What kind of person do you think is a swimmer?

What kind of person snorkels in the ocean?

How do you think someone feels being in the ocean, not just sunbathing?

How does someone talk about themselves after they jump off a boat for the first time?

Are you this kind of person? Why or why not?​

What qualities do you share with a swimmer?

Perhaps you do not display these qualities in the water yet, but in other areas of your life. Think about self-talk, frame of mind, general physical abilities.

The way we learn new skills is to borrow confidence from other successes in our life. What successes do you have in other areas that would also make you successful in learning to swim or take your swimming to the next step?

Signing up for your next water experience is about believing in yourself just enough that you are willing to experience the positive and negative of growth.

We would love to grow with you in the most beautiful water.

Here is the link for your next step.

So looking forward to it!

Swimmingly,

Cori

The post Questions To Ask Yourself To Improve Your Swimming appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Now we have been living in a pandemic for almost 2 years and the thought of traveling can feel risky from both a health and financial standpoint. Here is some information to help mitigate the risks.

Travel Insurance

When you register we connect you with Debbi Johnson at Mill Creek Travel to get a quote on travel insurance if you would like. We are highly recommending at least the basic plan to cover your flight and resort fees. If you would like more information about travel insurance before registering please contact Debbi directly at debbi@millcreektravel.com.

Orca Program Refund Policy

If the class cannot happen because the student is not able to travel due to a positive COVID test or the laws have prevented travel from happening (like the governor of Hawaii closes tourist travel) then the student will be refunded their program fees ($2339 for F1 Program, $3186 for Advanced Program) minus the $500 deposit. Hotel, airplane tickets will follow the policies of those organizations and/or your travel insurance policy.

COVID Testing

Currently, anyone traveling to Hawaii must have a negative COVID test prior to the flight, see information here. Every person on the flight by federal law must be masked. For me this is part of why going to Hawaii is such a great travel option. Additionally, all of our activities will be outdoors.

Ready to get planning for Maui, May 2022?

​Click here to join the Foundations 1 Class May 10-13, make your $500 non-refundable deposit.

​Click here to make your $500 non-refundable deposit here and join the Advanced Group May 13-17.

Aloha and Mahalo,

The post Traveling During Covid – Maui 2022 appeared first on Orca Swim School.

It is the season of old stories as we gather (or not) with friends and family. Often these relationships are ones that have endured through time even if you didn’t meet often. We relate to these stories if we see the people in real-time or just in our own heads.

Stories are a type of relationship. They show how to relate to other people, things, or in our case, the water.

Just like you can get stuck telling the same story about your weird uncle, you can get stuck in your same story about the water. As humans, we like the comfort of repetition. It feels safely familiar even if the familiar is uncomfortable.

Have you ever been to a memorial and listened to other people’s stories? Only to find out they didn’t think the uncle was weird at all. Their story was very different from yours. You may now feel like you missed out.​

It is not too late to create new stories about your relationship with the water. It is not too late to change your understanding of how the water works and how your perfect body and the water work together. What do you want your water story to be?

Check out these swimmers stories:

Jodi’s story Youtube​

Marie story Youtube​

Charlette to Youtube​

Swimmingly,

The post What story do you tell yourself about swimming? appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Once a story stopped you from doing something you didn’t know how to do yet. Mine was a story with the title Wants to Learn to Row.

What is your title and story?

It is this story that is stopping you. Not your skills or abilities. It is the story you tell yourself to feel safe. However, you know that feeling safe by staying away doesn’t mean you feel good.

Can you relate to this story about staying in a warm safe bed or getting up to do something hard?

When I stay in bed until it is too late to make it to rowing practice I feel good and terrible. When I get up out of my bed in the dark and cold at 5:11 am to get in the boat as a wobbly beginner I feel terrible and good.

No matter what choice I make there will be risks, experiencing negative and positive feelings and safety. One choice lets my future self down. One choice shrinks my world. One choice feeds my negative self-concept and one expands me into a new story I desire.

Do you know why we offer the opportunity to go on an amazing swim vacation together?

It is so you have an opportunity to be more than you thought was possible. To show yourself that you can live your dreams right now.

In the Foundation One class in Hawaii, all you need is a swimsuit and a curiosity to learn to swim.

In the Advanced class, all you need is to have completed a Foundation One class or the equivalent in Private Lessons, be able to stand up from your front and back float and have a curiosity to learn.

You are ready right now. Claiming your spot will take you out of hiding and wishing and into growing and expanding right now. The sooner you decide the more you will grow.​

Do not miss out. There are only 3 spots in the Foundation One class left and 4 in the Advanced class.

​Deposits must be made by Nov 5 to keep our resort block of rooms. Click here now to join us in exploring a whole new world.

This is a story you do not want to be on the sidelines for.

It is the most fun ever. I cannot wait to swim with you!

Swimmingly,

The post Insider Tips: What is stopping you? appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Your palm, right? So simple. You connect your flat palm onto the surface and then push.

This is also how it works in swimming. So why do we see people use the side, back, or even cupped hands? This is because they are not connected to the feeling in their hands.

Feeling that sensation is key to learning the physical skills of swimming. Connecting to this feeling is often missed because our emotions block the connection.

Emotions are generated by thoughts like:

• I want to get it right
• I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do
• Someone needs to tell me what to do
• I can’t get this

Any of these thoughts can produce anxiety or a lack of confidence and trust in the process.

These emotions do not leave very much space to be curious about the sensation in the hands.

What thoughts or frame of mind would you need in order to be curious, attentive, or ready for discovery?

When you want to learn, start at the top with your thoughts and beliefs. This drives every action.

Jump-In Membership

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the Jump-In Membership. Our Jump-In program uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post Insider Tips: Key To Learning The Physical Skills Of Swimming appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Fact: Most people’s legs and arms droop down like jellyfish 

Myth: Floating takes work

Fact: Floating is a physics principle, not an activity.  Rubber balls float & rocks sink

Myth: When people are vertical in the water with their head out, they are floating

Fact: This is treading water and it is a pinnacle activity coordinating many different skill sets

Myth: You need to float to be a good swimmer

Fact: Olympic swimmers do not float

Myth: Floating is only a beginner skill not needed for safety 

Fact: Being able to be completely still, physically and mentally, is the key to safety in the water

Jump-In Membership

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the Jump-In Membership. Our Jump-In program uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post 5 Facts and Myths About Floating appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Your palm, right?  So simple.  You connect your flat palm onto the surface and then push.  

This is also how it works in swimming.  So why do we see people use the side, back, or even cupped hands?  This is because they are not connected to the feeling in their hands.  

Feeling that sensation is key to learning the physical skills of swimming.  Connecting to this feeling is often missed because our emotions block the connection. 

Emotions are generated by thoughts like:  

• I want to get it right
• I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do
• Someone needs to tell me what to do
• I can’t get this

Any of these thoughts can produce anxiety or a lack of confidence and trust in the process. 

These emotions do not leave very much space to be curious about the sensation in the hands.  

What thoughts or frame of mind would you need in order to be curious, attentive, or ready for discovery?  

When you want to learn, start at the top with your thoughts and beliefs.  This drives every action.

Jump-In Membership

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the Jump-In Membership. Our Jump-In program uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post How to have Better Hand Connection in Swimming appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Let’s run through an exercise where all change begins. It will get you on to the path you most desire.

What are your thoughts about deep water? Write them all down. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Fill up a paper without editing.

Then take time to sort your thoughts and see which ones are reality-based and which are purely your imagination. It is likely that most of them are imagined and untrue.

Sort the ones that you imagined into useful and not useful categories.

Here are some examples of thoughts that are not useful:

• It is scary
• I don’t know what to do
• It is not safe
• I have to know how to tread to be safe

Here are some examples of thoughts that are useful:

• I know the pace that is right for me
• I can figure out the steps
• The water works the same in shallow and deep water
• I do not go beyond where I can stay connected to myself

We have thousands of thoughts a day. Most of them are not true and not useful. Becoming aware is step number one.

What you desire most simply takes following the steps.

Jump-In Membership

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the Jump-In Membership. Our Jump-In program uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post Insider Tips: What does the deep end mean to you? appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Here are three quick tips from the Foundation of Change to keep in mind when considering open water swimming or activities.

1. Do not get ahead of yourself. Be where you are.
2. Having fun feels good.
3. Let whatever step you take to be perfect.

Ok, so this is not your typical open water tip because I know you are smart and capable and want to know what no one else will tell you. Let’s break these down a bit more and make them applicable to what you might want to do in a lake or the sea.

Do not get ahead of yourself. Be where you are.

Close your eyes for a moment and visualize yourself standing on the shore. What do you see, where does your vision go? I will guess that it goes across the horizon, out to the vast open space. We love to watch the sunset over the ocean. We are drawn to the open space but we can also feel hesitant because of all that open space. Here is the key point: you are not in all that open space. You are standing on the shore. You are standing on the shore breathing, safe, and in control. When you consider any open water activity you must embrace the practice of coming to where you are physically in that moment.

Before you get in you can plan about where you will or will not go. Lake beaches are really good starting points because they often lack current and have roped-off areas with known depths.

Watch our video on how your mind and bodywork together in water:

It can seem like a good idea to constantly think ahead, but it steers you away from the present time. The present time is the only place where you can be in control. Looking to the future can leave you feeling scared, stiff, anxious, out of air even when you are standing on shore with nothing going wrong at all.

Take a few moments to get present at the actual physical location. Then you can begin.

Having Fun Feels Good

Your feelings drive everything you do. The whole point of summer activities is usually to have fun. This is the best test to see if you are doing the right thing for yourself. Before you do your open water activity, check and see if you are having fun or just hoping you will have fun in the future. If you do not know how to have fun right now, what makes you think you will know it in the future? Practice what you want right now.

When you take all the should, other judgments of fun, and your own self-criticism you will need to ask the question, “What is fun for me?”. Asking this question with genuine openness can give you space for where you need to be so you can feel safe. When you feel safe you exponentially increase your ability to have fun.

Go ahead and put the lifejacket on with joyful ownership. Get into the water holding onto the back of the boat. Discover the ocean at a Kei-Kei beach (kids beach in Hawaiian).

It is not useful to expect yourself to be anything other than who you are right now. This only creates self-judgment and puts a halt to fun. Which do you want: to expand your fun or increase your judgment?

Let Whatever Step You Take Be Perfect

When we teach you how to swim we break the physical steps into small pieces, steps so small it actually allows you to learn. Most of the time students think they need to take huge steps or make those huge steps be perfect.

You will know when the step is too big because you will feel overwhelmed, confused, scared, out of control, unnatural or you won’t remember what happened. You have 2 choices after this experience: believe you got it all wrong or let it be perfect. ​

When you say you got it all wrong we usually feel bad. This is the opposite of step #2. When something feels bad we tend to turn away or get shrink into ourselves.

When you let it be perfect we usually feel better. This is leaning into step #2. When you see it as perfect, you can realize that maybe the step was too big. Then that can give rise to a choice to make it simpler, easier, and more fun? Curiosity is a growing emotion. This is how you find the right step. But it often takes the wrong step first. This is not a problem.

Many of our students came to us because they were snorkeling on vacation, but felt scared. Or have said “no” many times to an invitation to spend time on someone’s boat. Find what you did right in these stories. Find what you are curious about and recognize the smaller steps so you can enjoy them.

It is not about doing all the things. It is about doing something right for you so you can be the amazing human being that you are.

Jump-In Membership

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the Jump-In Membership. Our Jump-In program uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post Insider Tips: Open Water Swimming appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Join Cori and Lynar this Friday to learn how you can use breathwork to remain in control while facing the new challenge of the cold water. Be in control, know what to expect, and expand your comfort zone during this fun event at Pritchard Island Park (just a block away from the Seattle Pool).

Friday, June 18th from 6-7:15 pm

Please note, this is not a swim event, you will be guided through breath work on the beach and then the group will enter the water for a short 2-4 minute plunge.

Learn how to use your breath to control your body as you get ready to explore the open water this summer.

Water shoes are highly recommended for this event.

Price: $97 for members/$150 for non-members​

Still not a member? Click here to get signed up at only $19/month.

Can’t wait to see you at the Beach,

NOTE: This class is not recommended for those with high blood pressure or those prone to seizure disorder.

The post Breath Work and Lake Dip Event appeared first on Orca Swim School.