♪ ♪ (whirring) (water splashing) (muffled splashing) ♪ ♪ MARSH: The basic mechanics of swimming are so simple.

But there's that classic: Where are the treasures?

They're in the cave.

And they're guarded by the dragon.

You have to pick the darkest spot and go in.

You got to do it yourself.

♪ ♪ If you could just think of any problem in your life, isn't it the truth?

♪ ♪ You can't get the treasures unless you face the dragon.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (child laughing) MARSH (voiceover): It's all our daughter.

You know, she was born.

When we got this house we had a pool.

And so we thought, that's dangerous.

She needed to swim.

And it was... it was a big deal because the coach's little flyer, it was literally like... BILL: "Get your kids to swim in four days, it's guaranteed."

And I thought, that sounds brutal.

(chuckles) But it was just such a fascinating experience to see how capable kids are, and they're capable physically of doing it, and capable of emotionally going through a challenging experience.

And so I thought, wow, that's a job?

It's absolutely magical.

♪ ♪ ELISA: It has a beginning and an end.

It's eight days and he makes it look easy.

It isn't.

♪ ♪ (Air'is crying) BILL: All right... Hi Air'is, come on in.

You can just sit here on the steps, peanut.

(Air'is fussing) You're okay babe, you're going to sit here.

AIR'IS (crying): Mama!

BILL: I got you.

(voice over): Day one the main thing is, we're getting to know each other.

This is King.

King, this is Dean.

This is Blake.

Blake, this is Rionn.

And you know what my name is?

BLAKE: Umm... BILL: My name is Bill.

BLAKE: Bill.

BILL: Yeah.

I'm here to help you guys swim.

The most important concept that they grasp on the first day is, I can be independently safe.

That is holding the edge.

At first, that's terrifying.

"No one's holding me.

I'm alone!"

And then it's like, "Hey, I can do this, and I can get back to the steps."

And also, if a kid falls in the pool, they're by an edge.

All they need to do, grab that edge and then they can save their life.

They can get back to safety.

Here he goes!

Whoa!

- (laughs) BILL (voiceover): And the students are getting to know, and it doesn't matter what age they are, it's all "What is this?"

And there either is "What is this?

Whoo, this is great!"

or "What is this?

I got to get out of here."

♪ ♪ (children crying) (crying continues) (crying continues) (voiceover): The younger kids, it's just "I want out of here!"

Just give me your hand... (River crying) (Air'is screaming) ♪ ♪ (child screaming) Mom.

Mama, mama.

Mama!

♪ ♪ ZIPPY: Mommy!

Mommy!

BILL (voiceover): You can have all the feelings you want.

Be scared, be happy, whatever.

I'm not here to change your feelings.

But you have to stay until the class is over.

(Zippy crying) This is what it is.

It's pretty straightforward.

The main thing is that I'm right here.

♪ ♪ Words are a very, very, very small part of this.

It's action and intention.

And the action is... you don't have a choice.

All done!

Zippy you're not in charge, you're not the teacher, and you're not in charge.

(voiceover): I have to evaluate every kid and go like, how far can I go today?

(Blake whimpering) You're okay.

I got your hands.

You're going to come to me... (voiceover): Some kids are so resistant to put their face in.

I'm not going to force that in the first turn because I'd rather have trust first.

Then if we get that trust, then later I can go... (inhales) and then they just do it.

♪ ♪ (indistinct muffled chatter) Did you swim?

(child coughs) BILL: Yeah.

Swimming.

♪ ♪ Zippy, I'm going to hold your hands.

(Zippy crying) Ready, set.

Go.

Nice and easy... (Zippy crying) ♪ ♪ (Zippy crying) ELISA (voiceover): It's hard.

I mean, your kid's asking you to make something stop, and there is a lot of tension.

(Zippy gags) BILL: Let's get the boogies... fa-ching!

(Zippy coughs, gags) Fa-ching!

(Zippy sniffles, Bill chuckles) (voiceover): There is definitely a general pattern that you'll see day one, day two, day three.

But it's always new.

It's always interesting and unpredictable.

And I never know what I'm getting.

(indistinct chatter) Air'is is going to be a great swimmer by the end.

She just didn't like the situation.

The other guys were still in a hyper "I want" mode.

(chuckles) (indistinct chatter, children crying) ELISA (voiceover): In the beginning, it's like people are a little suspicious.

It's almost like he's a villain.

They're like, "What are you doing to my kid?

You're making him do this thing?"

They're saying, "Mommy," they don't like it.

It's really emotional.

BILL: Where's the edge?

Where's the edge?

(child crying) BILL (voiceover): It can be hard on the parents just to watch and not say anything.

But that's what I've asked them to do.

And the number one mistake that parents make is that they measure their child's success by how much they're crying.

You have to guide them to what the body can do so that they can decide when they're okay about it.

But you can't measure it by crying because that's not swimming.

♪ ♪ (River crying) BILL: Hey, wait a second.

(crying continues) ELISA (voiceover): He sometimes will say, "I've got this one kid, and I just hope "we can get through this day, "because you don't want someone to stop before they're successful."

(River crying) Because then it could be traumatizing because you're just saying, "Yeah, that was a lot.

And we stopped."

♪ ♪ It's the worst, worst, worst part of my job is the thought that someone might do that.

♪ ♪ ZIPPY: (indistinct) BILL: Whoa, wait a second.

Look, Zipper's got a new swimsuit with birds on it.

(voiceover): Zippy has a couple issues going on.

She likes to be in control, and she's suffering when she's not in control.

(Zippy crying, shouting) Zippy.

Zippy.

We're going this way.

(Zippy crying) (voiceover): The only thing that actually hurts about swimming is if you get water up your nose.

Beautiful.

(Zippy gasps) All right, good.

(Zippy coughs) (voiceover): Zippy, because she's also crying, you're more likely to get the water up your nose.

(Zippy crying) All the way.

All the way.

(Zippy sputtering) Zippy, over here.

(voiceover): Every once in a while I'll get one kid a year, maybe two, where... it's just a lot of stuff to take in.

They have a lot of resistance.

They can't kick or they're snorting water and you just you need more than eight days.

(Zippy crying) But, I've got to get into that brain and show it over and over and over and over that it's okay, which is, it's brutal, it's tough.

(Zippy crying) And it seems like when a kid's crying the most, that's when you should let go and like, "Okay, settle down.

It's going to be okay."

But when I can tell what the crying is from, like with Zippy, then you just got to do it.

Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.

Beautiful Zips.

(Zippy coughs, cries) All right.

And then you can go rest... (voiceover): But it looks mean sometimes.

(Zippy screaming) I can guarantee she would break through... ...in a matter of time.

It's hard for me because I can see that her mom is confused and she wants her to be happy.

She wants her to be swimming.

(Zippy shouting indistinctly) Zippy, Zippy, Zippy, Zippy, you're not in charge.

You're not in charge.

You're not in charge.

(Zippy crying, sputtering) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (voiceover): River's mom came in, and I say this just to illustrate an example of how we overthink things.

- So we were talking on the car ride over about how, when River sits on the steps... (River crying) ...he asks for a towel.

BILL (voiceover): He keeps saying "towel, towel, towel."

Right?

Well, the kids know, towel means the class is over.

And she thought, how about if we give him a towel by the edge of the pool?

Then maybe he'll feel better about the towel because then it, the towel is closer than me, and I'm over here.

(River crying) What works great... - Yeah.

BILL: ...is to just know, this is the way it is.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's okay.

BILL (voiceover): So often we put our adult thoughts into the kid.

- It's totally cool.

Because I agree with Bill, you can feel however you need to feel buddy.

I agree.

(River crying) BILL (voiceover): And right now we're in a stage where we chase our kids' eternal happiness rather than carry their hand through the fire and say, "Sometimes it sucks.

We've got to keep going."

RIVER: I want a towel!

(crying): I want a towel!

BILL: Ready, set.

Go.

Hey River.

We're going to get the towel when class is over, but it's not over yet.

(River crying) BILL (voiceover): That's an imbalance that I see happening today.

(child sputtering) We just don't want our kids to feel anything bad.

(Bill chuckles) Nice and easy, Riv.

Hey, Riv, where's Bill?

We don't need to force them to stop crying.

What we need to do is show him that he's swimming.

All right, nice and easy, Riv.

(River sputters, cries) Uh, Riv, did you just swim?

RIVER: Yeah.

BILL: You did?

RIVER: Yeah.

BILL: By yourself?

You got boogies?

RIVER: Yeah.

BILL: Let's get 'em.

Ka-ching!

Any more boogies?

RIVER: Yeah.

BILL: Let's get 'em, they're over here... ka-ching!

(River giggles) And look at this, you got to be kidding me.

You got to be kidding me.

Are you kidding me?

- (laughs) BILL: Are you kidding me?

RIVER: (giggles) Yeah.

BILL: You're kidding me?

(laughter) (voiceover): And of course, what happened?

He started to giggle.

He realized, oh, this is kind of fun.

River, are you kidding me?

RIVER: (giggles) Yeah.

BILL (voiceover): And it's become obvious to me that to excite the mind to learn something new, has to be led by the learner and not by the teacher.

- Uh, uh.

RIVER: Uh, uh.

BILL: So then he had his first day of like, just having a blast.

That had nothing to do with me, that had nothing to do with his mom.

It was him having his process.

(boy sputters) Keep fighting for it, Riv!

That's it.

(River coughing) (children coughing) (indistinct chatter) (voiceover): I have the same hat every day.

I have the same shirt every day.

I have the same water bottle every day.

I have the same requests every day.

What changes is that they get comfortable with the pattern.

♪ ♪ Air'is, she looked at me at this one moment and it was like, "All right, you're okay."

♪ ♪ And then I knew, she's going to be fine.

She has decided that she can find a place where she can just go, "Okay.

It's you.

Fine.

I can do that."

♪ ♪ (Zippy crying) Zippy.

I told her, keep her mouth closed.

If you close your mouth, you create a pocket of air.

♪ ♪ And she started to realize, when I accept what I can't change... ...it's better.

I can face it now.

♪ ♪ She's realizing, "Maybe it's okay to not be in control," and then made great progress.

(Zippy sputtering) All right.

♪ ♪ What are you doing Zip?

ZIPPY: I'm putting my face under water.

BILL: (laughs) Show me!

♪ ♪ (voiceover): My dream would be that all kids learn to swim as soon as they're able.

And that all parents get to watch it happen.

That would be my dream.

Oh, my goodness.

(voiceover): And when I see these kids going through this thing, I just realize we're so much more powerful than we realize.

We come up against a problem, we figure out how to fix it.

And to me, swimming is the best analogy because no one can fix it for you.

It's you in the water.

♪ ♪ (child crying) That's Zane's first swim!

♪ ♪ (voiceover): You can only do it alone.

If someone is holding you, you're not doing it, the person's doing it.

I'm completely independent here and I'm doing this by myself.

♪ ♪ And I see it a lot with the kids.

It hit me as if you're learning to fly.

And you can't fly unless you're in the sky.

You can't swim unless you're alone in the water.

It's the same thing.

And you do have to jump... ...to learn to fly.

And it's the same thing with swimming.

You have to take off to see that you can do it and you can do it by yourself.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ A lot can happen, and it depends on the kid, but I guess I know they're going to swim at the end, but I don't know what their journey is going to be.

I don't know how we're going to get there.

We play it by ear every turn.

ELISA (voiceover): It's a real... ...strange thing, that he starts a villain on day one.

And by day eight, he's a hero.

And then he has a couple of days off and then he does it again, and he's like, "What other job do you do that to yourself?"

♪ ♪ THEA: To a certain extent, I feel like my dad cracked the code.

There was a lot of times where I would look at this as a kid and I would be like, "(scoffs) This looks easy."

And then I started to teach kids how to swim myself.

And it's challenging.

♪ ♪ BILL (voiceover): But it's just a thrill to see it every time.

I never get sick of it.

And it's not a mystery why.

It's like the rawest, purest form of a human going through a struggle and being triumphant at the end of it and joyous.

They can look at something that seems insurmountable and become successful at it very quickly.

I mean, wow.

♪ ♪ I think in a way, this is just a magical little window of life.

They just got here from wherever we come from, and it's where we're going again when we're done.

And they're bringing that with them.

♪ ♪ When I saw my daughter, the first moments that she was born, she looked around and it was like she said, "What is this?"

And I realized (voice breaking): that's what being a parent is, you show them what this is.

♪ ♪ I can't think of anything else that's life-threatening that you can conquer at age two.

It's a physical challenge, it's a mental challenge, and it can kill you.

And you can go, "Yeah, whatever.

"I can do it.

I just turned two."

(laughs) (muffled splashing) (muffled splashing) ♪ ♪