When Being a Staffer Pays Off - Richard Stone
One day Charles Grewe, the Aquatics Director was sick and couldn't go to the beaches. I was drafted at the last minute to be the adult leader in charge. Charles had trained his staff well, so I really didn't have to do anything but watch. Later in the day, all the staff were busy doing their jobs, and Charles' beginning swimming class came for their daily lesson.
I was totally unprepared, and all the other Staff were busy. I told them to practice what they were taught the day before. They worked on their kicking and strokes and splashed around for a while, but eventually left early, since I could not really give them a lesson.
One young boy stayed. He was trying all the strokes, but kept sinking. When his head go below the water and he knew he was sinking, he would freak out and stop swimming and try to stand up. He was rated a non-swimmer on Sunday. He took swimming classes each day. This was Wednesday and he still had not made any progress. But he was still trying. I noticed that, swimming on his stomach, he couldn't get air. So I had him try it on his back. This was worse, since when he sank his face was quickly covered with water. But he kept trying. I finally realized that his real problem was that he didn't know how to float.
So, remembering my swim classes, I said, "Let's forget about swimming and work on floating." I spent the rest of the hour working on floating. Then he had to go to another activity, and I did too. I lost track of him. During the campwide games Friday afternoon, I found out that the young man I helped had learned to float, used that to learn to swim, had become a swimmer and got his swimming skill award and part of the merit badge. He even was in the swimming competition.
Everyone was proud of him. Me too.