Swimming is for Everyone
For almost 170 years, the YMCA has nurtured potential and united communities across America to create lasting, meaningful change. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is to teach youth, teens, and adults to swim, so they can stay safe around water and learn the skills they need to make swimming a lifelong pursuit for staying healthy. Y swim instructors are nationally certified, so students learn to swim from experienced teachers.
Interested in becoming a lifeguard? Check out our Lifeguard Training Courses for everything you need to get certified.
Find Your Swim Lessons
Whether you’re looking for youth classes or adult swimming lessons, we’ve got you covered.
Swim Class Descriptions
From basic floating to swim strokes, our classes have everything you need to learn to swim with confidence.
Swim Starters Aquatic Program
Accompanied by a parent*, infants and toddlers learn to be comfortable in the water and develop swim readiness skills through fun and confidence-building experiences, while parents learn about water safety, drowning prevention, and the importance of supervision.
*We define parent broadly to include all adults with primary responsibility for raising children, including biological parents, adoptive parents, guardians, stepparents, grandparents, or any other type of parenting relationship.
Basics for Preschool, School Age, Teen and Adult
These youth or adult swim lessons teach personal water safety and help students achieve basic swimming competency by learning two benchmark skills: swim, float, swim—sequencing front glide, roll, back float, roll, front glide, and exit—and jump, push, turn, grab.
Water Acclimation, Water Movement, and Water Stamina
Students are taught the recommended skills for all to have around water including safe water habits, underwater exploration, and how to swim to safety and exit in the event of falling into a body of water. Instructors use activities, games, and drills that are geared to reinforce learning to aid student progress in these skill-based swimming lessons.
Swim Strokes for Preschool, School Age, Teen and Adult
Having mastered the fundamentals, students learn additional water safety skills and build stroke technique, developing skills that increase social-emotional and cognitive well-being, and foster a lifetime love of physical activity.
Stroke Introduction, Stroke Development and Stroke Mechanics
Swimmers are introduced to the four competitive swimming strokes, as well as rescue skills and healthy lifestyle habits.
Specialty Classes and Programs
Swimmers who love the water and want further instruction for future aquatics activities enjoy participating in our Specialty Programs focused on leadership, competition, and recreation. We continually develop our specialty program curriculum. Please check with your local Y for new offerings.
