From Class Member To Teacher
Many congratulations to Debbie Sheridan who joined the Dolphin Ladies to improve her swimming and now joins the team of volunteer teachers, here’s her story…. Debbie’s sons are keen swimmers and she found herself spending more time poolside watching them improve and become competent young swimmers. She says, ‘They inspired me to stop watching and get swimming and to get swimming properly!’
Like many of us Debbie had lessons as a child and could manage breaststroke with her head up but, like many of us, she found front crawl a challenge… In September 2016 Debbie signed up with the Dolphin Ladies and waited nervously in the changing room gearing herself up for her first lesson. In her own words, she says ‘I really enjoyed the atmosphere, everyone was so welcoming, smiley and encouraging’ Debbie’s swimming went from strength to strength and before long she was giving her boys a run for their money, not only had she mastered front crawl she and a friend, who had also learnt at the Dolphin Ladies, signed up for the Ardingly ‘Swim the Lake’ challenge which was 750m and taking place in June 2017. Debbie was pushing herself now, the furthest she had swum in one go was 450m and this was ‘Open Water’…….
Lots of practice and a few lessons in Open Water and Debbie achieved her challenge, the sense of achievement got to her…… next was the Serpentine Swim in September 2017 – a cold half a mile and all this within in a year of joining the Dolphin Ladies…. Debbie has learnt a lot about technique and built her stamina since joining and was ready for yet another challenge – to teach! The teachers at the Dolphin Ladies have all been members of the club before going on to qualify, this is an ethos which Debbie loved and she seized the opportunity.
Juggling family life and her work, Debbie managed to get on a course during the school holidays and says ‘I found it to be extremely informative, not only improving my skills to teach but it really helped me with my own swimming’. Her time in and out of the pool since 2016 has tripled, her boys are still loving their swimming (watch out Adam Peaty!). And as for Debbie, who is always after the next challenge, in September 2018 she did the Serpentine Swim – but this time it was a mile….. Debbie says ‘Once I’m in the water I forget about ‘To Do Lists’, ‘child taxi duties’ and everything else that goes with being a busy Mum…….swimming is my therapy!
