Swim Lessons
The Wedgewood Club follows the 6 Levels of the Red Cross Learn-To-Swim Program and Lifeguarding Today curriculum. Swim lessons at Wedgewood provide a foundation of aquatic and leadership knowledge, attitudes, and skills for future successful completion of the Red Cross Lifeguarding course.
- Children must be at least 4 years old and toilet-trained to participate in Swim Lessons.
- Swim lessons are grouped by skill level, and typically run 6-7 weeks, from late June to early August.
- Choose either a Mon/Wed (and every other Fri) class or a Tue/Thu (and every other Fri) class.
- Swimmers may register for one swim class only (either then Mon/Wed class OR the Tue/Thu class).
- If your child participated in lessons last year, register for the recommended lesson level for this year. Otherwise, make your best guess based on the Swimming Skill Levels descriptions.
- At the end of lessons, children receive a progress report summarizing the skills achieved and listing areas requiring additional development.
- Note that many children participate in BOTH Swim Lessons and Swim Team. Youth may sign up for both.
Swimming Skill Levels
LEVEL 1 – Introduction to Water Skills
Purpose: The objective of this level is to help students feel comfortable in the water and to enjoy the water safely. Elementary aquatic skills are taught and students start to develop good attitudes and safe practices around the water. Students will learn safe water entry and exit via ladder and stairs, submerge face, blow bubbles, buoyancy on front and back with support, changing direction and position and treading water with support. Students will swim on the front and back for 5 feet with support and learn personal safety rules.
Prerequisite: None
LEVEL 2 – Fundamental Aquatic Skills
Purpose: To give students success with fundamental skills. Students learn to float without support and to recover to a vertical position. This level marks the beginning of true locomotion skills. Students explore simultaneous and alternating arm and leg actions on the front and back to lay the foundation for future strokes.
Prerequisite: Level 1 certificate or demonstration of Level 1 skills
LEVEL 3 – Stroke Development
Purpose: To build on the skills learned in Level 2 by providing guided practice. Students learn to coordinate the front crawl and back crawl. Elements of the butterfly and the fundamentals of treading water are introduced. Students learn rules for headfirst entries and learn to enter the water headfirst from the side of the pool.
Prerequisite: Level 2 certificate or demonstration of Level 2 skills
LEVEL 4 – Stroke Improvement
Purpose: To develop confidence in the strokes learned thus far and to improve other aquatic skills. Students improve their skills and increase their endurance by swimming familiar strokes (front crawl and back crawl) for greater distances. Students continue to build on the butterfly and the elementary backstroke, breaststroke and sidestroke are introduced. Basics of turning at a wall are also introduced.
Prerequisite: Level 3 certificate or demonstration of Level 3 skills
LEVEL 5 – Stroke Refinement
Purpose: To continue the coordination and refinement of strokes. Students refine their performance of all the strokes (front crawl, back crawl, butterfly, breaststroke, elementary backstroke and sidestroke) and increase their distances. Flip turns on the front and back are also introduced.
Prerequisite: Level 4 certificate or demonstration of Level 4 skills
LEVEL 6 – Stroke Refinement
Purpose: To refine strokes so students swim them with more ease, efficiency, power and smoothness over greater distances. Students will be able to swim at least 100 yards of front and back crawl and 50 yards of breaststroke, elementary backstroke, sidestroke and butterfly. They will be able to demonstrate open turns and flip turns. Students will tread water for 5 minutes and learn feet-first dive, pike surface dive and tuck surface dive. Other survival skills will be taught such as survival float, back float, survival swimming and self-rescue techniques. Safety rules for open water and for boating will be discussed.
Prerequisite: Level 5 certificate or demonstration of Level 5 skills
STROKE & TURN
Stroke & Turn is for swimmers aged 11+ and focuses on refining strokes, improving efficiency, and speed with advanced drills. The class also covers starts, turns for each stroke, and safety rules.
Prerequisite: A Level 6 certificate is required
SWIM CONDITIONING
Swim Conditioning is for swimmers aged 12+ who completed Stroke & Turn last season. The class focuses on building endurance through drills and exercises, while also reviewing stroke technique, starts, turns, and safety rules.
Prerequisite: A Level 6 certificate and passing Stroke & Turn is required
Dive Lessons
Dive lessons at Wedgewood cover the many skill areas of diving, including the starting position on the diving board, approach, takeoff, flight, and entry.
- Children must be at least 5 years old and pass the swim test to participate in Dive lessons.
- Dive lessons are grouped by age and skill level and typically run 6-7 weeks, from late June to early August.
- Choose either a Mon/Wed class or a Tue/Thu class.
- Divers may register for one dive class only (either then Mon/Wed class OR the Tue/Thu class).
- Note that Dive Team members do NOT register for Dive lessons. Dive instruction is included during team practice.
Diving Skill Levels
BEGINNER
For children who have never been on a diving board, but would like to try it out.
ADVANCED BEGINNER
For children who have had lessons before but do not yet feel very comfortable on the board.
INTERMEDIATE
For children who took lessons last year and feel comfortable on the board. The children at this level should have some of their dives down and would like to continue to improve their diving skills.
Meet the Head Instructors
Julia D.
Director of Aquatics
Emma L.
Assistant Director of Aquatics
Miranda S.
Head Dive Coach
Lesson Registration
- Lesson registration takes place in May via SignUpGenius.
- Registration information will be sent to members by email in advance of the signup date.
- Make sure to sign up for Club emails.
- Lesson spots are available for all, but popular time slots may fill quickly. Register online promptly to secure your child’s spot and help with staff planning.
- If your child wants to take lessons with a friend, please coordinate the day/time both families will sign up BEFORE signing up for lessons.
- Remember that youth may participate in both swim lessons AND swim team, but dive team members do NOT participate in dive lessons (dive instruction is included during team practice).
- Private lessons are available. Contact the coaches directly to learn more.
Registration Notes
Do your best to sign up for the appropriate swim level.
- For youth new to lessons, make your best guess based on the Swimming Skill Levels descriptions above.
- For youth in lessons the previous year, see the recommended lesson levels.
- Remember that children progress at different rates, and it often takes more than one summer to complete a given swim level.
- Instructors may adjust placements after the first week.