Our Mission

All Adults Can Be Happy and Safe in Deep Water

64% of American adults are afraid in deep, open water -Gallup Poll, 1998

Half of adults globally are afraid in deep water in pools -Gallup Poll, 2021

A third of adults globally are afraid to put their heads under water. -Gallup Poll, 2021

Our Mission:
To Make Swimming Available to All Adults by

1. Teaching adults who are fearful in water how to overcome their fear

2. Leading the swimming instruction agencies and their derivatives to the idea that learning to swim is more than learning strokes: it’s learning to be peaceful in deep water.

3. Training swimming instructors to teach adult non-swimmers with a system that cannot fail

As part of our Jump Off the Boat Course, this student practices returning to the “boat” using our tether. US Patent #11,872,459

In 41 years, we've uncovered four facts:

Overcoming fear of deep water doesn’t have to be scary.
“I Can Swim” must include your ability to rely on yourself for safety in water over your head. You don’t need to know strokes. Strokes are merely the efficient way to swim. Adults can learn to be safe in deep water much sooner if they are not taught strokes…until they can swim.
Safety in deep water requires two things: control in deep water and understanding how the water works. Neither can be found in most traditional lessons.
Traditional lessons, designed for children, don’t work for adults who are afraid in water. A national program designed specifically for adults is needed. Eighty percent of drownings in the U.S. are by adults.

We believe all lessons should teach this information. We believe our system is second to none for teaching an adult to swim. With this knowledge, adult and child drowning can virtually disappear worldwide.

Where Are We?

Sarasota, FL
Crystal Lake, IL (Chicagoland)
Palm Springs, CA
Atlanta, GA
West Palm, FL

All locations are operated from Sarasota headquarters except Crystal Lake and West Palm.

What Is the Miracle Swimming Movement?

It’s a 41-year old unrelenting crusade to fulfill the goals and even wildest dreams of fearful adult learn-to-swim students, backed by the indomitable spirit of a few 100%-committed thought leaders and expert instructors who support the four facts above. We believe that:

Learning to swim must be fun, safe, gentle, reliable, easy and designed for the student.
It’s inevitable that you will learn to swim if you use the Miracle Swimming System.
An instructor who cannot consistently teach terrified adults to overcome their fear of deep water is not qualified to teach afraid adults.
A test of the ability to swim is The New Swim Test, below.

The New Swim Test

The new test of whether someone can swim or not:

Sit or stand on the bottom of a pool in deep water (at least 8 feet) for 10 seconds peacefully;
Rise to the surface and float or play independently for 10 minutes peacefully, at least 10 feet from any support.

That’s all!

If someone can do that, they’ve proven that they understand that water holds them up (or they can peacefully support themselves) and they are in control. If someone is unable to sit or stand on the bottom, that person will have demonstrated an understanding of their positive buoyancy… or that they are not yet peaceful.

The primary goal of learning to swim is to be safe in water over one’s head.

Every person needs to know whether or not they float, how to rest in deep water —and how to either continue onward or wait for help.

If everyone could pass the new swim test, the drowning rate would plummet. We need a new definition of, “I can swim.”

Many people passed their first (traditional) swimming test for propulsion and stroke technique years ago and therefore believe they can swim—even though they aren’t comfortable in deep water. What could be more unsafe than thinking you can swim when you can’t?

To Accomplish Our Mission, We Are...

Teaching adults to swim
Selling our book and Aquatic Learning Station allowing adults to be sucessful in their own pools
Making online learn-to-swim available
Raising awareness through press releases, national conferences, speaking engagements, and change.org.
Training instructors
Securing investors
Using water emergencies to educate the public
Recruiting the best
Rolling out a national lesson program for adults
Giving free demonstrations

Love, respect, common sense and a new understanding of learning make people feel differently in our classes. Learning is inevitable. We meet you exactly where you are. We know all the next steps. Our system defines them. You’ll only find them here.

Information that people are yearning to hear but never expected to hear in a swimming class is part of the system. There’s time and space to digest it. Students call the results a miracle.

“You’re sneaky! How did this happen?” —Many students

The solution is the opposite of what the world has told them. They knew their previous teaching didn’t compute. The solution is so soft, so organic, so sensible and simple, that suddenly students are doing things they thought they couldn’t do.