Why Swim Lessons?

If you would have told me 15 years ago that I'd grow up to be a swim instructor, I wouldn't have believed you. I was going to play basketball for the WNBA. I didn't even swim on my high school team. Swim team was during basketball season, and I wasn't going to quit basketball!! But one thing you learn as you grow up, is that things don't always happen the way you thought they would. I was lucky to have the opportunity to work for a swim school right after college as I looked for a REAL job. What I found was that I am a great teacher. I have the ability to find out what learning method works best for each child and build on that in each lesson. Part of what enables that is my ability to gain trust from children easily and by making swim lessons fun while still challenging I am able to get the most out of each student while they learn.

I spent time coaching basketball and water polo after a few years of teaching swim lessons and learned even more about learning styles and found an even greater passion for sports education. I found that older students can comprehend sports and technique and theory in a way that young ones can't. I loved the heart that the girls put into the game and I loved that they were learning about more than just a sport during each season. But I felt like something was missing.

When I returned to teaching swim lessons to younger students, the mother of Kacy,one of my three year old students, came to speak to me after the lesson. She told me that the previous weekend Kacy had fallen into the pool at a friend's house while she was playing outside. The friend's mother had left the girls outside to go answer the phone and hadn't seen Kacy fall into the pool, but Kacy was able to get herself back to the edge and cry out for help. When the mother came running outside Kacy told her that she "got back to the side, just like in swim lessons!" As her mother was telling me the story, her eyes filled with tears. I could tell she was greatful for the avoided accident and for the skills Kacy had gained in swim lessons. That moment was when I realized that what I was doing was more than splashing in the water and teaching breathing techniques. What I was doing was giving a life saving skill to each child that came into my lessons.

Although I get great joy from the fun I have with each student in my classes, knowing that what I am teaching can save lives is what drives me to continue the work that I do. Since that story from Kacy's mother, I have heard many more like it from other parents of my students. Knowing that drowning is the #1 preventable cause of death in children under 6 in Texas, makes me want to continue working to teach life saving techniques to my clients. The added bonuses I get are when I get to watch my student perform in his very first swim meet, or when a student draws a picture of the two of us in the water that I get to put on my fridge. Not everyone in this world gets to do something every day that they love and that they are good at. I am thankful that I have found both of those things in my chosen profession.