Swim already DD! (advice if you've got it)

[elektra]

For the past two years (since she turned 2) DD has been able to swim underwater. As in, she jumps in or pushes off from the side and swims "like a mermaid" for 5 or 6 feet underwater. However, she cannot come up for a breath unless she has something to grab onto, or if she has pushed off from the bottom of the pool.
She has never had any fear of the water or getting her head wet. She loves it, but she still cannot really swim.
We have had her in lessons but I feel like the instructor should have been able to have her swimming by now, especially since there are no challenges with her going underwater.
The only advice she seems to give is to tell DD "big arms" and DD really does want to swim, but shouting "big arms!" in addition to occasionally moving DD's arms herself just isn't producing results.

Any advice based on your own swimming knowledge or how your kids have learned?

I am considering signing her up with a different instructor.

[brittone2]

My 4 and 7 yo swim a few feet underwater, similar to what you described. They learned last summer. We haven't done lessons but are going to do them in some form this summer (debating group vs. shared private lesson with both of them).

At 4, I think it is still tough for many kids to coordinate everything (breathing, movement, etc.) to "swim".

I'm far from an expert on swim instruction, but just looking at it from a developmental standpoint, I just think it is a lot for them to coordinate. Swimming a few feet underwater at that age sounds great to me. She's comfortable with the water, she isn't afraid to get her face wet, she's figuring out how to hold her breath when under water. I don't know how you make the next jump, but I think some kids (eta: maybe I should say most kids?) just aren't coordinated enough to put all of the pieces together at that age. Hopefully someone with swim knowledge will chime in

[bubbaray]

Definitely a different instructor. When we hit roadblocks in swimming skills, we found that sometimes privates helped too.

FWIW, my girls definitely learn better from male instructors than female instructors.

[WatchingThemGrow]

I hear 'ya! DD is doing the same thing except that our instructor actually taught her to do face in the water, then come up for a breath. She's never been a huge fan of putting just half her face in, so it looked something like this last night:

push off from dad, roll onto back to breathe, roll back down, back up to breathe, go sideways, face down, no onto the back to breathe, face down, onto the back again - like 50x in a second. It looked like she was drowning, but she actually had control of this "swimming" that looked like a fish out of water. Fortunately, I met up with the instructor after she finished her other lessons and got us back in the rotation. I need her to be able to get from point a to point b and tread water so I can manage the other 2 monkeys in the pool.

[geochick]

My 4yo has been taking once-a-week swim lessons for 2 years. She can do back stroke, side breathe, and swim a length of the pool. If she's under, she can definitely come up for a breath. I'd find a new instructor. There are instructors, and there are instructors.

[niccig]

Try someone else. We are this year and DS can swim. I wasn't happy with what they were doing with his kick - he has this weird kick and they weren't spending much time on getting it better. When we were back home visiting my parents, I had DS do private lessons with the swim instructor - it helped he was 23yo, a state swim champion and 6'3" so DS did not try to negotiate - I talked with him and he agreed that DS's kick is what's holding him back. So he did a variety of different things to help with the kick.

I wish I could find someone like that here - he put DS in swim fins as it helps to get the correct technique - no where here will let me take DS into the water with swim fins or a kickboard. And he needs to use both.

I'm trying a new instructor that my god-daughters go to, and I'm going to talk with her about concentrating on his kick. And we're going to do lessons anytime we visit my parents - DS learnt more in 6 lessons with the instructor in their town then he has with our old instructor here.

[crl]

I agree time for a different instructor. And I am a big believer in privte lessons. For us they are actually cheaper per minute of instructor time spend with my child.

Catherine