How We Teach Your Child to Swim

Children learn fast through a bond of love and trust - just as they do in your own home. Our philosophy and techniques have been refined and improved for over 45 years and are in use by all our teachers at AQua Wave.

When Learning is done through exploration in a fun, enjoyable and safe environment, children learn faster and retain their skills longer. One of the key elements to our WaveSmart® technique is teaching our students an in-depth understanding of the water first. This is unique to teaching swimming and enables your children to learn to "live in the water" for a lifetime of safety and enjoyment.

Elements of WaveSmart®

The first element of the technique involves overcoming the student's fears so that he or she can be comfortable enough in the water to learn. Because movement in the water is so different from movement on land, there are several fears that arise when a nonswimmer enters the water.

  • Fear of the unknown: Immerdiately, children are aware that he water is not like land and that many of their land-based skills no longer apply in this new environment and they are uncertain of the outcome.
  • Fear of falling: What many adults forget is that to a child, there is nothing to keep them from falling past the water's surface all the way down to the hard bottom. Part of mastering land movement is developing reflexes to avoid falling. Children often become frightened of swimming because it looks like an environment in which falling is a constant danger.
  • Fear of suffocation: This very basic human fear is triggered in non-swimmers when they enter the water and realize that breathing cannot be taken for granted.

Exploring the Water: To combat these three fears and move students to the next level, our instructors will spend much of your child's first lessons in "play". This approach helps us determine to what degree each child has these fears. We will introduce children to the water as a new environment and build familiarity. We will teach them how to hold their breath and through explorationa and experimentation, they will learn about floatation and buoyancy.

Understanding the Water: We help nonswimmers get used to the resistance of their new environment and show them the effects of any movement they make. We also show them how any motion made by their legs, feet, hands, arms, or anything else, moves them somehow in the water. Even walking on the bottom in shallow water can be an adventure and a test of new skills for a beginning swimmer. Swimming requires an entirely different set of reflexes from those used on land.

Once children understand these basics, they are ready to learn how the water will support them. Watching an instructor push a toy under water, then watching the toy pop back up is a very important demonstration for a child. Lessons about buoyancy continue even after the child learns how to float. They quickly realize that every movement changes their balance. For example:

If the head goes up...the feet go down. If the head goes down...the feet go up.

For this reason, we start by teaching the Universal Float, which allows children to breathe easily and control movement through the water and begin mastering their aquatic environment.

The More You Know... It is only after children have established this foundation of skills that they truly begin to enjoy the water. They now control themselves in this new environment and are ready to begin learning the four competetive strokes. Starting with this foundation is the key to the WaveSmart® technique. This is what makes AQua Wave swimmers confident and comfortable in the water, ready to enjoy swimming for life.

The Importance of Swimming Lessons

Drowning is a silent event...and it is preventable!

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is concerned about children who quickly learn lifesaving swimming skills and just as quickly forget those skills due to a lack of opportunity to practice over a long period of time. AQua Wave shares the AAP's concern. We strongly encourage parents to spread out swim lessons with a once or twice a week schedule, year round. Would you consider giving your child 12 weeks of piano lessons and then quitting for the next 40 weeks? Swim lessons (like piano lessons) require ongoing reinforcement and repetition. Choose your child's schedule of learning carefully.

Only swimming skills that are remembered can save a life.

At AQua Wave, We Redefine Swimming Lessons

  • We believe most drownings can be prevented by teaching a child to swim well and by educationg adults about the importance of supervision regardless of swimming ability.
  • We teach a depth of understanding and proficiency in the water that leads to a healthy respect and allows each child to explore and enjoy the water.
  • We strive to provide the best learning environment possible so every student will be able to experience the joys of water and the thrill of attaining new skills.
  • We feel our methods aid your child's development of self-confidence, self worth and purpose by showing a child, through love, affection, and fun that their goals can be accomplished.
  • We know swimming, when taught well, provides a lifetime of enjoyment and water safety, It is an excellent way to get cardivascular exercise and is also a great stress reducer.
  • We are committed to making learning to swim an enjoyable and fun experience. That's why our classes are small. Your regular attendance and loving praise also helps.
  • We produce incredible results because we do not push our students beyond what they can emotionally accept and physically accomplish.
  • We create swimmers who are at ease in the water and learn new stroke skills naturally.