Just Keep Swimming!

New monthly swim lesson sessions coming in January!

The Y is “America’s Swim Instructor” and the most accessible community resource to prevent drowning and encourage a lifelong enjoyment of swimming. It is no surprise, that as one of the largest community-based organizations in the country, the Y owns or manages over 2,000 pools and teaches more than a million children invaluable water safety and swimming skills. Thanks to its size and reach, the Y is in a unique position to help bridge the gap in the delivery of swim lessons and water safety education in the U.S.—especially in underserved communities.

Y Swim Lessons continue to evolve to better meet the needs of the people they serve, and in 2017 the Y reassessed their swim lessons curriculum and adopted a new system to create stronger swimmers. This latest evolution of Y swim lessons accommodates students of varying abilities to help foster a sense of achievement as swimmers’ progress between levels. Through this approach, advanced swimmers flow more easily to higher levels while swimmers who need more instruction can learn at their own pace. The results are more confident swimmers who stick with lessons and develop a love for swimming that can last a lifetime.

There are three general categories of Y Swim Lessons:      

• Swim Starters develops water enrichment and aquatic readiness in children ages 6 months to 3 years. This category focuses on developing swim readiness skills through fun and confidence-building experiences. Parents also learn how to supervise children in the water, how to prevent accidents and how to plan for emergencies.
• Swim Basics develops personal water safety and basic swimming skills in students of all ages. Swimmers develop a high level of comfort in the water by practicing safe water habits, engaging in underwater exploration, and learning how to swim to safety and exit if they fall into a body of water.
• Swim Strokes introduces and refines stroke technique in older students (school age, teens and adults). 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.

The curriculum change is not the only thing new thing happening with Y swim lessons! For the YMCA of South Hampton Roads, swim lessons beginning in January 2018 will roll on a monthly session schedule as opposed to sessions starting intermittently throughout the year. This monthly schedule will allow for better communication to parents, easier registration and better transitions for swimmers into their next level. Registration for next year’s lessons opens November 29— to register, visit our website at ymcashr.org/swimlessons.

Learning to enjoy activities in and around the water nurtures social-emotional, cognitive and physical development. It is the Y’s hope that this new swim lesson curriculum and session schedule will maximize each lesson and provide for the most enriching experience.