YMCA Swim Instructor with Children in the Pool

Ages 3+ Years

In Swim Basics, students learn more about personal water safety. 

The focus of this class is to achieve basic swimming competency by mastering two benchmark skills. The first is swim-float-swim, where students will successfully sequence from a front glide and roll to a back float and roll, do another front glide, then exit. The second benchmark is jump-push-turn-grab. The student’s developmental levels determine which skills we introduce and build on as they progress. To maximize safety, lifeguards are always on the pool deck during lessons.

Lesson Details

Lesson Duration

30 minutes per lesson

Instructor/Student Ratio

1:5

Lesson Age Groups

Preschool: 3–5 years
School-age: 5–12 years
Teen and Adult: 13+ years

What to Bring

Students should bring goggles, towels, sunscreen, and a swim shirt.

Swim Stages

Our Swim Basics lessons encompass stages 1–2 of the YMCA swimming curriculum. The student’s developmental levels determine which skills we introduce and build on as they progress.

Swim Basics

Students learn personal water safety and achieve basic swimming competency by learning two benchmark skills: swim, float, swim. They sequence a front glide, roll, back float, roll, front glide, and exit, as well as jump, push, turn, and grab.

1 Water Acclimation

This stage lays the foundation for the student’s future progress in swimming. Here they become comfortable with underwater exploration and learn how to safely exit a body of water should they ever accidentally fall in.

2 Water Movement

Here, students focus on body position and control, directional change, and forward movement within the water. There’s also continued practice on how to safely exit the water in the event of an accidental fall.

Find a Program

New Lesson Format!

In order to better serve our Aquatics participants, we’ve restructured our registration process to provide more flexibility. Now, you can customize your swim lesson schedule by selecting the number of lessons per week, and days and times that work best for you!

Swim sessions are available in packages of four lessons (one lesson per week in a one-month period). To increase the number of lessons per week, you’ll simply add the additional day/time selections to your cart and proceed to check out. There is no guarantee that your child will have the same instructor for different days of the week, our lessons are curriculum-based. Each student will learn to master the skills for the Stage they are in while experiencing varied learning techniques.