Beginners, nervous swimmers and improvers from twelve, four to a class, evenings, £13 a lesson
Adult lessons
Lessons for adults and teenagers from twelve in groups of four: complete beginners who never learned, nervous swimmers who can get across but hate it, and improvers who want proper front crawl for a triathlon or the sea. Thirty minutes on weekday evenings in a quiet lane of the main pool, £13 a lesson.
About one adult in five in Wales cannot swim, and almost all of them are embarrassed about it. They needn't be. Our adult classes are four people in a lane at the quiet end of the pool on a weekday evening, with a teacher who has heard every reason and every fear and is in the water with you for as long as you want.
Beginners' classes start in the teaching pool, where you can stand everywhere and the water is warm, with the same things children learn first: putting your face in, floating, standing up again from floating, which is the moment most adults realise they can do this. From there it is kicking, gliding, and the first strokes, usually breaststroke because it keeps your head up. Most beginners swim a width within a term and a length within two.
Nervous swimmers, who can get across the pool but panic in deep water or with their face in, have their own class on Tuesday evenings with Rhiannon, who specialises in it. The work is almost all on breathing and on being comfortable out of your depth, with a lane rope to hold, and it changes lives: several of our nervous swimmers now swim in the sea at Penarth every Sunday.
Improvers' classes are for adults who swim but want to swim well: front crawl with proper breathing, efficient breaststroke, tumble turns, open-water preparation. Training for a triathlon or a charity swim is common; so is simply wanting to swim thirty lengths without stopping. The main pool, a lane to the class, video of your stroke if you want it.
All adult classes are thirty minutes on weekday evenings after the children's lessons, four people at most. Teenagers from twelve join the adult classes too, grouped with the other teenagers whenever there are enough of them, and never with the six-year-olds; a teenager who would rather not be seen can start one-to-one.
What is included
- Beginners, nervous swimmers and improvers, from twelve
- Four to a class, weekday evenings after the children
- Beginners start in the warm teaching pool where you can stand
- A nervous swimmers' class on Tuesdays with a specialist
- Improvers: front crawl, breathing, turns, open-water preparation
- £13 a lesson, charged by the term; one-to-one £28
What it costs
£13 a lesson for thirty minutes, four to a class, charged by the term. One-to-one £28. The level finder suggests the stage and lists its classes with spaces; the term dates page shows the lessons left this term and what joining now costs.
Questions about adult lessons
I am fifty and cannot swim at all. Is it too late?
No. The oldest beginner we have taught was seventy-four and swam her first length at seventy-five. Adults learn differently from children, mostly more slowly at first and then faster, and the beginners' class is designed for exactly you.
I panic when my face goes in. Can you help?
That is what the Tuesday nervous swimmers' class is for. It starts with breathing out through your nose on the step and goes at your pace. Most people who think they cannot put their face in can do it by the third week.
Will people watch?
The adult classes are after the children's lessons, in the quiet end of the pool, with four people in the class and nobody in the gallery but the odd partner. Nobody who has done it has found it as exposing as they feared.
Find the stage, then book a place. Pay only for the lessons left.
Tell us the swimmer's age and what they can do now, and we offer a class at the right stage with a space, usually within the week. The first ten minutes are an assessment and the teacher moves them that day if the stage is wrong. Or ring Carys in the office.