What after the swimming diploma? How your child keeps their swimming skills

The C diploma is in, there was a treat, and the swim bag disappears at the back of the closet. A few months later your child is panting at the edge of the holiday pool after one lap. That is not unwillingness, and it is not unusual. Swimming is a skill you maintain, and if you stop practicing, you lose ground.

How that looks afterwards differs per child. Some children move on to survival, water polo or the rescue brigade. Others only swim a few times a year on holiday. The Netherlands offers a full follow-up program after the Zwem-ABC, and at the same time research shows that people swim less and less. Below you can read what options exist, how you as a parent make a difference with little effort, and how swim schools can keep children after the diploma.

Why "finished with swim lessons" is a misunderstanding

What the National Swimming Safety Standard does say, and what it does not

A child with the National Swimming Diploma C meets the National Swimming Safety Standard. The World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures calls the complete Zwem-ABC a passport for a lifetime of swimming enjoyment.

That diploma is a snapshot. It describes what a child showed on the day of the exam, in a pool where they know the bottom and the water is pleasant. It says nothing about whether the same skill is still there three years later. The NRZ says it too: you only keep swimming safety up to standard by practicing. What happens if you do not, the World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures shows: among children who had their B diploma for a while, almost half no longer met the requirements on certain parts, both in clothes and in swimwear.

What happens when swim lessons stop

Swimming consists of fitness and technique, and both are temporary. A child who does not swim for half a year notices they get out of breath faster. Treading water in deep water, floating on your back and staying calm when your clothes are wet, are things you do on routine. That routine disappears without repetition.

Children rarely become truly bad at swimming. What disappears is the ease with which they do it. A child who could calmly tread water for a few minutes at the C diploma can panic if, after a year of inactivity, they unexpectedly end up in deep water. Someone who panics swims worse than they can, and that is exactly why routine is so important.

Why a few swims on holiday are not enough

The swimming sector is clear about this. KNZB, Reddingsbrigade Nederland and the Nederlandse Onderwatersport Bond wrote in October 2025 in their World Aquatics: swimming sport: "You maintain swimming skills by doing them. Swimming a few times a year during the school holidays is insufficient."

That sounds strict, and practice is kinder than it seems. Regularity weighs heavier than duration. One fixed hour a week, or every other week, all year round, does more than two weeks of holiday swimming and then eight months of nothing. In Amsterdam they use six lesson hours to restore children's skills, which shows that targeted practice has quick effect.

The numbers behind "keep swimming"

The Netherlands is swimming less

The World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures has been researching since 2017 how the Dutch move in water. In 2024, 54 percent of the population aged 16 and older swam at least once. In 2019 and 2017 that was still 70 percent. The same study shows that 84 percent of the Dutch consider a swimming pool a basic municipal facility, mainly because of children's swimming skills.

What drowning costs worldwide

The World Health Organization estimates that around 300,000 people drown each year. Drowning is the third leading cause of death among children aged 5 to 14 years, and for children under 5 it accounts for almost a quarter of all cases. Children and young people from 0 to 29 years together account for more than half of all victims.

The WHO calls teaching swimming, water safety and safe rescue to schoolchildren a proven prevention measure. According to the organization there is one precondition: a safe training area, a tested curriculum and a safe ratio between children and instructor. That gives swim lessons a permanent place in a child's life, even after the final diploma.

What people think is safe enough

There is a big gap between the standard and perception. In research by the Mulier Institute, Dutch people were asked whether a C diploma is necessary to swim safely.

That 14 percent is not an error in the research, it is a difference in expectation. Someone who thinks the A diploma is enough sees little reason to continue with lessons after the first diploma, and that is where children drop out of the pool.

The follow-up offer after the Zwem-ABC

What many parents do not know: the offer does not stop after the C diploma. The NRZ, together with swimming education, has a World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures of nine diplomas, divided into three series.

Why those series are set up that way

Each series has its own focus. Swimming proficiency is about swimming better and further. Survival is about dealing with unexpected situations, like falling into cold water with clothes on. Snorkeling is about a different way of moving under water, with equipment your child must learn to trust.

The series are separate, so a child can start survival after the C diploma and add snorkeling later. What does not fit in regular lessons gets attention here, without it feeling like getting another diploma.

Where you can get these diplomas

Not every swim school offers the full follow-up program. Some local swim schools and swimming clubs do, and rescue brigades step in as well: 36 local brigades have a license for the National Swimming Diplomas and train children in rescue swimming, with lifeguard courses as a follow-up. On ikwilzwemmen.nl you can see what is available near you.

When choosing, ask two things: which diplomas the school itself administers and which instructor they use for the follow-up program. A school that offers survival with someone who teaches lifesaving delivers different education than a school that turns it into an extra lesson hour.

Choosing a swim sport: what suits your child

Water polo and water basketball

Water polo is for children who like to move and can take a knock. It requires swimming at speed, turning, jumping and handling a ball at the same time. Children who get bored of laps after the C diploma often thrive here. Water basketball is the lighter variant, without contact and with a basket above the water, and is often a good first sport after the diploma.

Competitive swimming

Competitive swimming is about technique and time. Freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and turns are covered, and your child learns to train with a goal. This sport usually requires multiple trainings per week and a pool with enough lanes. Children who like numbers and improvement get enthusiastic quickly.

Rescue swimming and the rescue brigade

At a rescue brigade your child learns to transport drowning victims and use rescue tools, such as a rescue board, rescue line or torpedo buoy. Their own swimming skill improves automatically, and the highest rescue-swimming diplomas include theory and a first aid course. For families living near open water, this is the most logical route after the Zwem-ABC.

Synchronized swimming, diving and underwater sports

There is more than just swimming. Synchronized swimming requires flexibility and precision, diving requires courage and body control, and rowing, surfing and sailing are sports on and around the water. From age eight children can also learn snorkeling through ScubaDoe, the youth program of the underwater sports federation. Which sport your child chooses matters little for swimming skill, as long as they enter the water regularly.

Keep swimming without a club

Choose a fixed swim slot instead of random outings

Not every child wants or can join a club, and that is fine. What works is a fixed moment in the calendar, just like piano lessons or the earlier swim lessons: Saturday morning, or every other Wednesday after school. Put it in the family calendar and do not let it move when something else comes up.

Make the hour varied. Twenty minutes of laps, then ten minutes playing with a ball, then diving for an object on the bottom. Children who only have to do laps drop out; children who get to play in the water stay active without feeling like they are practicing.

Do the annual swimming skills check

The NRZ developed the National SwimChallenge to test how water-safe someone still is. Your child completes a course and then receives a participation certificate with personal advice on which skills need improvement. Such checks are useful for parents, because they show whether the level is maintained. You can also track this yourself with a few set exercises you repeat every six months: one minute treading water, floating on your back, a few metres underwater, and retrieving an item from the bottom while wearing clothes.

There are limits to practicing in open water

Open water is instructive and requires extra rules. Do not do it alone, choose places with lifesavers or an official swimming water profile, and always practice with the parents present. Cold water, currents and uneven bottoms demand more from a child than a pool, and a child who can do everything in the pool can get into trouble at sea. More about those differences is in the overview of safe open water swimming.

What it yields in the long term

A skill for life

Swimming is a skill you keep using, even if your child is long past swim lessons. The WHO counts teaching swimming and water safety to schoolchildren among the most cost-effective measures against drowning. In the organization's models, scaling two measures, daycare for toddlers and swim lessons for schoolchildren, could save about 774,000 child lives by 2050, with a return about nine times the investment.

For a family the calculation is smaller and more personal. Children who swim are freer in the summer, dare more on holiday and are more likely to get involved in water sports. Children who only have their diploma and never swim again lose that ease.

Teenagers and older people are risk groups

The age group that swims the least ranks high in drowning statistics. The WHO sees worldwide that men drown more than twice as often as women, and behavior plays a role: swimming alone, alcohol, or outings to water without supervision. In the Netherlands, 100 residents drowned in 2025, reports the World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures, and over the last ten years the average is 93 residents per year, mainly men. Almost eight out of ten drownings in that period occurred in open water.

Keeping swimming is therefore an issue for all ages. Someone who keeps their swimming skill in their teens keeps a habit that makes a difference later in life. The NRZ therefore also focuses with the World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures on people aged 60 and over, next to children, newcomers and low-income families.

Other countries, other habits

The Netherlands is quite unique with the Zwem-ABC and its standard for swimming safety. In most countries there is no national end standard, and lessons stop as soon as a child can swim a few strokes. What stands out there is programs that run alongside lessons, like the Rookie Lifeguard Program of the British Royal Life Saving Society. Children learn rescue and first aid while they keep swimming. In countries with long coastlines, similar rescue programs have been running for decades.

The common thread is the same everywhere: a child learns to swim in lessons and keeps it by continuing to swim. Swimmigo is used in five languages, from the Netherlands to countries where parents deal with very different school systems. The question "what now?" after a swimming diploma is the same in every language.

For swim schools: from end point to flow-through

What happens when children leave after the diploma

For a swim school the C diploma is a natural farewell moment. Children leave, a spot opens, and the waiting list moves up. Only: every child who leaves after the diploma is also a student who does not return the next year. Swim schools that organize flow-through not only keep that student, they keep the contact with the parents that has been built for years.

That does not require a big project. A follow-up group of one hour per week, with survival or snorkeling as a focus, is enough to bind part of the children. Some parents remain customers longer, and children from that group then move on to a local club you collaborate with. If you want to show former students where they stand, you can also organize the NRZ National SwimChallenge, with personal advice and a suitable follow-up offer per participant.

How to set up such a group practically

First set up one follow-up group: one fixed moment, with an instructor who has an affinity for rescue swimming or snorkeling. Place that group in the app next to your regular level groups, so the planning stays in one overview and you do not need a second system. Children coming out of the regular track move into the follow-up group when their B or C diploma is obtained.

In the statistics you can see which children are no longer active after their last level, and with a flow-through group you keep the occupancy of your hardest hours up. An hour that would otherwise empty when a group finishes, you fill with children already in your system, so no recruitment costs are needed.

Informing parents without making it a project

Parents often do not know that something exists after the diploma. Telling them costs one message per family, and it works better if it comes at the right moment: when the diploma is handed out or at the last lesson of the track. In the app parents and school can exchange messages with read receipts, and notifications come in the language the parent speaks. That way you also reach parents for whom Dutch is not the first language.

You use the same route for things that bind parents: a message when a child completes a level, a reminder for the last lesson, or the invitation to the follow-up group. It is not about flooding parents with messages, it is about making sure they know the next step at the decision moment.

Handing out milestones worth keeping

When finishing a level, a child deserves something tangible. In Swimmigo a school can create its own diplomas and milestone sheets, with its own logo, colors and signature, in a classic, minimal or modern style. At the highest levels the child receives a personalized diploma in Bronze, Silver or Gold, with name and date.

One thing is important to be honest about, also to parents: these are Swimmigo diplomas, not National Swimming Diplomas. The A, B and C diplomas and the follow-up program may only be administered by schools with a license from the National Council for Swimming Safety. Swimmigo milestones come on top of that, as a keepsake of the journey.

How to keep track of what your child can

Skills per level, not just the final result

Parents who want to know where their child stands after the diploma benefit more from an overview per skill than from the notice that the diploma exists. In the Swimmigo app progress works with seven levels and 86 skills, each scored from 0 to 6. Parents see the same levels and exercises as the instructor, so you can precisely name where it still rubs in a conversation with the teacher.

That overview is also useful after the diploma. Let your child do the exercises from the last level that were difficult a few times in summer, and you immediately see whether they have stuck. Children like that themselves, because visible progress motivates more than a well-meaning push.

Where to find everything

On swimmigo.com/levels you will find the seven levels and the skills that belong to them, with the same layout as in the app. Parents who want to know how those levels relate to national standards can find on the page for parents the explanation about progress, notifications and the free parent account. Swim schools that want to set up a follow-up group or streamline their administration can see on the page for instructors what Swimmigo does. For the full picture from water introduction to diploma, including flow-through between levels, there is the overview of swim lesson levels and skills.

Three assumptions you can drop

"My child has C, so they can do everything"

A child with the C diploma can much more than a child with A or B, and that difference is real. What they cannot do, is go a year without swimming and still perform the same. Swimming skill disappears without practice, even for a child who passed the diploma easily.

"Practice belongs to the swim lesson"

Swim lessons move a child forward, and the hours in the water are limited. Children who also swim with family outside lessons double their water time in the same period. That is the cheapest way to reach the diploma faster, and the best guarantee that the skill stays.

"Outside the Netherlands it is arranged the same"

Families who move find out that countries have different standards. A child with a Dutch C diploma is above average competent in most countries, but local swim lessons, clubs and rescue programs work differently. When moving, ask what the local swim schools do and how your child can join, instead of waiting for the school to say something.

A follow-up plan in four steps

This is the shortest route to children who remain swim-capable:

• Put one fixed swim moment in the family calendar, instead of random outings.
• Choose a track for your child: a swim sport at a club, a follow-up series at the swim school, or practice yourself at a nearby pool.
• Repeat a few set exercises every six months, or do the annual swimming skills check.
• Ask the swim school which follow-up diplomas they offer and when your child can join.

With a fixed swim moment in the calendar and a sport or practice series that suits your child, swimming skills stay up to standard.

Sources

• World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures, consulted September 2026
• World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures, consulted September 2026
• World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures, consulted September 2026
• World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures, 2025
• World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures, 15 January 2025
• World Aquatics: swimming sport, 13 October 2025
• Reddingsbrigade Nederland: National Swimming Diplomas and rescue swimming via local brigades, consulted September 2026
• World Health Organization: drowning, facts and figures, July 2026
• World Health Organization: fact sheet drowning, 1 May 2026
• World Health Organization: Hidden depths, the global investment case for drowning prevention, 2024
• Royal Life Saving Society UK: Rookie Lifeguard Pool Programme, consulted September 2026