Getting my son off to a good start

Question
Hello.  I am a former swimmer who is now the mother of a 5 year old boy and would like to get my son off to a good start to enjoy swimming on his own.  It's not necessarily my goal to get him to the Olympics or anything like that (the best I ever did was third in the state!) but I want to give him the experience of learning to swim and eventually competing.

We have been taking swimming classes since he was a baby, taking a year off when his little brother was born, and have been back into it for about two years.  At his swim club they have a 21 step program where level 21 is for little kids who can't put their face in the water yet, and level 1 is being able to swim a 100 IM under the specified time for the age group.  They are allowed to compete beginning with level 9 (a timed 25 free).  My son is currently on level 14 and has been taking an average of 4-6 months to clear each level.

On the one hand, I think this system is good because I went into US swimming via a local team, was going to meets before I could even get across the pool without pulling on the lane lines... and that was a great experience, BUT I never really had a good freestyle or backstroke.  I was a natural breaststroker and good enough at butterfly that I could compete in the IM... but no one ever MADE me master a flutter kick before I was allowed to compete.  And so I never did master it.  If and when my son ever gets up to that level, he will have better form than I ever did, and for that reason I'm in favor of it.

But on the other hand, if he continues to take 4-6 months to clear each level, he will be in the third grade before he's allowed to compete in a 25 meter event!  There are kids at the club who are already competing at 5.

What do you think about this?  Is it OK to put off competing for three more years, even though the kids that will be his competition are already training?  Is there any chance for a kid coming into his first competition as a third grader to ever be competitive?

I'm also not sure about the club... it is true that my son has not mastered the freestyle (if you put him in a 25 meter event he could swim it, slowly, without getting disqualified... but his form is terrible.  I have no problem with their assesment of his abilities at this point!), but I do wonder about the other kids.  If they are saying that a 5 year old has mastered a 50 butterfly... does that happen?  When I was swimming there were MAYBE one or two six year olds who could do all four strokes, but (without having seen these children swim since they were in the Mommy and Me class) I find it a little hard to believe that there is THAT much of a difference.  I wonder... not that my own child is being unfairly held back but that those 5 year olds who are competing were given better marks than the others because they have sisters who were already competing and mothers who are... let's say ENTHUSIASTIC.

I'm worried that whether because they actually ARE that good or because the club has singled them out to be the "good ones," my son will never be able to be competitive with the kids who are so far ahead of him.

Does that make sense or am I needlessly worrying?  Would you recommend staying with this program to give him a solid foundation, or looking for a swim club that will let him start competing and learning all four strokes even if he hasn't mastered freestyle completely?

I really appreciate any advice you can give!  Thanks.

Answer
Hello Hikari,

Personally, I started off learning basics at the age of 7 for about a year before I started swimming in a club. Honestly I believe, and this is just a personal opinion,that at such an early age kids don't tend to pick up these basic stroke skills as well as they do later on when they are much older. To answer your question, I don't think that spending 3 more years on foundations is a bad thing at all, it does not necessarily put you at a disadvantage. I had been competitively swimming for at least seven years before I started competitively swimming in high school teams; you would think that it would put me at a great advantage, but there were many swimmers that had never been in competitive swimming that were able to improve times drastically within a couple months of intense training.
I also don't think that anyone at the age of 5 years old could "master" a 50 meter fly, and to think so otherwise would be detrimental to a child's future potential. However, I do think it is a good idea to start competing in meets whenever possible, because it helps the children understand the reason why they are training.
From what you are saying though, the current club your son is attending does not allow competition until a certain level? It is a peculiar case to me because most clubs that I know of consist of both training and competitive swimming. I also think that some clubs will be able to provide you with a solid foundation for not only freestyle but the other 3 strokes as well. In the end, I think it all depends on who is coaching, so it would be a good idea to ask around before joining another club. Overall, I don't think you should worry at all, your son still has a long road ahead of him and in the end, swimming is just like any other sport, the more time  you dedicate to it, the better you will be. I hope I have helped in the least. Send me a reply if you have any other questions.