Our Programme

Evolution Aquatic’s Learn to Swim programme enables children from around school age to achieve water confidence, competency and safety. We have low-ratio classes in our learner levels which makes for a great balance of teaching and learning skills, whilst making the lessons enjoyable and fun!

Like any other physical activity, swimming is based on development levels and needs to be practised and reinforced continually. As well as the health and safety benefits, swimming lessons have also been shown to enhance social, emotional and mental well-being.

Our programme has four progressive levels with a strong emphasis on 

• buoyancy
• body position, and
• breath control

Across all levels, swimmers will focus on using and exploring their body’s natural buoyancy, rather than relying on flotation aids. While these objects can help with swimmers’ confidence in the short term, they also encourage an unnatural body position in the water (which must then be corrected later). Breath control is the ability to exhale under the water and get a new breath in a relaxed and timely manner. Without breath control, your swimmer cannot progress to greater distances without stopping or interrupting their stroke for air.

Holding your breath underwater is a basic reflex from a young age. This reflex is stronger in some students than others and takes different lengths of time to retrain. Still, student assessment for all skills is conducted on an ongoing basis to ensure students are at the appropriate level. They will not have to wait until the end of the term to move up if they are ready.

Graduates of our Learn to Swim programme are able to swim an uninterrupted 200m, using various swimming and water safety techniques as required. In New Zealand, 200 metres is a common measure of water safety skill and ability.

During the programme, students are introduced to water safety skills, including survival strokes, as well as progressive elements of the four competitive strokes to help them achieve this. Swimmers are then invited to continue developing their skills and technique, in preparation for entering our introductory squad experience in the Stroke Development Squad, should they wish to.