Engagement at an advanced school level

Engagement at a Sharks level



One of our philosophies here at Aqautots is swimming for life and we want your swimmer to have a life long love of the water. Swimming can be a long journey for some swimmers as everyone learns at different rates so we want to keep your child interested and excited about coming swimming for as many years as it takes to confidently say they are safe in the water. Here are a few tips to help with this:

1. Ask your child what they are working in there lessons. If they are finding a skill difficult, find out how you can help them to succeed with that particular skill. It may be more swimming time, booking them into a holiday program so they have more opportunities to practice that skill or giving them the time to talk through the skill with either yourself, the instructor or the on deck supervisor (our on deck supervisors have many years of teaching experience behind them) who will have some tips for your swimmer to help them achieve their goals.

2. Your interest in your child's swimming will also help keep them motivated to come back to the pool every week. Your encouragement means a lot to them so while it's great to have that swimming time to catch up on your emails or doing a spot of online shopping (we all love that!) take the time to watch your child's swimming lessons so you have an idea of what there learning and how they are feeling about it. Children can get disheartened and frustrated when they seem stuck on a particular skills so keep the communication open with your child and if your not sure how to deal with the situation please don't hesitate to ask for advice from your on deck supervisor. We want your child to be succeeding at swimming so we're always here to help.

3. We want you and your swimmer to have a good experience with us at Aquatots so a few things may need to be factored into this to keep swimming exciting and fun. The first is making sure your child is enjoying the lesson. This may be because they really like the instructor who is taking that class or they may have made friends with some children in the class or that time and day is best for them because they are fresh at this time. If these factors makes your child happy and wanting to come to swimming each week then factor this into your decisions when you change your child's booking to a different time, day or pool. If you change and they are not happy you may find it difficult to get back into that class with the same swimmers and instructor which may see your swimmer loose interest.

4. Always stay positive about the swimming experience. The best outcome for our whole swim school is that everyone is happy and working towards a common goal of learning how to swim. By having a positive and challenging environment to do this in everyone can blossom to his or her full potential. We ask that you help us to gain this type of environment by letting us know if we can help you or your swimmer in any way.

5. If your child is struggling with gaining technique at this level it is a great time to look at their swim wear. Long board shorts, rash shirts and suits will drag in the water and restrict movements required for technical swimming. In squad levels children are expected to wear regular swim wear for their training sessions so starting earlier in Sharks levels will prepare them and make gaining technical strokes easier for your child.

6. Ensure you give them a chance to see what their swimming skills can do for them. Encourage participation in water sports and swimming carnivals. Most kids at this level will surprise themselves with their swimming ability compared to others around the same age. Watch professional water sports or mini clips on swimming technique so kids can get a visual on what is required, how to get there and what the outcome of them gaining the skills can lead to.