Drills are used in every sport to enhance technique, change form, and improve performance. Not only do they help students improve, but they also engage the student’s mind to make swimming more fun and interesting! Drills can be used for every level of swimmer from beginner through advanced and can be as simple as a breathing exercise to paddle board freestyle lengthening. We love drills because they can engage both our mind and our body.
Using state of the art drills to help students of all types and abilities: Check out our video of Coach Koung using a ball drill to help her student straighter her freestyle arms!
Silicon swim caps keep your child’s hair healthy and protected from drying elements in pools including salt and chlorine. Always opt for silicon caps over latex as latex caps create serious breakage.
Insulation, anyone? Swim caps are basically a water hat and will keep your child’s head toasty in those cooler months of the year. If there is a good reason to wear swim caps, staying super warm is one of them!
In the swimming world, there’s a term called “drag” which is something you want to avoid at all costs. When kids have a lot of hair and it’s either not pulled back or in a cap, that’s drag – and it’s slowing your lil swimmer down. Make swim lessons more productive. Keep your child’s hair out of their eyes and out of the way while they swim.
Feel intimidated by swim caps? Here are a couple of videos that make it easy.
How to put a swim cap on (Adult)
How to put a swim cap on your child
Final thoughts: Silicon swim caps are available online and at many sports stores typically for $10 or less. There are generic size swim caps as well as long hair caps in child and adult sizes, so make sure you get the right size for your child!
“How long will it take for my child to be water safe?”
When it comes to choosing the right place for your child to learn how to swim it can be a difficult one. Of course there are many things to consider, parents are looking at the price, yelp reviews, the costumer service experience when calling and asking questions as well as how quickly their child will learn how to swim.
At first glance Patti’s may seem like a hefty price tag, but then you also have to take into consideration we specialize in semi-private and private lessons, meaning that you get the personal experience between parent and instructor that can be hard to find at big box companies. There is no glass wall causing a divide between you and the person who is working with your child. You can hear everything that is being said, taught, as well as view the interaction between child and teacher.
Here at Patti’s we have a nice set up for parents to sit back and relax pool side, along with tables and umbrella’s if you want to enjoy the summer weather without being sun burned.
We also know at big box swim schools it can be hard to get in touch with the owner or sometimes even the manager but here at Patti’s we want you to know that both the owner and the manager are available to you. If you can’t reach us by phone, send us an email and we will get back to you the same day, usually by phone so that you can get all the questions you have answered right away. On most days you can even find the owner herself checking in on the business and even answering the phones, which is the type of thing you would only get from a family owned business.
Another great thing about a family owned business is that all the instructors are selected by the owner herself. In the case of Patti’s Swim School, the instructors all have years of experience or are Patti’s own children, some instructors have even learned to swim at Patti’s and came back to work there when they got older. It says a lot about a company when students and families had such a great experience that they will come back as adults and want to work for them.
Here at Patti’s Swim School, you will not only get the best instructors that a swim school has to offer, but you will also get a calm and relaxing place where you and your child can both enjoy the experience.
We all have been there, whether it be as a swim instructor or a parent. Your child recently started swim lessons and every time they set foot near the pool the tears start to fall. What are the reasons for this and should I continue to make them swim? This is a question we hear a lot at Patti’s Swim School.
We all know that it is not fun to see any child upset and of course we want swimming to be fun but there are also some cases where it is ok for your child to be upset and still make them swim. For example, anything new is always scary especially to a child who is young. Most of the time they will stop crying after a few lessons, once they start to get use to the routine and realize that everything will be ok. What we don’t want to do is take them out of swim lessons after one day just because they cried, give them a few lessons to get comfortable.
There is also the case of a child crying because they have recently started to become independent and do not want a (stranger) telling them what to do. Ergo they will start to cry in hopes that the will not have to do what is asked of them. In this case it really is up to the parents, however as a swim instructor I can tell you that once your child realizes they have to do what is ask of them they get use to it and there will be no more tears.
Some children are absolutely terrified, now parents you know your child better than anyone. If they are legitimately scared you have to decide. Are you okay with the swim instructor going a little slower so that your child can start to trust them or do you want to wait awhile until you feel they are ready. The reason I say this is because of course we want your child to swim but we don’t want to push them to the point where we have made swimming such a terrible ordeal that they never want to come back. However if given the time to adjust and realize that there is nothing to be afraid of, your child will thrive at Patti’s Swim School!
A lot of people have asked and even wondered at what age is my child ready to start swimming?
To be honest, the sooner the better, here at Patti’s Swim School we start our students as young as 5 months old in the Baby and Me class. We do this because we find that the sooner the student gets comfortable in the water the faster they will learn to be water safe. The Baby and Me class is broken down in a way that makes learning fun and exciting for you and your little ones.
We get your baby comfortable going underwater by doing dips from teacher to parents and vice versa. Babies will naturally start to close their eyes and their mouths when they see the water coming, this is not to say that they will never drink water but it will happen less and less as they start to spend more time in the pool.
The Baby and Me class also integrates the basic water safety skills needed in case your child falls into a pool by accident. For example we work on getting your child comfortable on their back as well as getting used to the motion of rolling front to back so that they can start to understand the process of needing to breath when inside the pool.
We also do drills where we will start to glide them from parent to wall so that we can teach them to reach up and grab. This way if they fall in or stray too far they have a better chance of being able to grab onto something so they can lift their heads out.
When choosing swim lessons for your young tot or toddler what is better, private lessons or baby and me? I believe that if it is your child’s first time in the swimming pool and they are between the ages of 5 months to 2 years then baby and me is a good way to go. This way they can get used to be being in the pool, having an instructor around but still have the comfort of having mom or dad near by. Once they are comfortable in the water and used to getting their face wet then it is time for private lessons.
Yes private lessons may seem expensive at first but they are well worth the money. Other swim schools will have baby and me classes and not let your child join regular lessons until they are three to four years old. Even then your child will be in a 4:1 ratio, where they get about 8 1/2 min of learning. Yes the classes are cheaper but in the end you will be spending more money because your child will be in lessons for much longer than you desired.
With private lessons your child will learn to be water safe much quicker and be able to perform the basic water safety skills need in case of emergencies.
When people think about swim lessons they always think about how important it is for their children to be water safe, but what about us as adults? Here are some reasons that although it is important for children to be safe in the water it is also important that their parents be safe and comfortable in the water as well.
Children learn from the adults in their lives. They learn right from wrong, what they should fear and not fear, and what is safe vs. unsafe. If they see that you, their parents are afraid of the water, but trying to convince them to learn how to swim, they relate that as meaning they should be afraid as well. Children are intelligent and they know if mom and dad are afraid of something it must be for a very good reason. This can cause the process of learning to swim to be that much more difficult for them.
As a parent learning to swim can also be a life saving skill. Water sports are very popular in California especially during the warmer months. If you yourself know how to swim it will be easier to assist your children if circumstances call for it.
For example you are at a BBQ, pool party with some of your friends and family, then all the sudden you hear your child screaming for you to help them. You turn around and notice that they have accidentally wandered into the deep end of the pool. You of course jump in, swim towards them and then tread to the safety of the wall while holding their head out of the water. Now think for a moment that you, yourself can’t swim or are not very comfortable in certain depths of water. This can leave both you and your child helpless.
Knowing how to swim with your child can also be a great past time. Finding fun activities to do with your child is something that all parents love to do. Knowing how to swim can be a great way to bond. Just think of all the different sport and activities you can do once you both know how to swim: water skiing, wake boarding, surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, just to name a few. All of these are fun activities that you and your child can both get involved in, that can help the whole family live a healthier, happier lifestyle.
I know some parents are reading this and thinking, maybe she is right but I don’t want to be embarrassed or uncomfortable. Self doubt is perfectly normal and everyone goes through it. Here at Patti’s swim school we can gear our lessons towards your own personal comfort level and schedule. If you don’t want a lot of people around we can have your swim lesson in the morning or early afternoons, if that doesn’t work we can figure something else out for you. Maybe you feel more comfortable with a female instructor or vica versa, not a problem. We want everyone to have the best learning to swim experience they can have.
Now if this were any other swim school my recommendation would be for yourself or your child to use goggles. This is purely based on the fact that most swim schools have highly chlorinated pools that will burn the eyes if they are open too long. Since however we are primarily saline here, I think it is important for parents to understand why a lot of our swim instructors will ask their students to swim without goggles or at least do jumps into the pool without them.
I know it may sound harsh or possibly a little bit scary, because everyone would love to be able to see clearly 100% of the time. However learning to be in the water without goggles is a skill that could end up saving your life or your child’s life.
Take for example that your child can swim back and forth from wall to wall doing big arms and rolling to their back to breath with goggles. Meaning you feel confident enough in their water safety ability. Then one day while swimming in the pool with their friends your child’s goggles starts to leak. They panic, because they have never really had to swim or find a wall with water in their eyes before. Since they don’t really know where they are going they begin to swim in circles, their body starts to tense up and ultimately they start drinking water. Luckily you notice in time and are able to grab them and pull them to safety or maybe there is a lifeguard on duty and he does the same.
Now think about how different the outcome could have been if your child was comfortable with swimming without goggles. Instead of panicking your child would have probably just taken off their goggles,swam to the nearest wall, put their goggles back on and then continued swimming with their friends.
Here is another situation you might find yourself in. Your child isn’t completely water safe yet but they know enough swimming that they can jump in and swim back to the wall without any trouble. You have seen them working on this with their swim instructor for the last couple weeks (the swim instructor asks them to put their goggles on, jump in and then swim to a wall). Meaning if they fell into the water at a pool party or while they were playing at grandma’s you would feel pretty confident that they would be safe, right?
Your child however is not always going to be prepared to fall into a pool at any given time. Their goggles are not going to be on their heads or around their necks just waiting for some crazy event to occur. Which means if cousin Ned pushed them in from behind as a joke and your child can’t find the wall without goggles, you could be looking at a serious problem.
Maybe your child however swims at Patti’s Swim School and they have been practicing the jump in and return to the wall without their goggles. Which means you can safely say that with or without goggles, it doesn’t matter. Your child will be able to enter and exit the pool safely no matter the circumstances.
Patti's Swim School 