Lessons and Techniques of Safety from a Four-Time Olympic Gold Medalist

Contrary to popular joking, throwing a kid in the water is not the quickest way for him to learn how to swim. But now that summer is here, and along with it the ubiquitous water sports and swimming pools, put your child in a swim program guaranteed to have you clapping when he is thrown in to the pool and then reacts instinctively to protect himself. This is part of the “survival test” that takes place in lessons at the Lenny Krayzelburg Swim Academy using its Swim Right Method. Developed by four-time Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg. The Swim Right Method teaches safety in the water first, instead of immediately focusing on strokes and swimming, and includes mastering floating and water comfort. The survival test is conducted after an instructor deems the child is ready; and who wouldn’t want their child to be ready to react in this type of potential situation when each year, more than 830 children, ages 14 and under, die as a result of unintentional drowning in the United States.

Children as young as 16 months old have passed the Krayzelburg Swim Right Method survival test. “Our method is based on safety first,” said Krayzelburg. “In addition to making kids comfortable in the water, if they accidentally fall in the pool they’ll know what to do and it may give adults the precious few minutes to find the children and pull them out of the water.”

It’s refreshing that safety for beginners comes first for owner Krayzelburg, who has mastered every swim stroke there is and the Olympic medals to prove it. In the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, Krayzelburg represented the United States and at one point owned five world records in the backstroke, long course and short course. As expert as he is, Krayzelburg has learned that primary to skill development is comfort in the water. As a child in the Soviet Union, it was his own comfort level in the water from a young age that ultimately propelled him to excellence. At age 9, Krayzelburg was hand-picked out of large group of kids in his class, as one of the ones who had the potential to excel. The intense regimen he underwent as a youth and Olympic hopeful in the Soviet Union is something he appreciates but realizes is not for everyone. “It is a foundation that never left me,” he says. “But no way I would advocate the intensity and training at such a young age because children need to have freedom to have a life and enjoy things outside of competitive sports. Having said that, I don’t think I would have achieved all that I have if I had not had that foundation in Soviet Union. If you want to be great, there are no shortcuts, you have to work hard, you have to make some sacrifices.”

These days, his hard work continues as he shares his knowledge, expertise and life lessons with kids all over Los Angeles who want to learn how to swim. Two Krayzelburg Academies – one on the Westside and one in the Valley – make Krayzelburg’s Swim Right Method easily accessible to all L.A. kids. The success of the Krayzelburg Swim Academy is apparent in a third Academy in Brooklyn and the near-future plans to open up another Lenny Krayzelburg Swim Academy in New York. It is most evident though in the hundreds of children who have graduated and are now adept at swimming and water safety.

Lenny Krayzelburg Swim Academy Locations

Westside JCC
5870 Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, 90036
(323) 525-0323

New JCC @ Milken
22622 Vanowen St., West Hills, 91307
(818) 464-3315
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