Discovering the Freedom of Water

Although adults often bring long held fears with them to the pool, their achievements are some of the most astounding simply because of this. It is hard to overcome years of built up fear. But it can be done. It is done. And participating in this achievement, this growth, is terribly rewarding for a teacher. Below please find an article by Melina Slotnick titled "Adult Swimming Lessons: Discovering the Freedom of Water" that honors Physique's approach to teaching adult beginner classes..

Learn Their Story

During an adult's first lesson, take the time to get to know your swimmer before rushing into instruction and techniques. Students often come with luggage, weighing down their potential for success. If you don't take the time to know who they are, you may never get the opportunity to help them discover their freedom in the water. If is your responsibility to help unpack their luggage carefully. Ask them about their water history. "What was your motivation to learn to swim now?" "What's your story?" Share a story of your own experiences and honor them for the effort they made in just signing up for lessons. Recognize their frustration and offer them understanding your willingness to help them learn.

Establish Base of Trust and Respect

An adult non-swimmer has struggled with the embarrassment of not knowing how to swim their whole life. They have missed swim parties, water sports, pool time or safety and have arrived, with anxiety packed neatly in their bag. As their teacher, they do not know to ask. Offer them your constant watchful eye, and keep their safety your utmost concern. Encourage them to try but grant them 'permission' to step back and move at a slower pace. This is their lesson, you are simply guiding them.

Free Them From the Pressure to Perform

For an adult non-swimmer, water is intimidating and their natural inclination is to fight their way through it, or apply too much strength. They often set unrealistic or strict goals, unfortunately making the learning of a task more 'mission oriented' rather than a joyful discovery of how water provides us freedom. Helping them respect the simple fundamental tasks is the most important lesson of freedom.

Give Them Tools to Succeed

Play with the simplest of steps. The basic principals of balance, breathing, body position, relaxing, falling to a flat and feeling the water work with the body rather than against it is your biggest gift to a new swimmer. Be patient and find ways to connect with the person individually. You are making a difference in their life: you are providing them the opportunity to master fear.

Guide the Way

It is okay to challenge your new student with new skills. Explain the importance of what they are doing, and give them time to experiment and explore. What we swimmers love about the water is not the ability to swim from one end of the pool to another, but the freedom water gives us. The freedom to leave it all behind, to come to the pool with no luggage, no worries, no fears. We come to have fun. As a teacher...share your love of the water.

Zip It Up

This summer I have discovered my favorite drill. It has long been a drill I've used but this summer I have discovered that it is IDEAL for teaching beginner adults proper body and arm position. The drill? The zipper drill. In the video below by Multisportcast.tv several drills are showcased including the zipper drill.



There are a number of reasons why the zipper drill is particularly effective in aiding body and arm position. The drill forces you to rotate from side to side while swimming (shocking fact: the majority of the time you are swimming freestyle or backstroke, you are really on your side) in order to slide your arm up your body. The drill also requires bent arms and high elbows, which prevents shoulder injuries. If you haven't tried the zipper drill, give it a shot. You might be surprised!

S.O.S.

Every summer, in the wake of tragedy, water safety is brought up yet again by the press. At Physique it is always on our minds. Our goal is to educate non-swimmers in order to prevent these devastating water accidents. This morning AM New York caught my attention with a cover story on water safety in New York. Please find Sheila Anne Feeney's interesting article S.O.S. posted below.

In the most recent tragedy involving children and the shimmering cool water that beckons on sweltering days, Crystal Reyes, 15, struggled to stay afloat in the Bronx River last Sunday.

Her friend David Lee Luccioni III, 17, jumped in to save her. Both drowned. Last month, Nicole Suriel, 12, drowned on a school trip to Long Beach. Neither girl knew how to swim, according to their parents.

Why city kids are less water literate than their suburban peers is a mix of cultural attitudes, fears and a lack of access and opportunity.

A 2010 survey in six cities (New York was not included) by the University of Memphis for USA Swimming showed that 61 percent of the respondents had low swimming ability, and 10 percent were non-swimmers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the second leading cause of accident-related death for kids, with black children 3.1 times more likely to drown than white children.

Cultural attitudes trump socioeconomic factors as a reason many kids never learn to swim, according to the study. Paradoxically, fear of the water was a major reason parents did not make swimming lessons a priority for their children, despite the fact that water competence decreases the risk of drowning.

"The kids don't learn how to swim and be comfortable in the water because the parents never learned how to swim and be comfortable in the water," said Sunny Anderson, the aquatic director of the Harlem YMCA.

While New York City schools partner with area YMCAs and the Department of Parks & Recreation to offer classes, students are not required to know how to swim as a part of their physical education curriculum. That means parental motivation is crucial if a child is to embrace the life aquatic.

Some kids can become water competent in a single eight-week course, said Anderson, but others need 32 weeks to get their sea legs.

"I know [swimming lesson] save lives," she said. "Children swimming in rivers, lakes or ocean beaches, they should take lessons there are well" because conditions in natural bodies of water can differ significantly from those of a pool.

Motivation

While at the gym the other day, I caught a CNN piece on Olympic swimmer, Cullen Jones. Sports Illustrated just posted the article Jones Seizes Swimming Spotlight. It appears I am not the only one moved by Jones' motivating story and commendable work in the community.

Please find the article below:

Cullen Jones can still picture the top of the water slide at Dorney Park in Pennsylvania where his life took a fateful turn when he was five years old. His dad Ronald, had made him promise to not let go of the inner tube on the way down, so, Ronald shot down the slide, screaming all the way, Cullen followed, gripping the tube tightly. "When I hit the bottom of the ride, there was this huge pool of water, and I flipped right over," Jones recalls. But he didn't let go of the tube. "I actually passed out," he says. "They had to give me CPR, and when I woke up, I was like, okay, what's the next ride? It could have changed my life completely if it was traumatic. I might never have touched the water again."

It was traumatic for Jones' mom, Debra, who signed up her only child for swimming lessons the next week. Jones started competitive swimming a few years later, and on Thursday night, he became just the third African-American to make an Olympic swim team when he finished third in the 100 free, good enough for a place on the 4x100 relay team. On Friday morning, Jones set an American record of 21.59 in the 50 free preliminaries and emerged from the pool to a standing ovation.

This is just the spotlight Jones has been hoping for since he burst onto the international swim scene with a Pan Pac win in the 50 free two years ago. He's hoping minority kids will see his success, get inspired and demand their parents take them to get swim lessons. Jones isn't necessarily trying to inspire the next Michael Phelps, though he wouldn't mind that. Mostly he doesn't want any little kid to have an experience like he did that doesn't have a happy ending.

A recent study sponsored by USA Swimming found that nearly 60 percent of African-American and Hispanic and Latino kids in the United States don't know how to swim, twice the percentage of their Caucasian counterparts, and that they are more than twice as likely to drown. To help address the problem, Jones has talked to schools in at-risks communities and held free swim clinics at YMCAs as part of USA Swimming's Make A Splash Initiative. "Learning to swim is a matter of safety," he says.

A surge in swimming's visibility coupled with his sponsorship with high-profile companies like Nike could give him an unprecedented platform to reach minority kids, says Jones. "The timing has been great. I love the fact that I can be a role model, that I've been given that title and that label. As Tiger Woods did for golf, I'm hoping that I can ascend to a level where I can do that for swimming."

Jones is not the first elite-level black swimmer in the U.S. "There were a number before me. But the problem is, they didn't get exposure. Maritza Correira (2004 silver medalist in the 4x100 relay) got exposure for being the first black female Olympic swimmer, but did she get enough? Not really."

Jones' first swim team, in Newark, was predominantly African-American. His role model, however, was Gary Hall, Jr., who swam in his first Olympics in 1996, when Jones was 12. "I never had an African-American swimmer come up and talk to me ... but Gary Hall, Jr. was big," says Jones, who kept a poster of Hall on his wall. "Watching the '96 Olympics, and watching him swim, I was really psyched. I was like, Dad, that's where I want to be. He said, 'Really? Then you have to put some work in.'"

Ronald passed away from lung cancer when Jones was 16, but Jones kept working, becoming a star at NC State before signing a lucrative deal with Nike two years ago. In the finals of the 50 on Saturday, he'll be racing in the same field as Hall, who is trying to make his fourth Olympic team. It's not likely Jones will turn to jello in Hall's presence like he did four years ago in Long Beach, when he was, he confesses, completely psyched out by the sight of Hall in his boxing robe and didn't make the semifinals. After all, it was Hall's eight-year-old American record that Jones broke Friday morning.

Jones wants to win Saturday, of course, and he wants to be seen. "My job is swim really fast," he says," and maybe some kid will be sitting on a couch looking at me, and saying, Dad, I want to do that."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/kelli_anderson/07/05/cullen.jones/#ixzz0uHW6yInL

Find Opportunities in Difficulties, Not Difficulties in Opportunities

I have long been a fan of pulling. Give me a pull buoy over a kickboard any day, however, I often have to rectify a slipping pull buoy, taking time at the wall to put it back in place. But is this challenge really a challenge or merely an opportunity in disguise? Flip your pull buoy sideways between the bony part of your knees to help strengthen your groin muscles.



I've also found that swapping the pull buoy for a kickboard can prove equally challenging - you REALLY have to squeeze your legs together to keep from losing a kickboard! Are you ready to find an opportunity rather than a difficulty?

Swim In Spring Meet 2010

Swim Meet How To

When it comes to swim meets, there are some key things to remember:

1.) Your body will need lots of energy for your races - carbo load the night before (i.e., enjoy a big bowl of pasta)

2.) Visualize your race and then make your vision reality

3.) Pump yourself up with music!

4.) Remain hydrated - bring a water bottle to the meet

5.) Shivering wastes energy - bundle up between races!

6.) Warm up behind the block immediately before your race by jumping up and down and shaking out your muscles

7.) Practice good sportsmanship - congratulate your competitors

8.) Cheer for your teammates

9.) Bring a healthy snack - no junk food!

10.) Have fun!