As the Co-Director of AquaTech Swim School, I would like to introduce to you a student named Eli. When I first met Eli in December of 2007 he was 6-year-old boy with a strong aversion to water. This was evident after speaking to both he and his parents, understanding that even showers were very difficult for Eli. Eli remembers he was afraid of getting his face near water because he thought it would go into his nose, mouth and eyes and be very uncomfortable.
One of the reasons AquaTech starts children at the early age of 6 months is for this very reason. The younger a student is when introduced to the aquatic environment, the less time they have to build fear around submerging. Learning the skill of how to submerge comfortably becomes natural after learning it at a young age. Once learned how to do properly, it becomes stored in the muscle memory and that is when learning to swim can take place. When older children come into our Starfish level, the fear is stronger than a younger student in the same level; therefore different techniques are used to educate older children past this fear.
After a frustrating experience in a local learn to swim program, Eli’s parent researched their swim school options. After reading reviews about AquaTech on Berkeley Parents Network, they decided to give our program a try. They enrolled Eli to swim twice a week and so our journey began.
Eli was first enrolled in our Starfish level, which is specifically designed for “nervous beginners.” The Starfish class is kept small, with 3 children maximum, and is structured to educate children on a variety of water safety basics, such as, how to properly hold your breath and submerge the head willingly. Here at AquaTech, we believe in educating our students in a fashion that allows them to decide when they are ready to submerge. We do not believe in forcing a student under when they are strongly opposed to it. Our method works most of the time in this class, yet, every once in a while comes a student like Eli, where if left up to him, we would have had a 20 year old Starfish on our hands eventually!
In the beginning, our teachers tried our method of education in the hopes of helping Eli understand enough to overcome his fear. No matter what we tried, Eli refused to put his head under willingly. After speaking with his parents and our staff, we developed a game plan for Eli. AquaTech was ready to take this child to the next level, willingly or not. It was our “gentle but firm” approach and his parents were on board. They agreed to continue to bring him consistently and trust our process and we guaranteed that they would see results.
The next few months we put our plan in motion and slowly took over making the decisions for Eli in the class. He was going under water whether he liked it or not. He protested, fought, and cried and while it was not a fun process for his parents or our staff, we slowly starting seeing the results appear. Eventually, the resistance faded. Eli began to notice other kids graduating from the class and newer more fearful ones starting up. He began to see himself as a mentor to other fearful students. He was the teacher’s helper by demonstrating to the new students how easy it was to submerge. Lessons became routine for him and he eventually forgot about his fear of going under the water. The day Eli completed a class submerging when asked and without protest was the day he finally graduated from the Starfish class. His parents and our staff were elated!
With the fear of water gone, the next 7 levels were a breeze for Eli. He kept a consistent schedule, which helped him smoothly layer the lessons learned from level to level. He challenged himself by reading the goals of each level knowing that he would have to master each skill to move up to the next level and receive his next ribbon. This past December 2009, Eli was awarded his 8th and final ribbon for completing the Orca level, which is the final children’s level of AquaTech.
After 2 steady years at AquaTech, Eli went from a fearful 6 year old to an 8 year old who is not only water safe but also can swim Freestyle, Backstroke, Breastroke, and Butterfly with beautiful form and competitive technique. He is a healthy, fit and happy 8-year-old boy, who learned a great deal about himself through this process. He set goals and achieved them. He conquered his fear and was rewarded.
He is our first student to start at the very first level and work his way up 8 levels of achievement.
We commend Eli’s parents for committing to a consistent process of learning. Their patience and positive encouragement allowed Eli to thrive at AquaTech Swim School and has laid the foundation for a successful young man. When Eli was posed with the question “what advice would you give kids who are scared of swimming?” His answer was, “If you think you want to quit – keep doing it!”
AquaTech celebrates Eli and his parent’s success! 
This entry was posted on February 8, 2010, 3:05 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.