Aqua Kids
The Club’s youth swim program helps kids transition from minnows to sharks.
Look at me, Mommy!”
Miya Kawasaki leaps, tucks and splashes into the water for a hellacious cannonball. Sporting a blue Mudsharks swimsuit, the 5-year-old member of the Club’s swim program bobs up for air.
“Did you see me?”
“I did,” answers her mother, Lauren Bliss Kawasaki, sitting poolside ahead of the early-evening Gummy Sharks swim class. “That was awesome.”
All three of Bliss Kawasaki’s older children completed the Mudsharks swim classes. Miya started in the program last year, not only to develop life-saving swim skills, but to boost her physical condition, too.
Suffering from serious sinus infections since birth, Miya’s symptoms have been relieved from the regular immune system-enhancing bouts of physical activity at the Sky Pool, even during the winter months.
“Since she started swimming a year ago here, she has been completely healthy,” says Bliss Kawasaki, who was a swim instructor and lifeguard during college. “Plus, she absolutely loves it. Every day she is totally psyched.”
The Mudsharks Group lessons start with Goblins sessions for ages 3 to 4 and progress to Wobbegongs sessions for 5- to 7-year-olds. Sky Pool manager Haldane Henry says the program combines Red Cross-inspired water safety fundamentals with swim technique guidance. Within three months, Henry says young students advance from submerging their face in the water to swimming on their own.
“When you start kids early, they don’t have a phobia, and they develop a good feel for the water,” says Henry. “You also see a huge difference in their socialization. The camaraderie is something we really promote.”
Bliss Kawasaki says friendships develop between like-minded parents as well.
Sunny Kim-Bather introduced her daughter, Meg Bather, to the water with swim lessons at age 15 months in Singapore, and enrolled the 4-year-old in the Mudsharks after the family joined the Club last summer.
Besides highlighting the importance of swimming as an essential skill, Kim-Bather says it is one of the few team activities available to younger children. She says learning with her peers in the Gummy Sharks class has led to a rapid improvement in Meg’s swimming skills.
“It teaches them discipline because you have to wait your turn. It teaches them good sportsmanship because you are encouraging each other,” says Kim-Bather, as Meg deftly paddles by gripping a kickboard. “I don’t know about health benefits, but she sleeps like the dead. I mean, that’s a big pro.”
Words: Nick Narigon
Image: Kayo Yamawaki
Swim Program Registration
Dec 4–5 | 10am