Swim lessons can be an important part of developing a healthy lifestyle. Whether you’re 6 or 60, it is never too late to learn to swim. Swimming lessons at the Y are overseen by certified instructors who provide this training in a safe and fun way. Our swim lesson stage (class) descriptions are below.
Swim Starters
Accompanied by a parent/guardian/caregiver, swimmers learn to be comfortable in the water and develop swim readiness skills through fun and confidence-building experiences; while adults learn about water safety, drowning prevention, and the importance of supervision.
Parent/Child: Water Acclimation
Introduces infants and toddlers to the aquatic environment. Focuses on exploring body positions, blowing bubbles, fundamental safety and aquatic skills.
Prerequisites: Must be at least 6 months in age and have parent/guardian/caregiver participation.
Swim Basics
Swimmers learn personal water safety and achieve basic swimming competency by learning two benchmark skills:
1) Swim, float, swim – sequencing front glide, rolling, back float, rolling, front glide
2) Jump, push, turn, grab – sequencing jumping in, pushing off, resurfacing, turning around, grabbing onto the wall and exiting the water.
Level 1: Water Movement
Increases comfort with underwater exploration and introduces basic self-rescue skills performed independently.
Prerequisites: Must be toilet trained; be able to follow verbal commands and willing to work in the water without a parent.
Level 2: Water Stamina
Develops endurance, forward movement in the water and basic self-rescue skills all performed independently.
Prerequisites: Completion of skills in Level 1.
Swim Strokes
Having mastered the fundamentals, students learn additional water safety skills, build stroke technique, develop skills that prevent chronic disease, increase social-emotional/cognitive well-being, and foster a lifetime of physical activity.
Level 3: Stroke Introduction
Introduces basic stroke technique in front crawl and back crawl, butterfly and breaststroke kick and reinforces water safety through treading water and elementary backstroke.
Prerequisites: Completion of skills in Level 2
Level 4: Stroke Development
Introduces breaststroke and butterfly strokes and reinforces water safety through building endurance.
Prerequisites: Completion of skills in Level 3.
Level 5: Future Swim Team
Refines stroke technique on all major competitive strokes and encourages swimming as part of a healthy lifestyle.
Prerequisites: Completion of skills in Level 4.
Pathways
Students build confidence, cultivate their passion, and stay active through specialized tracks.
Prerequisite: Demonstrate skill level competency equivalent to (or have passed) Level 6.
Aquatics Conditioning
Aquatic Conditioning is one offering from the competitive pathway students can pursue following YMCA Swim Lessons. The program focuses on continuing to build endurance and stroke technique on all major competitive strokes and encourages swimming as a part of a healthy lifestyle.
Endurance, Sports & Games
Endurance, Sports, and Games is one offering from the recreation pathway students can pursue following YMCA Swim Lessons. The program continues to build endurance on all major competitive strokes and encourages aquatic sports and games as a part of a healthy lifestyle.
Pre-Lifeguarding
Pre-Lifeguarding is one offering from our safety pathway students can pursue following YMCA Swim Lessons. This program focuses on building swimmer’s endurance to perform the pre-test for American Red Cross Lifeguarding course and introduces some topics from the course.