Accompanied by a parent, infants and toddlers learn to be comfortable in the water and develop swim readiness skills through fun and confidence-building experiences, while parents learn about water safety, drowning prevention, and the importance of supervision.
Stage A - Water Discovery
Parents accompany children in Stage A, which introduces infants and toddlers to the aquatic environment through exploration and encourage them to enjoy themselves while learning about the water.
Stage B - Water Exploration
In Stage B, parents work with their children to explore body positions floating, blowing bubbles, and fundamental safety and aquatic skills.
Students learn personal water safety and achieve basic swimming competencies by learning two benchmark skills: 1) Swim, float, swim sequencing, front guide, roll, back, float, roll, front glide, and exit. 2) Jump, push, turn, grab.
Stage 1 - Water Acclimation
Students develop comfort with underwater exploration and learn to safely exit in the event of falling into a body of water in Stage 1. This stage lays the foundation that allows for a student's future progress in swimming.
Stage 2 - Water Movement
In Stage 2, students focus on body position and control, directional change, and forward movement in the water while also continuing to practice how to safely exit in the event of falling into a body of water.
Stage 3 - Water Stamina
In stage 3, students learn how to swim to safety from a longer distance than in previous stages in the event of falling into a body of water. This stage also introduces rhythmic breathing and integrated arm and leg actions.
Having mastered the fundamentals, students learn additional water safety skills, and build stroke technique, developing skills that prevent chronic disease, increase social-emotional and cognitive well-being, and foster a life time of physical activity.
Stage 4 - Stroke Introduction
Students in Stage 4 develop stroke technique in front crawl and back crawl, and learn the breaststroke kick and butterfly kick. Water safety is reinforced through treading water and elementary backstroke.
Stage 5 - Stroke Development
Students in Stage 5 work on stroke technique and learn all major competitive strokes. The emphasis on water safety continues through treading water and side stroke.
Stage 6 - Stroke Mechanics
In Stage 6, students refine stroke technique on all major competitive strokes, learn about competitive swimming, and discover how to incorporate swimming into a healthy lifestyle.