Nina Natina’s Swim Foundations Builds Swimmers for Life

Nina Natina is busy gearing up to kick off the 2022 season of swim classes and workshops at Swim Foundations. This program provides swim lessons and training resources for swim instructors to teach the Natina Swim Teaching Progression method. Nina’s mother, Phoebe Natina, has been teaching kids to swim for more than 45 years and developed this method to teach young kids to be confident, comfortable, and independent in the water.
Swim Foundations teaches instructors how to build trust and keep their swim students disciplined so they can grasp essential skills needed for water safety and learning to swim. According to Nina, the swim instructors have “high expectations of them because we know what they can do.” The result, according to Nina, is confidence.

Learning about breath and the vertical float

One of the primary focuses of Swim Foundations lessons is breathing. “The breath is a core piece of our teaching philosophy,” Nina says, and explains that proper breathing technique can be learned outside the water. Breathing is one aspect of swimming that can be learned outside of the water.
Nina has taught “dry” swimming lessons and breathing techniques using a carpet in a classroom. This is a huge hit with the kids, she says: “The classroom just transformed. They were so excited. They loved it. And the kids that are typically really quiet all of a sudden came alive.”

The Vertical Float, which teaches students to conserve energy and stay above the water by utilizing the breath and little movement, is the foundation of the Natina Swim Teaching Progression. It teaches pupils to take a breath on their own, acquire a feel for the water, and be at ease while submerged.

Undoing some habits sets kids up for success

“Everything we do has a purpose,” Nina says. “Even hand placement when they’re first learning to swim, how they get a breath, all of those things are developing a future swimmer.” To set the kids up for success, instructors may have to work with their students to undo habits such as relying on swimming aids like inflatable floaties.

These can be dangerous because they give a false sense of security in the water. And, although many swimming programs focus on keeping the head out of the water, “We want heads in the water,” Nina says. “We are all about submersion and enjoying the feel of water and understanding how it moves you.”

Building more resources for swimming instructors and students

Nina has plans to enlarge Swim Foundations into a resource center providing online and interactive training resources to professional swim instructors, swim schools, and other learn-to-swim programs in the US.

She is also building resources for her customers, such as a video to help parents and caregivers to prepare their children for swimming lessons. As a fun and interactive way to start the conversation around swimming and water safety, Nina has created Everybody Learns to Swim: A Coloring and Activity Book for Little Learners to partner with nonprofits or other organizations.

Swim Foundations offers home pool lessons and swimming classes at Riverview Golf and Country club in Redding and will also be offering lessons in Lake California this year. Classes and workshops typically start in June and run through mid-August. Nina’s sister, Margaret, has a background in behavioral intervention and also teaches classes specifically for children with an autism spectrum disorder or sensory processing disorder.

For more information on Swim Foundations or to register for swim classes: swimfoundations.com. There will also be a “dry swim” lesson at Rare Air in Redding during this year’s Week of the Young Child, April 2-9.