20/08/2026
Today, I saw the most incredible transformation in one of my swimmers.
When she first started weekly lessons with me in September, she clung to me constantly. She wouldn’t let me move away from her, wouldn’t put her face in the water and wouldn’t even consider going onto her back. She was incredibly quiet, timid and frightened.
We had a break between February and May while I explored different pool options and finalised the structure of my programme, including the combination of progression lessons and back-to-back intensive swimming.
Today, she was going underwater independently to collect sinkers and swimming approximately five metres by herself. She is now so confident in the water that, at the end of her lesson, she can happily remain swimming independently nearby while I speak to her family.
She still finds swimming on her back difficult, but she will now lie back and kick with a woggle—which is something she once wouldn’t attempt at all.
Today, she accidentally swallowed some water and it knocked her confidence for a moment. Previously, that might have set us back considerably. We would have needed to revisit earlier stages before she felt safe enough to try again.
But today, she recovered quickly. She went back under the water, faced that fear and carried on.
The structure and routine of the programme give her security, but within that structure there also has to be flexibility. Sometimes she tells me that she doesn’t want to do something, but I know her well enough to recognise when what she really means is, “I don’t think I can do it.”
That is when I stay beside her, hold her hand and help her take that first step.
There have been a lot of psychological walls to gently break down—but they are coming down.
She has gone from being a very quiet, timid and frightened child to someone loud, confident and determined. She pushes her own boundaries and becomes frustrated when she cannot do something—not because she wants to stop, but because she wants so badly to achieve it.
She is like a completely different child.
This is what progress looks like. It isn’t only about how many metres a child can swim. It is about trust, resilience, confidence and having the courage to try again when something goes wrong.
Watching that transformation has been absolutely brilliant.