Category: Lessons Swimming UK

Learn to Swim Award

Posted on by

ROCHESTER GIRL CHOSEN FROM THOUSANDS TO WIN SWIMMING AWARD.

Zoe Bartlett is making a splash after earning a top award to mark her outstanding achievement in the water.

The seven year old from Rochester, had a major fear of water but this has not stopped her learning to swim.

Now her courage and perseverance have paid off and she is riding on the crest of a wave after she was presented with a Southern Water Learn to Swim Achiever of the Year award.

The successful youngster was one of fifty winners from amongst the 35,000 children taking part across the region. The awards are given to children who have shown great courage in overcoming particular difficulties or for their exceptional performance.

Zoe’s swimming instructor at Strood Sports Centre, Maureen Welsh said: “Zoe was extremely frightened of the water and was terrified of getting her face wet. She would not join in with the rest of the class, but fortunately she never gave up. With great courage and perseverance she has now overcome her fears and can swim and go under water. She is a very worthy winner of the award.”

Zoe was treated to a visit by the Learn to Swim scheme mascot Ollie the Otter, who dropped in to help her celebrate her success.

Nigel Smetham, Southern Water’s Water Manager presented the youngster with a bag of goodies, which included a sports watch, at a special ceremony at Maidstone Leisure Centre.

Mr Smetham said: “This is a tremendous occasion for these children. They have proved themselves in many different ways and made enormous achievements on the Learn to Swim scheme.

To win these awards is extremely significant because the youngsters have been selected from 35,000 children who were taught on the scheme last year.

We are pleased to be able to contribute to the community by helping children learn a very valuable life skill, as well as enabling them to reach their fullest potential.”

The scheme, now in its tenth year, teaches children from 4-12 year-olds and is sponsored by Southern Water. It is run in consultation with the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).

 

 

Diving Lessons Learn to Swim Swimming Lessons Teach Baby to Swim

 

 

Mother and Child Drown

Posted on by

Husband finds his wife and daughter dead in luxury pool

Mother couldn’t swim.

If ever there was a plea for adults to learn to swim, this is it.

A BUSINESSMAN found his wife and toddler daughter drowned in a swimming pool at a company headquarters where he was finalising details of a new job. Vinh Nguyen had left wife Annie, 33, and 21-month-old daughter Summer to look around the grounds as he met one of the development firm’s bosses for a chat.

The plan was for them to enjoy an informal swim in the heated indoor pool after Mr Nguyen, 37, had completed details of his new job as a land manager. But to his horror he reached the pool to find his wife and daughter face down and unconscious in the water in their swimming gear in the -middle uf the pool. Mr Nguyen and Mr Tom Waldon, a director of the firm, rang for an ambulance.

They attempted resuscitation but paramedics pronounced mother and baby dead at the scene. Police and the Health and Safety Executive were yesterday investigating the tragedy at the headquarters of Land-Marque Sites Ltd in Studley, Warwickshire on Saturday.

One theory was that the little girl fell in and the mother, who like the child, could not swim, jumped in to try to save her. Annie was 5ft lin tall and her family have been told by police that the pool was 5ft 6in deep at the centre.

 

 

Private Swimming Lessons

Posted on by

Why are private swimming lessons better than public pool lessons?

Let’s just look at the cost element to begin with.  You pay £4 per lesson and get 7 lessons per half term. That’s 42 swimming lessons per year costing £126.  You probably spend the same amount again practicing in between plus the cost of getting to and from the pool every week.  So you’ve spent maybe close on £200.  Can you swim a length at the end of that year?  Not one person at our local swimming pool moved up to the intermediate class in less a years lessons.  In the intermediate class the deep end was an terrifying experience with the instructor standing poolside with a long pole for those who got into difficulty which many did.

Is being in a public pool with other people and your instructor on the poolside a good way to learn?  What do you think?

Suppose you paid that amount for private lessons, learning to swim in the comfort of a private pool with your instructor in the water with you?  What would you achieve?  For most people this would get you almost there.  For some, these supportive individually tailored private swimming lessons will be all that’s needed, if you are really water phobic, then you will obviously want more support but you will be amazed at what you can achieve in a small private pool with the right instructor.

Contrast the 2 years at your local swimming pool taking lessons in a class against booking your private lessons today and knowing you can go on your next holiday and be confident in the pool or the sea.

But couldn’t I just have a private swimming lesson at my local pool?

A private lesson at your local pool is always an option but having been there ourselves and spoken to many many people who have found this wasn’t the answer for them, we feel confident in saying this is a somewhat pointless exercise.  You will simply get exactly the same for your private lesson as you did for a lesson shared with other people and it will cost you about 4 times the price for half the time.  Your swimming instructor will still be poolside shouting her instructions to you and usually your so-called ‘private swimming lesson’ will be in a pool full of other people.  Just because you have the instructions undivided attention for half an hour, in our opinion doesn’t justify calling it a ‘private lesson’.  What you gain from being the only student, you can lose by being fearful of other swimmers splashing and making noise during your ‘private swimming lesson’.  Not so private after all?

What proportion of adults fail to learn to swim because they don’t have private lessons?

Irene and Gay speak from personal experience.  We continued to go to our local pool for ‘lessons’ for about 3 years after we learned to swim simply because we enjoyed swimming.  Most of our skills came from taking swimming courses with TI and studying other methods such as Shaw and Alexander.  We also researched a great deal about fear and phobias and spent a lot of our free time in the pool helping each other correct our technique.

We didn’t learn a lot at the local classes and the ‘advanced’ class wasn’t all that advanced!  What we did learn was that the vast majority of people fell by the wayside.  Some had private swimming lessons, paying £22 an hour to be coached from the poolside in a public pool full of other swimmers.  As I mentioned above, not my idea of a private swimming lesson.

So how many succeeded without having private lessons in a private pool?  VERY VERY FEW!!! and that includes those that had some individual lessons in the public pool.

Conclusion?

Private swimming lessons in a private pool with your instructor in the pool with you (and only you!) is the way forward.  Of course, just because an instructor offers private lessons, doesn’t necessarily mean they have what it takes to teach you, but we like to think we stand out above most others and our testimonials prove that.

So what are you waiting for?  Contact us now to chat about your fears and phobias and how we can tailor YOUR private swimming lessons.

 

 

Baby Swimming DVD

Posted on by

Teach Your Baby to Swim with this inspiring  BBC produced baby swim dvd

little dippers

Teach your baby to swim and love the water

An amazing DVD from award winner Lauren Heston, UK’s most respected instructor of water safety  for babies.

All you need to know about:

  • Water Awareness

  • Self Rescue Skills

  • Fitness

  • Bonding

  • Fun

Are you wary about introducing your baby to swimming? Are you looking forward to getting your baby in the water but think it’s a long way off? Many new Mothers and Dads too, think they can’t take their baby swimming until they are at least six months old or even older. Actually there is no sound basis for this.   All babies have a natural affinity to water and will play and exercise quite safely in water from birth without anxiety. Water-babies is a unique DVD that explains you all you need to know about when and how to get your baby swimming or playing happily in the water.

Water-babies is the brain-child of Lauren Heston, who has been running the highly-successful Little Dippers baby swimming program across the UK for almost 20 years. The DVD was produced by the makers of BAFTA-Award winning BBC series The Human Body.

The DVD/video shows carefully-designed exercises focused on  developing skills for safety, increasing fitness and most important, enjoying the water with your baby. Throughout the DVD, emphasis is placed on safety in the water, revisiting past exercises and steady progress – from simple and fun things to do in the bath to begin with, the program takes you and your baby through progressive development until you feel confident and safe in water with your baby.

Following the DVD will strengthen your baby’s hearts, lungs and respiratory systems  improve your baby’s mental outlook. Your baby will soon be swimming.

This baby swimming DVD will give you countless opportunities for fun and bonding, an ideal beginning as your baby turns into a confident swimmer as he or she grows.

Order the DVD

Click Babies and Swimming Pools for guidelines on information on immunisation, swim nappies, skin care etc.

See also Should You Teach Your Baby to Swim?  and Mother & Child Drown

Teach Your Baby to Swim

Little Dippers   DVD is no longr available

Baby Swimming

Posted on by

Read about us in Woman Magazine

Our Baby Swimming site is an offshoot of our nervous swimmers program offering the opportunity for mothers and babies to :

  • Learn about baby swimming
  • Read articles and find information about teaching baby to swim
  • Purchase Little Dippers Baby Swimming DVD
  • Book one-to-one Baby Swimming Classes in a small private pool
  • Arrange Mother and Baby Swimming Sessions
  • rImprove Mums confidence in the wate
  • Get in touch with other Mums in your area

Babies enjoy much in the water. Swimming is the most complete sport and the first thing to start practicing, even before babies learn to walk or crawl. Until recently, doctors and experts recommended not to take the kids swimming lessons until they met four years, but in recent years has appeared a type of baby swimming highly recommended:
Stimulation exercises in the water with the baby.

Baby Swimming Classes

Baby classes are not lessons for babies to learn to swim, among other things, because it is not until about age four when the musculoskeletal system is developed enough to swim. These baby classes are an activity that seeks aquatic baby stimulation through a series of games that allow you to learn to float and move through the water with the help of their parents.

In this method the role of the father or mother in the water is essential. Through technical guidance of the teacher in charge of the activity, parents participate in the aquatic adventure of your baby. Besides this initial contact will reinforce the bond between parents and babies, living an original, unique experience.

At what age should we begin these baby classes?

The age at which infants begin to learn is not clearly defined. What the experts recommend is that you wait until the baby is four months since it is at that age when you finish the immune system mature small, and the risk of ear infections or colds is lower. The Committee on Sports Medicine and Training of the American Academy of Pediatrics for many years opposed to children under four years give swimming lessons, on the grounds that they considered that the risks  – as cooling child, possibility of water poisoning and infections – and the false sense of security that could produce some parents that their children would be able to swim and self-care in the water were downright harmful to the child’s health. But since 2000 this position has changed dramatically: the Committee stated that the risks can be avoided through precautions and safety measures.

Finally, if you’ve had a good or bad experience trying to find baby swimming, please drop us a line.

Thanks for visiting Baby Swimming and we wish you and your baby every joy and success as your baby  learns to play swim.

Teach Your Baby to Swim

Posted on by

Taking the First Steps

Teach Your Baby to SwimWater makes us very afraid when we know how easily a baby could drown. Today we are going to tell you how to teach your baby to swim from when he is very small. They will start to have confidence in the water and you will feel much more secure and calm.

The first contact with the water should be in the bath since you can support the baby much better. Put the baby in the bath and fill it with water until it covers the chest. Do this several times. Also, if you use toys in your bathroom it would be advisable to take them to your lessons in the pool too, so that your baby feels secure with familiar things.  After, swimming lessons will come in the pool.

It is very important that your baby feels relaxed in the water and learns to float, but that does not mean that he is out of danger of drowning. You must always be with your child and either hold him or keep him at arm’s length at all times. Never leave it alone near a swimming pool or even a smaller body of water, like a bucket with three fingers of water, not even forfor such small babies.

Forget the floats. If you bought them to make them feel safer in the water, the experts do not recommend them. Not only can it give them a false sense of security, but they will also adopt an incorrect way of staying afloat, as it makes them take a vertical position in the water when they need to be able to stand horizontally. If you are already used to swimming with them, it will be difficult to take them off.  If you want your child to learn to swim more easily, try these water games:

  • Give your baby a straw and encourage him to blow into the water.
  • Drag him holding his arms while he kicks with his feet.
  • Put him to float on his back, supporting his head and back. Move in zig-zag.
  • Teach him to jump from the edge, holding him first from below with his hands. Then encourage him to jump without help, but stand up, not head down.

After 15 months, although it also depends as soon as the child begins to become familiar with the water, their learning is a little faster, because they already know how to walk and this makes them move better.  Babies who have contact with water will begin to crawl , walk, move, communicate with other children much quicker.

Finally, it is important, to teach certain basic rules about swimming from a very early age, which will provide some extra safety measures to enjoy the lessons safely:

  • Do not get into the water without first tellng an adult
  • Do not jump in without permission or supervision of an adult
  • Shower before and after the pool
  • Use other protection methods such as sunscreen, flip flops to avoid fungus in swimming pools or goggles to protect the eyes from chlorine or salt
  • Do not run or play on the curb of the pool

Mother and Baby Swim

Posted on by

Mother and Baby Swimming Classes Mother and Baby Water Awareness in our Private Small Pool

       Our private pool is 18 feet by 10 feet.  You and your baby will have sole use during your session.

First please forgive the use of the words Mother and Baby Swimming.  Sadly we live in a world now dominated by search engines and if that is what people search for and we want you to find this page, then Mother and Baby Swimming, although not what we would choose to call it, is a phrase we must use.  So lets start again.

Water awareness for Mother and Baby.

Everyone agrees that getting your baby used to water / getting your baby swimming at the first opportunity is one of the best starts you can give your baby. Opinions are divided on exactly when to start, but babies are welcome at our swimming pool from as early as a few weeks old providing Mum comes too. Swimming with your baby builds confidence, trust and communication skills. Sessions are kept short so that your baby can experience the glorious sensation of letting the water support him or her and leave the water looking forward to more.

Many mothers feel structured baby swimming classes are a little more than they want whilst struggling to balance a very busy life with a new baby.  A chance to chill out and just relax with in the water is just what is needed so mother and baby both have the opportunity to enjoy the water without any pressure.

For those who can reach us easily, we offer courses ranging from 6 sessions, one a week, and discounts for those wanting to commit to longer.  When Mother and Baby live further afield, we offer a residential to suit.

We are based in Swadlincote, Derbyshire.  Why not come and have a chat or phone.

Baby Swimming Classes

Posted on by

When it comes to baby swimming classes, we are a little nervous of using that term.  It conjures up visions of the local pool crammed with at least 6 or 8 babies and a swimming teacher on the side barking instruction and expecting every baby to be the same, leaving mothers whose babies don’t seem to conform feeling lost and vulnerable.

There is also the issue of how Mum feels too.  New mothers especially can feel very vulnerable in this situation.  Perhaps they book the obligatory baby swimming classes because they want baby to learn to swim when they have never been a strong swimmer themselves.

 

Baby Swimming Classes

If you are a strong swimmer and comfortable in the water and are lucky enough to have a resilient baby who will cope with anything thrown at him or her, then go ahead and book those baby swimming classes at your local pool.

If not, you might want to consider booking private swimming classes for you and your baby.  You and your baby will have the total and exclusive use of our small ‘baby-friendly’ pool for your class and the undivided attention of an instructor who will tailor the sessions to both you and your babies needs.

The pool at Swim-Easy is largely used by swimmers with phobias and other nervous non-swimmers as well as individual mother and baby water awareness sessions.  If you see anyone at all before or after your session, it will be a nervous swimmer or another mum with her baby occasionally Dad.  Occasionally they will be leaving as you arrive for your class, or arriving for their class as you leave after yours.  That’s it!   What you won’t see is loads of people lining up for their swimming classes and a frenetic noisy environment that often terrifies babies before they even get in the pool.

We are based in Swadlincote, Derbyshire and can offer baby swimming classes on a week to week basis for those within traveling distance and residential packages for those a bit further afield.

Whilst we offer baby swimming classes phrased as such, each and every session is tailored to you and your baby.  You may book a mother and baby swim that turns into something more adventurous when you and your baby are ready, or you may book a baby swimming class and find that you’d rather have a relaxing play session with your baby.

Swimming Lessons for Kids

Posted on by

Lessons for Kids

Swimming lessons are a great way for kids to stay active and learning to swim is an essential tool for kids to at an early age to keep them safe and at ease around water. Learning to swim if a skill that will stay with a child forever and our swimming pools are used by olympic swimmers and kids alike, giving the kids the chance to see where their new hobby could lead.

Swimming Lessons for Kids

Why are swimming lessons great for kids? It’s one of the very few areas where kids are completely independent, especially before they are school age. The water supports their weight and they are free to move their legs and arms as much as they want. Kids love it! Swimming classes are also a great bonding experience for kids, moms and dads too.

We know other Mums (and Dads) would find it useful to see testimonials here for Baby Swimming Classes in Aberdeenshire so if you can help with this, we would love to here about your baby swimming experience with local swimming classes.  Research has shown, kids take swimming classes, are far better developed socially, mentally and physically. Did you know that kids sleeping and eating patterns are improved by regular exercise?