Last updated: 10 April 2025
Swimming lessons offer numerous benefits for both young and old. Not only is swimming a fun and social sport with a range of health benefits, but its also a vital life skill that is potentially lifesaving. You never know when you or your child will be around water or what opportunities may arise when you have the skills to swim confidently. Let’s dive into the reasons why it’s best to start swimming lessons early and the many benefits regular swimming lessons provide.
Benefits of learning to swim at a young age
Babies 12 weeks to 12 months
Starting swimming lessons from an early age has many benefits for children, both in and out of the pool. Swimming lessons for kids teach important water safety skills and support their physical well-being. They can also help your child grow socially, mentally, and academically. The sooner your child starts swimming lessons, the sooner they can become comfortable and confident in the water and learn essential skills that will stay with them for life.
While children of all ages are keen learners, they learn more quickly during their early years (0-5) than at any other time in life. This highlights why it’s so important to start swimming early and stick with it, even through the more challenging times, including the toddler years and the transition from parent-child to independent lessons.
Research has confirmed that the first three to five years are particularly important for development. Data compiled by the Rauch Foundation found that 85 percent of a person’s brain is developed by the time they are five years old. This means early experiences play a crucial role in development, having a direct impact on children’s future learning skills as well as social and emotional abilities.
Therefore, it’s crucial to set good habits in these early years including swimming and water safety. Particularly as taking part in swimming lessons has been found to greatly contribute to physical, cognitive and social development during this time.
8 benefits of baby swimming lessons
1. Parent and baby bonding
Swimming lessons provide an opportunity for good bonding time between parents and infants. All of Kingswim’s four foundation-level infant classes are run with parents supporting little ones in the pool.
2. Develops physical skills
Swimming improves coordination and balance and enables infants to enjoy floating, buoyancy, and movement while being supported in the pool. The practice your infant gets moving both arms and legs simultaneously is seriously useful for their coordination and balance. Even making small, coordinated movements is a victory for them and will help them outside the pool too. Swimming lessons give them a unique chance to move almost independently in the first year of their life.
3. Improves overall infant health
Swimming promotes strength, flexibility and overall physical health in babies. It also builds up core muscles and the muscles they need to hold their head up and move their little arms and legs. This can help infants achieve developmental milestones outside of the water too. Additionally, learning breath control supports significant lung development.
4. Reduces risk of drowning
Swimming lessons provide important water safety skills and knowledge. Learning to float, tread water, kick, move in water, and hold their breath are essential water skills. Toddlers are fast and inquisitive, so ensuring your infant has key survival swimming skills can help them stay safer in and around water.
5. Improves cognitive development
Swimming lessons have brain-boosting power because swimming is a bilateral cross-patterning movement. This is where the left and right sides of the body work together in a coordinated, alternating pattern. Performing this action has been shown to support brain development, helping little one’s achieve other physical and cognitive developmental milestones outside of the pool.
For example, the alternating limb movements used in swimming are also used in crawling, walking and running. This activity has even been linked to improved spatial awareness, linguistic and academic development, and reading later in life.
The neural pathways stimulated during swimming can support both physical and cognitive developmental milestones outside of the pool.
6. A head start
Starting swimming lessons (water play lessons) with your baby early means your child will get familiar and comfortable with water early and create positive water memories, rather than waiting until kids are older and may have more learned anxiety around the water.
7. It’s fun!
Baby swimming lessons create a wonderful sensory experience for infants and involve enjoyable parent and child games to develop babies' confidence and skills in the water. The creation of happy experiences also supports infants’ emotional development.
Benefits of swim lessons for kids and adult
1. Health benefits
Fitness, strength, motor skills, and flexibility
Swimming improves cardiovascular health, muscle strength, flexibility and coordination. It also improves motor skills, coordination and balance, supporting hand-eye coordination for activities like catching, throwing and writing.
Encouraging a lifelong love of exercise
Children who start exercising early, by taking part in sports such as swimming, are much more likely to continue exercising into adulthood. By making swimming a regular activity, you’ll be introducing good habits from a young age. This sets your child up for a lifelong love and commitment to physical exercise, which is great for their health and wellbeing.
Improves mood and relaxation
Regular swimming offers mental health benefits, including improved sleep quality and stress reduction. Engaging in water activities such as swimming has been shown to alleviate mood and anxiety symptoms, contributing to overall mental well-being. Additionally, swimming can lower stress hormones like cortisol, promoting relaxation and better sleep patterns. The meditative aspects of swimming—such as rhythmic strokes, controlled breathing, and the muffling of outside noise underwater—further enhance its calming effects, aiding in stress management and mental clarity.
Improves appetite
Swimming is a demanding exercise that expends a lot of energy in the pool, staying warm, and learning new movements. Often, parents see their kids' appetites growing after lessons.
2. Builds self-esteem and confidence
Swimming lessons, even at the most basic levels, can instill confidence so undue panic doesn’t set in. As your little one’s swimming skills develop, so does their level of confidence. Overcoming fears and witnessing their own improvement builds children’s skills in risk-taking and their sense of accomplishment.3.
3. Practice builds progress
Consistently practicing swimming helps consolidate technique, build muscle memory, and improve overall fitness, making movements more efficient and effortless over time. Like any skill, mastery in swimming is only achieved through regular repetition, reinforcing both physical strength and coordination in the water. Regular swimming lessons give students the opportunity to learn, practice, and grow their confidence and skills.
5. Safety benefits
Swimming lessons teach kids and adults the importance of swimming as a survival skill and essential techniques such as treading water, floating, and getting to safety. Children learn important swimming and water safety skills that help them stay calm in water-related situations.
At Kingswim, we teach survival skills in every swimming lesson to help your child feel more confident and capable in the water, especially if they find themselves or someone else in difficulty.
5. Social benefits
Swimming creates opportunities for socialising and bonding with others. Kids play games and participate in water safety activities together, developing team-building skills and the ability to work together and follow instructions. As your child gets older and develops their skills in the water, they may also want to join a squad program where they can have fun, socialise and compete with a community of swimmers.
6. Life is more fun when you can swim
Learning to swim doesn’t just keep you safe—it opens a world of adventure and unforgettable experiences. From pool parties and beach trips to snorkeling in tropical reefs and paddleboarding on a peaceful lake, swimming gives your child the freedom to explore the outdoors and develop great friendships. Whether it’s surfing, kayaking, or even just playing water games with friends, being a confident swimmer means you or your child will never have to miss out on the fun.
Water is a way of life in Australia—whether it’s weekends at the beach, barbecues by the pool, or school swimming carnivals, being in and around water is part of growing up here. Ensuring your child learns to swim not only keeps them safe but also helps them fully embrace Australia’s outdoor lifestyle, where confidence in the water means more fun, more opportunities, and a deeper connection to the community.
But the benefits go beyond holidays and fun. Strong swimmers can get into exciting fitness opportunities like open-water swimming, triathlons, or competitive races, making being active feel exhilarating. Even something as simple as floating effortlessly on your back can bring a sense of calm and freedom. When you know how to swim well, the water becomes a place of joy and endless possibilities.
Swimming isn’t just about staying afloat and being safe—it actively supports key developmental milestones by enhancing brain function, motor skills, and overall coordination. It also fosters healthy fitness habits and opens the door to a lifetime of enjoyable water activities. Whether it's a baby discovering movement, a toddler refining coordination, a school-age child building focus, or an adult learning for the first time, swimming contributes to physical, cognitive, and life skill development at every stage.
If you’d like to find out more about Kingswim’s learn to swim programs, please get in touch with our friendly team.