Caribeae Swimming Academy’s Jodie Shanks wants swimming lessons made compulsory

A Central Qld swimming coach with more than 40 years’ experience says water familiarity should start when children are weeks rather than several years old.

Swimming lessons should be compulsory for children up to the age of 16, according to coach Jodie Shanks.

The head coach of Rockhampton’s Caribeae Swimming Academy has more than 40 years’ experience in the industry.

She said every child should learn to swim, and their familiarity with water should start when they were weeks rather than several years old.

Mrs Shanks had her three children in the pool when they were a week old, and each of them could swim unaided by age two.

Her grandchildren followed the same pattern and are now, she said, both “so competent in the water” at age three and four.

Her comments came after Steve Titmus, the father of Olympic champion swimmer Ariarne, called for mandatory swimming lessons in schools amid the deadliest year on record for coastal and ocean drowning deaths.

Caribeae Swimming Academy head coach Jodie Shanks with grandchild Hudson Heinemann-Little having his first lesson at three weeks old.

Mrs Shanks said while she could not comment directly on what he had said, she agreed that swimming lessons should be mandatory for children.

“I think it should be made compulsory until they’re 16 because I think that being able to swim and get yourself out of a difficult situation is so important,” she said.

“I really think it should just become a way of life.”

Mrs Shanks said it was vital that once children started learn-to-swim classes, they continued them.

“If people, whatever their reason, start their kids in lessons and decide to stop them after only one or two terms it’s so detrimental,” she said.

“They need to have that consistency and it needs to be week-in, week-out.

Siblings Hudson and Wolfe Heinemann-Little, aged 4 and 3, are both competent in the water.

“I have seen kids who have been able to swim and they go to school and their parents stop their swimming lessons for a few years. When they put them back in, they’ve gone from being able to swim to being absolutely petrified (because) they’ve forgotten everything.”

At Caribeae, baby classes for a term of eight sessions is $104, and learn-to-swim classes also for a term of eight lessons is $138.

Mrs Shanks said government assistance, such as a rebate or subsidy scheme, would make learning what could be a life-saving skill affordable for everyone.

“But in the end, what price do you put on your child’s life?” she said.

Mrs Shanks said Caribeae’s program started with water familiarisation, which was free for newborns to five-month-olds.

“It’s about getting parents in the pool and getting them feeling comfortable with having bubs in the water… and teaching them how to hold bubs and being calm with them in the water,” she said.

“We’ve had really great success with that and then babies when they transfer into our babies classes are already moving forward and progressing quite well.”

Originally published as Caribeae Swimming Academy’s Jodie Shanks wants swimming lessons made compulsory