ABOUT YMCA SWIM SCHOOL LEVELS

Correct level placement is essential to ensure that your child is comfortable and successful in swimming lessons.

Generally, level placement is based on skill level, not age. To determine what level your child should be in, view the Lesson Level Flow Chart - or join us for Swim Level Assessments, every Saturday in the Small Pool from 12-12:30pm. One of our senior swim instructors will cover skills, test endurance and answer any questions you might have. Assessments are FREE and open to the community.

Parent/Baby

In this class, the parent learns how to properly hold their 6-18 month baby while working on floating, submerging, hand/eye coordination and muscle strengthening through games and songs. These lessons are a great bonding opportunity between parent and baby!

Parent/Child

Toddlers ages 19-35 months. This class teaches the parent how to work with their child on relaxed floating, gaining breath control for submerging, independent climbing out of pool and muscle strengthening. These classes include fun games and songs, and are a great opportunity to spend some time with your child!

Guppy

Children 3 years old can begin getting comfortable in the water independent of their parents. Through patience and trust, children in this level will overcome their fear and eventually swim independently. Instructors work with children at their own pace and encourage students to progress through games and fun.

Starfish

In this level, encouragement and positive reinforcement will help little swimmers become more skilled at swimming independently. Floating independently on their front and back, as well as kicking across the pool on their back is stressed for water safety reasons.

Froggie

This is the first level in our larger lap pool. In this class, participants will build on their skills by swimming further distances independently. Being able to transition from swimming on their front to their back with ease is one of the skills that will build confidence in these young swimmers! This is also a major water safety skill, and a building block towards formalized strokes in future levels.

Turtle

Children in this class will build on previous levels by working on swimming underwater, beginning defined swimming strokes, and learning more water safety skills. Swimmers will also learn backstroke, front crawl, elementary backstroke, and will be able to retrieve toys from the bottom of the pool.

Otter

Swimmers in the Otter class will gain confidence as they begin to swim further distances in backstroke, front crawl, and elementary backstroke. Children will learn dolphin kick, breaststroke pull and kick, and will start to learn flip turns. 

Seal

Children in this class will increase their strength and endurance by swimming multiple lengths of front crawl and backstroke with flip turns. Your swimmer will progress by completing the butterfly and breaststroke. Endurance will be increased even more by working on being able to swim 300 yards continuously.

Shark

These experienced swimmers will be able to swim multiple lengths of the pool in each of the competitive strokes: front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Swimmers will also be skilled in elementary backstroke and sidestroke. Safety is emphasized in this class while students learn various forms of survival swimming.

Adaptive

The YMCA is happy to provide Adaptive Swimming Lessons, to ensure participants of all needs and skill levels are able to learn water safety and enjoy the pool. These one-on-one lessons are for swimmers with special needs and are tailored towards the skills of each participant. Instructors will communicate with parents even more than usual to ensure that each swimmer is working towards an agreed upon goal.


For more information about YMCA Swim School Levels, Contact Kimmie Settles at swimschool@ymcacassclay.org