Goldfish/Beginner Swim Lessons

As stated in last week’s newsletter, there are 9 levels that make up the swim program here at Farnsworth Swim School. Once a student has graduated from the beginning tadpole level, they are then considered a “goldfish.” These students learn the skills that will enable them to become even safer in the water. The goldfish [...]

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As stated in last week’s newsletter, there are 9 levels that make up the swim program here at Farnsworth Swim School. Once a student has graduated from the beginning tadpole level, they are then considered a “goldfish.” These students learn the skills that will enable them to become even safer in the water.

The goldfish level continues to focus on water safety and builds upon the skills learned as a tadpole. These students will continue to work on becoming more comfortable in the water, while learning some more complex skills, such as:

• Bobbing up and down in the water, practicing the rhythm of their breathing
• Jumping into the deep end and swimming to the wall
• Treading water
• Rolling from their back to their belly and vice versa

A significant difference between the tadpole and goldfish levels is that students at the goldfish level begin to learn backstroke in addition to freestyle.

• These swimmers have already learned to float on their backs, so they build upon this skill and continue to work on their balance by adding kicks and arm strokes.
• They will not master backstroke at this level, but will just begin to swim a few feet on their back without sinking.

These swimmers also learn how to take a breath during freestyle.

• At this level, they learn to breathe by lifting their head up out of the water.
• This allows these students to swim farther distances since they no longer need to hold their breath.

In order to master the goldfish level, swimmers must be able to:

• Push off of the steps and swim freestyle with arms, kicks, and breaths for at least 10 feet
• Swim at least 5 feet of backstroke independently
• Tread water for 10-15 seconds
• Complete a knee dive

Once a student graduates from the goldfish level, they enter into Level 1 and beyond!

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