Swimjim's Blog

Ocean Safety–Rip Currents

swimjim — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:31:33 +0000

Rip Currents

Now that is it is officially the summer season, most of you will be heading to the beaches for some fun in the sun. But before that can happen everyone should take a moment to learn about one of the main dangers of swimming in the ocean: rip currents.

A rip current, or riptide, forms when there’s a narrow channel perpendicular to the shore. After waves roll onto the beach, instead of flowing straight back out, they drain into a channel, creating a powerful, fast moving river out to see. People mistake that moderate tugging at your feet and legs, as a strong undertow, which is not the case. Rip currents flow from sand to surface in one direction. They’re easy to spot from the beach. Look for a choppy, sometimes sandy swath of water (about 10-20 feet wide) that runs from shore to sea and stays relatively flat as waves roll in on either side of it.

If you’re caught in the tide there are two very important rules to follow: Don’t panic and don’t fight it. Even the strongest swimmer can’t swim against a rip current for long. So relax the current will not pull you under. Take a second, and swim parallel to the beach for a few minutes. Once you’re free, turn and swim back to shore.

Another important thing to take into account is which way the sweep is going that day. Sweep is defined as a flow of water parallel to shore caused by wave action at an ocean beach or at a point or headland. Basically it is the direction of the ocean current, meaning which direction you will float down the beach as you swim. If you can’t figure it out on your own you can simply ask the lifeguard which direction it is. The reason this is important to know is because you should exit the rip in the direction of the sweep. That way once you’re out and swimming to the shore you continue to drift away from the rip.

Here is a picture to help as well as a picture of an actual rip in the ocean:

To insure that each trip to the beach is a fun and safe one, it is important to remember a couple of things: Always swim near a lifeguard, know the conditions of the water, never swim alone, know your limits, and if you do get in trouble don’t panic stay afloat and call to the guard for help.

Swim classes canceled today!

swimjim — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:56:52 +0000

Due to last night’s snow storm SwimJim’s classes are canceled today 1/27/2011.

The office will still be open.

Stay warm out there and have a great day!

Oprah Campaign

swimjim — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:56:26 +0000

Oprah Campaign

NDPA Requests Members to Participate in the “Oprah Campaign”
January 2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Greetings!

The Swim For Life Foundation, NDPA, the U.S. Swim School Association and other drowning prevention organizations are campaigning to have the drowning epidemic in America highlighted on the Oprah Winfrey Show during this, her last season. It is our hope that drowning prevention will be impacted by the ‘Oprah Effect’. In order to make this happen YOU will have to participate!

GOAL: Saturation. Let’s give Oprah 10,000 e-mails and/or letters with our plea.

TIME: Send your emails and/or letters between January 24-February 14

HOW:

Use the letter link below or the pre-written email text to contact The Oprah Winfrey Show (letters and contact information below)
Enlist your staff to do the same
Promote this campaign within your swim school, underscore your lifesaving message and have your customers send the email and letter, too
Recruit as many people as you can; family, friends, facebook friends, etc. This is for anyone involved in drowning prevention, aquatics, or water safety.
Post this message on Facebook and Twitter

1. To submit electronically:

Follow this link to submit Show Ideas: https://www.oprah.com/ownshow/plug_form.html?plug_id=216

Use the text below to fill in the “Your Message” box. Be sure to leave America’s Drowning Epidemic as your first line.

America’s Drowning Epidemic

Please highlight the vital topic of water safety and drowning prevention on the Oprah Show while it still airs on a national network. Every day an average of 10 people die from drowning in this country, most of these victims are under the age of 14, male and minority. 58% of African American children and 56% of Hispanic children don’t know how to swim and neither do their parents. Every year, nearly 3500 people drown nationwide. Doesn’t that deserve some national attention? Check out this fact sheet for confirmation from the CDC on the incidence of drowning in America.

The Center for Disease Control Unintentional Drowning Fact Sheet

http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Water-Safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html

Alloting a portion of your show to this critically important topic could have a significant impact on these harrowing statistics. There are so many myths to be dispelled about how, when and where people drown. Please use your voice to save and educate millions of people.

Or 2. To submit via mail click on this link and copy letter

This a great chance to get our message heard. Remember, there is power in numbers. Let the Oprah Campaign begin!

Sincerely

Kristin Goffman

NDPA Executive Director

Great Article called Keeping Young Minds Healthy

swimjim — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:17:28 +0000

From Time Magazine Nov 7th

Can go to the website for more detailed info.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2026672_2026712_2026677-1,00.html

Keeping Young Minds Healthy

By Jeffrey Kluger Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010

Timothy Archibald for Time

Bethany hated fifth grade. She didn’t much care for sixth, seventh or eighth either, but fifth grade was when the trouble really started.

Fifth grade was the year Bethany started to notice boys — and to wonder if she was noticing them quite enough. The girls she knew were already swooning over Kirk Cameron, Michael J. Fox and other teen heartthrobs of the day. She was swooning too, she guessed, but in the same way her friends were? And what about when it came time to kiss a real boy in her own world? Would she want to?

Tales of boys and girls who doubt their sexual stirrings this way often end with their discovering — and eventually embracing — the fact that they’re gay. But Bethany (not her real name) wasn’t gay, and she knew it instinctively, even if she doubted it constantly. Her anxiety grew from an increasingly common form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in which people who may have no moral or cultural qualms about homosexuality suddenly begin despairing of the possibility of ever knowing with blood-test certainty just what their sexuality is. Uncertainty is the fuel for OCD, and the harder a sufferer tries to answer the unanswerable, the hotter the obsessional bonfire burns. (See the best books about children’s mental health.)

“The preoccupation grew until it became a 20-year nightmare,” Bethany says. “I obsessed constantly — looking at other girls to check my reactions, looking at boys and asking myself if I wanted to kiss them. I couldn’t shake it.”

It wasn’t until Bethany was 30 that she found a website for an OCD institute, read about the multiple expressions of the disorder and found that one of them fit her precisely. Her treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy that taught her to embrace uncertainty rather than fight it, began shortly afterward. Three years later, she’s at last enjoying peace and, like so many other adult sufferers of childhood-onset emotional disorders, also grieving the decades she lost to her condition.

All of us, in many ways, are born insane. Our emotions are unregulated; our moods are explosive; we are consumed by irrational fears, erupt into manic happiness, dissolve into inexplicable tears. It takes years — decades really — for an internal emotional governor to come fully online, and in that time, young minds can be prey to all manner of disorders and pathologies. Parents don’t always fully grasp that fact, and even doctors may underestimate it, which is understandable. It’s not easy even for professionals to separate the normal storms of childhood behavior from the less normal ones. But the numbers tell a clear story. (See Dr. Mehmet Oz’s prescription for happy kids.)

About one in five children in the U.S. suffers from some sort of emotional or behavioral condition, according to a new study led by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Among adults with confirmed ills, 50% were diagnosed before the age of 14 and 75% before 24. The estimated annual price tag for the treatment and consequences of juvenile psychological disorders is $250 billion, with those whose conditions are not caught early contributing to that total for years.

Worse than the money lost to mental illness is the joy lost to it. Epidemiologists speak of what are known as disability adjusted life years (DALYs) — years compromised or diminished by ill health. Among Americans under 25, mental disorders account for 30% of all DALYs; in the 14-to-25 group, it’s 48%. For someone like Bethany, two-thirds of her pretreatment lifespan would be considered disability adjusted.

“Childhood is a canary-in-the-coal-mine time,” says Dr. Lynn Wegner, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina. “If early signs of mental-health problems aren’t correctly managed, they may stay with kids for life.”

The good news is that intervention can work, early detection can work and so can a range of gentle, kid-friendly therapeutic techniques that are increasingly being practiced on the young. And that benefits everyone. According to the NAS, every dollar spent by Medicaid or other public-health programs on prevention of mental illness among kids may be paid back as much as 28 times over the course of a lifetime in disability benefits never claimed, adult psychiatric care never needed and, in some cases, crimes never committed, though even public-policy experts don’t always recognize that fact. “The savings are often later, and they may be in the jails or in special-ed programs, so we don’t always notice them,” says professor of psychology Marc Atkins of the University of Illinois at Chicago. “As a society, we don’t do a very good job of looking at these factors.”

For families the questions are far more intimate and harder to reduce to balance sheets. Parents worried about the most common childhood-onset disorders — phobias, generalized anxiety, OCD, depression, bipolar disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism — rarely know exactly what to look for or what to do if they spot something. Is a child obsessive or just fastidious? Depressed or ruminative? Hyperactive or high-spirited? Overdiagnose and you may attach a stigmatizing label to a healthy child; underdiagnose and you may leave a condition to worsen on its own.

“Since you’re talking about kids, whose brains change a lot over time, illnesses are simply harder to diagnose,” says Dr. David Axelson, an associate professor of psychiatry and the director of the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Services program at the University of Pittsburgh. What parents — and doctors — need are clear guidelines of what the trouble signs are and up-to-date information about how to avoid problems before they start and fix them if they do.

Sweating the Small Stuff
The first question parents need to ask themselves when they notice worrisome behavior in their kids is “So?” The temperament of all humans is complex and messy — especially when they are immature — and each will develop quirks that may be harbingers of trouble or may just as easily not be. It depends on whether those quirks interfere with functioning. (See TIME’s special report “How to Live 100 Years.”)

“It’s a fine line, since we don’t have any lab tests,” says Dr. Ben Vitiello, director of the child and adolescent treatment and prevention branch at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). “If a child bites his nails but is otherwise functioning socially, it’s not likely to be a sign of an anxiety disorder. If biting his nails is all he ever does in a social situation, that’s something else. The same is true for a child who is prone to be aggressive. Can he control it when he has to, or is he unable to stay in school?”

Context also makes a difference. American parents are scared out of their wits about autism these days — partly with cause, partly because of media hysteria and myths about the perils of vaccines. But being aware of the signs of the condition is always wise. By 18 months, babies should interact with parents and caregivers, exchanging smiles and pointing at objects. An absence of such reciprocity may be troubling, but it’s not necessarily a problem if it doesn’t occur in all settings. Kids who engage at home and disconnect in day care may be anxious or shy — and may eventually be diagnosed with an anxiety condition — but autism is less likely. The same is true for language delay, hyperactivity and aggression, all of which are red flags for autism but can be situational.

In some cases, including those involving anxiety or mood disorders, it may not be the kids’ welfare but the parents’ that is in play. There’s a vanity component to parenting: Who doesn’t want the prettiest, cleverest, most personable kid in the room? It’s hard to admit that maybe your baby is simply awkward. “It’s true that you look for distress or impairment,” says Torrey Creed, a clinical child psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. “But who’s distressed, the parent or the child? Sometimes parents actually want something diagnosed but it doesn’t need to be.” (See what signs to look for in your kids.)

Age is a critical variable as well. Psychologists are reluctant to diagnose OCD in kids younger than 8, for example, simply because so much of what young children do looks obsessional or compulsive. Inviolable nighttime routines (a certain story read a certain number of times in a certain chair) or seemingly pointless exercises (lining up toy cars in a precise sequence, messing them up and starting all over) are usually just normal rituals that help create a sense of order in a too big, too random world. The need for such rituals fades as kids begin to feel that they have some control over their environment. Only if compulsive behavior continues after that should parental eyebrows be raised.

Anxiety conditions may have a similar shelf life. At about 8 months, babies start to develop what’s known as object permanence — an understanding that just because something is out of sight doesn’t mean it no longer exists. When the object in question is a caregiver, babies become much less tolerant of being left alone, since they understand better that if they howl loudly enough, whoever has left the room will return. Separation anxiety peaks again at about 2 years old and once more at around 5. Here too, it’s only after children are outside of that normal range that parents should worry.

“This is when you get what we call Velcro kids,” says Creed, “the ones who can’t let go because they fear for their own or a parent’s safety.” Another sign of a broader condition known as generalized anxiety disorder is a child who never seems to run out of what Creed describes as what-if questions: What if there’s a fire? What if there’s a hurricane? What if terrorists or other bad people attack? Shielding kids from TV may prevent some fears from getting seeded in the first place, but it can’t prevent them all because what-if questions are limited only by the child’s imagination — a resource that is effectively unlimited.

This means that not only is a child’s defiant, depressive or anxious behavior explored but so are the circumstances that trigger episodes. Parents with volatile or poorly regulated moods cannot fairly expect better from their kids; the same may be true for parents who despair when confronted with obstacles.

A new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry showed that family therapy can even help when teens suffer from eating disorders, with parents helping encourage healthy dietary habits and changing behaviors of their own that lead to dysfunction in the home. Among anorexics who successfully completed family treatment, 49% maintained weight gains after 12 months, compared with 23% of kids who underwent solo therapy. “When parents are part of therapy, they’ve typically served in more of a coaching role for the kids,” says Creed. “But it seems more effective if the parents are also learning and practicing cognitive-behavioral skills themselves.”

A wild card whenever children are being treated is the question of medication. A child’s brain is a work in progress, and introducing outside chemistry could, many fear, alter its development in untold ways. In some cases, the drug question is easy to answer and is governed by the severity of the sickness. Schizophrenia is well-nigh impossible to treat without drugs, though the disease is not common in childhood. Bipolar disorder, similarly, typically calls for meds as part of the mix. The problem is, bipolar medications, which include mood stabilizers, antipsychotics and anticonvulsants, can be brutal on the body, causing weight gain and motor-control disorders and contributing to high triglycerides and diabetes. (See Dr. Mehmet Oz’s prescription for happy kids.)

“It’s been our clinical experience that kids are more sensitive to these things,” says Axelson. “On the positive end, the drugs often work relatively well and can be lifesavers.” In some cases, Axelson says, bipolar kids and adults can come off drugs, at least for a while, provided the weaning takes place under a doctor’s supervision. “That doesn’t mean they don’t have bipolar anymore,” he cautions. “It’s possible the disease just goes into remission for a time.”

For other anxiety, mood or behavioral disorders, doctors are nearly unanimous in their opinion that it’s best to try nonchemical interventions first and see if drugs are needed to fill the gaps. “First you provide support,” says Vitiello, whose branch of the NIMH specializes in evaluating the efficacy and safety of treatments for kids. “If that’s not sufficient, you consider drugs.”

But consider carefully. Antidepressants like Paxil have come under fire as studies found that they can lead to an increase in suicidal thoughts — particularly among patients 25 or under. In 2004 the FDA ordered that all such meds carry black-box warnings disclosing this risk. Experts, including Vitiello, however, stress that antidepressants also have a protective effect and may actually prevent some people from committing suicide. The key is balancing the risks of medicating with those of not medicating — a complex calculus that patients, parents and doctors need to conduct with care and exactness.

Into the Breach
With kids’ lives and welfare on the line, most parents would welcome all the help they can get, and increasingly it’s available from independent, academic and government groups. For example, Roger Weissberg, a professor of psychology and education of the University of Illinois at Chicago, leads a program called the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which advocates for school programs that teach relationship skills, self-management and other basic abilities that undergird mental health. CASEL also rates 80 nationwide, often commercial programs that offer schools seminars and course materials. (See TIME’s special report “How to Live 100 Years.”)

Psychologist Mark Greenberg at Penn State University has similarly launched the PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) Curriculum. Yet another program, called New Beginnings, headed by psychologist Irwin Sandler of Arizona State University, offers specialized programs of six to 12 sessions for families in which parents are getting divorced or a parent has died. Familial crises such as these can usher in a powder-keg period for kids’ emotional health.

“We’ve followed up families six years after they went through the program and, in cases of divorce, found a 36% reduction in the likelihood of diagnosed mental illness among kids,” says Sandler. “We’ve also seen lower rates of alcohol and drug use and high-risk sex.”

Ultimately, no amount of pre-emptive attention can ensure that a child will never come down with a mental illness, just as no amount of bundling up or eating right will ever provide absolute protection against colds or other physical ailments. What prevention, treatment and therapy can do is reduce the risk and, if you are unlucky and get sick anyway, improve the odds of getting well. Kids have a lifetime of experiences ahead of them. It’s a healthy mind — the repository of the puzzles and charms and giddy riddles that make children such a joy — that can help them make the most of that time.

Pool Safely Educational Video

swimjim — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:10:36 +0000

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission along with Safe Kids USA and the National Drowning Prevention Alliance has released a new Pool Safely educational video. The video highlights seven simple steps that everyone should take to keep kids safe in and around the pool and spa.

Make the rest of the summer not only fun but safe by checking out the Pool Safely Video:

The Trouble with Water Wings

swimjim — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:21:35 +0000

You may have heard an instructor at SwimJim discourage a parent from using water wings, or arm floaties. There are several important reasons we, and many other swim instruction and water safety organizations feel strongly that water wings, or floaties are not a good choice.

Although inflatable armbands are popular among small children, water wings are not a life-saving device; they will not prevent a child from accidentally going under water and potentially drowning. Remember, water wings can slip off or easily deflate. Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of water wings is the possibility of the adult responsible for supervising the swimmers and the swimmer themselves to become lulled into a feeling of safety. Inflatable armbands are patented as toys, not safety equipment. Mistaking them for such can create a potentially fatal situation.

Finally, inflatable armbands teach children an improper vertical position in the water, instead of the correct horizontal swimming posture. As the instructor begins working on back floating, the first step in water-safety training and swim instruction, your child may feel uncomfortable and resist working in the horizontal position. She may also be unused to water splashing across her face or getting into her ears – common problems with a child that is used to the head being high and dry, while rest of the body is in the pool below her. Feeling comfortable with rolling to their back and floating is the single most important aspect of a child’s being safe in an unexpected water situation.

Try using a swim noodle in place of wings. The benefit is that the child can better understand that they and the noodle are separate, while children may not always understand that the floaties are the reason for their floating. The noodle also helps to engage the deltoids and scapula in the upper back, muscles and bones that are important in swimming.

Have a safe summer – and we will see you in the pool!

December 2009 Newsletter

swimjim — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:59:04 +0000

SwimJim Family,

Below are several of our articles that can be found in our monthly newsletter. If you would like to be added to our E-mail list, please send an E-mail to info@swimjim.com and place “E-mail List” in the subject line.

Have a great holiday and we hope to hear from you soon!

SwimJim, Inc.

Natural Rest

swimjim — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:56:32 +0000

The events of the past year have created a high level of stress for many people. Holiday time can be stressful in the best of years and maybe more so now. Stress in our lives activates our fight or flight mechanisms causing the release of adrenaline in the body but often without a way to use it. Over time this leaves us feeling fatigued and depleted. Getting a good amount of rest can help relieve the effects of stress but unfortunately high levels of stress often make it difficult to sleep. We may find that we can’t let our minds slow down at the end of the day or if we are able to go to sleep easily we may wake during the night with a busy mind and be unable to go back to sleep. The harder we try the more elusive sleep becomes in a vicious circle that finds us increasingly tired and more stressed. Exercise is an important ingredient in a routine to relieve stress. Through regular exercise our bodies are able to process and reduce the high levels of adrenaline, relieving tension and aiding in more restful sleep thus breaking the cycle of stress and fatigue. Swimming is an excellent full body exercise activity that strengthens and stretches while providing fun and relaxation at the same time. These are all important elements in stress relief and can lead to improved sleep.

In addition to exercise, there are healthy sleep habits that can lead to more restful sleep, reducing stress levels. In our wired world we are no longer tied to our circadian rhythms linked to light and dark which establish natural sleep patterns. We can respect and help reestablish those rhythms through mimicking dusk at the end of the day. By dimming lights in rooms and on screens several hours before going to bed we allow our minds to process the slowing of the end of the day. It also helps to transition from the activity of day to the quiet of night before getting into bed. Try a pre sleep ritual to slow down. This might include a warm salt soak, lighting a candle for softer light and listening to soothing music in place of watching TV or staying on the computer until you are ready to hit the pillow. Creating a clean, quiet bedroom space that is separate from work space is also helpful. If you do wake during the night it is better to get up and go to another room, have a cup of tea or read quietly until you again feel sleepy.

Natural Rest offers an additional tool to aid in experiencing restorative sleep. Developed by veteran massage therapist Bonnie Stetson, Natural Rest is a therapeutic aromatherapy massage treatment designed to specifically address stress reduction and the connection to restorative sleep. Bonnie has created unique essential oil blends using the medical aromatherapy principle of the synergistic action of like oils that work through absorption and inhalation in concert with client tailored therapeutic hands on work to calm, ground and relax, creating a pre sleep state. A take away vial of the oil can be used at home for inhalation to reconnect to the massage state when preparing for sleep. Natural Rest also offers a blend of infused oils only for pregnant and nursing mothers. This massage technique can be a compliment to or an alternative to sleep aids. If you use a sleep aid be sure to consult with your doctor before making any changes to your current routine. If you would like more information about Natural Rest please contact Bonnie Stetson, LMT at 917-375-5435 or BonnieStetson@att.net. Sweet dreams.

Swimming Is More Than A Sport

swimjim — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:55:50 +0000

No one will argue with the benefits of increased safety when learning to swim. However, the benefits of learning to swim with SwimJim expand far beyond the reach of just safety. Albeit, safety is our primary goal, we teach learn to swim through a modality that achieves so much more with regards to teaching positive attitude, self-discipline, tender self-soothing, goal setting and determination.

Whatever we engage our children in, if we bring a promise to getting them to practice, then part of the lesson begins through example alone. And with the commitment from the SwimJim staff to your children, through repetition and teaching focus on specific techniques, mind body awareness also improves, that includes spatial awareness and coordination; all of which will benefit your child in any activity they choose.

SwimJim chooses its staff and gears its entire program with precision to technique, commitment to excellence, and a dedication to focus always taught with a cheery disposition. These are all attributes that when used with gentle guidance to children at an early age influences the emotional growth and well being of its students years to come. Creating the path now and the foundation to commitment to excellence and dedication will serve your children in all endeavors years to come.

So when thinking about improving just safety alone with each lesson is very near-sighted. Every time you walk through SwimJim’s doors you are improving a methodology of self-discipline and dedication to a goal, as well as teaching your child that all of that can be achieved while having fun.

The Social Child

swimjim — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:54:22 +0000

Athletics and swimming are obviously an important part of your child’s development. It improves coordination and language translation into kinesthetic movement. It boosts self-confidence and most importantly it teaches your child how to be safer in the water through safety skills and practice. But when a child achieves each milestone mark varies as much as the color blue.

Our classes at SwimJim are arranged in a manner that allows for children to be put in a level that is appropriate for their development however, still allows them the variance to learn from other children. Toddlers progress huge leaps and bounds in physical achievement the moment they see other children participating in actives that they want to do.

Any parent who has more than one child knows that often the second or third child will often progress in certain skills at a faster rate than their older sibling. Simply enough because the younger child looks up to and watches their older sibling’s every move mimicking their movements and actions. Peer interaction can create the same response in friends or even strangers.

The curriculum is diverse enough whereas one child might be a better back floater and the other child might be a better breath holder and still a third might be better at gross motor movements. Put the toddlers together and certain skills that they once believed to be too difficult or scary is put into context just by watching the children around them.

Privates are available for a child with special needs, developmental delays, or simply needs more attention struggling through one certain skill, as well as the child whom excels extremely rapidly. However, always consider the benefits of the group lesson to teach the child peer socialization and growth through visual learning.

SwimJim offers privates and group lessons for all levels from babies to adults.