Level 1- Introduction to Water Skills

Requirements: None

Skills Covered: Entering and exiting the water safely, learning to submerge mouth, nose, and eyes and control breathing, front and back float and recovering to a stand, changing direction in the water, swimming 5 feet on front and back.

Level 2- Fundamental Aquatic Skills

Requirements: Students entering this level must possess a Level 1 certificate or demonstrate all of the Level 1 skills.

Skills Covered: Entering water by stepping or jumping in from the side, submerging entire head, blowing bubbles, open eyes underwater, front and back glide, swim 15 feet on their front and 10 feet on their back, swim on the side, life jacket use.

Level 3- Stroke Development

Requirements: Students entering this level must possess a Level 2 certificate or demonstrate all of the Level 2 skills.

Skills Covered: Jump into deep water, head first entry from sitting or kneeling, submerging and retrieving an object, bobbing, survival float for 30 seconds, treading water for 30 seconds, front crawl 15 yards, butterfly 15 feet, back crawl 15 yards, elementary rescues, safe diving, check-call-care.

Level 4- Stroke Improvement

Requirements: Students entering this level must possess a Level 3 certificate or demonstrate all of the Level 3 skills.

Skills Covered: Diving, underwater swimming, feet-first surface dive, 1 minute of survival floating, treading and back floating, 25 yards of front crawl, breaststroke and back crawl, 15 yards of butterfly, elementary backstroke and sidestroke, compact jump from height in a lifejacket, throwing assists and caring for an unconscious choking victim.

Level 5- Stroke Refinement                                                           

Requirements: Students entering this level must possess a Level 4 certificate or demonstrate all of the Level 4 skills.

Skills Covered: Shallow dive, tuck and pike surface dives, 2 minutes of survival floating, back float and treading water, flip turns on the front and back, 50 yards front and back crawl, 25 yards butterfly, breaststroke, elementary backstroke and sidestroke, 2 minutes of survival swimming, rescue breathing.

Level 6- Swimming and Skill Proficiency

Requirements: Students entering this level must possess a Level 5 certificate or demonstrate all of the Level 5 skills.

Skills Covered: 500 yards continuous swim using 100 yards each of front and back crawl, 50 yards each of breaststroke, elementary backstroke, sidestroke and butterfly and 100 yards choice of any of those strokes, survival floating and back floating 5 minutes each, feet first surface dive and retrieve an object from 7 feet, Cooper 12-minute swim test.