Water Sprouts: Where Little Swimmers Learn the Strokes

Do you remember learning how to swim? Or watching your children learn? It can be a little scary, right?

It doesn’t have to be, says Denice Wallick, swim director at Water Sprouts Swim School. It’s all about being comfortable in the water, says Wallick, whose first objective is to give her students the confidence to be independent in the pool. “That’s the key,” she says.

Wallick uses a unique instruction technique, one that she learned from Mary Garrison, who taught Wallick’s children to swim when they were young. She starts by putting a specially designed flotation belt on her students, one with a series of floats on front and back that can be moved or removed as the student gains confidence and proficiency.

Without the floats, new students can be frantic in the water, explains Wallick. She wants them to be relaxed so they can learn the strokes.

With her students in an upright position in the water, Wallick first teaches them how to use their arms. That’s “the antithesis” of most swim instruction methods, which typically start with kicking. As Wallick adjusts the students’ floats, they move onto their stomachs. Once they are on their tummies, “it’s refining,” she says. “They do it on their own.”

Sara Kim, whose sons Ian, 5, and Eliah, 3, have been taking lessons at Water Sprouts since last fall, is a believer in Wallick and her method. “I couldn’t ask for anything better … she’s fantastic,” says Kim. Wallick gets kids comfortable in the water, then works on strokes and kicking, she says.

Kim is thrilled that her 5-year-old is already swimming independently, without floats. “She’s always thinking,” Kim says of Wallick. “She’s always trying to make it work with different personalities.” Adding that she has referred several friends to Water Sprouts, Kim says, “when you find a good teacher, you want to share it with everybody.”

Wallick, who has a decade of experience as a swim instructor, says she is not a swimmer.

“I never competed, my kids never competed.” Perhaps that gives her a unique sense of empathy with beginners. She says she occasionally has parents who warn her that she can’t get their kids to put their heads in the water. “Yes, I can,” she says, laughing. And she does.

“I love the ones that are a challenge,” she says. “It’s mentally a challenge of how to break through that kid’s fears.” She adds, “I make them do it, but I do it in a fun way.”

Water Sprouts operates out of a private pool in Woodinville. The spa-like facility features an indoor pool, regularly maintained with 90-degree water, heated floors, skylights and comfortable seating for parents. The warm water is “a huge thing,” says Wallick, who says she learned how to swim in a lake. It’s hard to relax when you’re shivering, she says with a laugh.

Wallick teaches in small groups–a maximum of four students per class. “I don’t do private lessons,” she says. The kids do better in groups than they do alone, she explains. The classes run for 30 minutes, twice a week. “Less than that is not very productive,” says Wallick. “They get scared again.”

She welcomes special needs children into her classes, adding that she expects them to keep up with the group. “I don’t water it down with them,” she says. “It’s easy to integrate a kid when you’re playing.”

Wallick, whose youngest student is 18 months old, advises parents to get their students water-ready very early on. She suggests taking them into the shower at four months of age, making sure they get some drops of water in their eyes. “The bath is the most important thing,” she adds. It’s an opportunity to help young children get over any fear they have of getting their faces in the water.

“You’d better get your kids in the water by (age) 4 or 5,” says Wallick. You can start later, but they will never have that comfort level in the water, she adds.

Water Sprouts has about 40 students, with a waiting list for evening classes. Wallick hopes to expand her hours in the future. Of her work, she says, “You have to love it because they can be challenging.”

Clearly, she does.