Swimming lessons can make a real difference to young kids – Hayley Matthews

Eight-year-old Harris’s swimming skills started to plateau until he got a few coaching sessions, writes Hayley Matthews.

It's important to build up kids' confidence in the water (Picture: PA

We’ve been doing the Saturday swimming for a while now at the Commonwealth Pool and I have to admit, it’s been a great class for Harris, our eight-year-old to gain confidence in his swimming skills.

However, we’d hit a plateau. For weeks and weeks, he was getting the excuses out about not wanting to go so I decided to shake things up a bit for him.

He responds really well to one-to-one teaching so I paid for a few sessions with Emma Levy at the Edinburgh Swim Studio up on Thistle Street North West Lane. Yes, I was also surprised to hear that there is a swimming pool up the town. But this is small and intimate and a little time with Emma, building Harris’s confidence, has done just the trick as I’m sure it would for anyone needing a little encouragement with their forward crawl.

I know one-to-one classes are more expensive than a weekly session, however, this has been worth it 100 times over as we’ve really seen a change in our son’s swimming technique and confidence.

I was given a DVD of the session and Harris loves watching himself back to see his skills under the water. So thank you Emma, your little gem of a swim studio tucked away just off Thistle Street has been a real find for us!