#18: Let's Get Swimming with Guest Emily Welch, Regional Manager at Goldfish Swim School

What you guys are doing, I think, is really excellent because if you allow the parents to have those tools, obviously the instructor is not always going to be with you.

I always would get panicky if my husband wasn't there and they wanted to get in the water. I'm like, I only have two hands and I'm outnumbered. There's two of them and one of me.

Being able to jump in with the littles and just teach and put everything else aside and watch them grow over weeks is probably the most rewarding thing about my job.

We're Erika Radis and Marie Lipschultz, a San Antonio area realtor and lender, but most importantly, we're working moms.

The goal of this podcast is to provide support and a sense of community to San Antonio area working moms like us. So join us in trying to find a balance between career, family, and everything in between.

Welcome to this week's episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. We're here with Emily Welch. She is the regional manager for Goldfish Swim School, and I'm going to turn it over to her now so she can introduce herself and talk about what she's got going on.

Hi, guys.

I'm Emily. I am our regional senior GM for our Goldfish Swim Schools. We're in Austin and San Antonio right now for our locations. We're really excited. Our San Antonio opened in October. So we're greatly appreciative of San Antonio area for welcoming us and being there. But we are all about swim lessons and swim safety and water safety prevention, water safety, drowning, all of those kinds of things is kind of what we focus on with our company.

Yeah, that's awesome. And so how, how did you get into this sort of career, Emily?

Oh, man. So it was back in 2016. I started working with Aqua Tots, actually, and that kind of just like grew my passion in for what we do. I'd never worked in an environment where it wasn't just about the lessons themselves. It was more than just your average job, right? Going into schools and teaching about drowning prevention and water safety. And that just kind of like sparked this huge love of what we do and what swimming is really about at the end of the day, especially in Texas with all of our lakes. And I have followed this career path ever since, and that has led me to Goldfish, and we are a huge advocate for it with us as well. So it's been wonderful.

That's great.

Yeah.

And so it's like you mentioned, it's not just the lessons, then you guys touch on a number of other topics as well.

Yeah. So we actually go into schools and daycare, sometimes churches. We go to local events. I know our Austin location, they went to Lake Travis and they did an event with showing how to use life jackets and things like that. So it's more than just taking swim lessons. That's a big component of drowning prevention, but it's about the knowledge behind it and what to do. And that's kind of what we focus on.

Well, I love the fact that you mentioned lakes because I think a lot of people assume swimming like a swimming pool, but swimming in the lake or the ocean, it's a little different. Like, you're— the amount of, you know, endurance you might have, or there's other things because we hear about, you know, which— the lake that's closest to us, I think about, is Canyon Lake. And I think maybe once a year we hear about a child going overboard or being in the water and then they can't find them. So this is an excellent topic. And you had mentioned in the email that this is May is Water Safety Awareness Month, and I think it's awesome that you guys have this. Can you tell us a little bit about some, maybe some safety tips? I recently, we had a pool built in our home and I have, I don't have young, young children. They're preteen, teenager. But I mean, still some tips and tricks for moms out there for kids who are swimming this summer.

Yeah, there's a lot of them. So if you have a backyard pool, obviously usually the city and state requires you guys to have a gate all the way around it. But outside of that, if your kid gets into the gate somehow. One of the biggest things is teaching your kids how to float on their back. It's the biggest safety skill that we really want kids to learn. It's how they catch a breath. They can kick their legs to get to the edge of a pool. And then, of course, teaching them how to climb out because they may not always make it to a staircase. If they're at a lake, there's not a staircase to get out of.

They need to get to the edge. Yeah, yeah.

It's crazy to think about that. You would never think how far that goes outside of a pool, but that one skill it encompasses all bodies of water that they're in. So that's one big one, is teaching them how to float on their back and telling them, hey, take that big breath while you're on your back. It kind of teaches breathing, yelling for help, kicking to get to the edge. Another one, and this is one that I touch on a lot that parents don't know, is the color of bathing suits your kids are wearing. I'm a mom. I have a daughter. When they were— when, you know, I have two sons as well. But when my daughter was little, I wanted her in the really cute pink frilly ones that have the really pretty tutus and all of that attached. But realistically, when they're in the water, whether it's a swimming pool, the lake, the ocean, it doesn't matter. The only color you can see when a kid goes underwater is neon orange. So if you're really— yeah, it's— it is so weird that it's not the biggest topic of conversation. Um, it's like you go to Target and there's all these really cute ones and they have dinosaurs on them and flowers and all these cool things. But yeah, bright orange or neon orange and sometimes neon yellow They can be seen on the surface, right under the surface, in both choppy water and still water. And so that's a big one for parents out there is be very cognizant of what you're putting your children in when they're in the pool.

I've never thought of that. I don't think I've ever thought of what color swimsuit the boys would wear. And of course there's the bottoms. They're not typically wearing a top most of the time, but I've never thought about the color. That's really, really— it makes sense though.

I didn't know that until I worked in this environment like that. And by the time I started this environment, my kids were like 8 and 9. So I was already out of the baby phase. And that would have— to me, that would have been great to know when my kids were little. We had a neighborhood pool. So I— that's one thing I try and pass along to all of our parents is, you know, outside of skills in the water, is make sure your kids are either in a life jacket, Coast Guard approved, not puddle jumpers, not arm floaties. Those are not lifesaving. Floatation devices and making sure that they're in a brightly colored bathing suit.

Yeah, I think the boys always wear blue or black. Right.

Now that I think about it, it's the colors I always pick.

I know. Now I'm going to have to get just— everybody's going to be in orange. They're all going to match. And that's fine.

Wow.

Yeah, I had no idea. And so what I know you guys had talked about wanting to talk about a number of topics. So outside of those type of tips, what can we as parents do at home? So like there's certain things that obviously you guys do in your school in terms of lessons and stuff like that. But like if I'm just in like a pool with my kids, what can I do, you know, with them or practice with them to, to help them be more safe in the water?

Yeah, great question. So one of those is going to be teaching your kids to catch a bubble. We make it fun and entertaining, but that's how they learn to close their mouth. So for little ones, like maybe under the age of 3, if you blow on the back of their ear or even like right towards their nose, it'll automatically trigger their mouth to close. It'll close their epiglottis, which will stop water from getting in if they go underwater. It's a really simple thing to do. Hold your kid facing you, blow in their face, behind their ear, dunk them underwater, and that really gets that mouth to close. So it teaches mouth closure going underwater rather than inhaling water while under.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's one of those skills that even like we teach in our baby and even up through like our 3 and 4-year-old kids, we still teach that too. And then of course, teaching them to roll. So a lot of kids naturally have the ability to roll over. It's one of the first things they learn as infants and toddlers is tummy time is going from belly to back. And we do that in the water as well so they can learn how to do that roll. And the easiest way is just to grab one of your kiddo's shoulders, roll them over gently so that they get that feel for what it feels like. Or using a dive ring and ask to follow the ring from underwater, above the water, helps them roll that whole body over to get on that back. So those are two really big things. And then, of course, teaching them how to climb out of the edge. So, you know, using your elbows, your belly, and your knee to kind of pull their body weight up and out. For those parents daring enough, put your kids in clothes when they do this. They'll get the feel of the weight of clothing.

Yeah.

That way when they fall in, they really know what it's going to feel like to try and pull themselves out of the water.

Oh, that's an interesting tip as well. Yeah, I mean, you think about what happens if they're swimming on purpose, but what happens if they, you know, just fall in? It would be heavier and different with, you know, all your clothes on.

It's a lot different. Even as adults, we practice that, like, for our lifeguarding, and it's— it is so much different than just pulling yourself out in a bathing suit.

Yes, definitely. I always wondered— I, so I have two, two boys, and sometimes we have friends over and I get always panicky when I'm outnumbered in a water environment. Even if they're older, because they like to horse around and play around. Like, I always wanted— I don't have enough hands to make sure I grab or hold or look, you know. And now, you know, so is there— I was going to ask regarding like age to start, Emily, is there a time that you would recommend people to start water safety? Like, obviously you mentioned infants or babies. Is there a good time?

Yeah. So we start at 4 months old. That's kind of like the average age of kids in the water. I know some programs start younger than that. We do 4 months. I highly recommend the moment that you're able to take them to your local swim school and teach them, or at home and get them in the water to start doing that. They naturally— all babies kind of have a natural ability in the water just from being in the womb. And so the faster and sooner you get them back in the water, those skills kind of just remain. I also wanted to touch on what you were just saying about frustration of like being the only person on deck. We, we actually have what's called a water watcher card. And I know a lot of swim schools, a lot of swim programs, they all offer these, but it's the best way to not lose energy as the adult on the side of the pool where you assign a specific person to be your water watcher. And generally, like, we have necklaces that we give out to our water watchers and they rotate about every 30 minutes. That way that family still gets to spend time with their kids, but they also aren't getting dehydrated, not being able to have full attention. Of the kids and all the adults, and sometimes teenagers, you know, your older responsible 16, 17-year-olds, they take turns watching all the kids in the pool. And that way you don't feel overwhelmed. Maybe you've got 2 people because the pool is bigger, you're at the lake and it's a light larger body of water. But that's a great way to do it. Even if you don't have a water watcher card, those nifty like slinky type bracelets, you can assign a color and those are your water watcher people. So the kids know who to come to if there's an incident or they need something. That's a great way to not, you know, feel overwhelmed and have the kids have a safe person to go to as well.

Well, that's a good idea to have someone else watching, helping. I just, I know I get kind of panicky if we ever have family over. Typically when we have a pool at our home, that if there's kids, I just, I feel like I have to watch everyone, make sure everyone's okay, you know, because you never know. I mean, I know the boy, my boys, I feel that I feel comfortable with them in the pool, but even they're teenagers, they're not in the pool unless I'm watching. Yeah, I'm still out there, right?

That's like a— I think that's like a mom thing, you know what I mean?

Yeah, that's how I was gonna say. My kids, my neighborhood pool, they're always like, can we go to the pool? And I'm like, oh, there's not a lifeguard on duty. My kids are lifeguards but themselves. But I'm like, ooh, you might be 16 and 17, but there is no one watching you. So let's talk about that more, right?

Well, because you never know, someone could slip and hit their head. I just, you know, yeah, they get rambunctious and I'm like, no, no, no, this is not a pool to jump in. We're not, you know, we're not doing that. So yeah, I always would get panicky if my husband wasn't there and they wanted to get in the water. I'm like, I only have two hands and I'm outnumbered because there's two of them and one of me. So it's always having extra people around to help watch and know what to look for. So that's, you know, that's another thing. So looking for signs of someone struggling. I remember being a small child and I was in a daycare and I remember this, we were in a pool. I had to have been maybe 5 or 6. And I remember being in the shallow end, but I got to a part that was slopey and I slid into a deeper end and the water ended up covering my head. And I remember struggling and then all of a sudden I remember being out of the pool. Like I didn't, like I'm not sure how I got there. I just remember that happening. I remember being scared. Is there signs for, let's say you have a water watcher or adult out there and they're just kind of watching kids, but they're not a lifeguard. Is there things that you should look for while watching kids? And let's say you're not physically in the water, but look for kids.

Yeah. So like even as our lifeguards, we teach this to parents and lifeguards. So one of the big things you're looking for, if a kid's head is above the surface but they have like that shocked look on their face or, you know, their, their screaming or talking is a little different than their, hey, like, let's throw the torpedo over here. You're going to see their hands kind of flail a little differently. You're going to see a more shocked look on their face. It's more scared. Those are things to look for. The kids who like to put their face in the water and kind of float on the surface, those are also kids you want to just watch a little more carefully because maybe there was an incident versus them just having fun and hanging out. Kids who are moving their arms and legs but not going anywhere, so they're just kind of vertically in place, that's another indicator that they might need some assistance. They're just basically treading water and trying to move, but they're not capable of getting somewhere. We look for those types of things in our pool every day. A kid holding their neck, the top of their head, you know, those are indicators. Maybe they hit their head somewhere and they really need assistance and can't move. Those are all big ones to look out for. Or just simply a kid yelling help. Sometimes that really— yeah, that's what they're doing.

Well, sometimes I get— I tend to get a little bit more anxious and I watch them and I'm like, you know, but we're just playing, Mom. We're not doing anything. Like, okay, it looked like you were struggling. I'm not sure. You know, you never know.

Yeah, we say if you don't know, go. Like, if you just can't tell what it is, it's safer to go than to just wait it out and see what happens.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, I mean, I have to say I'm shocked at the— that the young age. I don't— I mean, that's just crazy. Yeah, that's just crazy to me. I mean, but whatever you're saying, I mean, it makes perfect sense. Um, and I've seen these videos of like these little babies, like, you know, they look like little fish, you know, swimming. I'm like How real is that? Like, is that normal? But I guess it is. I guess that's a thing that little babies can do. Just, it's just so interesting to me. I was telling Marie before we got on this call, I'm just not like, I'm not a very good swimmer. My parents both don't know how to swim. And because of that, we, they like kind of shied away from the water. And so like for my whole life, I shied away from the water. Like, I mean, I think I could probably like stay alive, but I just am not like very good at it. And so I think as a result, I kind of didn't let my kids get in the water. And so, I mean, they're a little bit better now, but I certainly don't think I would have been trying it at 4 months old. You know what I mean?

You get a lot of parents like that too, especially if they have less skills in the water. I think that's where swim schools come in handy, right? Because they have a person teaching you how to teach your kid. So, for example, for our swim school, our teacher is there to teach the parent and the parent teaches the child. So we're giving you the guidance and the direction, but you are the one actively teaching your child, which is teaching you a swim skill as well as your child all at the same time. And so that kind of helps build that confidence even with parents who, like you, have maybe never had that experience or had to learn or had any desire to learn.

Right.

And it really is real. I watch kids every day at my school at 6 months old be able to float on their back comfortably. And it is an amazing thing to watch every single Oh, I bet.

Yeah, that is amazing. And what you guys are doing, I think, is really excellent because if you allow the parents to have those tools, obviously the instructor is not always going to be with you, you know what I mean? And so, but they're going to be with the parents, and so they can continue those instructions even when they're outside of the school to really even build up those skills more and more. I love that. I think that's great.

Yeah, and that's a lot of why we go into the schools and teach that, because even the kids, like, we, we base it off WATER. So WATER is the acronym, um, and we teach the younger ones, we teach it kind of lower level so they understand what the different letters stand for. But then we also send that information home with the parents, and so they can read through it and reiterate it and use those, um, things with their kids. So like, for example, um, W stands for wear your life jacket, right? So it's something simple the kids understand, but then it also reminds the parents the word life jacket is very important, um, because puddle jumper and arm floaties are different things. And so we're trying to still the important things in each kid. And then each letter has its own thing that teaches kids something different. And that's one of those biggest ways that like we push, you know, that water safety out there into the universe, really.

Right. I think that's great. Emily, what is a typical, let's say, I want to say training or a program that a kid would go through? Like, what's the length and what does that look like?

So it's different for every place you go. Our school, you join, we're perpetual, so you can join at any time and any age and you swim until you've given us notice to drop. What I have seen in kids, whether they are 4 months old or 10 years old, is typically 6 months to a year is where they start to feel really confident and comfortable in their basic swim skills and knowing I can get to the edge, I can roll over, I can do a freestyle and a backstroke or the basic, you know, basics of it. And then I've seen other kids take a year to 2 years because maybe they are afraid to put their face in the water. And that's one of the biggest skills you have to learn in swimming. And we work with those kids one-on-one individually. It's all about self-progression. But it's such a wide range of skills. If you're a natural fish in the water, you're going to be on that lower end. If you're not a natural fish in the water, afraid of the water, you're going to be on that higher end of learning and education. And all swim schools are different. Some focus on pushing kids into swim team, and so they're less designed for safety. Other swim schools like us are designed for swim safety and swim skill. So while we're teaching you water safety, you're also learning skills at the same time.

Oh yeah, I was gonna ask that. Like, I mean, it's different, like I said, to learn to stay alive, I guess, and, you know, the swimming in that way. But then you have these people that are on these teams, and obviously there's different strokes and that kind of thing. And I just didn't know if that really played a part in any of that at the, at the swim school.

So it does.

So like your basic learning in our younger level classes, so up through 4, um, we're really honing in on those water safety skills and floating on your back, learning how to roll over. We do teach the basics of freestyle and a back glide so they can actually be on their back, learn how to kick. Once they get kind of into the older groups, a little, you know, 5 and older or so, we actually start bringing in those 4 competitive strokes. We start teaching the full freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke for those kids who maybe after our program have learned, oh, I love swimming and I just want to move on to maybe Olympics, right? We do teach those, but that's not our program is designed to get the kid water safe, water ready, and ready for swim team should they want to. It's just our, our group is not the focus. I've been at other swim schools where that is the focus. So they teach the basics and then they immediately move them on to their swim team. And I think both programs are great. They're both designed similarly. They just have two different outcomes. One is kids love to swim. One is kids really want to be an Olympic swimmer. And if I could be an Olympic swimmer, I totally would. My skills are not there. We're not quite there yet.

Yeah.

Well, I think it's a great skill to learn. I mean, it's a lifetime sport. You know, it's a sport that you can do your whole life. It's not hard on your joints, you know, as you get older. And it's a great overall body workout. So definitely they learn early and it's something they'd love to do. It'll keep them healthy for the rest of their life. So it's a great thing to start. I didn't think about starting them that little. I know we did some swim classes with a neighborhood pool that the boys did, and it was a very short period of time. I think it was just a month or two, but they just learned to jump in and kind of do, I guess, bubbles and stuff like that. And I'm like, okay, I guess we're done. I didn't realize the extent of how much they needed to learn. Um, originally, I mean, they, they, they can stay alive in the water, um, but I don't feel confident that they could, you know, swim against the— we went out to the, you know, the beach and they got pulled out by the tide. They didn't get back. That's not something I felt comfortable with. So it's good to kind of have at least, you know, a gauge of how long they should be, um, taking lessons and making sure that they're confident in the water.

Yeah. And then, you know, if they're not fully confident yet, it's about knowing the other skills— floating on their back, making sure you have a life jacket, making sure that the parents know the basics of what they're looking for too.

Yeah, definitely, definitely.

Just listening to this, I feel like swim lessons have changed so, so much since I was a kid. Like, we— and as I mentioned, I'm not the best at swimming, but we took lessons, and I feel like it was basically— I, I remember just having like the worst time, and like they just kind of chucked us in there, and it was like, you know, like, well, here you are, and I was like, no, don't, you know, like, I don't want to do it. And just listening to kind of the baby steps that they take to really teach these skills now, things have just changed so much, I think.

They get psychologists involved now too. So we have a child psychologist that helps us design our swim lessons. So it's easy to understand for the kids, but also engaging where they can pay attention because the attention span of a 4-year-old is not the attention span of us as adults. And so you have to really get them to want to listen to what you're saying. And that kind of comes from adding in all these extra components that I think back when maybe we were all kids, thrown in to see if, hey, can she float?

Does this float?

Yeah. The answer for me was no. I mean, no, she can't.

And I think that worked, right? All of us are still like kicking and we're great. And I don't think that works anymore because there's just so much more freedoms out there now, especially in Texas. I didn't grow up in Texas, but I've been here the last like 21 years. But It's so much different here because you have like a lake or a body of water or a pond, or we're hot so many more months out of the year that kids have more access to this stuff. When I was a kid, I grew up in Minnesota as a really young kid, and we didn't have access to lakes and pools and ponds all year round, right? It was all ice at the time, so we didn't have that. And it was such a culture shock coming to Texas and then learning all of this so many years later in my life that I was like, wow, I can see why this needed to change and why we have to now involve so much more, you know, like having lifeguards on duty. I'll tell you, when I was a kid, I don't remember there being lifeguards at the local pools. I'm sure there were, but I don't remember it because it was never talked about and the importance of it. And I think that just goes to show how much this has changed over the last 20, 30, 40 years of time into making sure these kids stay even safer. Texas— the Texas Coalition Against Drowning Prevention just started. It's something new, and other states have already had this.. And we're just now starting to push this in Texas farther and farther. And I think that's also important, you know, for people to get involved in and know what the laws are and why they are there. And I think that's what really started pushing all these changes.

Well, you can't go a summer without hearing about some— a kid unfortunately drowning. And I, I— it's kind of sad, but it kind of goes— it's not something we should expect to hear, you know. Um, I remember swimming and I remember seeing signs No lifeguard on duty, swim at your own risk. We're like, okay, right, let's just go. I mean, it was never thought about before, you know, um, but it is important because I don't think— I, I don't let the boys swim somewhere other than our home that doesn't have a lifeguard on duty, you know. I just— when we were growing up, it just was like, oh well, yeah, hopefully you float.

I— but that's, that's how it was. That's really how it was. It's crazy to think that back then we were just like, oh, no lifeguard. Okay, cool. Jump in. Have fun.

Yeah. Yeah. So I know they had said you had mentioned before that, you know, the things that you love and you kind of stayed in. But what, you know, what if you had to pick something, Emily, something that you just really, really enjoy about your career, what would that be?

Oh, I love teaching. It's one of my favorite things to do. I don't do it very often, but being able to jump in with the littles and just teach and put everything else aside and watch them grow over weeks is probably the most rewarding thing about my job.

Well, I guess, yeah, because you can actually see progression, you know, seeing something you started with that, you know, and then you see them rolling over, you see them making the, you know, these are catching the bubbles, and, and being able to do stuff like that, you can actually see growth in what you do. So that's awesome. That is amazing.

It's just so different to watch. Like, it's fun to watch it as a manager and watch your staff grow as you know, water leaders and teachers and things like that. But being the one in the water watching it is just so much different.

Well, lastly, we usually have our guests kind of say how people can get a hold of them for their services. So if you want to talk about how our listeners can reach out, you know, for the school and that, now's the time to do it.

Yeah. So if you guys are interested in coming out to Goldfish Swim School, we do offer free trial lessons. So we love to have families come out and talk to us and hang out. You can go onto Google and look up Goldfish Swim School, click on locations and look up your local one. For San Antonio, it's our Bandera Point location. Or you can reach out to them at swimbanderapoint@goldfishss.com and any of us would be happy to help.

Awesome. Yeah, I know exactly where that's at actually. So we love it.

We've been great. It's been great to be there.

That's awesome. Well, I'm going to say thank you so much, Emily, for being on. I learned a ton of information that I feel like I can definitely use in my own life, you know, especially not being the best swimmer. So now I know way more than I did before. And so, yeah, I just want to say thanks for being on here. And I know that our listeners are going to be able to use this information as well.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This was great.

And then I'm going to also say thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this week's episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. And we will just catch you guys next week.

Thanks guys, see you next week.

Bye!

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