The ability to take a breath when swimming can extend distance and the next badge is the ten metres badge.   Only once have I been pinned against the end of the pool by a 4-year-old having completed 12½ metres without breathing - the last few metres were completed so quickly "before the breath ran out" that I was caught out.  But this is the exception and normally the swimmer must breathe several times in this distance, which brings in the additional skill of timing the breath when the mouth is above the water line.

It is a big jump to the next distance award of 25 metres and the stroke and breathing are settling down to be more efficient and smoother.  Children are reminded to "walk down to the shop, not run" as a means to conserve energy for the return trip.

As skills improve so greater distances can be tackled - 50 metres - 100 metres - 200 metres (needed for the  Challenge 2 award ) can all be taken at the Watchet pool.  Most will wish to do these distances using front crawl as being the easier stroke to master but others prefer the slower but equally effective breast stroke - or a mixture of both.

A longer distance of 800 metres using two or three different strokes are required as a part of the  Silver  and  Gold  Challenge Awards which are taken at Aquasplash*.

For even longer distances, we hire the Minehead AquaSplash pool for the  1-hour  and the very popular  2-hour  sessions.  Most achieve distances up to 1 mile in the hour and some go on to 2,000 metres.   The better swimmers take part in the more challenging 2-hour swims and achieve 3,000 metres and upwards - the current record is an amazing 7,350 metres  (over 4½ miles !) in the two hours.

* the diving section of these awards is taken at the St James Street, Taunton pool.