Babies at this age have a natural ability known as the diving reflex. When submerged they naturally suppress breathing and close the airway to the lungs; and so instinctively hold their breath whilst under water. Incredibly this reflex also optimises heart rate and where oxygenated bloods gets pumped. This ability is present from birth but does start reducing from 7 months.
This age group presents you with such a great opportunity to give your child a head-start in swimming, and most often swimmers who start as Starfish move to the Advanced Paddler stream. A parent-and-child class offering a great bonding experience, where your child is conditioned to the water, and together learn the basic swimming elements and survival skills through fun activities, games and songs. Parents/caregivers learn specific exercises to practise outside of swim lessons, and so accelerate the learning process.
Outcomes:
In this this age group babies are crawling and learning to walk, and so are ready to learn kicking and paddling activities to build their gross motor skills and coordination, and so develop buoyancy and motion. We also introduce the incredibly important safety fall in, which teaches them to spontaneously turn around and swim back to safety.
Seahorse swimmers who progress quickly and can submerge; and independently kick and paddle, are promoted to the Angelfish level in the Advanced Paddler steam.
Class format:
A parent-and-child class offering a great bonding experience, where your child is conditioned to the water, and together learn the basic swimming elements and survival skills through fun activities, games and songs. Parents/caregivers learn specific exercises to practise outside of swim lessons, and so accelerate the learning process.
Outcomes:
Swimmers in this level are 2 years old, and are either new to swim lessons, or have come from Seahorse level and need to gain more confidence and ability to submerge and independently kick and paddle.
Clownfish swimmers who follow instructions well, will be comfortable in a class without their parent, and can submerge and independently kick and paddle, can be promoted to the Penguin class in the Advanced Paddler stream.
Class format:
A parent-and-child class offering a great bonding experience, where your child is conditioned to the water, and together learn the basic swimming elements and survival skills through fun activities, games and songs. Parents/caregivers learn specific exercises to practise outside of swim lessons, and so accelerate the learning process.
Outcomes:
