At Premier Swim Academy, our curriculum is at the heart of our swim lesson philosophy. This learn to swim process has been developed and refined over the years to ensure that your swimmer develops lifesaving water safety skills and a lifelong love of water. There are many reasons that make our curriculum special, but the main ones are water safety, first and foremost, a student centric approach to teaching, consistent and incremental progress and finally a focus on fine tuning swim stroke technique.
Water Safety at the core of our curriculum
Our curriculum is designed to focus on water safety and comfort before any other skills are taught. We believe that for any swimmer to develop swimming competency, they must first develop a sense of comfort in and around the water. Once that feeling is achieved, we then begin to work on developing specific skills that will enable swimmers to self-rescue in case of an accident in the water. After this is accomplished, we then begin to work on developing a fully independent, competent and confident swimmer. While most of our swimmers are young children, this approach works with students of all ages. We adapt our curriculum to meet the developmental needs and age of our swimmers.
The specific safety skills we believe are crucial to a safe and independent swimmer are self-rescue skills, independent swimming from one point to another, efficient breath recovery and pool exits.
Student Centric Approach to Swimming
Our skill progressions are designed to meet your swimmer where they are in their swimming journey. Regardless of age or previous swimming experience, we believe it is important to fit our curriculum around the swimmer’s current needs. For our younger swimmers, this means adapting to their current developmental stages and using the appropriate language and assistance. For our adult swimmers, this means adapting our skills and curriculum to meet their physical abilities. And finally, for our neurodivergent students, it means working with them to find the best teaching approach that works for them.
Focus on developing proper form and technique
Once our swimmers are confident, competent and independent in the water, our curriculum shifts its focus into developing swimming stroke technique. From the very beginning of this process, we strive to create good habits that will benefit the swimmer throughout their entire swimming journey. This will help them whether they want to participate in competitive swimming or develop strong swimming skills that last a lifetime.
Learning proper form can be a long and difficult process. Because of this, we break down this part of our curriculum into two parts: we first develop the core strokes that are Freestyle and Backstroke and then once those are solidified, we begin work on the advanced strokes which are Breaststroke and Butterfly.
We believe that it is important to not rush this process and to focus on the small details. This will ensure that swimmers graduate from our program with habits that will ensure they are swimming efficiently and without the risk of future injury.
Consistent and Incremental Progress
Our approach to skill development is to make steady progress from class to class. While breakthrough moments do happen on occasion, we believe that making steady improvements over time are crucial to the long-term development of our swimmer’s skills. For this process to work, it is crucial that all parties involved are as consistent as possible. This includes asking our instructors to be consistent with their schedules and attendance. And for our families, we ask that you bring your swimmer as often and routinely as possible.
Over the years, we have found that the most important factor in learning how to swim is consistency. This includes everything from curriculum, instructors, and lesson times. Our goal is not to make drastic changes in one lesson, but rather to consistently improve our swimmers’ skills over time.
These are some of the main points that make our curriculum stand out. If you have any questions on any of the points above, please feel free to chat with our Deck Manager or Customer service staff for more information. We are more than happy to help. Hope to see you in the pool with us soon!
