Lesson Structure

Survival swim lessons are held 4 days/week, Monday-Thursday (Friday is a weather makeup day). Each lesson lasts approximately 10 minutes and is customized to meet the physical, emotional and developmental readiness of each child. Each lesson’s duration is determined by the instructor, taking into account factors like age, ability, fatigue and physiological health.

Please note: All lessons have a performance-based exit and not a time-based exit. Just each child is unique, no two lessons are exactly alike. A weekly maintenance schedule is recommended to preserve and strengthen swimming skills as your child grows. 

Rollback-to-Float: 6-12 Months Old

A child as young as 6 months old will learn how to hold his breath underwater, roll onto his back and float unassisted until help arrives. Toward the end of his lesson session, he will have opportunities to perform his survival skills fully clothed, helping him to become a master aquatic problem solver. Besides mastering critical survival skills, a child who enrolls early has the benefit of solidifying good swim posture to facilitate learning more complex swimming skills. Lessons for this age group last 4 weeks, assuming consistent 10-minute lessons 4 days/week attendance.

Swim-Float-Swim: 1-4 Years Old

Children in this age group are taught the basic roll-to-float as well as independent swimming. Students learn to hold their breath underwater and swim with their face in the water for up to 5 seconds. When they are tired and need to breathe, they will independently roll-to-float to rest, and then will flip over to resume swimming from the float when ready. They will continue the swim-float-swim sequence as many times as needed until they reach safety.

After completing this course, your child will have learned survival skills necessary to save himself from a potential drowning situation along with the enjoyment of recreational swimming. A maintenance schedule is recommended to preserve and strengthen skills as your child grows. This skill set can be achieved in approximately 6 weeks of lessons, 4 days/week.

Swim-Float-Swim: 5-6 Years Old

These children learn the same swim-float-swim as the younger kids, but typically have more stamina and longer attention spans. They will usually learn to swim the length of the pool, building confidence and endurance in preparation for stroke lessons! For that reason, they are scheduled in sessions that are 3 weeks long and 4 days/week, but the lessons are 20 minutes in duration.

Refresher and Maintenance Lessons

As your child grows, her survival swimming skills will need to grow with her. Like riding a bike or roller skating, swimming is a “sensorimotor” skill—one that is not forgotten, but one that needs practice and fine-tuning so that a child is a proficient and confident as they were when they originally mastered the skill.

To keep skills and confidence sharp, weekly 1:1 maintenance lessons are recommended for all swim-float-swim graduates! Refreshers are scheduled in 3-week sessions for kids who have not been in lessons for >3 months.

Returning Rollback-to-Float Students

Infants should return the following year to learn the full swim-float-swim sequence, which takes about 6 weeks. They will need adjustments to their float due to growth, just like the older students. But this is the fun year—to most casual observers, they look too young to swim, but in reality, they are confident and ready to amaze everyone poolside!