Does a child need lessons, or are they ready for the swim team?

I am coaching our teams summer league program this summer, and it is amazing what you get when you run a program like this. We are a swim club that doesn't provide swim lessons, but we have several programs that we recommend in the area. I think one of the biggest questions parents have is whether a child should continue to take lessons or move to the swim team.

Some things to take into a account in regards to skills needed:

• Have they learned proper air exchange? Knowing how to properly bob (or bounce) in the water between 15 - 20 times without holding on to a wall is very important. They need to be able to blow their air out when they are fully submerged and allow themselves to go to the bottom and push off of it to go back above water, and take only one breathe (very important) and then re-submerge and go again blow the air out in the water allowing them to go feet first to the bottom to push off of it. This may seem simple, but there are kids who can't do this.

• Can they float? They should be able to float on the stomach and back with ease. If a kid freaks out, and prevents them from floating, they're going to freak out when swimming making swimming very difficult. They must be willing to relax and be comfortable in the water.

• Can they perform a flutter kick? This means they do not making a running or bicycle motion in the kick. Does the lift and press motion start by moving the whole leg from the hip flexor or does it start with driving the knee forward and then pressing the foot downward. (Yes the latter does create propulsion from the downward foot press, but the amount of resistance created from the knee movement, and the shortening of surface area, length wise, has reduced that created propulsion to go very far with a whole lot of effort.)

• Can the child jump in deep water without hesitation and then swim to the other side without touching a wall? If a child can't jump into the water without hesitation, it is really hard to teach a kid to dive. Already to have your body stretched out with your feet above your head is a strange sensation, but to add on the fear of just jumping. Teaching diving becomes close to impossible. Jumping is a very big part of diving, so they need to be able to jump high and far freely.

• Can the swimmer do big arm circles while on back and stomach? Sure this is not great form for freestyle, but at least they have begun a good elbow movement over the water. Learn High elbow after they learn arm circles. 

• Can they do a streamline (supine) and push off submerged? At the lowest levels of swim lessons they teach front glides and back glides. Kids should be use to gliding on their stomach and back. If they can do the bobs as described earlier, then they should be able to submerge then push off in a streamline position.

The swim team can refine strokes and get kids to be able to swim the strokes better, but if a swimmer can't do the basics, which can be learned from most swim lesson programs, they are going to take a long time to teach proper strokes. You must create the foundation before your build a stroke. Age does not distinguish when a swimmer is ready for the swim team, it is the skills. Some kids start lessons as early as 3, and others as late as 11, but once they have the basics of swimming, the development of strokes will be much quicker than years of struggling how to learn strokes on the swim team; when what really is stopping their development is lack of developed basics that the swimmer or parent felt like was just a waste of time to do.

Who won the race in the end, the tortoise or the hare?