Swimming lessons: success or stress?

Virtually all Dutch children follow swimming lessons starting from an age of 5 years old. Up until the 1980s these swimming lessons were part of the school education, but nowadays parents have to pay for this swim training by themselves. And bring their kids to the swimming pool twice per week in their own spare time. And while the children puddle in the pool for an hour or so, the parents are doomed to wait elsewhere; away from their children, so that they can’t distract their little darlings during the swimming lessons. JOEP DERKSEN reports.

In 1892 the first ever swimming diploma was handed out. The most commonly used swimming program nowadays is the ‘Zwem (swim) A-B-C’ method, which was introduced in 1984 by the National Platform of Swimming pools. First, children learn the basic swimming training (diploma A) and then their swimming skills are improved (diplomas B and C). A child (or adult, for that matter) who obtains all three diplomas can save him or herself in virtually every circumstance in the water. Whether it is in a subtropical paradise or in the North Sea. However, before a child is skilled enough to be able to obtain diploma B, an average time span of 1 1/2 years has passed already. This means that as a parent of three children you have to wait in a damp changing room two hours per week for 4 1/2 years. It is no surprise that parents have started complaining about the amount of time needed for children to obtain their swimming diplomas.

And this has led to a new instruction method, introduced last year. Since 1984 the swimming lessons are all about learning how to float on the chest and back, going in the water and climbing out of it and looking under water. Playing is an integral part of the swim training, because the fun factor makes the child want to learn even more. After the child is completely ‘watervrij’ and is not afraid of the water, it is time to educate the swimming strokes. These are the singular backstroke, breaststroke, free stroke and backstroke. The children also learn to dive and swim under water for distances up to 9 metres.

But last year the Koninklijke Nederlandse Zwembond (KNZB; Royal Dutch Swimming union) started the new swimming lesson method ‘Superspetters’. The idea of this type of training is that children learn faster how to swim. And since they can be taught the basic swimming skills within one school year, it also inflicts less on the spare time of the parents.

Jan Kossen, general director of the KNZB, says on www.knzb.nl: “We want to support our swim clubs with providing good quality swimming lessons. Herewith making sure that children become more swim safe. The innovation in the swimming branch is a laborious process. That is why we started changing the method. Since 1984 only 35% of all children obtain the A, B and C diploma. Therefore, 65% is not fully swimming safe. Parents are (after their child has obtained diploma B, or even diploma A, JD) often happy that the swimming lessons are over. It takes too long and the children don’t have enough fun in swimming. That is what we want to change.”

The ‘Superspetters’ (super splash) method teaches the children the basics of the free stroke and the back crawl, because these two types of strokes can be learned by the children in the easiest way. All kids wear goggles and swimming caps when they are in the water. On www.superspetters.nl swim teacher Robert Yallop explains why: “With these goggles and caps the children look the same as the professional swimmers on television.”

Professional swimming coach Jacco Verhaeren adds: “By teaching the free stroke and back crawl, the swimming training is better connected to the locomotion of the children. There are certain things that 5- or 6-year-old children can and can’t do.” The ‘Superspetters’ lessons also contain basic survival elements such as orientation under water, floating and treading water. After ten months the children receive one diploma and they then have similar swimming skills as the children who have followed the Zwem A-B-C method.