The Town Courier<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
July 1, 2016<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By Gina Gallucci-White<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Learn to Swim at the British Swim School
\nPools and summer go together like sleds and winter but people need to make sure water safety is paramount during their aquatic experience.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The British Swim School has more than 1,200 students in their programs throughout multiple locations in Montgomery County. Locally, they have been teaching classes at LA Fitness on Copley Place in Downtown Crown since November 2014 with classes for children as young as two-and-a-half and adults. Almost 125 students are currently enrolled.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOur philosophy and our program focuses first and foremost on water survival,\u201d said Kristina Wesselink, social media and online marketing coordinator. \u201cThe first thing we teach our students is to jump in, turn over and float on their backs. \u2026 The reason being is because if a child who is seven is swimming a lap and gets tired, their instinct is to just turn over, float, take a breath, take a rest and turn back over to continue swimming. They don\u2019t panic. If they are in a pool and they can\u2019t reach the bottom, they don\u2019t panic. That is just their instinct. It\u2019s important for a child to be able to float on their back so that they can call out for help should they need help in the pool because they are scared or they are panicked.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Water safety and survival is the British Swim School focus because drowning is preventable. \u201cIt breaks our hearts to see how many times a child drowns because they didn\u2019t know how to swim,\u201d she said. \u201cSwimming lessons, for us, we think, for every child should be an absolute necessity as a part of childhood because it is a preventable accident.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Once students have mastered floating, instructors move on to strokes and breathing. Children are placed into different classes named after aquatic life like minnow, turtle and shark based on experience.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When it comes to teaching kids, instructors\u2019 focus is making it fun and a gradual process. \u201cWe play games,\u201d Wesselink said. \u201cWe sing songs. We have toys in the pool. For them, the kids and the babies just think it is fun. They don\u2019t realize they are learning. We make it fun. We are gentle. It\u2019s a gradual process over a period of time so they aren\u2019t being submerged on their very first lesson. We ease them into the submersion. We get them acclimated to the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Instructors are specially trained to engage with children who are afraid of the water and may be upset at going into the pool. Classes last 30 minutes long.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With a background as a special needs counselor, instructor Beth Cocker asked to teach classes geared toward those with a wide range of disabilities several years ago. Today, their special needs lessons have a wait list. \u201cIt\u2019s really popular and it\u2019s great because it\u2019s all from word of mouth from our parents,\u201d Cocker said. \u201cDrowning is one of the number one causes of accidental death for children under five anyway but with children with disabilities, very often, they have no perception of fear and so drowning is a huge concern for parents of kids with special needs because they don\u2019t understand the fear of wandering into a body of water unattended. It\u2019s really important that they understand some basic(water) safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cocker starts lessons by not only getting them comfortable with the water but also with her. \u201cWith disabilities, there is a huge range,\u201d she said. \u201cSome are super receptive socially and some kids are quite hesitant and reserved and so I always use the parents as my biggest resource for what works best for their child.\u201d Once they are comfortable, the lessons include lots of songs and games with lessons tailored to their level of ability and understanding.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Swimming lessons are a great activity to get kids involved in, according to Cocker. \u201cWater is everywhere and your children are going to be exposed to water whether it\u2019s a pool, at the beach, at a lake and fear of the water from not only the parents but the children is what inevitably leads to all these tragic accidents,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you expose your children even to just a few swimming lessons and they get comfortable with the water, they are much more likely to be receptive to want to swim and also they are aware of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nestled inside the Crown Plaza development with plenty of parking spaces available, the indoor, heated pool used by the British Swim School is open year-round. \u201cIt\u2019s a great location for us,\u201d Wesselink said. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice facility. It\u2019s a big pool and it\u2019s easy for the parents to get in and out of there with their children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Town Courier July 1, 2016 By Gina Gallucci-White Learn to Swim at the British Swim School Pools and summer go together like sleds and winter but people need to make sure water safety is paramount during their aquatic experience. The British Swim School has more than 1,200 students in their programs throughout multiple locations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-8436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-swim-programs","tag-central-maryland"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/central-montgomery-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}