Instructor Tracey


My name is Tracey Smith and I have had a love of aquatics from an early age. As a young child, I moved from my native homeland of England to reside in the Caribbean. It was in Jamaica that I took up competitive diving and represented the island at several international meets. Upon returning to England as a teen, I joined my high school swim team.

In the early 80’s I moved to the States and met my husband. We have been blessed with five children and additionally blessed with our first grandchild.

As a mom and former swimmer, I wanted to instill a love of the water in my children, as well as to equip them with the skills to survive an accidental fall in. A friend recommended survival swimming lessons many years ago and I had my three younger children go through the program. Needless to say, they all love the water and are awesome little swimmers! I was so appreciative of what the instructors had done for my children, that I wanted to somehow do for others what they had done for my family. My love of the water and swimming, combined with my love of children, made teaching infants and young children to swim an obvious choice.

 

I completed my Lifeguard Training, CPR, First Aid and American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor Certification in 2003. Since then, I have learned various other techniques in teaching young children and infants how to swim and float. After further research and observation, I combined these technics with my own ‘hands on’ experience and put together a training program known as ‘SWIM BABIES SWIM’, which was approved by the Florida Department of Health in March, 2008.

 

Since starting the program, I have had the opportunity to teach several children with special needs. I wanted to learn how best to teach these children, so I have added an Adaptive Aquatics Certification from the Dan Marino Center to my resume. I believe all children should be given the opportunity to learn to swim and survive in the water, especially those with special needs who are naturally drawn to the aquatic environment.