Academy Swim Club

What merits the word amazing?  Is it an “A” on a homework assignment, a beautiful sunset, a newborn child, or a baby going underwater for the first time?

At Academy Swim Club anything can be amazing!  But what is most remarkable is a child’s joy and power once they have conquered their fear of water.  It is truly amazing to see their attitude change from terror and panic to respect and admiration for water.  They begin to see water as a useful tool for playing, exercising, and surviving rather than a scary device that will only cause harm.

For the past 30 we have experienced this amazing transformation of fear to respect in over 40,000 children and babies.  We have watched them grow from one level to the next overcoming and mastering strokes, breathing techniques, safety techniques and basic water survival skills.   At the end of their training they leave Academy Swim with a love and joy abut swimming and a new intelligence about interacting with the water.  It is our mission that every child experiences this momentous conversion.

Over the past three weeks children have had the opportunity to display what they are thankful for on our Thankful Tree.  Before and after their lessons the kids have been writing what they are most thankful for on fall colored leaves, then they taped the leaves to our tree in the viewing room for everyone to see.

We expected the kids to put up things like “toys”, “candy”, or “superman”, however they were surprisingly mature and insightful!  Instead they put “my mommy and daddy”, “Academy Swim Club”, “my friends”, “my swim instructor”, “my home” and “Grandma and Grandpa”.  By committing this valuable action, well beyond their years, they have reawaken all of the parents to what life is all about, they have paused our busy schedules to show us that there are things more important than clothes or the newest electronic gadget.

What started out as a bare brown trunk and branches is now a huge tree blossoming with hundreds of fall colored leaves.  Our viewing room has been transformed into beautiful scene from a fall calendar.  Best of all, on each of these leaves we are all reminded of a child’s heart.  The children here have opened up their thankful hearts to show us what this winter season is all about: love and gratitude. Our swimmers, instead of complaining about what they don’t have, realized that not all kids have a mommy and daddy, or grandparents, or a home and showed is they were grateful that they were lucky enough to have all of those things.  Their love for their parents, friends, and swim instructors is evident in their thankful leaves; I only hope that our love for them can be just as evident in our word and action.

Over seventy kids competed last Saturday (Nov. 7th) for the gold.  At the end of the day everyone was a winner with the love and joy from their parents and a medal around their neck.  It was clear that the support of the parents truly inspired each young child, they wanted to impress their parents and earn that hug at the end of the race; and each and every child did!  Every parent was overjoyed at the child’s abilities in the water, even if the instructor held the child the entire way across the pool, the parent still could not be happier or more proud of their son or daughter.
We all know how important it is to be present at your child’s activities, no matter how seemingly insignificant they are.  Especially in the field of competition a child needs to see their parent and know that no matter what, win or loose, finish or not, their father or mother will be there to love them.  At our facility this is all we see, loving parents who enjoy putting their child’s needs and wants before their own.  I am sure Saturday night could have been filled with many other activities, but our parents decided to watch their children swim from one end of the pool to the other, and I am sure not one of them regretted it.
Prior to the swim meet one of our instructors observed this first hand.   Here is Reagan’s story:
“Ariana was an Octopus and really wanted to move up to a Seahorse.  She would   switch between great arms and great rollovers but not both at the same time.  We worked on this for several weeks.  At the end of one lesson she asked if her dad cold come in and swim with her.  So we planned for this to happen.  That following Thursday dad came in his suit with Ariana and swam with me.  The three of us practiced together; she would reach with great arms to her father while I helped with the rollover part.  So on a crowded Thursday Ariana’s father and I went back and forth with Ariana in the deep end.  She loved impressing her father and seeing his big smile whenever she did something right.  He was so supportive.  It was the first time a parent had been in the water for a long time.  Both Ariana and dad enjoyed the lesson and a couple of weeks later she moved up to a Seahorse!”