LIU Spring 2023 Swim Program

Beginning on Saturday, March 18 and running for 12 sessions through June 24*, Children’s Academy at LIU Brooklyn will offer a full morning of swim classes for ages 2 to 12.

Learn basic swimming skills, build confidence and have fun too! Our classes, held in one of Brooklyn's best pools, are right for children of all levels. Children are arranged by experience to ensure optimal instruction.

Classes are priced at $45 per 45-minute session except for Baby and Me Swim, which is $30 per 30-minute session.

Take advantage of alumni, sibling and multiple-week program discount.

Link to register: https://webapps3.liu.edu/liuchildrensacademy/

*NO CLASSES on April 8 (Easter) April 15 and May 27 (Memorial Day Weekend)

LIU Spring 2023 Saturday Courses

Guppy 1 (Learn Level 1 – Ages 3 - 6 yrs): 8AM-8:45AM
Guppy 2 (Learn Level 2 – Ages 3 - 6 yrs): 9AM-9:45AM

Guppy Level 1 and 2 swim classes are engineered to help young swimmers get comfortable in the water. Through focused activities and assisted support, our instructors emphasize numerous swimming techniques including: blowing bubbles through mouth and nose, bobbing; retrieving submerged objects; front and back glides and floats; rolling from front to back and back to front; introduction to front crawl and back crawl stroke.

Minnow (Learn Level 2/3 – Ages 4 - 8 yrs): 10:00AM-10:45AM

Minnow Level swim classes are geared towards more experienced swimmers who want to build upon skills they already possess. Students learn more advanced swimming methods such as: proper breathing techniques (rhythmic breathing); changing directions while on back and front; treading water in the deep and shallow ends of the pool. Swim instructors introduce and reaffirm numerous strokes on front and back with an emphasis on front crawl stroke, back crawl stroke, elementary back stroke, and side stroke.

Shark (Learn Level 4 – Ages 7 - 12 yrs): 11:00AM-11:45AM

Shark Level swim classes are the most advanced instruction LIU Children's Academy offers. Within this level there's an emphasis on stroke development and improved stamina. Through the use of lap swim, drills, games and activities, students gain confidence and improve upon their front crawl stroke, back crawl stroke, elementary back stroke, and side stroke. Participants are introduced to the breaststroke and butterfly stroke.

Baby and Me Swim Classes (Ages 2 - 4)

Section 1: 11:00AM-11:30AM

Baby and Me Swim Classes allow parents and their children to develop a shared love for swimming, Instructor-led lessons instill confidence and enable young learners to acquire fundamental swimming and safety techniques that will be of lifelong benefit.

Our lessons create a positive environment that helps each participant develop skills at their own pace while spending quality time with a trusted adult. Parents are provided clear instruction on how best to encourage their child to swim.

LIU Swim Instructor Bios

Otis Alves (Lead Instructor)

Otis Alves was born in Guyana, which is in South America. He has twenty years of aquatics experience working with swimmers of all ages. He also has experience teaching water aerobics.
”My joy is in seeing someone—a child or an adult—starting out not knowing anything about swimming but by the end of the class they are not only jumping in the water, they are able to complete a lap swim,” Alves said. “I take pride in what I do and I love to teach.”
He has been a Red Cross certified lifeguard and CPR instructor.

Kaveyan Charney (Instructor/Lifeguard)

- Where did you learn to swim?
When I was a kid at the Dodge YMCA in Downtown Brooklyn.

- Your favorite swimming memory?
Definitely all the times I’ve swum in beautiful locations in the Caribbean, Key West, Pennsylvania and other places.

- What’s most important to you about teaching swimming?
That swimmers learn to trust themselves and to not be scared of water. I work to turn fear into fun!

- Favorite food:
Kebab Kubideh

- Favorite music:
Dancehall

- Favorite color:
Blue

Kate Hinrichs (Instructor)

- Where did you learn to swim?
I learned how to swim when I was 2 years old and continued to grow as a swimmer throughout my life. My first ever swim lesson was in a swim school in South Africa

- Your favorite swimming memory?
My favorite memory of swimming was at Christmas time with my brothers and cousins. We would all play in the pool and laugh. This water is always a happy place for me.

- What’s most important to you about teaching swimming?
I want to teach children to love water as much as I do. I want to do this by having fun in lessons but most importantly making them feel safe and comfortable in the water.

- Favorite food:
Curry

- Favorite music:
Indie rock

- Favorite color:
Orange

Jacob Reyes (Instructor)

- Where did you learn to swim?

I first began exploring the water with my mother who was an amateur swim enthusiast. Her persistence in swimming during her youth meant she took on administrative and coaching responsibilities in order to practice with her high school swim team. Her experiences informed how she taught me. Naturally, my early experiences with the water were encouraged in a competitive direction so I joined the kishwaukee, IL regional ymca swim team at eight years old. Since then I have competed at state levels in Illinois, South Carolina, and Vermont. I swam varsity all four years of high school and two years at Bard College.

- Your favorite swimming memory?

My favorite memories of swimming have all been with friends amongst beautiful landscapes: sunsets floating in the ocean, swimming out to river and lake islands in the thick of the day’s heat, and goofing off around the pool with good music and improvised games.

- What’s most important to you about teaching swimming?

I believe safety and understanding is the cornerstone to teaching children swimming. Just like cooking with any spices, fear is more easily added than removed from our consciousness. So learning how and when to listen to one’s body and mind are just as important as knowing the outlines of the motions we practice together. That is what is most important to me. For my students I think imparting considerate independence, stemming from navigating one’s own body and choices amongst other bodies and choices, is the real practice at hand. All skills pursued lead to a deeper understanding of self. So safety and purpose are the scaffolding I try to set for us to build the skill of swimming.

- Favorite food:

I love to eat. My earliest culinary inspirations were from the Mexican side of my family. One of the first dishes I ever learned to cook for myself was chilaquiles. I think foods that are created to reuse stale bread like chilaquiles, French toast, or panzanella are some of my favorites. While working as a cook for almost a decade I perfected my french fries recipe and am very adamant about the many amazing ways to prepare potatoes.

- Favorite music:

Fugazi, Minnie Riperton, Woody Guthrie, Taj Mahal, p-funk, Billie Holliday, Betty Davis, Sun Ra, Black Sabbath

- Favorite color:

Green and Purple are tied for my favorite colors, although I tend to prefer them each with other colors rather than together.

Jacqui Wong (Instructor)

- Where did you learn to swim?
I learned to swim in Singapore. My sisters swam competitively and I took lessons with them.

- Your favorite swimming memory?
My favorite memory of swimming is definitely during my school swim season. After we won the PSAL swimming championship, we pushed our coach in the water and all of us jumped in after him!

- What’s most important to you about teaching swimming?
What’s most important is whether or not the kids are having fun. I love swimming and I hope the students I teach will learn to love it too!

- Favorite food:
Chicken

- Favorite music:
My favorite song is All You Wanna do is Dance by Bream Girls

- Favorite color:
Red

Andrew Woo (Instructor/Lifeguard)

- Where did you learn to swim?
I learned to swim at the age of four with Alan Zhu, the current Stuyvesant swim coach. I swam competitively for six years and have 12 years of experience.

- Your favorite swimming memory?
I’ve always enjoyed the community I swim in, whether it’s been for a team or a school. But, winning a PSAL championship last fall is my proudest memory by far.

- What’s most important to you about teaching swimming?
Teaching children to swim is meant to cooperative and fin while also a way for a child to bond with the sport. Being patient with them and making sure the practice the right techniques is most important.

 - Favorite food:
Sushi

- Favorite music:
J-Pop and K-Pop

- Favorite color:
Sapphire Blue

Daniel Chocano Fernandez (Instructor)

- Where did you learn to swim?
I started swimming lessons when I was two years old in Madrid, Spain.
- Your favorite swimming memory?
All the excitement cheering for my teammates during a meet, and the medals I’ve won during the Spanish and the NEC Championships. That shows the hard work I’ve put in during practice.
- What’s most important to you about teaching swimming?
Seeing how kids start having fun in the water. They feel more secure and perceive the water as a friend! It makes me happy to transmit my love of swimming to my students.
- Favorite food:
Paella
- Favorite music:
Spanish and English pop
- Favorite color:
Green

Lovro Dodik (Instructor)

- Learn to swim?
The very basic skills I learnt from my parents on summer holidays.
Due to my huge interest in water, my parents enrolled me in swim lessons. 
- Your favorite memory of swimming?
Achieving my goals, such as winning nationals and other competitions after giving huge effort in practices. 
- Most important about teaching swimming?
To enjoy interact with water, have fun, feel special, cuz not everyone has that oportunity to feel the water as their natural environment. 
- Favorite food:
Stuffed peppers with mash
- Favorite music:
Croatian pop
- Favorite color:
Blue

Brynjlfur Karlsson (Instructor)

- Learn to swim?
I learned to swim in Kopavogur, Iceland. I swam for the Breiðablik swim team where both my parents, who coached me my whole life, were the head coaches.
- Favorite swimming memory?
My favorite memory of swimming was attending the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina representing Iceland in 2019. I swam 50 and 200 backstroke.
- Most important about teaching swimming?
The most important thing when it comes to teaching children how to swim is knowing that I could be saving someone’s life by teaching them how to swim. I believe it is a very essential skill that everyone should learn.
- Favorite food:
Skyr with blueberries
- Favorite music:
DJ Muscleboy
- Favorite color:
Pink

Marcel Matyiko (Instructor)

- Learn to swim?
I started swimming when I was 4 years old. I’m from Hungary and I grew up very close to a lake. My parents took me to swimming lessons so I could swim in the lake with them. I fell in love with the sport and have stuck with it ever since.
- Favorite swimming memory?
While I was swimming in Hungary twice we went for training camp to Cyprus, a beautiful island in the Mediterranean Sea. We trained a lot but had a really good time. Another favorite memory is winning conference and sharing that joy with my teammates.
- Most important about teaching swimming?
It’s a special feeling being in the water. It’s comparable to being in space, just floating weightlessly, moving in three dimensions, controlling the water as you move around. I want every participant to experience this feeling.
From a parent’s perspective, it's important to let your child get in the water to swim and play, knowing they are safe.
- Favorite food:
Chicken paprika
- Favorite music:
Hungarian pop music
- Favorite color:
Turquoise

Alejandro Pasqual (Instructor)

- Learn to swim?
Since I was a child I’ve been going to swimming lessons in Spain.
- Favorite swimming memory?
When I became Spanish champion.
- Most important about teaching swimming?
The most important thing is to show them they don’t have to be afraid of the water.
Teach them how to swim and to have a good time—and they’ll come again and again.
- Favorite food:
Pasta
- Favorite music:
Pop music
- Favorite color:
Black

Giannis Venetos (Instructor)

- Learn to swim?
I first learned to swim back in Greece starting at the age of five. Beginning in a small kiddie pool and now I compete in Olympic-sized ones.
- Favorite memory?
My first national medal in the 200 breaststroke.
- Most important about teaching swimming?
The two most important things to me about teaching children to swim are that they always feel comfortable in the water and that they enjoy themselves.

- Favorite food:
A good steak
- Favorite music:
Greek laiko
- Favorite color:
Blue