tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70658990814024993172024-03-08T15:35:30.321-07:00Swim School BobSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-85089460541990613102011-07-26T15:33:00.000-07:002011-07-26T15:33:32.062-07:00Thank You!I started writing the SwimSchoolBob blog a few years ago, experimenting with sharing some thoughts that wandered through my mind in my day-to-day life as a husband, parent of eight, swim teacher, small business owner and a reader of a wide variety of stuff (Kathy says “junk”).
The response has been so great that we are moving the blog to a legitimate, full-blown but not too fancy Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-41402957352732987612011-05-24T15:57:00.000-07:002011-05-24T15:57:37.069-07:00Where Does Pool Safety Start?To keep your children safe around water, start outside the pool!!!
Safe Kids reports that in 63% of drowning cases, the victims entered the pool through an open or unlatched gate! If you have a pool or even are at a party or visiting a home with a pool, you need to ensure that the pool gate is locked. Do not count on the host to confirm that the gate is locked. If you are at home with a Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-28383277410905440372011-04-25T12:34:00.001-07:002011-04-25T12:34:50.360-07:00Are You Taking Time To Be Selfish?I posted a photo on my Facebook page last week of myself with our 5th daughter as she headed off to her high school prom. It prompted me to think that I had been sending kids off to proms over three decades. Whew, that is a lot of great memories.
This week I was reflecting on that experience, as I heard a young couple discuss the stress that they were feeling with an eighteen-month-old Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-72211377916596377702011-04-08T10:13:00.003-07:002011-04-08T10:14:55.546-07:00Does Your Waiter Know Your Name?How many times have you sat down at a table in a restaurant and the fresh faced waiter or waitress comes over and says …. “Hello, I am Tracy and I will be serving you tonight”? Often times, that is information that passes in one ear and out the other. No eye contact by either the waiter or yourself.
On the other hand how do you feel when you walk into a place and to quote the old Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-82066609356491428072011-01-12T17:15:00.005-07:002011-01-13T21:59:29.754-07:00Play, A Lost Art
Welcome to the New Year. Honestly have had a bit of writer’s block over the past few months, ok more than a few, months. I finally found the topic to get me writing again. PLAY or, rather, the lack of it in our children’s and our own lives!
Our kids are living in very structured worlds where they go to swim lessons, soccer practice, piano lessons, and after-school math tutors. Whew! I remember Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-59891939512490384742009-07-23T10:37:00.003-07:002009-10-07T14:49:34.377-07:00Time for Parents to Explore Underwater !!! Lesson One.Are you a nervous swimmer? Are you among the 65% of adults who are uncomfortable if you were in water over your head? Do you swim across your pool with the idea that if you stopped swimming you would sink?
Here at the swim school, we often find that when we have a nervous child, we can usually find that one of their parents is also a nervous swimmer. So here is my remedy and recommendations forSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-53295281638969706252009-06-16T11:28:00.004-07:002009-10-07T14:53:57.774-07:00Summer Swim Tips for HomeWe work hard with the young swimmers AND THEIR PARENTS all year long at our swim school. Often at this time of year, we see the kids coming back into the pool with some bad habits. MMMM, we wonder, where did they learn that? SO in an effort to keep those swimming skills up when the weather is warm and to give our parents some hints on what to do at home, we are offering up our Top Ten Tips for Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-21310740172591244502009-05-27T14:04:00.004-07:002009-10-07T14:54:43.061-07:00The Value of Working With Your HandsKathy and I often chuckle about how we have learned to handle being identified as "swim lesson teachers". When asked at a party or in a meeting by someone that we have never met before, they get a strange look on their face, that seems to say "ohhh you make a living and support your family teaching swimming?" One of my favorite questions is, "and what else do you do?" I will sometimes go off Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-73308191004377079672009-05-11T11:09:00.005-07:002009-10-07T14:55:18.424-07:00Do You Have Fun At Work ? I do! Today as we move into a bit of the hectic days of late spring and early summer, I am looking forward with excitement to the opening of our Mesa swim school this week, the opening of our four summer sports camps in two weeks, the summer recreational swim teams and the summer energy that blows in the front doors at the indoor swim schools. As much as I am proud of our curriculum and the quality ofSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-85305922026965867162009-04-19T18:28:00.003-07:002009-10-07T14:55:57.990-07:00Relax, it is not that big a deal
What's not a big deal? Well anything really. Just got out of the water teaching today. The thought running through my mind is that parents of little ones today seem to place a lot of emphasis on success in everything their child does or attempts. And if the swim lesson or tumble gym class does not go well, the parent puts too much blame on themselves. They seem to think they are failing somehowSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-23230204476426870142009-03-22T15:35:00.005-07:002009-10-07T14:56:24.993-07:00From the Mouths of BabesHere at the swim school we have advocated for years that swim lessons are a major layer of protection in preventing drowning. We work very hard to teach a child that there will be a consequence for stepping off the edge of the pool. They will go under water! Now I personally have two, yes two, major resources that support this theory. In a recent blog, we reported on the results of the brand newSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-29628121187799517472009-03-03T11:29:00.007-07:002009-10-07T14:56:55.336-07:00Swimming Lessons Do Not Increase Drowning Risk in Young Children - National Institutes of HealthFINALLY, we are beginning to have some research that supports what many of us in the Learn to Swim world have believed for years. Swim Lessons do impact a child's behavior and are a factor in the fight against children drowning. The National Institutes of Health have released a study that states:
"Providing very young children with swimming lessons appears to have a protective effect against Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-40708155612843097972009-02-17T10:14:00.004-07:002009-02-23T08:33:36.268-07:00Kids Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, AfricaI spent some time last week with a pretty impressive 7th grader named Max. I got to know Max when he and his sister first started at our swim school several years ago. Max is in a new middle school this year but as a sixth grader he was president of the student body for his grade school. Remember, I said president of the entire school not just his class. Max and some of his friends and parents Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-74257000173518597752009-02-02T19:10:00.003-07:002009-02-02T19:20:20.304-07:00Maybe Pig-Pen Had It Right!(apologies to Charles M. Schulz)Are you a "five second rule" parent? Are you a "scan the area, wipe it off and feed it to your child" parent? Or are you a "it touched the floor and it will never touch your mouth" parent!I grew up in a hectic, 7 kids within 10 years of each other, loving household in Brooklyn in the 50's and 60's. My mom and dad were a nurse and a surgeon, respectively. They were Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-45690362527948784422009-01-19T12:45:00.013-07:002009-01-19T16:24:52.861-07:00Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream SpeechToday we celebrate Martin Luther King Day. Tomorrow, fifty-one years after Dr. King's famous I Have A Dream speech, we will inaugurate our first president of color. I am going to steal from an email I received from one of Kathy's cousins, who today generated a message that does an excellent job in placing Martin Luther King's speech in the historical context, plus he included a copy of the speechSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-72245750045148711262009-01-12T16:58:00.003-07:002009-01-12T17:09:44.712-07:00Paralympic Champion Dies I had never heard about Nick Scandone until I read his obituary last week in the New York Times. His story represents so much of what we value in athletics. He was an elite athlete competing in sailing at the Olympic level when he was diagnosed with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.Wikipedia describes the disease as a disorder that causes muscle weakness and atrophy throughout Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-72952450148169004182008-12-31T08:15:00.003-07:002008-12-31T08:28:35.118-07:00Are You Too Busy To Help?As we enter the new year, many people sit down and reflect on the year passed and the days ahead. Often times these type of reflections take the perspective of what can I do to better myself personally this coming year. Exercise more. Watch less television. Be more diligent and not procrastinate. Get organized. Keep my closets more organized, and on and on and on.Today, I would like to encourage Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-26536570825838129082008-12-22T17:40:00.004-07:002008-12-22T18:11:14.449-07:00Christmas MemoriesToday I have copied a note from our son, Patrick. He has his version of an email blog/newsletter and I thought he hit a pretty good note. So, here are his thoughts on Christmas Memories:'Tis The Season to be CrazySo in the spirit of the holiday season and seeing that the last blog I wrote was about how much I adore Thanksgiving, I figure now is a good time to talk a little bit about my experienceSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-3008634799514251162008-12-15T16:19:00.003-07:002008-12-15T16:32:04.118-07:00BE vs BECOMEDo you want to just BE or are you ready to do the work to BECOME?I was at a swim school conference a few weeks ago and one of the speakers, I believe it was John Chappelear, author of The Daily Six, who asked the above question. His point was that many people in our society today want to BE someone or something. They do necessarily want to do the work to BECOME that someone. If you google the Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-33289052591514471082008-12-08T11:22:00.004-07:002008-12-08T11:43:54.288-07:00CPR UpdateWe promote water safety all of the time at our swim schools. Our primary focus has been sharing the message of the Safer 3 with our friends at the swim school and their families. One of components of the Safer 3 has been a Safer Response to learn CPR. Now amazing news from the Phoenix Fire Department. Our local newspaper, The Arizona Republic is reporting that based upon a fire department studySwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-64108761542531344602008-11-23T23:07:00.007-07:002008-11-23T23:26:14.428-07:00The Gettysburg AddressWhy, you may ask is he thinking of Lincoln's Gettysburg address today. I was recently at the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference and Bill Reichert of Garage Technology Ventures, one of the speakers, remarked that Wednesday, November 19th was the 145th anniversary of The Gettysburg Address. He went on to describe his experiences at The Lincoln Memorial In Washington, DC. Bill talked about standingSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-16686897774147720612008-11-17T13:03:00.004-07:002008-12-18T19:47:46.137-07:00Family Traditions -- Be Brave -- Establish Your OwnOne of the things I marvel at every holiday season is how conflicted and exhausted parents of young families often become over where and how to spend their holiday time. There are the families that spend Thanksgiving with one set of parents and Christmas with another. Or even the families that spend half a day with each family driving hours and hours with tired crabby kids in order to not offend Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-90854314773117316352008-11-10T15:40:00.005-07:002008-11-10T16:02:55.838-07:00GratitudeWe are moving toward Thanksgiving, a time of year when we hopefully find some time to reflect on the many good things in our lives. It can be hard in times of emotional or financial turmoil to find the good in the world. I have been asked recently how I would suggest teaching gratitude to a young child.Well. I have bad news for someone looking for a list of training exercises you can do Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-89179255951568191212008-11-03T20:01:00.005-07:002008-11-04T16:51:37.363-07:00Plateaus Are CoolEnjoy the plateau It is an important step in a long processA Plateau is defined as: a period or state of little or no growth or decline, a period of little or no apparent progress in an individual's learning, marked by an inability to increase speed, reduce number of errors, etc., and indicated by a horizontal stretch in a learning curve or graph. As children progress though our swim lesson or Swim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065899081402499317.post-88344589267745425232008-10-28T17:55:00.003-07:002008-10-28T18:12:03.910-07:00After the Glory is GoneThe Value of Teammates after the Glory is GoneThe New York Marathon is coming up soon. Running a marathon is a great experience. It tests your physical and emotional condition no matter your level of fitness. Having run three (3) marathons, I hold a great deal of respect for anyone who can complete the 26.2 miles, no matter how fast. Over the years, I have heard all kinds of reasons for a childSwim School Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13096160008748508877noreply@blogger.com1