Dear our Col Jones families,
Following the announcement at 2pm today by the NSW Government, as of 6pm tonight 26th June, swimming pools are required to shut for 2 weeks during this lockdown. Any lessons that have been booked and paid for from Sunday 27th June 2021 up to and including Friday 9th July 2021 will be credited to your family credit in your swim school account. For our families who have booked in for our School Holiday Programs we will also be crediting the full cost of each course into your family credit in your swim school account. Lessons will resume as normal from Saturday 10th July 2021 unless advised by NSW Government. We thank you for your continued support and look forward to seeing you back in the pool soon! Take care these school holidays and stay safe. Yours in swimming and water safety, The team at Col Jones Swim Fitness Hurstville In accordance with this philosophy, we strongly believe that forced submersions (also known as dunking) do not have a place in our curriculum. Whilst our policy is generally considered industry best practice, some swim schools continue to teach through forced submersions resulting in students developing a long-term fear of swimming.
Two of Australia’s leading bodies on learn to swim, ASCTA and Swim Australia, have recently released a Position Statement on Submersions. We are affiliated with both ASCTA and Swim Australia and are pleased to see that their position statement reflects what we have been teaching for years. ASCTA and Swim Australia “places the willingness and acceptance of the baby or toddler at the forefront of its submersion policy.” As evident here at Col Jones Swim School Hurstville, forcing any student’s (from baby all the way through to adults) head under the water is not practiced by our teachers. In fact, “submersion practices which are carried out on a baby or toddler without their obvious willingness is likened to enforced behaviour and is not ethically acceptable.” Instead, here at Col Jones Swim School Hurstville, we work to each student’s pace. We familiarise our youngest students in our baby and toddler classes with getting their faces wet in a fun environment using toys, songs and cueing. Our older students are taught to blow bubbles correctly at their own pace alongside learning other skills such as kicking and floating. We find this gradual method to be successful for students of all ages to confidently and independently submerge their faces under water. There is a real sense of achievement when a student learns to put their face under the water on their own terms. Learning to swim is a skill for life and we are committed to developing students who feel confident, safer and supported in the water. Author: Josephine Moss (Swim School Coordinator)
There is a considerable science to learning how to swim and, as with learning any skill, there are many different processes that work together. That old trick of ‘rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time?’ It sounds simple, right? But in reality we know that it is far more complicated than it seems especially for little ones. Swimming is a bit like this.
Complex biomechanics underpin even the seemingly simplest of skills. Our brains need to send the exact signals to the corresponding muscles and this takes time to master. When learning a skill for the first time, neural pathways firstly need to be established and then reinforced with regular practice. Here at Col Jones we understand the importance of continually developing these skills with practice and time to strengthen the neural pathways and build muscle memory. Once these have developed, we also understand the importance of time – after a skill is mastered we need to perform it at the ‘autonomous stage.’ That’s the stage when the skill is performed with little thought and much less effort than the earlier stages of learning. At Col Jones we ensure our students demonstrate each required skill at the autonomous stage before progressing to learning new skills, to reinforce all that hard work! |
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