Beginning Swimming Class
To learn to swim, you need to "be there." You don't want to be worried something will happen or that you'll get scared. You want to feel confident you'll be met at your level and that your questions will be answered. You want to know there's no pressure to do something you're not ready to do.
Most classes teach strokes, but not all students are ready to learn strokes. They say: "What if I drown? What if I inhale water? What if I can't stand up...? "
Students who are worried never learn to swim comfortably and safely. They're not safe if they fall out of a boat or get thrown into a pool, drift into deep water, or step into a hole in the river.
Q: How could a beginning swimming class not meet beginners at their ability level?
A: By presuming students knew something they didn't, and teaching as if they did. Though some beginners are ready to put their faces in the water and move their limbs, most are not.
One pool we use: a hotel in Orlando, FL
What is swimming?
Yes, it's strokes, but that's not all. It's also comfort in water, confidence, and being in control: the ability to rely on yourself for your safety in water, not on the bottom or the side, whether it's shallow or deep, pool, lake, or ocean. You need to know how your body and the water work together, and how to remain in control. Neither is taught in traditional swimming lessons. Neither is related to arms and legs.
What's the problem?
Missing out on all the fun is a big problem. Missing family play or great exercise is a true disappointment. Drowning is the other problem. Seventy percent of drownings in the U.S. are by adults. Why not teach adults to be responsible for their safety? What about learning to be comfortable in deep water? Who's ensuring that everyone masters these skills and can swim? This is MSI's global mission.
Forty-six percent of American adults are afraid in water over their heads in pools. Sixty-four percent are afraid in deep, open water. Thirty-nine percent are afraid to put their heads under water. (Gallup Poll, 1998)
What's the answer?
A Breakthrough
In Teaching
That Could
Change
All Teaching
Since 1983
Twenty-five years ago, as a traditionally trained swim instructor teaching a college beginning swimming class, M. Ellen Dash asked why the system was not working for 10 of her 20 students. The answer was simple: With their attention on survival, they could not focus on swimming skills.
A new system was born.
Four thousand students and eighteen newly trained instructors later (internationally), it's clear to all involved that this is the missing ventricle from the heart of beginning swimming lessons: Teach students how to be comfortable, feel safe, and remain in control first. Teach them how the water works. Swimming comfortably and feeling safe in deep water is the inevitable result. Learning strokes is a cinch after that! That's Miracle Swimming.
We hope you'll join us and find out what's possible in the world of swimming and adult Beginning lessons.
MSI Locations:
Sarasota, Florida (location varies)
The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia
Boston (Ipswich), Massachusetts
Baltimore (Severna Park), MD Beginning Class
Orlando (Florida)
Cities with links have classes in 2009.
- We stay at a hotel that has a warm pool where the class is held (exceptions: Honolulu, Baltimore, Boston. We use a warm pool, but the hotel is not at the pool.)
- Several times each year, the Beginning and Next Step classes are held back to back for people traveling great distances to get the most from one trip. (Glenwood Springs, CO and Palm Springs, CA)