Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Cochran.
Hi Thomas, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our vision at All Knox Swim is “A Drowning-Free Knoxville.” It is a lofty vision, but it is possible nonetheless. I had a lot of experiences over the years that gave me the skills to teach people how to swim. I started swimming with my dad when I was a kid. I was so young, I don’t even remember learning how to swim! I helped coach a swim team with my dad as I got older. My parents got a pool in high school, so I taught swim lessons in my backyard for several summers. Through much hard work, I swam at an NCAA DI Swimming Team. All these experiences taught me how to swim with proper form and how to teach people to swim.
Those experiences didn’t get me to the Vision for All Knox Swim. I was a public school teacher at Farragut High School when a student drowned in Fort Loudon Lake. It was a tragedy. That was the 6th drowning in Tennessee that year. That was the only person at the time that I had ever known to have drowned. Though the student was not in one of my classes, it affected some students in my classes.
Then, I had my child. As any parent can attest, having a child of your own changed how I saw everything. A little after having my daughter, the opportunity to teach swim lessons full-time came to fruition. I quit my Special Education teaching job year-round in 2021 to teach classes at a hotel pool. Jacqueline (my wife and co-owner) pushed us to do it after seeing how well that summer went.
As I began researching water safety to become a better swim instructor, I learned a lot of new information. I knew that drowning is the leading cause of death for young children ages 1 to 4, according to the CDC. We bought a house with a small pond in the backyard during this time. I filled it in immediately when we moved in. My daughter drowning in the small pond was not a risk I was willing to take, especially for a minor water feature that was a lot of work to keep up with anyway. On top of all this, my wife miscarried, and I felt the hurt of losing a child. Though I did not get to meet our precious child, it still hurt. I never want anyone to have to suffer from losing a child, especially from something preventable like drowning.
I’m sure you can see where this is going. My previous jobs, swim training, and life experiences led me to the vision of All Knox Swim: “A Drowning-Free Knoxville.” If this is a way I can make a difference in the world and prevent drownings, then I’m in! If people in each city in the United States became dedicated to making their city drowning-free, we can make every city drowning-free. We currently have 5 instructors for the summer of 2024 using our residential host pool model. We are a seasonal business with aspirations of growing and maybe even getting our pool one day!
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?
The road has been far from smooth. We hired our first two instructors last summer (2023) and were centrally located at a hotel pool in the Cedar Bluff area. Lessons were filling up, kids were learning to swim, and our vision was coming to life. Then, we were kicked out of the hotel pool because we were bringing in too much traffic—a good problem, but one that left us scrambling. With a month to make something work, we switched to our residential host pool model. People who have a pool at their home receive free swim lessons. In exchange, they allow us to bring others to their pool. We did this for our first 3 summers (2020, 2021, 2022) and it worked well. We hoped to find a consistent indoor location but needed help finding another one that worked for us after our last hotel experience.
What did we do in-between summer 2023 and 2024? I made the most of my time and volunteered at Emerald Youth. They have an aquatics program that serves hundreds of kids. I was given this opportunity through God’s grace. Getting kicked out of the hotel was God’s way of getting us more involved in the community. At Emerald, I volunteered as a swim instructor and was part of their big water safety fair in January 2024. One of our swim instructors from summer 2023 came with me to the water safety event and even brought a friend! I am grateful for that partnership and plan to continue working with them as the years go on! Though I am sure there will be more struggles, I know God can work them for our good and his glory.
I appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about All Knox Swim?
All Knox Swim provides personalized swimming and water safety instruction that helps families enjoy all types of water safely. We currently offer private swim lessons for ages 1 to adult. All lessons are taught by highly trained instructors using the curriculum I developed. I have degrees in Kinesiology and Special Education and swam for an NCAA DI swim team, which gave me the experience and knowledge I needed to create a curriculum that fits everyone! One of our biggest differentiators is our teaching philosophy, the family-oriented model. The Family Oriented model is a way of teaching swim lessons and water safety that incorporates the whole family. The family-oriented model has two aspects: Family Involved Swim Lessons and Water Safety for the Whole Family. Here are some key points of the Family Oriented Model.
- We gather lots of information on student registration, such as how much parents want us to “push” their children because parents know what their child needs better than anyone.
- Parents stay in the pool area the entire lesson.
- Parents of infants and toddlers get in the water with the student.
- We role-play with parents and students during swim lessons to practice water safety.
- We share water safety information with families through many avenues, including our website.
Our other biggest differentiator is our dedication to local water safety. We want to make drowning-prevention information open to the public. We also want to create strategic partnerships throughout the city to eliminate drownings. Swim lessons are just the tip of the iceberg for us!
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I currently utilize a mentorship program through Score of Greater Knoxville. My mentor has been invaluable to me as we have grown and adapted to new situations. I also encourage people to pick up the phone and start calling! I was shocked when over a dozen preschools, daycares, and after-school cares were willing to share my information when they knew nothing about me! Be bold, be brave, and start dialing!
Contact Info:
- Website: allknoxswim.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allknoxswim/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allknoxswim/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/all-knox-swim-knoxville
Image Credits
Julie Beaird, South Made Marketing
