It’s never too late to learn how to swim

On Nov. 2, the pool in the Student Wellness Center (SWC) opened, providing a new location for swim lessons taught by student staff from the Montana Swim Academy (MSA). Lessons are open to all ages and skill levels, and take place every week on Saturday and Sunday. 

Water safety education can save lives: According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 40 million adults —15.4 percent of the total population — in the U.S. do not know how to swim and 54.7 percent have never taken a swimming lesson. Organizations such as the MSA aim to reduce that number by teaching water safety and swimming skills to all, according to its website. 

The MSA offers swimming education across the state, with locations in Bozeman, Helena and Butte. The MSA’s swim lessons in Bozeman are located in the Holiday Inn & Suites and, more recently, in the SWC. 

The MSA strives to employ a “two-pronged approach. The first is water survival skills, then we move into stroke development,” Co-founder of the MSA Michael Cobarrubias explained in an interview with KBZK on April 2. Teaching specific strokes such as the backstroke, freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke is valuable to beginner and intermediate learners as it builds upon the foundations of water acclimation and water safety. 

Employed by MSA, MSU student staff teach youth, adult, parent/baby and private lessons. There are five confirmed student instructors and a lead trainer who currently attend MSU. In their short biographies on the MSA website, all the students articulate their excitement to help individuals improve their swimming skills. 

Swim lessons will happen at the SWC every Saturday and Sunday with four time slots per difficulty level, and one parent/baby class each day. 

According to MSA’s website, there is an initial $40 registration cost and lessons range in price from $25 to $55. Classes are only thirty minutes long and only one is required per week, although the client can request more lessons per week for an additional fee.

In his correspondence with the Exponent, Cobarrubias expressed interest in getting more MSU students involved in swimming. “I know there’s a significant percent of students that don’t know how to swim,” he said. 

To find out more information or register for lessons at the SWC, visit https://montanaswimacademy.com/locations/bozeman/.