Baby and Toddler Swimming Lessons Focused on Self-Saving and Drowning Prevention

Yes, our swimming pools are totally indoor and heated to an average of 31.5˚, offering your family year round swimming facilities. Our pool water is checked 3-4 times a day for correct chlorine and PH levels. We consistently maintain our pools so they are always in the healthiest condition. The pools are specifically designed for teaching and coaching. We provide comfortable, heated change facilities, parent viewing area/grandstand, children’s enclosed play area with TV/Video and café.

Yes we do offer make-up lessons. Please carefully read our Policy Information Booklet for full details.

We recommend a minimum of 2 swimming lessons per week as an ideal, manageable, productive amount of weekly lessons in a drowning prevention and learning to swim program. Think of ‘Actual’ swimming lesson time: One ½ hour lesson per week = only 2 hours swimming time per month. By attending 2 lessons per week, doubles the swimming time to 4 hours per month. Regular, consistent lessons is the only way to re-enforce life saving drowning prevention drills and learn to swim skills. It has been proven that attending 2 lessons each week actually accelerates the learning in a drowning prevention and learn to swim program at 4 times the rate of attending lessons once per week.

We do not recommend the wearing of floatation aids, for a number of reasons. They give infants and young children a ‘false’ sense of security and confidence in the water. Often, children forget when they are not wearing a floatation aid, and due to false water confidence from the floatation aid, leads to dire circumstances in the aquatic environment. Children who learn to swim with floatation aids also become dependent on them, instead of learning to swim with their own buoyancy. Floatation aids can also make parents more complacent while supervising. Often floaties, back-bubble floats and pool rings can come loose or slip sideways, or, even slip off. It is much safer for an infant and young child, to have a healthy caution of aquatic environments and create their own buoyancy and preventative drowning techniques.

GOGGLES - Superfish believe it is vitally important for children to learn Water Safety Skills WITHOUT the wearing of goggles. Goggles are classed as an ‘aid’ They are unnecessary in the beginning stages of swimming development. A child reliant on the wearing of goggles may panic due to a dependence on learning to swim with goggles. Children need to develop strong Drowning Prevention skills WITHOUT the wearing of goggles.
For our DIPPAS program - - Superfish has a ‘NO Goggle Policy’ that Superfish strongly enforces.
For our FLIPPAS program - Children are able to wear goggles in lessons, to allow goggles worn for Kicking & Swimming drills in these levels. ALL Water Safety Drills require practice WITHOUT Goggles. The wearing of goggles is still not encouraged OR promoted in these levels.

CAPS - Caps are not required in our Baby & Toddler Programs (DIPPAS), however, once in an Independent class level (FLIPPAS) we encourage ALL swimmers to wear a cap to lessons. The wearing of caps for swimmers in our pools keep our pools cleaner, and, keep hair out of children’s eyes, that can be very distracting for beginner swimmers.

DIPPAS - NO Cap or Goggles Required.

FLIPPAS - Caps are required. Goggles are optional, but not recommended.

Flippers can also be classed as an ‘aid’. They are unnecessary in the beginning stages of swimming development. In a precarious aquatic situation, a child reliant with the wearing of flippers, when learning to swim, can panic due to dependence from wearing flippers, if flippers are not available. Children need to develop a strong kicking action to develop a high degree of independent water safety. The wearing of flippers, can also encourage an incorrect freestyle kicking action, kicking from the ‘knee’ instead of the ‘hip’ in beginner swimmers, creating an incorrect ‘bicycle’ kick.

One of the most important skills we can teach infants and beginner swimmers for drowning prevention, is BREATH CONTROL – learning to hold our breath when our mouth and nose is submerged in water. Simply, we teach infants and beginner swimmers to hold their breath under water. This practice keeps air inside the lungs, which, in turn, increases buoyancy. If a baby or young child has lungs full of air, they will stay close to the surface easier, buying time in a ‘life threatening’ aquatic situation. Without this skill, commonly, babies, young children and non-swimmers will try and breath in while submerged in water, filling the lungs with water. Blowing bubbles empties the lungs of air. Empty lungs increase the chance of sinking under water faster.

The ‘Reflex Action’ or commonly known as ‘Humpty Dumpty’ is a skill practiced repeated until it becomes a ‘Reflex’ in Infants and Young Children. It is the practice of ‘falling’ into a pool, turning themselves immediately around and catching the ledge of the pool. This activity is taught through repetition until the thought process becomes a ‘reflex’. It is another extremely important drowning prevention drill for infants, young children and beginner swimmers to learn.

These drills maybe the most effective drowning prevention skill to teach infants, young children and non-swimmers. It is a combination of being able to ‘roll’ from their front, with their faced submerged under water, into a floating position on their back. If needed, from this position they can call out for attention. They can also ‘roll’ back to a swimming/paddling position to swim when needed and repeat, for an extended length of time. A baby’s head is 1/3 the size of their total size, so, to ‘lift their head’ for a breath, whilst submerged in water is impossible.
Toddlers and young children generally do still not have the neck muscle development or the strength to ‘lift their head’ either. This skill is particularly important when there is no wall/ledge to swim back to.

When beginning to paddle and kick, infants also need to learn to ‘catch on’ to the ledge of the pool, a pool railing etc. Basically anything they are able to pull themselves up onto. When swimming to a parent, we encourage infants to ‘catch on’ to the parent independently, and pull themselves up from the water level. We need parents to wear t-shirts for little ones to hold onto when doing this drill.

The most important part of the Freestyle Swimming Stroke is what happens under the water. The effectiveness of the ‘pull’ under the water is what propels the swimming stroke forward. This ‘pull’ or ‘sculling’ is taught to beginner swimmers, so they learn what moves them forward in the water. This drill is continued right through to advanced squad programs. If a swimmer is taught ‘over-arm’ freestyle too early in their swimming progression, before the correct basics have been established, the swimmer will ‘snake’ their body and wrongly ‘cross kick’ their kicking legs to compensate the weakness in the vitally important strong kick and a correct head and body position.

It is vitally important once you start in a drowning prevention and learn to swim program to continue throughout the winter months, as infants and young children under 5 years old do not have a developed muscle memory, as older children and adults do. Basically, there is no way they will remember skills they have been taught in classes when extended breaks occur. Drowning Prevention and basic Learn to Swim is only effective in the ‘Under 5’s’ age bracket, when a consistent, continuous progression is taught, continued and developed. If this progression is haltered, even for periods of 6 weeks, you will see a decline in the comprehension and ability levels with these life saving skills.