I tell parents before lessons start that I prefer that their children not bring goggles to class. For most kids, this is a non-issue, but for some, you would think I was telling them I was taking away their most prized possession. The goggle issue can be a sticky one, but once I explain my reasoning to parents, they usually understand and leave me to do the negotiating with the child.
Before I get started with my reasoning, let me preface this by saying that I am talking about children who are not strong swimmers. Lap swimmers can use goggles without a problem. The children I am talking about are in the earlier stages of learning how to swim and won't actually have their faces in the water long enough to necessitate goggle use. In a 30 minute lesson a non-swimmer will be under water for less than 10 minutes. This isn't long enough for even children with chlorine sensitivities to feel a real impact. Also, a well balanced pool (saline or chlorine) should not be painful on the eyes. We could go into pH balance versus free and available chlorine and their corneal impact, but that's not really the intention of this post.
The first reason I dislike goggles in swim class is the amount of time they drain from the lesson. Smaller children aren't able to put their goggles on (or keep them on) correctly. As the teacher, I can end up spending up to 8 minutes (that's 25%!!) of class time adjusting, repositioning, draining, and fixing goggles. Another 2 - 5 minutes can be spent on the child worrying about whether his goggles are on correctly, if they are leaking, and deciding if he wants to wear them or take them off. That's over a third of the class time stolen by a small piece of plastic and rubber.
The second and more important reason I dislike goggles for non-swimmers is the crippling effect they can have on children. Picture, if you will, Dumbo and his feather. That little elephant with big ears sure was cute, but he firmly believed that he couldn't fly without his feather. I have taught too many children who insisted on wearing goggles during lessons because they believed they could not swim without them. Many of those kids swam great with goggles on, but when they would fall into a pool without goggles, they would not be able to swim to the side to save themselves.
The most important aspect of swim lessons is the life-saving skill that children learn. Living in Texas, we have so many bodies of water around us: lakes, ponds, bayous, the ocean, and countless backyard pools. Children fall into these far too often, and most times that happens without goggles on. It is important to me that my students learn to swim without using goggles as a crutch. Once a student can swim the length of the pool without goggles, I will let him use them during lessons. Of course, he has to be able to put them on by himself and leave them on during class. Once they start sucking the time out of class, they are gone again.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Why is TKO the premier choice?
Why Choose TKO? There are a myriad of reasons, including: I have over 12+ years of experience in the industry; I teach roll-over breathing, and have done so since 1999; I am a 3 time recipient of the USSSA's Outstanding Teacher award; I have successfully taught over one thousand swimmers; and I was the most highly requested instructor at my last two swim schools, leaving Sea Star with a 4.89 parent rating (out of 5). Beyond the numbers, however, there are intangibles that make the difference in your child's swim lesson experience. One of those is determining your child's best learning method.
I have spent thousands of hours working with children of all ages from 6 months - to 16 years (and adults, too!) learning the best phrasing, holds, imagery, timing, and techniques that work for each skill level. In all that time, the most valuable thing I have learned is that there is not one right answer. Each child learns differently and responds to different stimuli. I make it my goal to find out which method or combination of methods your child learns best from and I use that to my advantage in swim lessons.
Some children learn a new skill best by experiencing it physically. My best example is 5 year old Brady when he was learning to breathe to the side for freestyle. I could talk till I was blue in the face to Brady. No amount of watching his brother or his other classmates made a difference to him. Once I took his arms in mine and guided his head to the side to feel the correct positioning for the turn, he had that lightbulb "aha" moment. A few more repetitions with me, and Brady was ready to take off on his own, showing off his new found skill. Of course we had a lot of fine tuning to do, but I knew that physically experiencing the feeling of the skill was the best method of learning for Brady.
Nina was a 30 month old student of mine who was a great example of a visual learner. She started out in a Mommy and Me class with me and eventually progressed to a "Big Girl" class without her mom in the water. She was big, boisterous, and always laughing. Her attention span was typical for a two and a half year old, so I broke down each skill for her so she could learn it one piece at a time. Nina didn't respond to me physically putting her into the correct position in a positive way. After all, she was in a "Big Girl" class and wanted to do everything all by herself. I would show Nina the skill I wanted her to accomplish and then she would try it on her own. When we were working on independent floating, I was worried because that is a skill that can be difficult for the little ones without some support. I floated on my back and showed Nina where her chin needed to be to make her float. When it was her turn, as I was holding her, she told me, "Let go, Miss Christy. I can do it just like you." As I let go, she pressed her chin into the air as I had shown her, and sure enough, she floated on her own.
Verbal communication is another common learning technique for many students. 4 year old Ethan was one of my students who excelled best by having skills explained to him in imaginative ways. When he was learning to roll over to his back to float and get a breath, he had a hard time understanding the roll-over concept. We started talking about the way his dad made pancakes and how they needed to be flipped to the other side so they could be cooked. This imagery worked for Ethan, so when he needed to roll over I would tell him to "flip like a pancake." He was excited to "cook" on both sides and within two lessons, he was rolling over on his own.
Most students need a combination of verbal, visual, and physical communication to learn new skills. I utilize all three of these techniques when teaching and when I find which of these (or which combination of these) styles of learning works best for each individual student, I begin to transition into a teaching style that works best for the student. This is intuitive to me, as I believed it would be for most instructors. However, as I trained new teachers at my previous swim school, I realized this is not the case. Unfortunately, in a swim school setting there are many teachers who do best by learning an instruction technique and who stick to the script to fit within the swim school model. Now that I am on my own, teaching independent private lessons, I have the freedom to modify each swim class to work best for each individual student. When you choose TKO you know that the lessons will be tailored to your child's strengths. I have a curriculum filled with skills and milestones I want each child to achieve, but I take the liberty to mold the lesson to the child's best interest and not try to fit them into the standard mold.
Another reason TKO lessons are above par in the industry is that I believe in ensuring that each child is having fun. I have found that a laughing child is a much quicker learner than a bored one. I utilize age specific toys, games, techniques, and even jokes that engage my students, making our lessons more productive. Beyond just being productive, I want swim lessons to be a time your child looks back on fondly. Swimming is a life-long skill that can also be a life-saving one as well: however, learning to swim doesn't have to be a clinical experience. If my philosophy sounds like a good fit for your family, I hope that you will give me a call.
I have spent thousands of hours working with children of all ages from 6 months - to 16 years (and adults, too!) learning the best phrasing, holds, imagery, timing, and techniques that work for each skill level. In all that time, the most valuable thing I have learned is that there is not one right answer. Each child learns differently and responds to different stimuli. I make it my goal to find out which method or combination of methods your child learns best from and I use that to my advantage in swim lessons.
Some children learn a new skill best by experiencing it physically. My best example is 5 year old Brady when he was learning to breathe to the side for freestyle. I could talk till I was blue in the face to Brady. No amount of watching his brother or his other classmates made a difference to him. Once I took his arms in mine and guided his head to the side to feel the correct positioning for the turn, he had that lightbulb "aha" moment. A few more repetitions with me, and Brady was ready to take off on his own, showing off his new found skill. Of course we had a lot of fine tuning to do, but I knew that physically experiencing the feeling of the skill was the best method of learning for Brady.
Nina was a 30 month old student of mine who was a great example of a visual learner. She started out in a Mommy and Me class with me and eventually progressed to a "Big Girl" class without her mom in the water. She was big, boisterous, and always laughing. Her attention span was typical for a two and a half year old, so I broke down each skill for her so she could learn it one piece at a time. Nina didn't respond to me physically putting her into the correct position in a positive way. After all, she was in a "Big Girl" class and wanted to do everything all by herself. I would show Nina the skill I wanted her to accomplish and then she would try it on her own. When we were working on independent floating, I was worried because that is a skill that can be difficult for the little ones without some support. I floated on my back and showed Nina where her chin needed to be to make her float. When it was her turn, as I was holding her, she told me, "Let go, Miss Christy. I can do it just like you." As I let go, she pressed her chin into the air as I had shown her, and sure enough, she floated on her own.
Verbal communication is another common learning technique for many students. 4 year old Ethan was one of my students who excelled best by having skills explained to him in imaginative ways. When he was learning to roll over to his back to float and get a breath, he had a hard time understanding the roll-over concept. We started talking about the way his dad made pancakes and how they needed to be flipped to the other side so they could be cooked. This imagery worked for Ethan, so when he needed to roll over I would tell him to "flip like a pancake." He was excited to "cook" on both sides and within two lessons, he was rolling over on his own.
Most students need a combination of verbal, visual, and physical communication to learn new skills. I utilize all three of these techniques when teaching and when I find which of these (or which combination of these) styles of learning works best for each individual student, I begin to transition into a teaching style that works best for the student. This is intuitive to me, as I believed it would be for most instructors. However, as I trained new teachers at my previous swim school, I realized this is not the case. Unfortunately, in a swim school setting there are many teachers who do best by learning an instruction technique and who stick to the script to fit within the swim school model. Now that I am on my own, teaching independent private lessons, I have the freedom to modify each swim class to work best for each individual student. When you choose TKO you know that the lessons will be tailored to your child's strengths. I have a curriculum filled with skills and milestones I want each child to achieve, but I take the liberty to mold the lesson to the child's best interest and not try to fit them into the standard mold.
Another reason TKO lessons are above par in the industry is that I believe in ensuring that each child is having fun. I have found that a laughing child is a much quicker learner than a bored one. I utilize age specific toys, games, techniques, and even jokes that engage my students, making our lessons more productive. Beyond just being productive, I want swim lessons to be a time your child looks back on fondly. Swimming is a life-long skill that can also be a life-saving one as well: however, learning to swim doesn't have to be a clinical experience. If my philosophy sounds like a good fit for your family, I hope that you will give me a call.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Back in the Saddle
I recently remembered that I started a blog for TKO when I moved to Austin. Busy swim lesson seasons, basketball practices and games, and planning my wedding made me put the blog on the back burner, but I'm ready to fire her back up!
I am adding a new swim lesson format to my lessons this summer. TKO will now be offering 2 Week Intensive lessons for the month of June. These classes will be Monday through Thursday for 2 weeks for a total of 8 lessons. The benefit to an intensive swim lesson session is that with the minimized down-time between lessons, your child will pick up the skills he or she is learning more quickly; the beginning of each lesson your child takes will be a review of the skills he or she accomplished in the previous lesson. With 4 to 7 days between many weekly or bi-weekly lessons, the review can be a slow process. By repeating the process on a daily basis, your child will have more muscle memory recall and accelerate more quickly.
For children who are afraid of the water, the daily immersion is a much quicker way to get past the swimming blues and begin the learning process. Often children who are scared use the days in between lessons to magnify their fears, remembering the scary parts and not thinking about the enjoyable parts. The shorter the amount of time between lessons, the less this happens with the little ones, and the more quickly they adapt to the swim lesson model and get over their fears.
There are two intensive sessions scheduled for this summer. The dates are:
Jun 6 - 16
and
June 20 - 30
These classes will be available every half hour from 9:30am - 1:30pm Monday - Thursday as private lessons.
Many swim schools offer the 2 week intensive lessons as part of their curriculum. I am happy to be introducing these to my repertoire and hopefully extending the number of students I can help achieve swimming milestones this summer. If you are interested in registering for the new intensive lessons, or for at-home private or semi-private lessons, you can check out the pricing on my website: TKO Swim
If intensives go well, there may be additional sessions added after St. Stephen's has their pool replastered in July.
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