In recent years, I had noticed our newer teachers trying to get through what felt to them as an overwhelming amount to teach in thirty minutes. With their confidence lost, I knew I needed to make it easier for them. We're always adapting and re-modelling here at In The Deep Swim School; soaking in feedback from parents, concerns from teachers and constantly asking ourselves what small changes can we make that'll have the biggest impact on the school. An overarching, repeating theme began to appear while we were making ongoing, smaller adjustments; taking the time is key.

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...and wow, they're looking pretty spiffy! We're busy refining our stroke development program and we thought we'd give you a little taste of what's to come.

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An interview with our director, Sasha Hanic.

Just like our business name, In The Deep suggests, we love exploring things below the surface. We thought to wrap up this year, we'd do a little in-depth self-reflection. So we sat down with our director, Sasha to get her take. Where we've been, what we've learnt and most importantly, what's on her summer reading list to end 2019!

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At In The Deep we want to win the hearts, minds and smiles of every child we teach. We want to tell cute jokes and be so beautifully silly it makes little kids giggle. We want to put a smile on all faces, and bring the whole school together to have fun. We want to be completely uplifting and light people up, even if they’re having a really terrible day.

And we can't help but crack a silly joke, right now... What do you call a bear with no teeth? Read more

I recently ran into an old friend of mine I hadn't seen in a long time. With two young kids, we got to chatting about when to start swimming lessons. Despite being a swimmer himself, he said "I've been told it's a waste of time getting them in the water until they're 4 or 5 years old."

It sort of shocked me to hear that the thinking from twenty or thirty years ago is still very much in our collective attitudes towards swimming. It's easy to forget that new ways of thinking about learning to swim don't always flow through to the public from a rite of passage that doesn't seem to have changed much from when we were kids ourselves.

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Or, why we decided to kick Chloramines to the curb – the toxic by-product of chlorinated pools.

Every person who dives into a pool, no matter how clean you are – even if you've just rinsed off in the shower beforehand – leaves a lot of organic waste in the pool. If you spend a lot of time in chlorinated pools, we warn you that this next paragraph isn't pretty. Maybe move along if you easily get queasy?!

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So you're ready to introduce your child to our nation's favourite past-time? Y A Y ! 🐬 We're always excited to introduce newbies to the magic and wonder of being in the water, and learning to swim. We're honoured to be part of their swimming journey.

We thought we'd set the record straight on what you might be expecting at our learn to swim assessment.

This is for those kids who are new to swimming, or may have experienced some swimming; playing in the backyard pool, down at the beach or a few lessons.

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In a culture that has taught us being productive is the key to our success, we've ignored what can happen when we power down our screens, slow down and allow stillness into our day to day lives. Today, most of us are focused on squeezing out every minute of the day into the building blocks of a promised future, and we assume that doing less – or GASP! even being bored – is a sign of weakness, discomfort, or something to be fearful of. With devices that distract just an arms length away at all times, we don't have a quiet moment to ourselves. Fear lies in even entertaining the idea.

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As I was sitting in an auditorium in Brisbane last year, I was struck by this revelation from speaker, Karen Baildon of Superfish Swim Schools on the Gold Coast. At one half-hour lesson per week, over four terms, kids are spending just twenty hours a year learning to swim. Until this moment, I hadn't considered how little time there is. With only twenty hours spaced out over a year, it hit me. How incredible our kids are at what they accomplish with their swimming practice in this time.

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Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Can you picture what it is that you love about swimming? For me, it's in the magic of being weightless, in a world where I'm suspended, no feet on the ground, completely immersed and surrounded. It's like a big hug!

However, without the skill of knowing how to float, the water can easily be a dangerous place. When I was little, I absolutely LOVED the water. My aunt and uncle had a pool, and this was my favourite place in the world. I had the energy to outlast everyone.

BUT... Read more