How long does it take to learn to swim with private swimming lessons?
- Swimming Lessons London
- 12 hours ago
- 2 min read
Everyone has the potential ability to learn to swim fairly quickly, with the vast majority of our clients taking just 10 lessons or less to learn. So It is possible to make serious swim technique improvement rapidly, especially when receiving one to one swimming lessons... but then comes another question:
not everyone does learn to swim the first time they try.. or even the second.. why is this?
Is it just that some people pick up the skills quicker than others, or..
is there some other reason why some learn to swim quickly and others give up learning all together?
We have been teaching people just like you for over 20 years from a private spa pool based in London bridge, and can shed some light on the above questions..
The thing about learning a skill is that you have to put time in to learn the actions and methods of that skill. You must also practice that skill in order to improve it.. and once you have mastered it, you must still put time in to practise it to retain that skill.
With that in mind, swimming incorporates multiple skills that need to be practised individually, as you learn these skills for the first time.. you take a single skill, like swimming breathing on the surface of the water (just standing) until you feel like you some control over your breathing. Then you learn the next skill, in this example we would learn the arm stroke movement of swimming, and again practise until this feels fluid. But then.. we chunk those two skills together, so now collectively we practise these joined skills. As we progress further, we must add a leg kick skill, that we would have also learned through individual skill practise.. and then when ready, practice all three skills simultaneously!
The keyword here is practice.
Now, in response to the 2 questions we started with, relating to those that give up.. and those that forget:
Those that learned to swim once, but have now forgotten, didn't practice their swimming once learnt.. as if they did, they wouldn't have forgotten!
Those that gave up learning, maybe because it felt like they didn't progress: if you asked them how much did they practice between lessons?.. what do you think they would say? (if they were being honest) its highly likely, they didn't practise.
This is key to have in your mind when learning any skill.. be prepared to reinforce learning with homework (in the pool).
The hard truth is that practice makes permanence when it comes to swimming technique.
It allows you to consolidate your learning, so that in lessons you can build upon that improved and reinforced skill. Once you have learned to swim, Practice your swimming.. or you might also forget!
