Most of us here at One with the Water have been athletes in some form or fashion our entire lives, doing the necessary mental and emotional work that comes along with the physical discipline of sports. Many of us can point to coaches and teachers who drilled into our heads the values necessary for good sportsmanship, ethical play, and personal growth on and off the field.

I (Molly) was one of those athletes. So, when it came time to send my tiny humans onto the field of play (and in between the lane lines with our neighborhood swim team), I was excessively confident in my ability to impart those same values to my offspring.

Now, I am a reasonably laid-back individual who encourages grace and kindness in every interaction. Still, it turns out I am far more of a momma bear than I ever anticipated. When it comes to time to sit in the stands, it takes intentional purpose and care to ensure I am modeling ethical values for my children. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of our roles as parents and other significant adults in the lives of our children.

6 ways to promote good values in student-athletes.

To that end, here are six ways we as parents and adults can promote good values in our student-athletes.

1. Teach children to respect their opponents and themselves. Teach them to value skill development above winning, to win and lose with dignity, and respect the true spirit of the sport.
2. Model these values for your children by encouraging and praising them regardless of the outcome of their competition. Keep positive in the stands as you watch, and speak positively about their opponents once the competition is over.
3. Rank respect, personal improvement, integrity, and equity above winning. Remind your children of these priorities regularly. We remind our children often of the fact that there is only winning and learning, and some of the most growth my child incurred as an athlete happened during his time on a truly terrible baseball team.
4. Open up a dialogue with your children about the values promoted in their sport/club/training center. Teach them to advocate for the right thing, even when adults around them may be veering off track. 
5. Emphasize that participation in sport is more about personal growth and developing into the best version of themselves. We teach our swim lessons using growth mindset techniques to drive this home. To learn more about the growth mindset, start here.  
6. Notice when children take shortcuts or cheat to win and use the situation as an opportunity for learning. Start an (age-appropriate) conversation about ethics and the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs. Make it clear that you expect your children to avoid them and compete with integrity. (Source: ASADA Parents Guide to Clean Sport)

Sports can provide a valuable framework for teaching respect, teamwork, growth mindset, work ethic, and a healthy lifestyle. However, if we fail in instilling these values, sport can be a breeding ground for the opposite to occur: cheating, lying, arrogance, and an unhealthy obsession with winning.

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

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The five principles of One with the Water premium swim instruction.

First, we promise you our uninterrupted presence.  We work very hard to maintain eye contact, especially for our children with special needs. Your safety and well-being are our number one concern. We teach without distractions to avoid any possible safety hazards. If you have questions or concerns while we are teaching, we’d love to address them with you after the fact in order to remain focused on your child’s safety during the lesson. 

Second, we promise to set a high standard for you or your child. We create high but reachable standards of accomplishment for each lesson. Our overall goal is to teach you or your child to swim in less than 4 hours! We are in the business of miracles because we know our methods work.  

Third, we promise to impart life skills. We are preparing our students to learn to swim for exercise and enjoyment for the rest of their lives. We will develop your strengths in and out of the water, including both physical and mental conditioning.  

Fourth, we promise to motivate you or your child.  Swimming is a life-changing skill. It’s therapeutic, calming, and a mental game-changer. And we get to make it fun for you! 

And finally, we promise positive encouragement. We teach all our lessons with laughter and learning. We’ll help you be gentle on yourself when you make mistakes using those opportunities to learn to overcome fear and build confidence. 

Register today.

Swimming isn’t just about drowning prevention and building skills. We teach you to incorporate the positive power of swimming throughout the whole of your life, using growth, hard work, persistence, and motivation to be successful in and out of the water. That is our promise to you. 

If you haven’t already, register today for life-changing swim lessons we provide.  

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

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One with the Water®, a non-profit swim school dedicated to providing life-changing swimming lessons to children and adults – many of them with disabilities or special needs – is honored to share their legacy story in theLegacy Series by Lisa Haisha.

Lisa Haisha, the creator of the Legacy Series, has included Kenneth Rippetoe’s inspirational legacy story as part of the first 50 legacy stories to be released in the legacy series. The Legacy Series interviews ask, “How do I want to be remembered?” It’s a question as unique as ourselves, but we all share common hopes, dreams, fears, and regrets. At the heart of this is our common humanity, and cultural researcher Lisa Haisha discusses this perennial soul-searching question through interviews with people from all walks of life, accomplishments big and small, to bring us closer to a common understanding of ourselves and one another. Through candid and revealing discourse, Lisa and her guests share insights on how we can live better, more fulfilled lives worth remembering.

With a new legacy story released every Monday and Thursday, cultural researcher and motivational speaker Lisa Haisha chronicles the legacy and life stories of thought leaders, healers, artists, and more who live a life of service and purpose, asking them questions about their own life experiences to share what motivates them, and the lessons they’ve learned along their journey. These stories aim is to inspire, heal, and offer you new insights and courses of action that we can implement into our own lives, decreasing the time we make mistakes by increasing our ability to learn and succeed. Start a revolution in your own life!

About One with the Water®

One with the Water® offers competitive swim training and year-round swim instruction for children and adults with a wide variety of skill levels, from total beginner to competitive athlete. In addition to their national-level competitive swimming skills, One with the Water‘s instructors are trained to work with children and adults diagnosed with autism, Asperger’s, ADD, ADHD, sensory integration, anxiety, Down and CHARGE syndrome, auditory processing disorders and dyslexia and others. Founder and Head Coach Kenneth Rippetoe is certified by the American Swimming Coach Association Disability Level 3.

Tax-deductible donations to the scholarship program of One with the Water, a 501(c)(3), can be made at the organization’s website: OneWithTheWater.org.

Media Inquiries

One with the Water: 323.364.Swim
Website: OneWithTheWater.org
Facebook: facebook.com/OneWithTheWater
Twitter: @1withthewater

Kenny

Kenny is a baby Bottlenose dolphin, of the genus Tursiops, one of the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphin. He is very playful and friendly and loves to frequently leap above the water surface. Kenny plays with water toys, enjoys making bubble rings, and plays well with other dolphins or other animals.

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