Mr Brendan working with student

We believe that aquatic child development extends beyond our swimming pools and into the heart of our families’ homes.

Learning to swim is hard work, as well as fun, and requires much effort. How much a child enjoys this work and how rapidly they progress depends greatly on the attitude of the caregiver(s). It is not only rewarding but also contagious when children master goals in the swimming pool (and in life!).

By working as a team with our parents and swimmers, our instructors take great pride in guiding children through the peaks and valleys of swim class. We offer lessons for baby, toddler, and kids of all ages.

Mr Brendan with two students

“It is an honor for us to offer a top-quality swim program that teaches every child at their own level. Coming from a family that has been teaching children to swim for over 45 years and has taught more than 40,000 children, gives me the insight to know them very well. Care, patience, love, as well as tough love, are needed to create a well-balanced swim program.  When all of the aforementioned items are put together with the outstanding system my mother Carolyn Sweetman has created, you can’t go wrong.”

– Brendan Sweetman

A legacy of experience & excellence in swimming.

The knowledge we have for progressing your child in the water is age-appropriate. Many parents tend to be confused between a child’s true “fear” of the water versus a simple adjustment to this new environment of swimming. We have a great understanding of the individuality of children’s needs, level, and comprehension of a given task. With consistent lessons and the parent’s support, children learn to love and respect the water.  On rare occasions, we deal with children that are indeed “fearful” of the water.  When these unique circumstances arise, we have the knowledge and experience to teach this child with outstanding results.

Parents must understand that it is of utmost importance for our program to have 100% of their support in order for the lessons to be successful for their child. Without this support and trust from our parents, our swim program can not survive. It must have dedication and teamwork between the parents and the teachers.

The Sweetman family are leaders in the swim field, and the foundation of our swim programs leads the way.  As experienced swim teachers, it is crucial to know when and when not to implement a certain discipline. This implementation may be different even with children of the same age. The good times for a lot of children will come later and parents need to understand this when starting on the journey of swim lessons.  Our kids have ups and downs just like us, and this tends to shine brightly when in the pool.  The lessons learned in the pool vastly help our children when out of the pool.  European studies prove the importance of children learning to swim from a young age helps them to excel in school.  Simple fact- what they learn in the pool follows them for life!

  • Mr Brendan with two student graduates
  • Swim instructor holding toddler
  • Mr Charles teaching little girl
  • Girl floating on back
  • Brendan posing with two children
  • Little boy jumping into water
  • Female students sitting on side of pool
  • survival swim lessons floating
  • Girl floating in water
  • Swim student jumping in pool
  • Swim student
  • Swim lessons - girl floating
  • Mr Brendan working with student

Many Levels & Stages

The first and most important skill a child must learn in our swimming program is to roll over to their back.  Rolling over is a life saving skill to protect your child against drowning. Our beginner program is perfect for baby, toddlers and young children.

Over the many years our swim program has been in business, many tear-filled parents have come to our door to tell us… “If it wasn’t for you teaching my child to roll over they would have drowned.” Rolling over is the skill needed to advance onto the next levels as well as swimming with head down in prone position.

When a child can successfully and repeatedly jump into the water and roll over to their back, and be still and quiet, they are ready for the next stage of swim.  (An important note:  No matter what level your child resides, we will ALWAYS test them on rolling over.)

In this class children learn the basics that are mandatory to move to the next level. These will include:

  1. Resting on their back, unaided by a teacher
  2. Learning to be “still and quiet“ in the water
  3. Jumping into the pool and rolling over to their back and resting
  4. Swimming 8 to 10 feet with their face down and their legs up in the prone position

To be a successful swimmer, bubbles are very important. This is the foundation of freestyle (bubbles and roll). If a child is unable to consistently blow bubbles, they “spit” air out and after some distance become tired and start to gasp for air.

We spend many hours with bubble clinics, making sure each child can calmly swim while blowing long bubbles. This may seem like an easy task, but for many children we will drill this technique over and over.

Simply said – we need air to live, a child needs air to swim. If they don’t breathe and blow bubbles correctly, they can’t swim in a calm manner. If they cannot swim calmly the level of tension in their body is greatly increased, which can result in panic.

During the process of mastering bubbles, we may or may not add a child’s arms. This is strictly based on the individual child.  (Example – I have added arms to a two year old, but not a seven year old.)

This class is structured for children of no specific age who are capable of swimming 8-10 feet and can roll over to their back and rest comfortably, and are then capable of rolling back over and swimming to the side of the pool or to a teacher. This is a class that students will stay in the longest, please be very patient, we cannot stress this enough. If the students do not get the skills at this level we cannot move them to the next class level.

Once the bubbles have been mastered and the child is swimming confidently freestyle and the back stroke down the length of the pool, then they may be considered for Big Strokes. In Big Strokes, we review in detail freestyle and back stroke, as well as moving on to Breast Stroke and Butterfly. Within big strokes your child will possibly swim up to five minutes without stopping and also tread water for 25 minutes. This class is perfect preparation for students wishing to pursue swim team.