S.C. Representative Wendell Gilliard introduced legislation last year declaring May as Water Safety Awareness month in South Carolina.  The resolution urges every public school in South Carolina to spend at least one hour of water safety instruction during the month of May.  In the May 12th press conference, Gilliard stated that this one hour of instruction (Water Smart 101 Program) has very real potential to help save lives of our children.   According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, two children die every day from unintentional drowning.  Drowning is the second cause of accidental death in children ages one to 14.

Representative Gilliard went on to say how excited he was that the Charleston Country School District would be implementing the  “Water Smart 101 program,” designed by Swim Lessons University’s Jim Reiser, AKA “The Swim Professor.”  Gilliard praised the “Water Smart 101″ program in which he has reviewed first hand, and stated, “our students will have the opportunity to learn from a program designed by a true expert, and the children will learn these important lessons about both the pleasures and risks of the water.”  Gilliard went on to say, “Charleston Country School District’s commitment to our youth by implementing this program should be commended.  In closing, Gilliard URGED all school districts to please follow this example.  He emphasized that simply by taking a few moments in the month of May to teach our children about water safety could make the difference in the life of a child.”

North Charleston Mayor R. Keith Summey then introduced Charleston County Superintendent Nancy McGinley.  She spoke, “This is not about just an event.  This is about children’s lives.  As superintendent of schools for the past five years, I must tell you that it is my saddest moment every spring when a tragedy occurs.   Two years ago, on the night before the last day of school, I got a call on my cell phone about 9:00PM.   One of our kindergarten students had drown, not far from here, in an apartment swimming pool.  I went to his classroom the next morning.  His teacher was in tears.   The teacher’s assistant was in tears.   The children were asking questions that no one wanted to answer.  And I certainly did not know how to answer.  They realized their classmate was gone.  It will be forever in my brain.”  They asked:  “What does drown mean?”  “Where did he go?”

The superintendent continued, “I asked the teacher if I could see some of his work.  The children had produced little end of the year booklets.  and she placed his booklet in my hand.  I opened the first page.  There was a crayon drawing of a swimming pool.  The sentence he wrote below was:  “I love to go swimming with my family.”   Superintendent McGinley said, “I don’t know about you, but that got to me like few other things had ever gotten to me in my career.”

Superintendent McGinley went on to say, “We are here today because as adults in this community it’s time we join together and prevent tragedies like that from happening in the future.  It is about preparing our children to be safe.  I love the water.  But I recognize the danger that the water involves for children who haven’t had swimming lessons OR learned precautionary preventative lessons like the ones that we’re about to implement in our schools (Water Smart 101 Curriculum) thanks to the Rutledge Foundation.  After our testing ends, all of our elementary schools will be using the Water Smart program, teaching children about how to stay safe, cautioning students about the dangers. Not scaring them, but teaching them the correct respect for the water.  I’ll be making a call to our 45,000 parents reminding them that this is Water Safety month.  And I thank Representative Gilliard for doing this for our children.  I agree with what Mayor Summey, Mayor Riley, and Mayor Swails said (all in attendance to support the water safety programs for Charleston’s students):  “Today is an important day in the history of Charleston County.  This is a day that we take yet another step forward in preserving our children’s lives and ensuring that they will enjoy this beautiful place we live without endangering themselves.  Thanks to everybody for making this happen.”

The one-hour “Water Smart 101″ program consists of a DVD Video that school teachers play for their kindergarten and elementary school students, as well as a PDF bundle that includes a Lesson Plan, Water Safety Promise (homework assignment that involves parental participation), and a Water Smart Exam. Both the DVD and PDF Bundle can be found on the Swim Lessons University website.

Mark Rutledge, President of the Logan Rutledge Children’s Foundation, then took the podium.  “What became apparent a three years ago, to echo what Dr. McGinley said, is drowning has become a prominent thing in our community.  We researched that and we found that there was a big gap, a very large gap in safe swimmers and teaching them how to swim, especially as it pertains to children who are in underprivileged situations.   So we decided to focus our efforts on drowning prevention and learning how to swim.  So for the past few years and with Dr. McGinley’s approval we did a grant with Charleston Country School District of $20,000 to promote learn to swim programs thru the school. but only about half of the funds were being utilized.  One problem was that there was no formal learn to swim program.  So in doing our due diligence, we decided with the momentum of the school program we needed to create one.  So I consulted my good friend Shannon O’Brien, who has worked in the City of Charleston School District for many years, and is also the Elementary Athletic Liaison for the county.  Shannon began researching swim programs and spent countless hours outside her normal work schedule to find out what we could do to implement a program where we could also track numbers.  We wanted to find out how many kids were safe in the water, how many kids actually do learn to swim, and we wanted to implement a program in the county.  Well, right in our backyard is Jim Reiser from Columbia, who is the executive director of Swim Lessons University, a nationally acclaimed program.  So we have adopted his program, which is really the most incredible program as far as how children are progressed through an educational process from water safety to learn-to-swim, and actually if they reach this level, they can be “swim team ready.”  So we adopted this program, and as you can see behind me, we have already started the Swim Lessons University Learn-to-Swim program, which began on the first of April last month.  In 2012-2013, we should teach over a thousand kids how to swim, and our eventual goal is to hit the every elementary school in the whole county (45,000 kids).

Jim Reiser formally thanks the Low Country Aquatic Program (L.A.P.S.) and the Logan Rutledge Children’s Foundation for their support. President Mark Rutledge and Shannon O’Brien played a most significant role in bringing the Swim Lessons University LTS curriculum and the”Water Smart 101″ to Charleston. Reiser says, Mark and Shannon’s hard work and contributions to the program were instrumental, and because of them–thousands of children will learn to swim and be Water Smart!

In our swim instructor training, we train our teachers to do three things with our young students every class:

1.  Warmly greet your students, hold their hands,  and walk them up to the pool.

2.  Teach Like a Pro!

3.  Walk them back to mom or dad, and ALWAYS tell the parents about something good, i.e.,  any improvement, something funny their child said or did, or simply how proud you are of them.

These three simple steps go a long way in establishing customer loyalty (your students will come back to take more swim lessons with you).

I also want to challenge instructors to do the following when you have a behavior issue:

1.  EVALUATE YOUR APPROACH!  Were you clear on your “START SIGNALS?”  Did you keep children moving and limit downtime?  Did you communicate your expectations clearly?

2.  ASK FOR HELP!  If you are struggling with behavior issues, have a senior staff member or manager observe your class.  Sometimes another set of eyes can give you a different perspective.  My wife still does this for me all the time even when I don’t ask for her opinion, LOL!  Although I’ve been teaching for 30 years, her insight always makes me better.  In fact, she’s the one who inspired this blog.

3.  TALK “WITH PARENTS” vs. “AGAINST” THEM!  If you come across as confrontational(especially this day and age),p arents will be quick to defend their child.  If you come across as “someone who really cares and is looking out for the best interest of their child,” they will love you for it.  Say something like this:   “Nolan’s skills are really improving.   I am just amazed by his progress.  I did want to ask you though, do you have any advice for me?  Sometimes I feel like I could be doing more to keep him on task… any suggestions?”  And then listen.   Then say: “Thank you so much.   That is helpful.   I can’t wait to see him next class!”

I hope today’s blog will help you and or your staff!   OH!  One last critical tip:  ALWAYS keep your conversations on the professional level.  Avoid talking about personal matters at all costs!  Also, when a parent asks you how you are doing, always respond something like:  “I’M GREAT, THANK YOU!” NEVER RESPOND: “I’m making it or I’m getting by.”   If you’re having a bad day, never wear it on your sleeve.  As the saying goes, “fake it until you make it!”

Thank you for visiting our blog page!

For more great water safety tools and products, especially the Coast Guard Approved Sea Squirts Lifejacket, which is designed for swimming–check out Swim Lessons University today!

• Once per week for eight to 12 weeks.
• Once or twice per week charging monthly dues.
• Twice per week for three to six weeks.
• Three or four days per week for two weeks.

First off, if you offer quality swim lessons, your customers will adapt to whatever you offer.  However, with that said, especially in this economy, it is certainly worth taking a closer look at how you will achieve the most profitable return.

From a skill acquisition standpoint, I prefer seeing my students twice per week over a long period of time.  Ideally, I would like most children in the pool twice per week for a solid six months a year.  The problem is that as a business owner, even if you are considered a swim lessons guru, the majority of parents aren’t necessarily going to do exactly what you suggest.  Why?  The excuses are endless, i.e., inconvenience, activity overload, homework, sibling activity conflicts, work conflicts, financially impossible, etc.

As a business owner, I try to adapt to the needs of my customers.  After all, if you can’t get them in your pool your customer will make one of two choices:

1. They will keep their child out of the pool all together.
2. They will leave you for your best competitor who will adapt to their needs.

I have a problem with both of those alternatives… don’t you? So here is my solution:

I have been running our local swim school, The Swim Lessons Company in South Carolina since 1994.  Over time, I have learned and experienced through trial and error what the parents in this area are willing to do.  We have offered each of the different scenarios I have mentioned above, and they have all had their success and failures.

I personally prefer more success that than failure.  I prefer to learn from my failures.  What I have learned and concluded was that my offerings had to change with the season.  During most of the academic year, parents aren’t willing to take lessons more than once per week.  During the spring as summer is approaching, parents start acquiring some anxiety so to speak.  Why?  Summer is coming and their child can’t swim or doesn’t swim well enough.  When summer arrives, they are ready to be at the pool every day.  So I simply learned to go along with their interests and offer what the majority of parents seem to want.  For my business model, what they want turns out to be most effective when offered in a “sessions” format because it works nicely with our online registration program.

Here’s what our typical year looks like:

Winter – Six to eight weeks, 1x per week

March – Four weeks, 2x per week

April – Four weeks, 2x per week

May – Four weeks, 2x per week

Summer – Two-week sessions, 3-4x per week.

Indian Summer (early fall) – Six weeks, 1x per week.

Fall – Eight weeks, 1x per week.

After much trial and error, this appears to be the best system for swim lessons in Columbia, South Carolina.  If we were in Florida or a different geographical area with different demographics, we may find something completely different works best.

For my own children (three boys now 1.5, 3.5, & 8.5 years old), I have them in the pool twice per week for six to eight months because this is what I personally believe is the best approach.  I stick with this routine until they graduate from lessons as my eight year old Jeb did just before his sixth birthday.  At that point, I want my children doing at least three months of swim team a year to further strengthen and refine their swimming skills.  If they want to do more than that, that’s their choice.  But like buckling their seat belts when they are in the car, doing less isn’t their choice.  Jeb will be nine this summer and he has been on my little novice swim team since he was six years old.  After doing our twice per week swim lesson program since he was a toddler, he could competently swim all four competitive strokes as well as sidestroke, elementary backstroke, and tread water.  So since he turned six, he has done swim team twice per week for three months a year.  I am satisfied with that because he is a strong swimmer.  I have no problem with him playing soccer and basketball in the fall, winter, and spring.  I think this is perfectly fine.  But if you’re eight years old and you can’t swim–it is my opinion that child should be spending more time in the pool and a little less on the fields until he/she can swim well for safety reasons.

I wish I could force that philosophy on my patrons, but I can’t.  It could put me out of business.   Instead, I offer what works and I offer what works in their schedules, in our part of the country.  Good business isn’t about us, it’s about our customers.  Hope this helps you!  My very best to you and your program!

At the Swim Lessons Company, I require my teachers to shadow either myself and/or several of our senior instructors.   I like to have our swim instructor candidates shadow four different experienced Swim Lessons University instructors on four different days for a total of 12 hours.  That 12 hours of practicum work, of course, is in addition to their 24 hours of classroom video-based training and online swim instructor testing.  This gives the new teacher “hands-on” experience with not only four different instructors teaching from the same lesson plans and curriculum, it also gives them experience working with a variety of children, personalities, levels, and age groups.

Here is an email I send to my Senior SLU Instructors when the mentoring program is about to begin.  This way they know what is expected of them as the new teachers participate in their practicums.

Dear Staff,

Please note that I have begun scheduling new teachers at various locations to do their practicums with many of you.  If for any reason you have to reschedule a class—please remind me if you are mentoring a teacher that night so we can let them know too.

READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY.  The following is a set of guidelines for how you should help break in our new teachers.  Your influence on developing their teaching skills is an instrumental part of preparing them to represent us well and deliver the superior product that SLC parents in Columbia have come to expect.

1. Introduce the teacher to your class and tell children that he/she will be helping you today.
2. The first time you teach any particular level, begin to show them the various supports and manipulating techniques we do and let them try it with your guidance.
3. Without taking away from your class, comment on the names of the exercise and on the cues we use, BUT for the most part you are demonstrating how we do it AND the teacher-in-training is just “shadowing” you.  Don’t overteach them, let them watch and learn and be a little “hands on.”
4. LASTLY – THIS IS REALLY HELPFUL:

Once the teacher candidate has settled in, so to speak–take turns with them starting the children.  You always present the new exercise or activity, give the cues/instructions, give the start signal and give feedback AND THEN let the teacher candidate try it for the second practice trial.  REPEAT for each exercise or activity that we do.

* For the Parent & Me swim classes– you teach the class, however, get teacher candidate involved in the holds, passes, safety skills, etc.

*  DO NOT TURN YOUR CLASS INTO TWO PRIVATE LESSONS.  YOU TEACH.  THEY SHADOW.   MANY OF THE TEACHERS IN TRAINING WILL BE DOING THEIR PRACTICUMS before they do their classroom training.

If you have any questions please let me know!  Thanks you!

“Does  your child suddenly seem to not like swim lessons? Does he refuse to try a certain skill? I CAN’T EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH: Evaluate your feedback.  Experts agree that young children are motivated to learn through what they perceive as to be fun or play. Our Parent & Me and Swim 101 course reflect this philosophy. It is critical that teachers and parents are sensitive to this developmental perspective.  Try not to ever force an adult work ethic upon young children. Preschool swim lessons should be fun, playful experiences.”

Short social media messages like that are invaluable.  You can communicate your philosophy, observations, and share tips in an informal manner.  You eliminate personal confrontation and give the parents a chance to digest what you’re saying.  Last but not least, you keep their attention because you aren’t writing an essay.  Let’s face it.  Attention spans are not very long these days, even with adults!

One more tip: Try to pretty regularly open with a question to engage your reader.  This can make or break whether they even take a look!

Hope this helps! you.  Anytime you have a question for me feel free to email me at swimprofessor@sc.rr.com

1. I email my current staff to find out which Swim Instructors will be back to teach for our spring and summer sessions, and how often and at what times they can teach.

2. I create a Staff Schedules for all eight of this spring and summer’s locations.  In the beginning planning stages, I just use a basic word table to organize and project how many new swim instructors I will need to hire, train, and mentor.

3. I “tweak” last year’s Help Wanted ad (if needed) and I pay to have it published in the Daily Gamecock (our local university’s newspaper).  I NEVER provide my phone number in the ad.  I provide my email only.  I will call them IF I like their pre-interview questionnaire which I will get to in a minute.

4.  I set the dates of this year’s classroom staff training.  This year I will lease a conference room at the Columbia Wingate Hotel on Sunday March 11th, 18th, 25th, and April 1st from 1PM – 6PM.  All new instructors will be required to attend.  All returning instructors are encouraged to attend and are paid a minimum wage for attending.  New instructors are not paid, however, their certification cost is “on me.”

5.  I respond to every swim teacher candidate who emails me expressing their interest in the swim instructor position (which is the first step of my hiring process).  I email them a “Pre-Interview Questionnaire.”   My questionnaire includes items such as contact info., summary of experience, availability for spring and summer, ability to attend all training sessions and mentoring sessions, and the phone number of their previous two employers).  This helps me weed out candidates who wouldn’t work out and waste my time interviewing.  I only want to interview candidates who sound great on this pre-interview questionnaire.

6.  I schedule Interviews at my office.  I pencil in all candidates I like that and are ready to accept the position.  I ask them if I can have their permission to submit their information for a background check at that time.  Once I fill all my swim instructor positions, I continue to offer “potential positions.”  I always offer the next half dozen or so applicants free training with a potential position.  I invite them to attend the training with the understanding that I may or may not have an immediate opening.  Those candidates who do the training always make a really good impression because it shows me that they are very enthusiastic about the position.  In addition, it never fails that candidates who accept the job end up changing their minds or their plans for whatever reason.  When that happens, you have an enthusiastic instructor trained and ready to go!  If it doesn’t happen, then I didn’t break any promises and they benefited from the free training.  And nine times out of ten, you eventually get them on board, and both you and your new instructor feel blessed!

So this is the beginning of my “To Do List” for the summer.  Of course there are many other items, i.e., website updating, determining which local events to be an exhibitor, where to advertise, etc. that will come up.

Please let me know if you have any questions and feel free to comment.  I hope this blog helps you, and I wish you the very best for your upcoming Summer Swim Lessons season.  If you would like to adapt the Swim Lessons University Instructor Training and Certification program, please let me know so I can get you started.  And I hope to see you at our next Swim Lessons University conference in New York.  And don’t forget, if you would like to do a “one-on-one phone consultation,” I CAN help you improve your swim lessons program/business!

How do you change this?  First, understand the way a typical child  approaches his/her activities.  Unlike adults, very few children are naturally inspired to be the most technically-sound kid on the block.  What do we know about children?  They want to race, play around, go underwater, and simply have fun–especially when they are in the swimming pool!  So as swimming instructors, we have to be one step ahead.  Here is a simple little game I use with my stroke classes that the kids really love, it’s called the “Olympic Games.”  Here’s are some basic instructions:

Step #1:  Give an Overview, i.e., “Now we are going to play a game called the Olympic Games.”

Step #2:  Determine the skill you will award them on based on their performance:  “If you show me super nice, big strokes on your freestyle, will will pretend you won the gold medal.  If they are good, we will pretend you will won the silver medal, and if they are pretty good, we will pretend you won the bronze.   If they are bad, we will pretend you won nothing at all (I am usually silly when I say this and rarely give nothing at all).

Step #3:  Start your student, and upon completion, give your student some feedback or a brief evaluation.

Step #4:  Tell him/her what medal he/she won.

Step #5:  Celebrate it in a fun way, whether it’s doing a body bump, a high five, or pumping their fists-make it fun and let them come up with some fun ways to celebrate on their own.

Swim Lessons Games really can lead to improvement.  I hope you and your students enjoy this game while making some stroke technique strides in the process!