Why summer holidays are the best time to learn to swim

‘You’re much better at swimming than you think you are!” I must have said those words to my six-year-old son a million times. Unsurprisingly, they seemed to hold more weight coming from a double Olympic gold medal winner.

So it was that Johnny – who, five minutes before, was adamant that getting his face wet would be lethal – was swimming merrily around with a woman I’m more used to seeing splashed across front pages than in the pool of a family resort.

Rebecca Adlington’s surprise appearance at the new TUI Family Life Bellevue Resort in Croatia had been orchestrated to celebrate the new swimming schools Thomson is launching this summer.

Available in 13 of its Mediterranean and Canary Island family resorts, they are a timely initiative. Research suggests that one in five of British 11-year-olds is unable to swim the 25-metre target set by the Government.

According to the Child Accident Prevention Trust, at least 30 British children under 10 have drowned while on holiday abroad over the past six years. Swimming is not just fun; it’s an important life skill.

And Thomson’s swim school comes with a guarantee: all kids between the ages of four and nine who attend 10 sessions over a fortnight’s holiday will go home able to swim, regardless of initial ability.

But is the chaos of a holiday the right time to learn? It sounded like an ambitious claim to me.

Adlington disagreed: “I learned to swim by watching my sisters on family holidays. On one of them, my mum was blowing up my armbands and before she could get them on, I ran and jumped straight in. My uncle, who couldn’t swim, had to jump in after me. That’s how I ended up getting lessons. Mum said: ‘She’s a liability; we have to get her properly taught.’”

In fact, Adlington said, the holiday resort environment is ideal. The Bellevue, for example, is a big, white, shiny temple to all-inclusive family jollity: three pools, three restaurants, spa, gym, kids’ clubs, evening entertainment.

“Places like this are ideal for kids to learn to swim,” said Adlington. “It’s so different from a single weekly lesson at home. Here, they get their 45-minute lesson, and the rest of the day they’re in the pool with their parents, practising what they’ve learned. And when they’re not practising, they’re surrounded by other people swimming. So they watch and learn, and their confidence builds constantly.”

Confidence-building is at the core of the new swim school’s ethos. Before his swim with Adlington, Johnny took a lesson with TUI’s professional coaches, whose exercises emphasised fun. Children were split by age: one group for four to seven-year-olds and another for seven to nine-year-olds.

“In terms of confidence,” Adlington explained, “it’s best to start as young as possible. I took my daughter, Summer, to the pool for the first time when she was three weeks old. Now she’s two, she’s taking proper lessons. She has absolutely zero co-ordination or ability. But she has no fear, either!”

What about older children who, like my son, are nervous around water? “Whatever you do, don’t push,” she said.

“For the first session, you can even just let them sit poolside and watch a lesson. They absorb so much, just taking it in for 10 minutes. Then you can gently ask, ‘Do you want to try that next time?’ If they’re not ready, then for the following session you can just let them watch again, but this time get them changed into their swim kit and encourage them to sit with their feet in the water.”

As it turned out, we had no need of that approach: Johnny was in heaven. Whether fuelled by his new swimming confidence or the endless free ice creams our all-inclusive wristbands entitled us to, he was emboldened, frolicking in the pool and careering down water slides on his tummy.

• Thomson offers seven-night holidays staying at the TUI Family Life Bellevue Resort from £1,188 per person. Price is based on two adults and two children sharing on an all-inclusive basis and includes flights departing from London Gatwick airport on August 8 2017 and transfers (thomson.co.uk/holidays/family-life).
• The swim school will run across 13 TUI Family Life Resorts this summer. Places can be booked on arrival at resort and cost £54 for a one week block booking of five sessions.