advantage of private lessons

The classic conundrum: is there more value in spending more now or less over a longer time? Specifically, does it make more sense to spend more on private lessons VS spending less on group lessons?

The short answer is YES, it makes much more sense to invest in private lessons. Let’s dive in (pardon the pun) and start by analysing the costs vs group sizes. Costs will be based off Quebec prices, and class sizes will be based off of classes for 3-4 year olds. Why 3-4 years old? This is the critical age where kids learn to swim on their own, and at this age most parents have their kids inscribed in swim classes for obvious safety reasons.

Cost: Financial component

The average group lesson costs between $8-$11 for a standard 30min municipal swim class. This is the resident price; if you are a non-resident, add $2-$3. Private classes range from an average of $26/30min for municipal centers to as low as $22 for private swim clubs. Let’s average it out as follows:

group cost: $10/lesson
private cost: $24/lesson

Class sizes

Group lesson class sizes range for 4-6 kids per class for 3-4 year olds; let’s average it out to 5 kids per class. As for private classes, well, it’s 1 child per class (duh). It’s important to note here that group classes for young children – specifically non-swimmers or non-confident swimmers – entails 1 child swimming at a time with the instructor, while the others wait for their turn on the side.

Instant Analysis

Group lesson: 30min divided by 5 kids equals about 6min of 1on1 time per child, for $10. Thus parents are paying about $1.67/min of 1on1 swimming time.

Private lesson: 30min of 1on1 time for $24 = $0.80/min

Verdict: private lessons have almost twice as much value.

From another perspective…

Let’s now include expected progress in our analysis. Expected progress, while less tangible, is an important aspect which takes into account the swimming philosophy of the host club / center, and the learning process imposed on its swimmers. For a better understanding of the difference between level-based and skill-based learning systems (the two dominant methods), check out this great article here.

For standard municipal centers who follow level-based learning systems, kids typically start learning to swim on their own after approximately 100-140 group swim classes. Let’s average it to 120. This assumes kids will start classes around 18-24months, and swim once/week for 30min. The crazy thing here that I still can’t wrap my had around is that level based swimming systems don’t even introduce independent swimming for the first few levels!

For more innovative private swim clubs who follow skill-based learning philosophies that introduce independent swimming from the very beginning, it takes on average about 20-40 classes. That number can drop to as low as 10-20 if your child develops an instant bond with a top-notch private instructor. Let’s call it 30 classes.

Instant Analysis taking into account Expected Progress

Expected progress of private compared to group: 120/30 = 4:1 ratio. Factor in that private classes are $24/$10= 2.4 times the cost of group. (4 times the progress) divided by (2.4 times as expensive) = private lessons have 1.67x the value of a group class.

Final Verdict

Private lessons all the way. Going private will