The Beached Fish

The last three or four swim classes, we’ve had to fight with Troy to even get him in the water. For some reason, he developed a hatred of swim lessons. Now, he resists going. They have tried to bring over other teachers to help, my wife got in the pool with him, and they even tried a private lesson, but Troy refuses to cooperate.

So, I decided to get him up early one Sunday and take him to the pool. At first, he told me “No” as well. But as soon as I told him that I just wanted to have fun with him, he changed his mind. Instead of focusing on straight up techniques, we played games that forced him to use those techniques. And Troy did fantastic. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want to get out of the pool. The next weekend, we skipped his swim lesson and just took him to the pool ourselves. Again, we played with him and subtly worked on the techniques. We even had a play date with Charlotte and took them to the pool. We went swimming again the next day, playing, practicing, and encouraging.

For the last two days, I let Troy know that he was going back to swim class. As soon as he started to say he didn’t want to go, I told him that he’d been doing fantastic in our practices and that I was proud of him. I told him that he was going to be able to show his new teacher all the things he’d been learning. And he replied, “Yeah, and I can show her how to swim!” I told my wife what I was doing, and she jumped on board too. She even told the teacher about it, so she’d encourage his “tutelage” as well.

Well, I’m happy to report that it worked like a charm. Troy had the best class so far. He didn’t complain at all, and he was excited to show off his new skills. The teacher said he did fantastic, and that he was showing a lot of improvement. When the lesson was over, he didn’t want to leave the pool…he was having too much fun. It was an amazing transformation.

We had another play date with him and a few more friends this afternoon, and he was a lot more confident and independent. He once again didn’t want to leave the pool. Hopefully, he’s embracing his inner fish, and we’ll have a lot less fighting going forward.