Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Williams
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was born, my family lived on the east coast, close to the beach. I started swimming lessons when I was six months old, in hopes that I would learn to love the water and how to be safe around it. It worked: I have always loved being in the water. When we moved to Knoxville, the neighborhood had a swimming pool. I was a good swimmer even as a toddler, and my mom recounts many times I would jump in and cross the pool, or jump off the diving board, when I was as young as 2 years old, nearly giving the other parents around the pool a heart attack. I swam competitively on summer league and a year-round club team from ages 5-17.
I was never one of the fastest swimmers, but technically, I swam all 4 strokes well. My coaches would ask me to demonstrate proper techniques: I helped with the little kids and ran swimming camps, which led to parents asking me to work with their children for extra practice. By the time I was 14, I had a handful of kids for swimming lessons. My lesson roster grew exponentially each year, allowing me to meet and work with some of the nicest families of Knoxville. The last 5 years or so I’ve been fully booked with a lengthy waiting list and have stayed extremely busy trying to balance my career and working in time for lessons. I mainly teach at my neighborhood pool, and travel to a few local pools during the summer, and teach for neighborhoods with indoor pools in the winter.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’m not one to complain, because I have been blessed in this endeavor. I believe that I was blessed by God with the skills to work with children and teach them a life-saving skill.
However, one challenge I have found to be the most limiting to my practice has been my neighborhood’s homeowner’s association (HOA). For the last 10 years I have taught swim lessons at my neighborhood pool, as well as working as a lifeguard and helping with cleaning and maintenance of the facility. I’ve always maintained a great relationship with the pool manager and was happy to help whenever I was needed. With a new HOA president and pool manager this year, that changed, and the new board demanded an atrociously high amount of rent for only a few hours of pool time a week. I attempted to negotiate and discuss the matter with board members/neighbors, with no response. I was able to secure a handful of local neighborhood, public, and private pools to teach at, and was able to work with a portion of my clients from previous years. Although disappointed, I am hopeful for next year, and the opportunity to reach all of my clients once again.
As you know, we’re big fans of Swim With Sarah. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Swim With Sarah offers private swim lessons for children in the greater Knoxville area. I place a special focus on safety, with each child learning to roll to their back to float if they were to fall in the water. This “survival float” is a lifesaving skill every child should possess before being told the water is all about fun. If a child can float, they can breathe, they can call for help and they can SURVIVE! It is extremely rewarding to help a child achieve and maintain this life saving skill, and while not ideal, it has been amazing to hear about my kiddos that have found themselves in an aquatic emergency and have used their skills to save their own life.
I only teach one-on-one, private lessons with little ones, which allows me to meet them where they are, skill wise and focus on improving their technique. This is something that is not possible during group lessons, which often utilize floatation devices, giving children and parents a false sense of security and ability. Kids will believe that they can swim, not knowing that it is the floaty keeping them up and find themselves in a dangerous situation if they make their way to the water without it.
As a pediatric Occupational Therapy practitioner, I have lots of experience working with children with special needs, and opportunities for these children to learn survival swim skills is something I see lacking in the community. The water has so many sensory regulating, strengthening, and motor planning benefits for kiddos with special needs, particularly autism spectrum disorder. The things I learned in OT school I have put to practice in my Swim with Sarah “curriculum” and have seen so much improvement since learning to incorporate sensory processing and emotional regulation strategies during lessons.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I was outside all the time. Either playing with my older sister, my neighborhood friends, or swimming at our neighborhood pool. When I was 11 my family started doing foster care, which is how we met my little brothers. My brothers have various special needs and have been receiving occupational therapy services from an early age. I loved seeing them improve with OT and teaching each of them to swim; this inspired me to become an occupational therapy practitioner and work with special needs kids.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swimwithsarah2020/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swimwithsarah2020
