The Swim Studio

The Swim Studio's exists to teach people of all ages how to swim. Rob Yeager, the owner, founder and chief designer of the teaching program has 20+ years of experience as a successful athlete and coach in aquatics. He personally was a collegiate swimmer that trained for 3 Olympic teams. As a competitive coach he taught and coached swimmers of all ages where they reached the highest levels of city, state, regional, and national competitions. He has a degree in Sports Management from North Carolina State University, that includes Inclusive Recreation (individuals with Special Needs). Additionally, he completed continuing education courses in aquatics with USA Swimming and American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA). All the coaches at The Swim Studio, including Rob are Lifegaurd, CPR and AED certified. Rob and The Swim Studio team have taught thousands of people over the years how to swim. Our system of teaching has been developed through the years of experience and has its techniques rooted in early childhood development, physics, biomechanics, physiology and kinesiology. Drowning is the second-leading cause of accidental death of children ages 1 to 14, says the American Red Cross. About 10 people die from unintentional drowning every day, and of these, two are children under the age of 14, according to the CDC. The Swim Studio teaches over 300 individuals of all ages a week. To maximize personal experience and safety all lessons are private lessons and are 30 mins long. Our coaches are full-time professionals. *** reached out to us on 10/30/19 to ask what age we started swim lessons. We advised 16-18 months. She then reached out to us on 7/20/20 to say she wanted to begin her 22 month old. In her message she wrote that her son loved the water but had no fear and was giving her a heart attack. She also told us that her older son took private lessons at a different swim school and it took years for him to learn to swim. She also asked if we had a contract and we told her we had a 30 day cancellation policy and sent all of our policies to her prior to her signing up. She wanted to begin immediately. I also communicated with her that there are moments when a child may be upset when he/she is ready to float or kick in the water independently. I make it a point to communicate to all parents that, "We can't promise that a child will be happy but we can promise that they will be safe". Our facility is unique in that it is small and built around a less intimidating experience for the child. Parents are not allowed to leave and we encourage parents to watch and cheer their child on. We are also unique in that the first thing we teach is for a child to float on their back. Most programs teach a child to float on their bellies first so their face is in the whole time. We find this dangerous and begin with floating on the back first. This allows a child to be able to breathe, as well as, ask for help if needed. This is also nice in that although it is an unnatural position for a child and they sometimes battle and want to roll to their bellies it gives the parents some peace of mind seeing their child's face out of the water the whole time. As much as we would love for every child to come in and be excited about learning to swim that is not always the case. Parents are making the decision for their child that they are ready for them to learn to swim. Because the 22 month old did not decide on his own that he was ready to learn to swim it is common for a child to be fussy and protest. Sometimes this can be stranger danger and getting to know a coach over time helps this greatly. This is why we stick with 1 coach consistently and have a contract. This allows us the opportunity to bond with a child. Since *** did not decide to sign himself up for swim lessons and didn't have the communication at 22 months to use words he was fussy and this isn't uncommon. He's communicating the way he knows how that he doesn't want to be doing this. Because this is the nature of our business we have policies in place to make the parent understand the commitment needed to teach their child how to swim. I continually communicated with *** as I do all parents. I spoke with her during all 3 sessions and after. Letting her know that although *** was vocal he was doing what I asked and didn't seem fearful; he just didn't want to do it. I asked how she was doing after each session touching base letting her know that he was doing a great job. She would just kind of laugh and say this is how my older one was too. During his third session on 8/19 *** burped up a little water and their happened to be a couple throw up chunks in it. Although we have taught thousands of kid to swim we have had only a handful throw up. When a child is learning to swim and splashing water while worked up depending on how much food and fluid they consumed prior to a lesson this is not alarming. It was the only time we've ever had 2 children throw up during the same time slot. Although our main focus is the children and making sure they're okay the other parent profusely apologized saying that their child had eaten too close to his lesson. When *** spit up some water I turned around to ask *** to get up and didn't think she had even realized that this happened as she was just sitting and it was such a little amount. I was very calm during all of this and nonchalant as this is my job. When a 2 year old has heightened emotions it is my job to be the leader and stay calm verse joining the chaos. Additionally, like *** voiced to me on the phone she was never concerned for his safety. I knew he was completely fine and that he had just splashed a little too much water in his face while being upset. His face stayed out of the water the whole time. After this happened I handed *** to *** and reiterated that although he was fussy he did a great job. He floated multiple times on his own (5, 10, 12, and 14 seconds). This is a huge achievement for a 22 month old on his 3rd lesson and asked if she had any questions. As a parent in ***'s position, if she felt uncomfortable with her child crying, and believed that "he was crying like he was being killed" why did she not step in and remove him from the situation?After ***'s lesson, like all his previous lessons, I spoke with *** Dean and said, "even though he threw up he did a great job today and floated on his own multiple times." My post-lesson interaction with her at that time was no different than any other time. I communicated what we worked on, ***'s wins for the day and that even though he is vocal he was safe. The Swim Studio is designed around providing the best teaching experience for the child and parent. Rob Yeager made sure the design of the facility allowed for a parent to watch, be present, ask questions and communicate with the coaches at all times. The Swim Studio's coaches work relentlessly on communication with the child and parent. Our program has been designed specifically to each child. Our coaches have guidelines but know to tailor each lesson to each child as they all have different needs. Often we find that with a fussy child we can "poke the bear" for a little bit over the course of months and have a frustrated child that is not safe in the water or we can push through quicker and have a safe child in just a few lessons. Typically, once a child is safe in the water and they have the control back then they begin to like it and have fun. With *** in particular he was no more or less fussy whether I was holding him up on my hip or laying on his back in the water. This shows me that he just doesn't want to do it. This is when I decide that we are going to push through and get him floating so he can be in control and start to have fun. He did great and floated independently several times. Although she could see he was safe the whole time we are shocked that if she felt like her son sounded like he "was being killed" she didn't come and say they were going to stop and please hand him to her. Furthermore, each time I spoke with her about his progress and her comfort she never communicated anything to me. We have done our job in providing *** with a child who was on his way to being safe in the water very quickly, as well as, providing her all of our policies prior to her signing up. She signed an auto draft form which spelled all this out. If she feels she as a parent is not ready we completely respect that. As a business we have policies in place to protect the business, our coaches time, and the clients time. When you reserve a slot that takes that slot away from another client. As listed in the policies sent to her prior to her signing up we do not give refunds. Any unused lessons will be donated to an organization we partner with to teach foster children who would otherwise miss out on this life skill to learn to swim. It would be our pleasure to add that the Dean family sponsored the lessons.

Contracts attached. We apologize for any misconception. We were not hired to make "*** feel safe in the water" we were hired to make him safe in the water. We wish *** and his family the best of luck.