“I loved the aquatic life more than numbers” from Accountant to Swimming Teacher: Suha shares her story
Suha always had a love for the water, and aside from swimming, she had always dreamt of being a competent scuba diver. So she decided to move away from Accountancy and take her scuba diving courses.
“I loved the aquatic life more than numbers.”
Whilst she was doing her courses she started having conversations with lots of people who were keen to try scuba diving too, but their main constraint was that they couldn’t swim.
These conversations gave her the idea to become a qualified swimming teacher with a focus on teaching people to swim who were keen to try scuba diving.
So in 2017 she travelled to the UK from Bahrain and started her Level 1 Swimming Assistant (Teaching) course with the Institute of Swimming in Guildford. After starting her course, she realised that there were so many other opportunities and courses that the Institute of Swimming was offering within the aquatics sector,
“My desire in this field started to escalate, as I started to read more about different types of courses provided. After achieving my Level 2 Teaching Swimming I completed the Teaching Swimming to Babies and Toddlers Level 2 in 2018 with the Institute of Swimming.”
Suha really values the Swim England tutors that guided her through the courses and shared this positive feedback about Swim England tutor Maggie Crowe,
“Maggie is a hard-working instructor; she puts a lot of effort to ensure her students learn the course correctly. Moreover, I like her accuracy in delivering the information and using effective examples to make the students understand.”
By 2019 she was teaching children and adults with disabilities to learn to swim in Bahrain.
“I am so glad that I am qualified to teach all group ages, starting from new-born, children, adults and people with disabilities.”
Ongoing training and development
Suha has also completed several online CPDs with the Institute of Swimming.
“One of the best qualifications I gained was ‘Integrating Autistic Children Into Mainstream Swimming Lessons’ with the Institute of Swimming.
I also attended online CPD’s and webinars which were provided by the Institute of Swimming, which covered things related to common stroke errors and how to teach the four strokes correctly. ”
Dr Fatema Marhoon is the mother of the child in the picture, five-year-old Hussain, who is Autistic. Suha has been teaching him this summer and this is what Fatema had to say about her teaching,
“I can’t express how lucky we were when we found a wonderful teacher like Ms. Suha, patient, creative, a very caring, fast learner, and passionate teacher for life not only underwater!”
Suha reflects on one of the best things about teaching people to swim,
“Being proud of what I do, especially that I teach Autistic people to swim. It makes me so happy when I find that water has added value and lots of advantages in their general and social life.”
She would recommend it as a career to people who enjoy a job where they’re communicating and teaching different people. She believes that by teaching someone to swim, she is not only helping them in the aquatic environment but also supporting and improving their life overall.
Looking to the future…
As soon as Suha is able to travel to the UK she is hoping to enrol and complete the practical parts of the four coach assistant courses from each discipline (Swimming, Diving, Water Polo and Artistic swimming), she completed the theory online in 2020 with the Institute of Swimming.
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