For those of us who have kids, do your kids swim?
I had this vision of teaching my kids to swim (I was a WSI instructor) and they would be strong swimmers who love the water.
It didn't turn out that way! :eek:
My son (he's 12) had this aversion to getting water in his face and he developed a fear of the water when he was about 5 when he had some trouble in the water and his friend's parent pulled him out (I was not there at the time). We paid for some private lessons for him to overcome his fear. He will get his face wet now and he can swim well enough to attend a pool party but he's not a strong swimmer and has no desire to learn.
My daughter (age 5) picked up on her older brother's fears of water in the face and she has continued on with her fear of the water in a similar fashion.
My son never allowed me to teach him. He wanted nothing to do with it. My daughter will allow me but my time is very limited. I'm trying to get her into swim class next month to help with this. She wants to do it but is also has some fear. My plan is to be away from the deck while she's in the class so she won't search me out to "rescue her".
I don't care if they want to swim on teams or anything like that. I just want them to be competent in the water.
My son is 9 and swims year-round. I coached USA and Y swimming until we adopted him in 2000. I discovered very early on that he was not going to be receptive to my teaching him. In fact, when he was 2 or 3, I tried to teach him a few things and he screamed bloody murder for 15 minutes. Everybody at the pool was laughing becase I've coached many of their kids.
I finally realized he was going to have to be taught by somebody else. It worked great once I realized that. When he started swimming competitively at 8, it was a little hard for me to not want to coach him if I saw him doing something wrong in practice. For awhile, I just had to bring him in to practice and leave so I would not be tempted to say something.
Now, I just keep my mouth shut and defer to the coach. It seems to be working wonders. I do coach his summer team, but I try to put him in a group where I am not the one coaching him.
Your kids are still young enough where they may develop a love for swimming. Putting them with another instructor that is firm but kind can work magic.
My son is 9 and swims year-round. I coached USA and Y swimming until we adopted him in 2000. I discovered very early on that he was not going to be receptive to my teaching him. In fact, when he was 2 or 3, I tried to teach him a few things and he screamed bloody murder for 15 minutes. Everybody at the pool was laughing becase I've coached many of their kids.
I finally realized he was going to have to be taught by somebody else. It worked great once I realized that. When he started swimming competitively at 8, it was a little hard for me to not want to coach him if I saw him doing something wrong in practice. For awhile, I just had to bring him in to practice and leave so I would not be tempted to say something.
Now, I just keep my mouth shut and defer to the coach. It seems to be working wonders. I do coach his summer team, but I try to put him in a group where I am not the one coaching him.
Your kids are still young enough where they may develop a love for swimming. Putting them with another instructor that is firm but kind can work magic.
