Jersey City, NJ 
When they started their lessons with us, they had originally thought about the great benefits of swimming at an early age. They knew that their babies would be healthier, eat better, sleep longer, grow their immune system, and most importantly – learn water acclimation and safety.
However, they were shocked beyond belief when they heard 1 BIG TRUTH about swimming… We hope you are sitting down for this one…
Our 3 Jersey City Heights residents have told us about how strong of swimmers they are. They have belonged to teams in high school and love swimming as a work out and recreation activity. Interestingly after their fourth Parent and Me lesson, they learned from our instructors that There Is A Difference Between Knowing How To Swim & Water Safety.
Just because you know how to swim doesn’t mean you know how to survive drowning.
Our instructor quickly pulled out a phone and showed them that The World Congress on Drowning states that an estimated 66% of the more than 360,000 people who drown worldwide each year knew how to swim.
The instructor continued that “less than 5% of people are educated in drowning survival strategies such as Flip, Float and Follow. Floating on your back and breathing deeply to become more buoyant is critical when caught in a current or running out of energy.”
This is important for our parents to know, because we understand that knowing how to swim reduces your fear of water… but people often overestimate their swimming ability.
The instructor continued talking about our survival week program. Once every few months we provide parents that are not taking swim lessons a quick overview of what to do in a water-related emergency. We also teach these emergency skills and water survival for our adult swimmers.
Our Jersey City parents were very happy to hear about these opportunities to learn how to rescue and help in a water-related emergency. They know that by taking lessons with us they will be able to help themselves or anyone in case of an emergency.
According to the Center for Disease Control, one in five people who die from drowning in the United States are children age 14 and younger. In addition, the CDC states, “for every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.”
Currently our Jersey City Heights residents are visiting us twice a week in our PS27 location. They come to our Parent and Me classes, and their own adult swim lessons. With their motivation and help, we will help reduce the terrifying drowning statistics.
Well done, The Heights!!!
