A week in the life of a New Zealand swim coach (ASA Qualified)

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So...I have finally finished my 1st week as a Swim Coach in New Zealand and what a week it's been!

In this one short week, I have learn't so many new things with regards to teaching swimming! Teaching swimming here is COMPLETELY different to teaching swimming back home in the UK. If anyone gets a chance to experience teaching out here, then I highly recommend it! Here's why...



1. In the UK you are strongly advised not to "touch" the children you teach in any way. This includes holding their hands/arms/legs/anything even if it helps them to learn to swim! (well so the STA advise anyway). This is due to child protection which I completely understand but as teachers we are fully trained professionals just doing a job that we love doing and want to help children to learn to swim! Here in New Zealand, you can guide the children by guiding their hands, legs, arms, head, whatever! This is how swimming should be taught. How can we possibly teach children to swim 100% without guiding their bodys (if they are doing it incorrectly of course!). I completely agree with the NZ way of teaching, and I feel that in one week of working here, I have seen every single child progess in one lesson with the guidance of the teachers showing them how to do things by using their arms/legs/feet/hands/heads. I have taught both STA and ASA programmes and the STA are far more against teachers "touching" children when they are learning to swim than the ASA and I am so glad that I qualified with ASA because of this as I would have been so scared coming into my first ever teaching job and being told that I am not allowed to touch the children in anyway! Having taught and managed STA and ASA qualfied teachers, the STA teachers were far more concerned about guding a childs arms on a push and glide for example!



2. The majority of learn to swim lessons are 30minute sessions. In the UK, in every single place that I have taught, the children are constantly in and out of the pool. The most common complaint at every single one of my work places in the UK was...I am paying for a 30minute lesson and my children only swam for half of that. Or some parents even said that they only swam 4-6 times in 30minutes! Whenever a parent told me this I was completely unsure of how to respond. We would get the children out after every activity, length, width to explain to them what to do next, what they were doing wrong or even what they are doing right. Now...here at Canterbury swim school, the children are swimming for the WHOLE 30minutes and I mean ALL OF IT! Yes they stop for say 15seconds for a rest, and for us to explain what to do next, BUT they are ALWAYS in the water. This applies for all ages and abilities whether it be complete beginners or the squad. They are corrected whilst they are swimming and each individual is corrected (if needed to be) seperately whilst the others carry on with what they have been told to do. I believe this is the correct way to teach and never before have I thought of doing it this way, but I can guarentee that if I ever come back to the UK or anywhere to teach swimming, I will be implementing this is ALL of my lessons!



3. School lessons - they allow one session out of the week or 2 weeks to be all about watersafety. I feel strongly that this should definitely be implemented in ALL swimming lessons in all countries. Yes we are there to teach a child or adult to swim in a pool but we should be preparing them for swimming outside of lessons, whether it be on holiday in the pool or sea or even at their local beach. Every single child that took part in the water safety session thoroughly enjoyed it and you could tell this by the amount of noise they were making and just by looking at the smiles on their faces. At all the pools i've taught at in the UK, we have never taught this in a normal lesson. Yes we teach them how to throw a rope to someone and lifesaving breaststroke / sidestroke, but we don't teach them how to get out of dangerous situations in water, should they ever find themselves in one!



4. I LOVE TEACHING SWIMMING HERE!!!



Overall, I feel that the quality of teaching and the way the lessons are run in New Zealand are of a much higher standard of anywhere I have ever taught and I am thoroughly enjoying it (even though it's only been a week!). Don't get me wrong, I love teaching in the UK too, but I know that if I return, I will be bringing everything I have learn't here back to my lessons in the UK. Only thing I need to get used to is the different words they use! For example it's not front crawl it's freestyle, and they have no idea what a float is, they're called boards. When I asked the kiddies to take a float they all stared at me blankly, lucking I had a little english girl in the class who told me it was called a board!



Don't get me wrong, I have managed and taught alongside some fantastic swimming teachers both ASA and STA qualified but I feel we can all learn different ways and styles ot teaching by doing so in different countries!



I would like to thank Canterbury Swim School for giving me this opportunity to work for such a fantasticly run swim school with amazing friendly staff and I look forward to the months to come!

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