An Aurora Swim Club Can Prevent Common Teaching Mistakes

If you have a pool at your home, you might be considering teaching your child to swim. After all, you’re a proficient swimmer. You know the mechanics of the four strokes. And you have breathing down to a science, to the extent that you don’t even think about it while swimming.

Surely you’d make a fine swim instructor.

But many parents find their mastery of swimming doesn’t necessarily make them skilled instructors. In fact, their intuitive command of advanced stroke mechanics, breathing technique, and body rotations, makes it difficult for them to see things through the eyes of a beginner.

And that sets the stage for teaching mistakes.

Below, we’ll cover four swim instruction mistakes you’ll prevent when you enroll your child into our Aurora swim club. Lessons taught by our experienced instructors guarantee your son or daughter will learn good swimming habits from the outset.

#1 – Bad Stroke Mechanics

The four strokes, freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke, should be performed with proper head position, body rotations, and hand movements. Unfortunately, many children learn to swim without mastering these basics. They develop bad habits.

For example, if they position their heads poorly, it affects the position and rotation of their bodies. Some never learn how to properly move their hands through each individual stroke, therefore never maximizing their propulsion. The result is wasted energy.

At our Aurora swim club, in both group lessons and private lessons, proper stroke mechanics are considered a priority.

#2 – Lack Of Enthusiasm

One of the keys to keeping young people enthused about swimming lessons is to make sure they’re engaged by the instruction. Unfortunately, parents who teach their children to swim at home often have the opposite effect. They lose patience, become frustrated, and push their kids to the point that their they develop an aversion to the lessons.

Instructors, with experience in teaching young people to swim, know how to reach kids in a way that keeps them interested. That’s a key ingredient in the learning process. The more enthusiastic a child is about the swimming lessons, the more successful he or she is likely to be in the water.

#3 – Non-Existent Kick

For some reason, home instruction tends to focus most of its attention on the hands and arms. Parents spend a lot of time teaching their kids how to move both to affect the various strokes.

To be fair, the hands and arms play a vital role in pulling the swimmer through the water. But it’s important to not forget about the kick.

Outside formal swimming instruction, the kick is sometimes dismissed as a nonessential aspect of technique. It’s treated as an afterthought. But doing so disregards its value in terms of balance and forward thrust.

Our lessons take into account all aspects of proper technique. The result is that your child will learn to use his or her entire body, literally from head to toe, to become a proficient swimmer.

#4 – Avoidable Fear

Some kids take to the water immediately. They’re at ease from the moment they enter the pool. Other children are less receptive to swimming, at least in the beginning. They need encouragement to feel relaxed in the water. Some need to be gently coaxed.

When parents teach their kids to swim, they sometimes neglect to give them enough time to gain a sense of comfort. They hurry the process. In doing so, they sometimes trigger feelings of fear and dread in their kids, who go on to develop an aversion to the water.

Experienced instructors understand that some kids need more support than others. They’re ready to deliver that support as needed, ensuring your son or daughter develops a sense of comfort, as well as a fondness, for swimming.

Formal swim lessons can mean the difference between a child learning how to swim properly and forming hard-to-break bad habits. If you want your child to become a skilled swimmer with a solid foundation of water safety knowledge, consider enrolling him or her in our Aurora swim club.

At the DuPage Swimming Center, young people are encouraged to enjoy swimming, both as a fun activity and a competitive sport. Our state-of-the-art facility in Aurora, Illinois is staffed by a team of experienced instructors who delight in teaching kids how to swim and stay safe in the water. Contact us today to find out about our swim programs, which range from group lessons to private instruction.