- Hi, I'm JR.

I'm 30 years old and I'm learning how to swim.

I'm Terry, I'm 35 and I'm learning how to swim.

(upbeat music)

I think the folks that I run around with,

I don't think a lot of us are swimming all the time

and doing those types of things, so it wasn't a big thing.

I got away with it.

I have not learned how to swim before because of fear.

I have had two near drowning experiences in my childhood

which has kept me from wanting to learn.

I think a lot of people think swim,

sport,

fun,

refreshing,

and those are all important things,

it's a lifelong sport you can participate in.

We see folks who their life choices are getting impacted

by the fact that they can't swim.

Whether or not they can't take

a vacation near water or on the beach

because it's just an uncomfortable environment

for them to be in.

So it can impact choices

and they decide that they wanna change,

have different choices.

It's always been one of those things I'm like,

I'm going to definitely learn the mechanics of swimming

and just being more confident in the water.

'Cause it's the worst to be in deep water

and you just see it,

you're with your friends and you're just like,

oh, I'm just gonna stay here

or I'm just gonna put my feet in.

You just wanna go in and be confident.

If anything I felt like taking swimming lessons

was a good step for me to be more comfortable in the water.

When someone starts a swim lesson,

and this could be good for adults to know

because adults sometimes struggle

with learning things new, right?

A really critical part of early stage learning

is self-rescue.

Can you save yourself in the water, basic safety things.

We wanna know that you can start by understanding

the water environment,

breathing techniques,

and then we'll pull them in the later stages

and actual stroke development and stroke mechanics.

We were all adults, too, and that helped.

I think taking swimming lessons with other adults

that had never learned how to swim,

we were all in the same boat.

It was very comforting.

Most nervous probably being in a bathing suit

in front of strangers, that's the first thing.

The first day of our swimming lessons

we learned the basics about how to blow bubbles, breathe.

So we were just in the shallow end,

going in and out of the water.

Just learning how to be comfortable in the water.

We used the floaties to just learn how to glide

from one end to the other.

From that point,

we had learned how to kick, go like this.

Not too, like that.

We then added the additional element of our arms

and learning how to do that and going back and forth,

from side to side.

All in the shallow end.

I think Gigi did a really good job

at making us feel comfortable.

At the end of the first lesson,

I think we were already swimming across the pool already.

The hardest part about the swimming lessons

was definitely learning how to come up for air.

I think literally every time I got water in my ears

so that was really annoying.

I think the hardest part really

was putting it all together.

You know, the kicking, the arms, and the breathing.

It was just a lot at one time.

We hope that our instructor can both engage

with people individually,

but also create that nice group environment

where people can also make connections

and develop friendships.

'Cause that can help with learning, also.

By the end of the first lesson,

it was really calm and JR was there

and he was doing such a great job and I was like,

I can't let him show me up.

I have to do my best.

So, it turned out to be good.

When we got to the last lesson we started doing everything

that we did from the very beginning

and it was more natural,

as opposed to taking baby steps and adding the fundamentals

like one at a time.

We were swimming, I guess.

And it was the first time that we went into the deep end

which was scary as blah. (laughs)

But I think as an adult, you're very aware of yourself.

You're very aware of what you're doing

and it's all a mind thing going in the deep water.

'Cause I think Gigi knew at that time

that we had all the mechanics together,

we had all the basics together

and obviously she wasn't gonna let us drown.

But, yeah overthinking was a big part of it, too.

We wanna make sure that the environment is friendly,

people are with people like them.

We try to reduce all of the psychological

and emotional discomforts that people might have.

The way that I see it is I might as well do it

and fully commit to it

because if you're gonna learn how to swim

you might as well go all in

as opposed to doing it half-assed.

I would love to be able to swim laps

and be able to breathe

and get it all together at the same time.

I think it's amazing exercise.

I really enjoyed it, I loved being in the water.

Now that I know that there's a swim cap big enough

to hide all of my hair,

it's a non-concern.

So, I think it's something that I'm gonna keep doing.