Children’s Swimming Lessons with Coach Chito Rivera

One of my “frustrations” in life is not being a good swimmer. 🏊‍♀️ Well, if we will stick to the basic definition of “swim” which is to propel one’s body through water, then I can say that I can swim. However, I never learned the proper way of swimming — the correct breathing, arm movements and all. Because I didn’t know how to swim properly, I never had the confidence to swim through deep waters. 🤷🏻‍♀️

With that, it’s no surprise that the first summer lesson I made our daughter take was swimming lessons. 😅 Not ballet, voice or theater classes. I wanted her to learn how to swim… or at least, to not be afraid of the water.

Here are some reasons my husband and I made our child take Coach Chito Rivera’s swimming class:

To receive the physical health benefits of swimming

Swimming boosts lung capacity, improves cardiovascular activity, mental alertness, motor skills, and strengthens immune system. It can even save your child from obesity. Check out this article on how swimming saved swimmer Nicole Pamintuan from childhood obesity.

Swimming is a good exercise. True enough, my daughter was always tired after a lesson. Practicing how to properly breathe and kick was good for her health.

To make her meet new friends

The swimming class at Chito Rivera’s Learning Aquatic Skills and Services was like a playschool in water. Tash played with new friends and interacted with her coaches. It helped that her coaches were very approachable and knew very well how to communicate with and manage children.

To teach her that the water is not scary

Swimming is a skill crucial for safety and survival. It’s a practical skill children should learn. But seriously, since my daughter is just a toddler, I didn’t expect her to be an expert swimmer after the lessons. Our goal was to simply introduce to the child that the water environment is not scary at all if you know the right way to move in it. So seeing Tash be able to swim on her own was really a big bonus. That’s why I really recommend Coach Chito Rivera and his team in training children to swim.

To boost confidence

Learning a new skill is good for instilling confidence in children. When Tash had her swimming lessons, she fondly narrated to everyone at home the new things she learned. New lessons learned are small accomplishments that make children believe in themselves. And now, Tash is not afraid of the pool or sea. She actually asks us every now and then to bring her to the beach. 🏖

To instill interest in sports

Of course, I didn’t expect my child to be a swimming champ at the end of her swimming lessons for toddlers course. So why invest time and money on it, right? My husband and I believed that a simple swimming lesson at an early age will somehow instill in our daughter interest in swimming or other sports.

Chito Rivera’s Learning Aquatic Skills and Services

I’m glad that our daughter had her first summer lesson at Coach Chito Rivera’s swimming school. Coach Chito is very hands on when it comes to teaching the toddlers. He knows well how to make them obey and how to have fun with them. It’s no easy feat to train toddlers who have limited attention span, endless kalikutan and occasional tantrums. 👧🏻👦🏻 But whenever the kids are with Coach Chito and his assistant coaches, the kids listen and follow instructions very well.

A bit about Coach Chito

Coach Chito Rivera started teaching swimming in 1980 and his passion for teaching further developed when he worked with different groups and attended seminars that enhanced his skills in the field of teaching, and later on coaching various swim clubs and school teams. From there, he was able to develop modules and techniques making the learning process easy for all ages and individuals thus, making him known in the teaching community.

In 2002, he was invited to join the leadership of Philippine Amateur Swimming Association, and was elected Secretary General until 2004. In his stint as Secretary General of the country’s National Sports Association, he was able to put in place programs that helped the country win the Championship in the Southeast Asian Age-Group in 2003 which was held in the country. He was also appointed as the head of the Philippine Delegation in the 2003 Southeast Asian Games (SEA GAMES) held in Vietnam and the 2004 Athens Olympics in Greece.

After having been in the most prestigious event in the world which is the Olympic Games, he pursued further by way of teaching and developing swimming in the grassroots, organizing competitions. He envisions to develop more patriotic Filipino swimmers who will take part in this dream event and be able to win the elusive gold for the country.

Knowing that our daughter was learning under Coach Chito, my husband and I knew that our child was in good hands. 🏊‍♀️ As a parent, I honestly felt that Coach Chito is really after the welfare of his students.