ABOUT
Coach M
Merav Daniel, certified and insured swim instructor.
Coach M speaks four languages – English, Spanish, Hebrew, and “water.”
Coach M is a mother of four and avid swimmer.
She had a career as a real estate broker which she decided to give up in order to pursue her dream and passion of becoming a baby swim instructor.
My Story
When I arrived in Florida, I had two young children who were barely familiar with water, because swimming babies wasn't common in my previous country. They only learned to swim after they had already started elementary school.
When my third child was 10 months old and first attended preschool in Florida I was surprised to learn that it is common practice for young infants to be taught swimming. The babies are entered into special programs and even swim at school. I remember being amazed while watching the other babies at my son’s school waiting impatiently for their turn in the water. Also aware of the high drowning rates in Florida, I decided that my child must learn to swim before I would ever have a house with a pool and so I immediately found a teacher that instructed me outside of the pool how to train him to swim. In a very short period of time my son was already diving with me and swimming to the edge. Since then I have been fascinated with kid’s ability to learn what I call “WATER” language. My 4th child was already in the water when she was only 8 weeks old, learning to communicate and enjoy the water and acquiring water safety skills before she could even crawl.
I was trained on a method called PediaSwim that is based on behavioral psychology techniques that were unbelievably developed since the early 20th century and refined over the years by many studies to perfect this amazing method. Exposed to the psychology aspect, I found it very natural for babies to speak “water” almost on their own with as little interference from the instructor and as much direct “communication” between the child and the water.
I find it unbelievably gratifying and amazing – the ability to work with infants and young kids and support them as they learn what is not only a comforting and joyous pastime but mostly a crucial survival skill, that should not be underestimated in our sunshine state, where there is such a high presence of water in our surroundings. An infant who is just beginning to crawl is already at-risk.
