Are you interested in knowing How to become a Swimming instructor in Canada and what skills you need to acquire to make your career path successful as a swimming instructor? You will find everything you need to know about the skills you need to develop to stand out among other candidates. Let's see why skills development is as essential for your career path as it is for your personal one. Ready to get started? Let's find out together.
What skills are needed for swim coaches?
In this article, we are not going to go too much into the qualifications you need to become a swim instructor or coach in Canada, for this, go directly to our dedicated article for the most up-to-date information! Even if acquiring the certificates, licenses, memberships, and courses aimed at swim instructors are essential requirements to work in Canada, have you ever thought about what other elements you need to develop to get the most out of your professional profile? This is where the skills come to the fore!
We must see skills as a form of currency in the professional world. The more skills a professional has, the more valuable he or she will be considered as an employee. By acquiring valuable skills, your profile will be more attractive to more potential employers, you will be better positioned to get a higher salary, and you will be able to get a position of greater responsibility. If you are thinking of becoming a swim instructor in Canada, the skills you might be most interested in are:
Communication Skills
Having good communication skills may sound a bit cliché. However, you might be surprised to learn that most people find communicating difficult. You may have some memories of a teacher at school who, instead of expressing themselves assertively, may have just shouted in despair. For this reason, if you are thinking of becoming a swimming instructor, it is highly recommended that you improve your communication skills. And what do we mean by these? Good communication skills involve taking the following into account:
- Active listening involves paying attention to other people's facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. Active listening will allow you to clarify doubts and confirm that you understood them correctly. It will contribute to building a relationship of respect and understanding and establishing boundaries with your trainees, colleagues, and the workplace.
- Assertiveness involves communicating and expressing your thoughts, feelings, and opinions in a clear, timely, and professional manner. It involves the 3 Cs: Confidence: Recognizing your ability to cope with situations; Clarity: the message is clear and easy to understand, and Control: you deliver information in a calm and controlled manner.
- Empathy involves understanding other people's perspectives and how they think or feel. It strengthens social relationships, making them much more meaningful and sincere.
- Body language and non-verbal cues: Did you know that when you have a face-to-face conversation, the verbal component is 35%, and more than 65% is non-verbal communication? Non-verbal communication involves gestures, facial expressions, and eye gazes, communicating a person's genuine emotions and intentions.
Good communication is more challenging than it sounds!
Swimming ability
Of course, when talking about becoming swimming instructors, we couldn't fail to mention the importance of having swimming ability. And this is crucial, as you can only make the most delicious cake by knowing the recipe! Essential swimming skills a swimming instructor must teach their trainees are: entering the water and resurfacing, controlling breathing, floating, turning, and moving safely in the water and exiting. But not just that, the swimming instructors must have sufficient experience in swimming to establish a flexible plan of action so that the swimmers obtain the best results in a given time. Also, their experience will help them set specific objectives depending on the group or trainee's characteristics and the athlete's level and age by choosing a good planning model and swimming style to achieve optimum performance. So, if you want to be a swim coach, remember that practice makes perfect!
Safe supervision
It is essential that the swimming instructor or swimming coach has sufficient and up-to-date knowledge about pool safety management and lifeguard services and have the appropriate lifeguard certificates. The swimming instructors are responsible for supervising the pool, which is why they also assume responsibility for lifeguard coverage, education, and training. The teaching and training of swimming involve having the proper skills to save lives, including rescue skills, Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Automated External Defibrillator (AED), certification from an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), and knowledge of relevant aspects of pool safety operating procedures. So here you have to remember these keywords: drowning prevention, water safety, first aid, CPR, and AED.
Group management
Group management skills are essential for swimming instructors because they often work with groups of students. This is even more important if you are planning to work with children. Group management involves:
- Keeping track of student attendance.
- Ensuring all students complete the set activities.
- Maintaining a safe environment within the pool and other facilities such as changing rooms.
Swimming instructors with strong group management skills can help their students achieve their training goals and reduce the risk of accidents or altercations occurring in the pool.
Customer Service
Today, we know that customer service goes beyond the efforts involved in selling any product or service. Customer service is also considered essential for your professional life and CV. But then, what do we mean by customer service as a professional skill? We know that gaining new customers and, more importantly, retaining the existing ones can be challenging. Customer service could determine the success or failure of your swimming lessons and your success as an instructor. For example, customers looking for swim instructors may be parents who are very demanding about their children's safety, which is something we can't help but contemplate. It would be best if you always remembered that:
- The customer experience begins the moment people enter the facility.
- Remember to provide a clean, comfortable, and inviting atmosphere.
- Customers will always appreciate a short welcome, an introduction, and a brief explanation of the lesson's objectives.
- Providing water safety information is a must for the customers to feel they can truly trust you.
- Rewarding your employees for providing excellent customer service is crucial.
- Always stay in touch with your customers. How about wishing a happy birthday in an email? They will love it!
- And last but not least, remember that positive word of mouth is crucial for business success, and more in the social network era.
What should I put on my resume as a swim instructor?
If you are interested in working as a swimming instructor, we recommend that you pay particular attention when writing your CV since this will be your cover letter for your next job. Let's discover a bit more:
- First, you need to identify the keywords of your ideal job position and add them to your CV.
- Highlight your years of experience training student swimmers and your education.
- You have to briefly describe the skills that have helped you train other people in swimming lessons.
- Be bold about adding some numbers or results you've achieved. For example, the number of students with whom you have worked at the same time, the goals that your students achieved with your help, be it time improvement or participation in a recognized championship.
- Remember to add all your knowledge regarding student safety and all certificates and courses you have taken related to swimming classes.
- Remember to mention the age group you are interested in working with and experiences in the past that justify your decision.
- Search for a professional CV format and adapt its style to the type of establishment.
Do not forget that the ideal curriculum for a swimming teacher should include your swimming experience, certificates, licenses, memberships, and courses, and showing the ability to remain calm in emergencies. If you still need more time to be ready, no worries. Even if becoming a Swimming instructor needs some years, another great idea is to look for your ideal professional position and start working on acquiring all the necessary skills and qualifications. If you are a student, you can gain work-based learning skills, such as service learning and internships. And, if you are a job seeker, you can attend workshops and other job search events to embark on the professional path of your dreams or know other careers for swimming instructors in Canada. Interested in knowing what can you earn as a swimming instructor in Canada? Find it out!
How do I start teaching swimming lessons?
If you feel like the most motivated person to start your swimming instructor career in Canada, why don't you start gaining experience with private tutoring? The best idea, right? Give it a shot with Superprof!
Gain experience and practice with the best tuition site online! Superprof is an online platform where you can start the tutoring job of your dreams! All you have to do is visit the official Canada website and click on "Tutoring jobs ."Creating your private teacher account is free and will be an excellent opportunity for you to reach more people.
Ready for the world to discover the best swimming instructor in Canada? Share your passion for sport with Superprof!
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Thank you Ana, It was very well laid out and easy to understand the main point in each sections.