Swimming Badges / Proficiency

[Nuit]

When I were a young 'un, there were swimming badges. Like:
red - 25m swim, blue - 50m, green - 100m

Then it started to get a touch insane; retrieving 'bricks' from the pool floor, swimming in pajamas, tying knots in trousers and using them as buoyancy aids etc.

The gold badge was something like 10 min tread water (pajamas), swim 200m (pajamas), take them off in the water, 15 min tread water, swim 1000m and on and on and on. It took all afternoon, and meant you missed double physics .

Has anyone come across anything similar in Taiwan? I'd like to put my daughter through this, slowly, as I think swimming is such a useful skill.
She could do the 25m right now.

[Tiger Mountaineer]

Ask the lifeguards at your local. From what I've seen at the pool I go to, the groups of school kids who come in (maybe grade 5 or 6 and JH students) are not doing anything more challenging than swimming to a bench at the halfway point (12.5m) and back again.

IMHO the biggest impediment to true swimming proficiency in Tw is the lack of a 'deep end' in almost all pools, and therefore, no real chance to practice treading water or actually staying afloat without getting exhausted and pausing.

[Nuit]

Ask the lifeguards at your local.

Ho ho. There aren't any. You could 'shallow water blackout' and you'd only be pulled out at closing time.

IMHO the biggest impediment to true swimming proficiency in Tw is the lack of a 'deep end' in almost all pools, and therefore, no real chance to practice treading water or actually staying afloat without getting exhausted and pausing.

This is a huge problem and well identified. When you're learning, it's a rite of passage to swim unaided for the first time into deep water (2m+). Still, my kid could do the more basic swimming tests, before we had to worry about that. Though I've asked around locally and been met with blank stares - it's hard enough to find anywhere that even does swimming lessons.

[Tiger Mountaineer]

Ho ho. There aren't any.

You're outside Taipei I guess? Maybe no dice then.

I go to one of the Taipei City sports centers. The lifeguards there are actually pretty professional (at least the head life guards) and there are always several on duty. I see them giving what look like standard basic classes for both kids and adults regularly. At one pool, the 50m one by Tai-Da, my friend and I were actually reprimanded for practicing breath holding in the mini pool, even though we were spotting each other carefully.

[tsukinodeynatsu]

OP, I know you're East - it might not be what you're looking for, but not far behind one of the little villages on the road south from Taidong City (I can look up which one, the name just escapes me right now) is a beautiful stream with very calm water that's quite deep in several areas. The locals all swim in it during summer (it's freezing, crystal clear water) and I can see it being a good place to learn how to swim.

[Nuit]

OP, I know you're East - it might not be what you're looking for, but not far behind one of the little villages on the road south from Taidong City (I can look up which one, the name just escapes me right now) is a beautiful stream with very calm water that's quite deep in several areas. The locals all swim in it during summer (it's freezing, crystal clear water) and I can see it being a good place to learn how to swim.

I love those swims, and it's not always so freezing in high summer. Hopefully one day Kid will too, although right now she complains if the water isn't bath temperature.

But I was really looking for some kind of fun reward system / mentor to move her swimming onwards, as she doesn't listen to me that much anymore:
"Hey, come on, let's do a length."
"No."