1-to-1 swimming lessons - any teachers/students who could help 7yo with swimming technique?

[largeginandtonic]

Hi all,

We've left it a bit late but want to try to arrange some 1-to-1 swimming lessons for our 7 year old, who has learnt how to keep afloat and muck about in a pool (for ages!) but not swim with any recognisable technique.

I tried contacting the teachers at JAGS sports centre in the past but they have very limited availability or did not return messages.

I'm not sure we need a very experienced teacher - just someone who is prepared to go to one of the local pools a few times next week and help him with his technique. I'm even wondering about a student who has patience and some idea how to teach front crawl/breaststroke.

Does anyone have any ideas or know anyone who could help us?

Thanks!

[bonaome]

Left it too late for what? (Honest question). Assuming you mean 'life' and not that you've entered him into the 2018 commonwealth games or a swimming holiday you have booked for next week then a) not at all, you really have not left it too late and b) there are some great options in the area.

I'd recommend you to try and get him into Dulwich Dolphins. It's a club (which I think puts people off / means they don't think about it unless they already know the club) but the Academy and Development squads do start right at the very beginning of the swimming journey. I'm not sure they take complete non-swimmers, but it'd be worth asking. He needs a 'trial' (a level assessment really) which can be booked for Sept/Oct here http://www.dulwichdolphins.com/#!trials/c19nn

It's much more expensive than going the local leisure centre route but the teaching is way better and the progress very fast - based on my experience anyway. It wouldn't work out very much more expensive than JAGS, if at all.

JAGS lessons are overall fine but quite expensive and very mixed depending on level/teacher/numbers in group. Again, based on my experience (pretty recent).

East Dulwich Leisure Centre is a waste of money, the teaching is not great and the kids make little progress (again, based on my experience and to caveat that was a couple of years back now).

Beckenham Spa use to have great group lessons - and probably still does as there's an excellent club based there. Much cheaper than JAGS but further away.

If you really want a series of quick one-to-ones your best bet might be someone like http://www.swimmingnature.com/ who I know are excellent, but who I also know are very pricey and I think the nearest venue might be the Queen Mother in Victoria.

Really though, don't worry about leaving it too late (unless you have some deadline) and get him in group lessons once per week with someone good and I think you'll be surprised at how fast they come on.

Hope helpful and good luck!

(As you can probably guess, I am not a 'soccer mom' but a 'swimming' dad!).

[largeginandtonic]

Thank you bonhomie - that is really helpful!

When I was talking about it being too late, I meant it's a bit late in the summer holidays to be organising 1-to-1 lessons before school starts! Sorry - I wasn't very clear, was I!

What puts me off weekly lessons is mainly that my little chap's health isn't great and so he's likely to end up missing loads of weeks once Autumn/Winter sets in. That and the fact that he can actually swim reasonably effectively (he could do a length) and is not remotely scared of water but would end up in a beginner/early improver class because of his lack of technique and then I wonder how much progress he would make. They do swimming in school from next term and I just thought it would really help if he could have a few intensive 1-to-1 sessions next week whilst his health is good.

I've come across Dulwich dolphins and they look good, but not for him I don't think - he's never going to be a swimming club type because of his health, it's really only a summer thing for him. But I'd never heard of swimming nature and they sound really good so I will see if they can do anything next week - thank you for mentioning them (and I'm sure others on here will find that info very useful too). I will report back if I end up using them!

Anyone else with any ideas? All gratefully received!

[DulwichPianoFestival]

I would be after the same sort of sessions for my 7 year old so do let me know if you find anyone that can help out. I can't commit to weekly lessons once term starts.

[SLad]

My husband is doing one on one swimming lessons with Vicky at west Norwood leisure centre at the moment and very much enjoying it. from memory, it's about ?35-40 per hour.