Over 6,000 delightful splashes

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday October 10, 2014 16:56

 

The school is in its 12th year running and has trained over 6,000 children.

“When your child is trained, you can rest assured that he or she would be able to swim to safety in the event he slipped into a body of large water, and there is no adult to rescue him or her,” she says.

Rousse’s is not just talk. Her swimming school, located in Gaborone’s Kgale View suburb, boasts a 25-metre indoor, heated swimming pool.  Walk in on any weekday and you will find a group of little delightful toddlers - some as young as one-year-old, floating and paddling.  Most are swimming on their own, while a few swim under the instructor’s command and care.

Watching the little ones swim and seeing the joy on their innocent faces is a marvellously priceless experience.  At the instructor’s command the little ones plunge into the water. The older ones – the oldest in the group we are watching is about five – do one or two tricks, including staying under water for a few seconds. The greater marvel is the babies – the two-year-olds and their younger compatriots.  As soon as they touch the water, the little ones turn on their backs and paddle about without a tiny care in the world.  They swim backwards, their little hands and legs finding familiarity in the buoyancy of the water. 

At this age, children have not altogether lost their ‘swimming instincts’ from the womb, and getting them to a swimming school helps to maintain and build on that instinct.

Hawkeyed instructors stand-by as the children swim, and you find much comfort in their presence.  That is why the school has never had a drowning incident in its 12 years of operation.  The children are mostly from pre-school.

“We teach children as young as 12 months to swim.  Swimming is not only for pleasure, but we have to teach children how to swim at an early age to avoid drowning,” says Rousse.

An important component of defensive swimming lessons is to teach children to immediately turn on their back when they fall into a mass of water. This helps them breath easily, which would not be possible with their faces under the water.

But, it is not enough to teach your child to swim, says Rousse. As a parent you also should take all necessary precautions such as knowing where your child is at all times, fencing off and covering swimming pools. And you really want to heed this expert’s advice. She is currently the only qualified infant/toddler instructor in Botswana. She has been instrumental in the development of many of the nation’s swimmers, including Olympian John Kamyuka.  She has personally trained over 2,500 adult swimmers – both beginners and non-beginners.

Together with her husband Craig, who is also a swimming instructor, she travelled throughout the country teaching and coaching swimmers, teachers and instructors.

 The couple recently returned from a two-week teaching and coaching assignment in Kenya, where they shared and imparted their knowledge, expertise and skills at every level of swimming.