Cami's Swim School

I price lessons based on a half hour of teaching. Through all my years of teaching I find that children and adults alike due better with a shorter experience. An hour is a very long time to teach and be taught swimming. I also recommend we strive to set up 8 lessons as that helps individuals really improve upon their strokes and comfort level in the water.

I want to hear what the customer is looking to gain from the experience. Everyone comes with a different experience and comfort level of the water. I want to help all my customers feel comfortable, safe and enjoy swimming as much as I do! I will listen to what their goals are and help them achieve them as much as possible.

I have been teaching swim lessons since I was 15 years old at the local YMCA in the town I grew up in. I continued this work all through college in addition to graduating with a major in Recreation. After college I ran my own backyard swim lessons where I traveled to people's homes and taught swimming in their pools. I then pursued an Aquatic Director position with the YMCA where I recently retired after 43 years of service including 33 years full time. I currently work at a local swim club teaching swim lessons.

I have always loved swimming and my father was the best instructor! After I passed the deep water test at the local lake we swam at, I started working teaching children to swim and have never stopped! I am lucky enough to have made my career by not only teaching swimming but training swim instructors and trainers to do so.

I have worked with all ages: 6 month old to 3 years old in parent/child lessons, pre-school age 3-5 years without their parents, school age children ages 6-12 years old and teens and adults 13 years and older.

The most recent project I tackled was putting mulch in my yard. It was a very tedious job as weeds had to be pulled first then mulch put in the wheelbarrow to then be spread. With the help of a friend the project took over a week working a couple of hours a day on it! It made me be completely grateful for my profession of teaching swimming instead of landscaping!

My advice would be to know your students/customers needs before you make a plan to follow. Getting input from your students ahead of time helps to set clear expectations for everyone so there are no misunderstandings. I always want our customers to feel as if I am patient and hear what their fears or concerns are so I can help them overcome them and have success at learning to swim.

Customers should know what they want the final outcome to be and discuss it with the professional. Sometimes in the world of swimming parents can have unrealistic expectations of what their child should accomplish and in what time frame. Everyone learns differently so there should be no comparing one child to another. Individual learning is so important and will help children and adults feel good about what they have accomplished and not be compared to another student, sibling, friend or another student.