We don’t play basketball in street shoes…so why do we permit them to swim without a proper cap, goggles or competitive suit?

But Coach if you're worried about saving lives, what does it matter what they wear?

 

If Nadar Por Vida was just about swim lessons then I would recommend the YMCA or the local park district because they are certified swim instructors, I am not.  Other programs whose goal may be to have a previously non-swimmer, make it across the pool are needed and are different than Nadar Por Vida.  But this difference begins with my status as a certified USA Coach and my belief shared by so many USA Swimming peers, that competitive swimming in the United States can and will reflect the population of America.  And yes, to me it begins with quality equipment so that our young people look like competitive swimmers and begin to act like them.  This is not a new concept.  For example, in other sports, football helmets, baseball bats, basketball balls and shoes are gathered for kids who cannot otherwise afford to participate in the sport.  

 

Too many times I have seen minority students at high school swim team try outs show up only to be embarrassed.  They wear beach pants, or bikinis, have no goggles, no cap as the white swimmers around them seemingly parade in their expensive suits and professional gear for which our minority swimmers are unfamiliar.  It does not take long before our young minority students figure out they are in the wrong place, as they watch everyone swimming back and forth in strokes they have never seen. 

 

In the case of many of the 1^st generation, low income students, it easy to imagine that they found their way to the pool deck because they thought they could swim and it was their way to participate in their first extracurricular activity in high school.  And can imagine the conversation with their parents about swimming being a part of school activities.  So many of these kids would be expected to hold after-school jobs, or baby sit or contribute to the family in so many other ways. 

 

So can you imagine the conversation with this humiliated student when he must come back to his mother and explain why he will never be on the swim team and will probably never ask to participate in anything in high school ever again.   So can a swim suit cure all this…..NO…but it can help.  All I want to do is give these students a chance.  Proper coaching, a chance to participate in one of the greatest sports there is.  At Nadar Por Vida we believe that every swimmer deserves to have a proper suit, proper equipment, top quality coaching and a chance to find success!   We already know that swimmers have the highest grade point average compared to any other sport.  So we have a winning combination, we save a life, we introduce our students to a life long sport, we integrate them with the best students and families in America, we teach them to be confident and how to survive.   Nadar Por Vida, affecting lives a bubble at a time!