Our mission is to ensure that everyone has the skills and knowledge to be safe around and in any body of water; be it a pool, lake or ocean. We find students excel using our “unstructured-structured” lesson plan. We use our unique method of giving swim lessons to ensure students not only learn safety but enjoy the water!
Unstructured-Structured Swim Lessons
What is the unstructured-structured swim lesson? We believe that every student learns differently. Our instructors use the Red Cross WSI guidelines as many others use — that is the structured part. What makes us unique is that we use the “structure” in an “unstructured” way and adapt to the needs of the students. Our lesson plans are never the same for any student or even each lesson. The instructor gets to know the students and adapts the lessons according to their needs.
Repetition is important for learning; but doing the same exact routine every lesson can get boring and eventually slow down progress. We use repetitive skills but change it up so the student doesn’t associate the activities as being the same.
For instance, blowing bubbles, doing 10 submerging bobs, making chipmunk faces, and retrieving objects from the bottom of the pool are all practicing breath control? Did you know breast stroke can be improved by using a kick board or even hula hoops? A child typically has the average attention span of 3-6 minutes for each year old. Our lessons are set to be 30 minutes long. The majority of our students aren’t able to swim for the full 30 minutes without their mind wandering off or giving up on lessons all together. We use simple steps to keep the lessons moving forward and the students attention for the entire 30 minutes!
Not all kids of the same age are developmentally equal and no student should be controlled in the water by their differences in coordination, motor functioning and general comfortability in water. Our Wembley Club Way of swimming lessons allows everyone to learn!
Wembley’s Aquatics Director, Heather, has been a Bainbridge resident since 1987. In her younger years, she grew up swimming in invitationals and meets at The Wembley Club. She always loved the community, and loved the family atmosphere here. Heather was a diver on the swim team for Kenston High School, as well as an independent club team.
Today, she absolutely loves running Wembley’s pool! She is a Certified Pool Operator (CPO) through the National Aquatics Council. She is also a Red Cross certified Lifeguard Manager.