What does a swim instructor do?

Updated January 8, 2025

8 min read

As the name entails, swim instructors teach both children and adults how to swim. They help people develop their swimming ability through proper swimming techniques. Their responsibilities include ensuring that all swimming equipment is in good condition, evaluating student performance and providing feedback, and preparing reports on attendance and accidents. They are also responsible for preventing injuries and accidents through monitoring. There are several requirements to become a successful swim instructor that may include previous experience as a swim instructor, certifications on CPR and first aid, and swimming abilities.

On this page

Swim instructor responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real swim instructor resumes:

Manage all subjects of TOEFL.
Manage, facilitate and coordinate competitive swimming events using HY-TEK system.
Manage social media accounts while promoting camper interaction and sharing of the UCA brand experience.
Maintain continual first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification, while ensuring the members' requests are meet and exceed their expectations.
Care for and assist children with severe food allergies.
Certify in water aerobics, as well as CPR.
Teach private lessons to students that play woodwind and brass instruments.
Develop curriculum and testing metric for a youth Muay Thai program.
Design and update midterm and final tests for all ESL levels.
Teach learn-to-swim lessons for infants, toddlers and children of all ages.
Teach learn-to-swim for 1-8 infants, toddlers, and children ages 2-6.
Adhere to NCAA rules and regulations regarding prospective student athletes when recruiting.
Attend and employ NCAA rules and compliance requirements-completion of annual recruiting test.
Facilitate students in social skills and peer groups base on students IEP goals.
Provide instruction and coaching to high school cheerleaders at UCA summer cheer camps.

Swim instructor skills and personality traits

We calculated that 21% of Swim Instructors are proficient in Lifeguard, Cleanliness, and Customer Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Listening skills, and Motivational skills.

We break down the percentage of Swim Instructors that have these skills listed on their resume here:

Lifeguard, 21%
Worked as a lifeguard and swimming instructor for Rochester Community Education
Cleanliness, 20%
Maintained pool cleanliness and sanitation.
Customer Service, 15%
Led private lessons with children that have learning disabilities to ensure customer satisfaction by offering exceptional customer service.
Kids, 12%
Developed skills to communicate with parents and kids effectively.
Emergency Situations, 4%
Tend to accident or emergency situations in accordance with accident/incident protocols and/or emergency action plans.
Work Ethic, 4%
Permitted to run Friday morning classes unaccompanied due to demonstration of responsibility and excellent work ethic.

Common skills that a swim instructor uses to do their job include "lifeguard," "cleanliness," and "customer service." You can find details on the most important swim instructor responsibilities below.

Customer-service skills. The most essential soft skill for a swim instructor to carry out their responsibilities is customer-service skills. This skill is important for the role because "many fitness trainers and instructors sell their services, motivating clients to hire them as personal trainers or to sign up for the classes they lead." Additionally, a swim instructor resume shows how their duties depend on customer-service skills: "cleaned the pool to ensure cleanliness for all guests. "

Listening skills. Another essential skill to perform swim instructor duties is listening skills. Swim instructors responsibilities require that "fitness trainers and instructors must listen carefully to what clients tell them in order to determine the clients’ fitness levels and desired fitness goals." Swim instructors also use listening skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "designed and communicated swim lessons to children ages 2 to 14"

Motivational skills. swim instructors are also known for motivational skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to swim instructor responsibilities, because "to keep clients coming back for more classes or to continue personal training, fitness trainers and instructors must keep their clients motivated." A swim instructor resume example shows how motivational skills is used in the workplace: "utilize modern motivational techniques, attentiveness to detail and concise communication to positively direct clients to improve technique. "

Physical fitness. For certain swim instructor responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "physical fitness." The day-to-day duties of a swim instructor rely on this skill, as "fitness trainers and instructors must be able to lead classes and to demonstrate exercises to participants or their clients." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what swim instructors do: "instructed 20 children ages 5-13 in tactical and physical skills. "

Problem-solving skills. A commonly-found skill in swim instructor job descriptions, "problem-solving skills" is essential to what swim instructors do. Swim instructor responsibilities rely on this skill because "fitness trainers and instructors must evaluate members’ or client’s fitness levels and create appropriate fitness plans to meet their needs." You can also see how swim instructor duties rely on problem-solving skills in this resume example: "resolved complaints from parents related to the pool and/or lessons conducted a special teaching program for kids with special needs. "

Communication skills. Lastly, "communication skills" is an important element of what a swim instructor does. Swim instructor responsibilities require this skill because "fitness trainers and instructors must be able to clearly explain exercises that they demonstrate to clients." This resume example highlights how swim instructor duties rely on this skill: "provided swim lessons primarily to children ages 3-10, extensive communication with parents and exercised patience, and management of multiple employees"

All swim instructor skills

The three companies that hire the most swim instructors are:

Goldfish Swim School113 swim instructors jobs
Ymca Of Metropolitan Atlanta58 swim instructors jobs
Emler Swim School45 swim instructors jobs

Choose from 10+ customizable swim instructor resume templates

Build a professional swim instructor resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your swim instructor resume.

Compare different swim instructors

Swim instructor vs. Ocean lifeguard

An Ocean Lifeguard maintains continuous surveillance of people in the area of a beach. They supervise swimmers to ensure that they are swimming in accordance with safety protocols.

We looked at the average swim instructor salary and compared it with the wages of an ocean lifeguard. Generally speaking, ocean lifeguards are paid $4,094 higher than swim instructors per year.Even though swim instructors and ocean lifeguards are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require emergency situations, first aid training, and resuscitation in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a swim instructor are more likely to require skills like "lifeguard," "cleanliness," "customer service," and "kids." On the other hand, a job as an ocean lifeguard requires skills like "public safety," "emt," "patrol," and "responder." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

The education levels that ocean lifeguards earn slightly differ from swim instructors. In particular, ocean lifeguards are 3.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a swim instructor. Additionally, they're 0.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Learn more about swim instructors vs ocean lifeguards.

Swim instructor vs. Beach lifeguard

Beach lifeguard positions earn higher pay than swim instructor roles. They earn a $3,235 higher salary than swim instructors per year.Only some things about these jobs are the same. Take their skills, for example. Swim instructors and beach lifeguards both require similar skills like "lifeguard," "first aid aed," and "emergency situations" to carry out their responsibilities.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that swim instructor responsibilities requires skills like "cleanliness," "customer service," "kids," and "work ethic." But a beach lifeguard might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "cpr," "patrol," "lifeguard training," and "public safety."

On average, beach lifeguards earn a higher salary than swim instructors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, beach lifeguards earn the most pay in the hospitality industry with an average salary of $29,643. Whereas swim instructors have higher pay in the education industry, with an average salary of $28,059.In general, beach lifeguards achieve similar levels of education than swim instructors. They're 1.0% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.9% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Swim instructor vs. Pool lifeguard

On average scale, pool lifeguards bring in higher salaries than swim instructors. In fact, they earn a $2,459 higher salary per year.swim instructors and pool lifeguards both have job responsibilities that require similar skill sets. These similarities include skills such as "cleanliness," "first aid aed," and "emergency situations," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from swim instructor resumes include skills like "lifeguard," "customer service," "kids," and "work ethic," whereas a pool lifeguard is more likely to list skills in "cpr," "first-aid," "pool deck," and "facility rules. "

Pool lifeguards make a very good living in the education industry with an average annual salary of $29,478. On the other hand, swim instructors are paid the highest salary in the education industry, with average annual pay of $28,059.When it comes to education, pool lifeguards tend to earn similar degree levels compared to swim instructors. In fact, they're 0.9% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Swim instructor vs. Lifeguard/head lifeguard

Lifeguards/head lifeguards tend to earn a higher pay than swim instructors by an average of $2,374 per year.While their salaries may vary, swim instructors and lifeguards/head lifeguards both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "cleanliness," "customer service," and "first aid aed. "While some skills are required in each professionacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities, there are some differences to note. "lifeguard," "kids," "work ethic," and "strong work ethic" are skills that commonly show up on swim instructor resumes. On the other hand, lifeguards/head lifeguards use skills like first-aid, aquatic facility, in-service training, and pool maintenance on their resumes.The education industry tends to pay the highest salaries for lifeguards/head lifeguards, with average annual pay of $29,741. Comparatively, the highest swim instructor annual salary comes from the education industry.In general, lifeguards/head lifeguards hold similar degree levels compared to swim instructors. Lifeguards/head lifeguards are 0.8% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of swim instructor

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse protective service jobs