Me and Swimming 5: The Tall Coach, Seriously Fooling Around with Toddlers

Last time, I wrote about a mistake I made while teaching swimming.
This time, I will write on the theme of teaching children (toddlers).

Words that changed my approach to teaching

Those who have read my previous posts probably have some understanding of the mindset I have used to approach teaching.

Within that mindset, there is one thing that changed significantly in hindsight.
That is,

"If I, the teacher, am not having fun, the other person won't have fun either.
How can I make 'both' of us enjoy it?"

That is the mindset.

When a senior colleague said these words to me, it hit me.
Furthermore, I learned from that senior that when teaching children, you must enter with the mindset of 'making them have fun'.

Ever since I started being conscious of this mindset,
I have felt that "I have become a better teacher once again."

The Gap Coach

I am 186cm tall.
If a big guy like that were teaching swimming to toddlers around 3 to 5 years old...
or more accurately, 'water acclimation,' what would it look like?

It's quite a bizarre sight, isn't it? (laughs)
And what's more, I'm seriously fooling around.

It might even be at a creepy level rather than just bizarre (laughs).
But if I don't go that far, the children won't feel "fun".

My rookie days when I didn't know how to gauge distance

I've always been good at taking care of others, and I wasn't bad at handling small children.
However, after experiencing a lack of trust in people due to an illness, there was a period when I didn't know how to gauge distance.

When I was a rookie, I was an assistant in the toddler class,
but it was an everyday occurrence for children to cry just by looking at me, which really got me down (bitter laugh).

However, as I got used to it little by little, that stopped happening,
and the children started to grow fond of me.

Thinking back on it now, I think I was unconsciously giving off tension or "hostility" at the time (bitter laugh).

Before I knew it, I was being treated like a toy

Once I got used to handling children, their attitudes changed all at once.

They would call out to me when they saw me in the facility,
they wouldn't let go when I held their hands,
and before I knew it, they were begging to be carried or given piggyback rides.

I'm being treated completely like a toy (bitter laugh).

But when that happened, I felt that
"my murderous intent had properly faded away."

An incident from one day

1. The Nap Incident

A girl who came to the class for the first time was crying the whole time due to nervousness.
I was an assistant at the time, so I was teaching while holding her.

She was crying at first, but
when she went quiet halfway through and I peeked at her face—

she was asleep (lol).

I wondered if she felt safe being held by me, and
I felt warmed by her sleeping face.

By the way, on a different week,
another child I was carrying on my back fell asleep (lol).

2. Adult Male Phobia (?)

In a class I was covering for,
there was a girl who was "not okay with male coaches."

I had braced myself because I was informed beforehand, but
once the class started, the girl didn't cry at all,
and in an unexpected turn of events, she actually kept coming toward me.

It was good that it didn't turn into a scene of wailing and chaos, but
I was a bit confused because it was so different from the prior information.

Later, when a male coach who was better-looking than me was in charge,
the girl cried so much that the class was impossible to conduct.

Later, I had a chance to talk to her mother and mentioned this story,

"I was also surprised that she didn't cry,
since she has never taken to anyone other than her father."

she told me.

Why she didn't cry remains a mystery even now.
However, there have been similar cases a few times,
and it seems I have become their father (just kidding).

Bonus | Objective View

In my toddler class,
I'm usually the one cracking jokes, and the kids are laughing their heads off.

Because I do strange things with my large frame,
it seems quite surreal to onlookers.

According to my colleagues,
when I am doing administrative work, I look
grumpy and have a scary face.

When they watch me teaching toddlers while holding that image,
the gap is apparently so huge that it's funny,
and some colleagues even come to the pool without any business,
watching me with a smirk (bitter laugh).

Finally,

when you ask a coach,
"Which class is the most fun?"
many people answer,"The toddler class."

In terms of safety management,
you need to be more tense than in swimming technique classes,
but I think the reason is thatyou get to see the children's smiles the most.

I would like to end this before the reader bursts into laughter
imagining a big man
frolicking in the water with little kids.

To be continued