swim—sequencing front glide, roll, back float, roll, front glide, and exit—and jump, push, turn, grab.

In Water Acclimation, Water Movement, and Water Stamina, students are taught the recommended skills for all to have around water including safe water habits, underwater exploration, and how to swim to safety and exit in the event of falling into a body of water. Activities, games, and drills, geared to reinforce learning, are utilized heavily as students progress in this skill-based approach to swimming.

Stage Description: 

1 / Water Acclimation Increases comfort with underwater exploration and introduces basic self-rescue skills performed with assistance.

2 / Water Movement Encourages forward movement in water and basic self-rescue skills performed independently.

3 / Water Stamina Develops intermediate self-rescue skills performed at longer distances than in previous stages.

Swim Strokes

Having mastered the fundamentals, students learn additional water safety skills and build stroke technique, developing skills that prevent chronic disease, increase social-emotional and cognitive well-being, and foster a lifetime of physical activity.

In Stroke Introduction, Stroke Development and Stroke Mechanics, swimmers are introduced to the four competitive swimming strokes as well as rescue skills and healthy lifestyle habits.

Stage Description:

4 / Stroke Introduction Introduces basic stroke technique in front crawl and back crawl and reinforces water safety through treading water and elementary backstroke.

*5 / Stroke Development Introduces breast-stroke and butterfly and reinforces water safety through treading water and sidestroke.

*6 / Stroke Mechanics Refines stroke technique on all major competitive strokes and encourages swimming as part of a healthy lifestyle.

*Once your child has completed level 4, we are encouraging students to join our flying fish swim team.

 

To learn more about our swim lessons contact our Y Welcome Center

937.653.9621

ymcaquatics@champymca.org