Nina and six students standing in a pool and smiling

June 3, 2019 — REDDING, CA — Swim Foundations is offering its first series of four specialized courses for swim instructors in Redding this June. The four courses — Submersion and Breath, Controlling your Class, Teaching Babies, and Teaching for Special Needs — will be taught by veteran swim instructor and founder of Swim Foundations, Nina Natina.

“When deciding which topics to cover, the primary consideration was, ‘What skills aren’t being taught that need to be taught?’” explains Nina. “The point of these classes is to teach the foundational concepts swim instructors don’t yet know they’re missing. We want all instructors to be able to develop safe, comfortable, and independent swimmers.”

What is Swim Foundations?

Swim Foundations is a Redding-based startup created by long-time swim instructor and businesswoman, Nina Gibbs. The startup’s tagline, “Training the Next Wave of Swim Instructors,” encapsulates its goal — to improve the quality of swim teaching in the U.S. by helping instructors learn specialized skills.

Everything that is taught by Swim Foundations is based on the Natina Swim Teaching Progression — a methodology developed by Nina’s mother, Phoebe Natina, and used to successfully teach generations of youngsters to swim over a 45 year span.

The Courses

The first two courses will focus on foundational knowledge for swim instructors — how to teach submersion and breath using the Natina Method and how to manage a class. They will be held on June 8th and June 15th respectively.

The latter two classes in the series will focus on more specialized knowledge — how to teach infants and how to teach individuals with special needs using the Natina Method. These classes, especially, were chosen because of the great need for these skills, especially since the AAP has recently lowered the recommended age for beginning swim lessons to 1 year old.

All classes are designed to be useful for instructors at all experience levels. Registration costs $75, though one can also sign up for all four and receive a $50 discount. All trainings will be held in Redding.

“These trainings are hands-on and intensive. Swim instructors will come out of them more confident, more effective, and more marketable to parents and aquatics programs,” Nina says. “We invite swim instructors, swim school managers, and private swim teachers to take this opportunity to sharpen their skills.”

Interested individuals with questions can learn more about Swim Foundations at swimfoundations.com or call (530) 638-0486 for more information on training classes or swim lessons.