S4 Water Babies and Toddlers
S4 Water Babies is an adult & child baby swim programme designed to give your baby a happy confident start in basic swimming skills. Thirty minute classes are available for ages from four months to five years and are organised according to age.
In these early stages the main emphasis is on water confidence and spatial awareness, leading on to buoyancy awareness and an introduction to propulsive movement.
Babies who are introduced to swimming at 4 months are extremley advanced in the water when they get to the age of 5. This making learning and teaching easier and allows for faster progression and development in the long run.
S4 Swim School follows the STA awards system to give all babies/children the chance to achieve nationally recognised skill/distance awards. Swimming for babies is highly rcommended by leading governing bodies.
S4 Teaching
S4 Teaching is a childrens swimming programme designed to give your child swim teaching of the highest quality. Our top priority is to provide a relaxed & friendly environment for children to learn to swim. Thirty minute classes are available from the age of five years and are organised according to age & STA grouping.
Our teachers adopt up to date teaching methods and unique planning strategies. Swimmers are taught in the four major areas: Streamlining, Sculling, Strength and Skills rather than the four major strokes. We feel this allows children to learn to swim rather than being taught.
The S4 method of teaching is proven and has produced technically advanced swimmers of the highest quality. Swimming lessons for children are great for physical development and promote water safety.
S6 Coaching
S6 Coaching is an introduction to coaching for children and is more of a swimming club for our squad level swimmers. It is an extension of S4 swim teaching, incorporating two coaching based disciplines 'Speed' & 'Stamina'. Sixty minute sessions are available for swimmers aged 8+ years.
We only introduce coaching based disciplines once a child is competent in their technique and skills. At S4 we are of the opinion that practice makes permanent. So if a child is swimming a number of lengths with incorrect technique they will develop bad habits that will become harder to correct.
The same goes for speed swimming with swim training. It is important to perform the correct technique at speed or in a competitive environment.
Learning Progression Chart
S4 Water Babies and Toddlers
At S4 children can start swimming lessons as early as 4 months. Once a child has developed water confidence, basic propulsive movement (swimming unaided) and flotation, they can progress to our main learn to swim programme at one of our larger swimming pools. For further information regarding lesson times, pool locations & course information click on the links at the top of this page.
For our Water Babies/Toddlers (aged 4 months to 2 years) we follow the STA 'Starfish' series:
Starfish 1 - Starfish 2 - Starfish 3 - Starfish 4 - Starfish 5 - Starfish 6
For our children (aged 2 to 5 years) we follow the STA 'Stanley' series. We follow the 6 steps to achieve at this early developmental stage. The Stanley First Steps Series focuses on creating fun, positive experiences for young children that will not only help them to develop physically, but also emotionally, intellectually and socially too, whilst equipping them with key safety skills in the water.
S4 Teaching Groups
For our S4 Teaching Groups (children aged 5+), we follow the STA Progression Ladder (Level 1 - 4)
Octopus 1 - Octopus 2 - Octopus 3 - Goldfish 1 - Goldfish 2 - Goldfish 3 - Angelfish 1 Angelfish 2 - Angelfish 3 - Sharks 1 - Sharks 2 - Sharks 3
OCTOPUS
The Octopus group is the bottom group of our learn to swim programme. Within each of the four teaching groups, there are 3 levels to achieve. The main focus here will be on children building their confidence further, with additional emphasis placed on propulsive movement. Before progressing to the next group children must demonstrate a basic over arm action on both frontcrawl & backstroke, and a simultaneous kick action on breastroke & butterly.
GOLDFISH
Once children reach goldfish level swimming, the main emphasis turns to technique introduction. In this group children will learn the basics on breaststroke, frontcrawl & backstroke paying greater attention to detail (turning the head to breathe, turning feet out on breaststroke, & little finger entry on backstroke). Butterfly kick will still be the major emphasis on this stroke progressing to dolphin shape (rhythm & timing).
ANGELFISH
To progress to angelfish groups children must demonstrate frontcrawl showing continuous correct breathing patterns. The backstroke & breaststroke arm action must be demonstrated correctly and rhythm and timing must be evident on butterfly (no arms at this stage). The main emphasis in angelfish groups will be technique developement (bent arm pull on backstroke, timing on breaststroke & an introduction to butterfly arms).
SHARKS
At shark level children can slowly start to increase the distance on frontcrawl, backstroke & breaststroke. Stamina building will only be introduced when the child is performing correct technique. The main emphasis here will be on advanced technique with a lot of focus on stroke length on breaststroke & frontcrawl, and rhythm & timing on backstroke & butterfly.
S6 Advanced Coaching Groups: S6 Swim Squad
Entry into the S6 Squad is by invitation only. Decisions will be made by the head coach in communication with the instructors. Sessions are 1-hour in duration and the main emphasis is an introduction to speed & stamina swimming and race skills (dives/turns/finishes on all strokes). Once a child has completed the gold advanced award & gold speed awards they have completed everything S4 Swim School offer. They should look to progress to a swimming/water polo/diving/synchro club (advice & guidance will be given at this stage).
For our S6 Swim Squad we follow the 'Advanced Swimmer' series. This incorporates many coaching based criteria. We also adopt the A.S.A National Speed Awards in all four swimming strokes. Bronze, silver and gold speed awards are based on target times to achieve.
Bronze Swimmer - Silver Swimmer - Gold Swimmer
