Background:
Atascocita Country Club Swim Team
Humble High Varsity Swimming
Humble High Varsity Water Polo 2x State Team
Experience:
•Private swim instructor since 1996
•Junior Coach at ACC Swim Team
•Head Coach Forest Cove Fighting Frogs (12 years)
•USA Swimming Assistant and Head Coach positions at 3 local teams working with age groupers as well as TAGS, Sectionals, and Nationals athletes
•US Masters Level II Head Coach working with triathletes, Iron Man participants, and had a swimmer qualify for Nationals in the 200 Breast
•Red Cross certified Lifeguard Instructor for 9 years
•Aquatics Management at local and corporate levels
•Left corporate in 2016 to start All Things Swim
•Opened first Brick and mortar location in 2019
•Now has an incredible team of 9 coaches on her staff, many of which are former athletes of hers.
•Created a free swim lesson program for local school for children with Autism and gained much specialized experience working with 15 swimmers and their therapists for an hour a week for a year and a half
•Created swim lessons programs for other companies
•Mentors other local aquatics professionals and peers in her methodology
Philosophy and Methodology:
I believe survival skills should always come first in swim lessons and we work progressively, not aggressively, appropriate to a child’s developmental stages, personalities, special needs, levels of fear or anxiety, or lack of or overabundance of confidence. We do not follow a rigid lesson plan, instead choosing to be adaptive to each swimmer every time they get in the water, working on what they need, to reach our desired milestones, skills, and levels of confidence. We also believe in teaching work ethic, critical thinking, and decision making instead of teaching a child to go into survival mode and you will often hear us discussing “safe choices” and water safety rules in our lessons.
From there we progress into mechanics of strokes and technical improvements on skills the swimmer already has so they are prepared to move on to any level of swimming should they desire to do so with proper technique so that they will remain confident and feel successful at any level of swimming. We take swimmers of all ages and ability levels and have had swimmers in our program as young as 5 months old and our oldest swimmer was in their 80’s. I am a technical coach and do not believe in yardage work or “garbage yards”. Technique, kick sets, drill work, and muscle memory first. Then add endurance and tempo. Creating the whole package for each athlete.
Personal life:
Coach Emily is married to Billy, her loving husband of 7 years, and has 4 children. Many of you know her oldest daughter Coach Ellee, Olivia is her youngest daughter, and her step-sons, Cody and Cameron, who she claims as her own.
Her WHY:
Emily’s passion for water safety was drastically increased when in June of 2009, she pulled her youngest daughter Olivia from the water unresponsive and lifeless after a passive drowning accident at Ellee’s 6th birthday party. Olivia had a reflex called a laryngospasm and once her airway was forced open she had spontaneous breathing. Olivia is a miracle and the passion and purpose behind Emily’s work and the effort she spends training her staff. Emily’s goal is to create a tangible and noticeable difference in the numbers of drownings in Harris County, which leads the state in fatal drownings every year. Emily believes that swim lessons should be every child’s first activity because swim lessons truly do save lives and drowning is the second leading cause of death for children under four and the number one cause of death for children with Autism age 14 and younger.
Fun Facts:
Coach Emily raises chickens as pets and when she is not working she is busy outside in “coop town” caring for her birds. She also has 4 dogs, the newest addition is Rooster, a Great Pyrenees puppy who is training to be a livestock guardian dog by day and a family dog by night.
Some of her favorite things are the beach, perfume, live music, roller skating, driving her jeep with the top and doors off, riding on the back of Billy’s Harley, watching her daughters swim, watching her sons skate, beef jerky, spoiling her nephews and nieces, and cooking for friends and loved ones. She jokes that she always ends up at the kiddie table because she believes that all children should feel heard and loved and one of her very most favorite things is getting invited to and participating in or observing her swimmers other activities like birthday parties, belt tests, swim meets, plays, figure skating performances, and anything else they want to share with her.
