Sarah CB Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Perhaps I'm becoming even more of a prude, but I was a little shocked about dd's new swim instructor. He doesn't look old enough to be 16, but he's got to be at least that because that's how old they have to be to take the instructor's course. And he's teaching a group of 13 to 15 year old girls. Dd came out from swimming saying, "I *love* our new instructor! He's so easy to please!" I'm not worried about anything inappropriate happening - it's a public pool and there are lots of people sitting around and watching. It just seems a little weird. Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 I agree. That is a bit odd. I am probably old fashioned, but I have never really liked boys teaching girls and girls teaching boys in sports. I much prefer my son learn from a male coach and that my daughter (if I had one) learn from a woman. A woman knows a girl's limitations and strengths and a man knows a boy's. Not to mention, my son tends to listen more to a male coach. I think it is the male bonding thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fivetails Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 It wasn't weird at our pool back where we moved from (I don't know about the lessons here yet) - almost all the instructors were guys... if they didn't have girls taught by guys, there wouldn't have hardly been any swimming lessons at all. ;) I think there were two girl instructors - and they were with the little yellow kids in the small pool. All the instructors for the older kids were guys... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 I am just amazed that they even have a class of 13 - 15 year old girls! I haven't seen any classes for over 12's at our pool at all, let alone segregated. All our instructors are girls, so there's no choice at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 We have taken swimming lessons or been on swim teams for the past 8 years. In our area, swim lessons have been taught mainly by teenage boys with an occasional teenage girl (high school, young college age) and swim team has always been adults. There have been an occasional woman teaching but it is usually only for private lessons or specific higher skills classes. I think it has to do with the amount of money earned is too little to justify the time and effort in teaching traditional lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brehon Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 (edited) I agree. That is a bit odd. I am probably old fashioned, but I have never really liked boys teaching girls and girls teaching boys in sports. I much prefer my son learn from a male coach and that my daughter (if I had one) learn from a woman. A woman knows a girl's limitations and strengths and a man knows a boy's. Not to mention, my son tends to listen more to a male coach. I think it is the male bonding thing... From 16 - 21 I earned money in the summers lifeguarding/teaching swimming. I taught all levels and none of the classes were segregated by gender. I'm not sure I necessarily agree with the male coach/female coach idea. I never had a problem instructing boys (or girls - I just might have been a *tad* more sympathetic to "that time of the month" ;)) and never had a problem with boys listening to me. And I benefitted enormously from several of my male coaches (swimming, soccer, and baseball in my younger days; fencing and a vocal coach at university). Edited April 7, 2009 by brehon clarification Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danestress Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 because boys and girls train together right up through high school and even at the college level. I'm in an area of the country in which swimming is *huge* and I don't know of any single-gender swim teams. So in any given program, boys and girls have to get used to being trained by and with the opposite gender. This year, DS has a male coach, last year a female. I actually think it's been good for him, though I do like to see that mentoring relationship really develop with the young man who trains him now. But I think 16 is pretty young to be teaching swimming to anyone other than 6 year olds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 I wouldn't think twice about it. If it's a public pool, they certainly can't discriminate against instructors based on gender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EarleneW Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Thats how it is here too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SherryTX Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 My daughter's swim instructor is a guy - young guy, but I am not sure just how young. He instructs, they listen. No problem. I guess I just don't see an issue. When I played sports, all my coaches were male. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSinIL Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 I wouldn't think twice about it. If it's a public pool, they certainly can't discriminate against instructors based on gender. Exactly. At least the boy has a job and is not sitting at home watching tv/staring at the 'puter screen like SOME teens I know.....from personal experience.:glare: If his teaching your dd feels odd to you - stay for the lessons. Keep one eye in your book you are pretending to read and one eye on the lesson. I do this for my dd's judo class since most of the class are boys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Perhaps I'm becoming even more of a prude, but I was a little shocked about dd's new swim instructor. He doesn't look old enough to be 16, but he's got to be at least that because that's how old they have to be to take the instructor's course. And he's teaching a group of 13 to 15 year old girls. Dd came out from swimming saying, "I *love* our new instructor! He's so easy to please!" I'm not worried about anything inappropriate happening - it's a public pool and there are lots of people sitting around and watching. It just seems a little weird. Sarah What amazes me is that you have segregated swim classes. It wouldn't bother me what sex the instructor is, as long as he's/she's a good instructor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah CB Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 Interesting replies. I'm not really that fussed about it - it just seemed strange; more so because the ages are so close as well. We had middle aged ladies as swim instructors for the longest time but recently began taking lessons at our local public pool because the cost was way less. This is a set of homeschool swim lessons and it's just a coincidence that the higher level is all girls right now (the lessons are not segregated). At our old swim lessons the teachers were very hands-on - literally. Here, not so much (and I'm so Ok with that now). Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danestress Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 (edited) Since most of the short course season qualifying events are in the spring, are these girls not getting to participate? Or are they swimming for other teams year round and just doing a separate school team? We do have high school teams and maybe they are sex-segregated - I don't know. But every serious competitive swimmer I know swims year round and trains on co-ed teams. Maybe NC is different. Honestly, I would LOVE for my son to get to train on an all boy team for a while. But I can't imagine limiting him to just swimming in the spring. Edited to say: Of course. Duh. Lots of people participate on summer leagues only. So why wouldn't schools have seasons too? I would assume that these aren't kids who are serious about swimming in the same way as someone on a year round team, but still, it makes sense that would exist. I guess I wasn't thinking about it that way! Edited April 7, 2009 by Danestress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 What amazes me is that you have segregated swim classes. It wouldn't bother me what sex the instructor is, as long as he's/she's a good instructor. :iagree: A couple years ago dd took a diving class with a male instructor. There was another girl in the class who was taking the class again (it's one of those gently mixed beginner/intermed classes which you repeat until you're ready to move on) and the girl's mom made a big fuss over it being a male instructor for that session. She tried to get me on her side to petition the manager to switch.....ummm, no. In diving, it is true that the instructor has to put their hands on the student's body. They're often very close & he'll sometimes hold his hands like a chute for the student to go through to feel which way to move down (they do small dives off the side or off floaty mats in the pool). Honestly, it didn't bother her or me at all. I like to encourage an athletic image of the body for both my kids & the class was happening 4 feet in front of me. The conduct was very professional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah CB Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 What amazes me is that you have segregated swim classes. It wouldn't bother me what sex the instructor is, as long as he's/she's a good instructor. Definitely not segregated - it was just a coincidence that the highest swim level is made up of teen girls right now. I know that as a teen I wouldn't have taken someone very close to my own age (male or female) as seriously as I would have taken someone even a few more years older. Luckily, dd isn't as ridiculous as I was when I was a teen :) She's in it for the swimming and the age of the instructor (or the sex) doesn't faze her. And actually, as a teen I would have been more interested in flirting with the instructor than I would have about swimming. So maybe my surprise in the pairing of a teen boy teaching teen girls how to swim is more because I wasn't a very good teen. At this point I'm not even that fussed about the quality of lessons. We had incredibly good lessons by teachers who do this for a living and have been for many, many years. This set of swim lessons that we're in right now is only 1/3 the cost of the quality lessons - then we times that by 3 for the 3 kids I have in swimming. I know that I've sacrificed the quality at this point, but I'm Ok with that for one session of swim lessons. Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danestress Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 You never know - he might be older than you think. Sometimes it's hard to tell with kids in that age-range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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