We recently connected with Brooke Caroline Rapson and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Brooke Caroline, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
The story behind our mission is simple, keep as many children safe around bodies of water as possible. In the United States more children ages 1–4 die from drowning than any other cause of death. For children ages 5–14, drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death after motor vehicle crashes. Every year there is an estimated 4,000 drowning related deaths. This is the most preventable cause of death, and we want to see these numbers be extinguished. Our lessons begin at just six months of age; once your child is crawling you should never feel over confident around water and begin to take the right steps to protect them.
We encourage our parents to keep their swimmers in lessons year round, well into their elementary school years. Children should stay in lessons until parents have that peace of mind, that typically comes seeing their child, confidently and nearly effortlessly (like second nature) rolling over to floating/saving position in many different scenarios.
Our program emphasizes long term goals and confidence. I love to use this example- If you teach your child to ride a bike, but only practice once a year for 1-2 weeks and then stop until the following year would you be confident in their bike riding abilities? Knowing when to brake, when it’s safe to cross the street, how to handle hills etc. No. It’d be like starting from zero every time. This is why we encourage our parents to stick with lessons for as long as possible. Building on their skills and confidence. Programs that promise results in a week worth of lessons DO NOT work. In a few weeks or months your child may develop a different fear/challenge- as they grow and discover- new problems arise. It may be of the deep water, or they’ll become more aware of their surroundings and find that an exit point is not easily found. Kids change SO MUCH on a week to week basis and different environments present different problems.
Their confidence needs to be reinstated in the water every week or on a reoccurring basis; as well as there are so many skills to be added after survival skills are learned. In a state of panic in water you want lifesaving skills to come without thought….completely automatic.
The second biggest part of our mission is that we do not discriminate based on anyone’s so called “ability”. In the world of swimming, and swim lessons there is a gap in the “market” regarding exceptional students; at least in our state.
Exceptional: Well above average; extraordinary. Needing special attention or presenting a special problem, as in education, mentally gifted or, mentally, physically, or emotionally handicapped.
I love to use the word exceptional when speaking of our students that have a special need. The definition of the word is exactly what our students are, extraordinary, and above average in their own ways.
Our program was specifically designed based on how I (Brooke) approach teaching swimmers with special needs. As it turns out the way I approached teaching swimmers with special needs is the best way to teach ALL swimmers. That is the best part about our program, all of our instructors teach the same way no matter the student, the technique of teaching is the same. Without giving away our program’s way of teaching, some of these things include under water hand signals, and specific in water equipment.
Swimmers that are considered “exceptional” are very rarely accepted into traditional swimming schools and are instead referred to therapy/play swimming school settings. Especially if said student is considered severely special needs. While these programs are great for developmental skills they are not the place to be if you want your child to know life saving skills. This is where we come in. We have not turned away any swimmer thus far. Our staff of over forty instructors have experience and have had great joy working with children that have autism, ADHD, children that are hearing impaired, visually impaired, Down Syndrome, CHARGE Syndrome, Mitochondrial Disease, Spina Bifida, and children with dwarfism. In addition we have had the honor of teaching one student with PURA Syndrome, and one student with Pitt-Hopkins. Both of which are extremely rare conditions.
Our company is set apart from others being that we only teach lessons one on one to ensure that each lesson is specifically catered to that swimmer’s ability and need. We have not changed our prices in ten years of operations to ensure that everyone can afford to take lessons. If a family approaches us that needs funding we are partnered with Leland’s legacy to provide swim scholarships to those in need. Leland’s legacy is a non-profit, focusing on drowning prevention in honor of Leland who sadly lost her life in 2021 to a drowning incident.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Brooke Rapson. I am 28 years old, and I am the owner and operator of Swim Warriors Incorporated. I have been married for four years and we have two Great Pyrenees (Watson and Holmes) and a Bernese Mountain Dog (Hazel). I am the oldest of eleven kids: four biological sisters, three step-brothers, and three adopted siblings. They have influenced my life significantly and have had a great impact on how I run this company.
We are proud to announce we had a little Swim Warrior join us this November, a baby girl, Hadassah Rose. I taught seven days a week this past summer of 2022 until I was 33 weeks pregnant.
It has been a blessing to watch our swim family grow over the past eight summers from 140 swimmers to currently over 3,000 per week. We have now been named the Best of Forsyth for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. What an honor!
I have ten years of expertise in swim instruction and coaching. During this time I have instructed children between the ages of 6 months up to adults. I have been involved in year-round competitive swimming for 17 years. In the past, I was a head coach of Otwell Middle School’s competitive swim team for four consecutive seasons. I have been trained through the Red Cross in lifeguarding, first aid, pediatric and adult CPR, and WSI. Fun fact–I am also open water scuba certified! In addition to my experience, I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education Interdisciplinary Studies.
Our primary focus is survival swimming. We rely on the swim-float-swim method. All swimmers regardless of their age must complete a minimum of 20-25 yards independently without the instructor in the water before we move on from the skill. In order to be “checked” off completely from the survival swimming skill the instructor will flip the swimmer upside down to ensure they can swim, float, swim and find safety. Some parents choose to do this skill with their swimmer fully clothed. Typically swimmers above the age of four in our program move onto freestyle and backstroke quickly. Our company is known for swimmers exceeding typical expectations as far as age and ability, for example we have two year olds that can dive to eight feet and retrieve dive sticks.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
My biggest advice to new entrepreneurs is to not over invest in their idea or new business until they have realistically proven the concept. I started this business when I was a Junior in college. I spent roughly $200 on all of my equipment to effectively teach lessons and that was it. From managing the scheduling, to teaching myself how to build a website, I did it all. I think it’s extremely important for your growth as a business owner to know the in’s and out’s of every part of your business no matter how minute. Still to this day I have never spent money on advertising, we are strictly word of mouth. It wasn’t until my fourth year of doubling my revenue that I decided to invest a small amount into the website to make it more streamlined as far as color, and style.
After almost ten years of running my company I finally took my profits and really invested them into a 2 million dollar indoor swim facility. We are now for the first time a year round swim facility after nine summers of being a seasonal company. Our year round facility is a pivotal factor for us being that we needed somewhere to train staff year round. As a seasonal company that only taught outdoors previously we were always capped at how many instructors we could train outside (in heated pools) before our official season began after Memorial Day. Now the possibilities are endless as far as how many instructors we can train, and our students are safe around water year round!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The biggest thing that has built our reputation is the results produced by our swim program. We have over 70% returning clients session to session because they become addicted to seeing their swimmer’s progress even long after they know how to swim well enough to survive. In our “field” word of mouth is how we continue to grow year after year. In the year of 2022 we had our schedule request forms open for less than 48 hours before we had to shut them off as we were full for the year. At this point getting on our schedules has become a feeding frenzy much, or on a similar scale to getting Taylor Swift tickets.
This is why year after year I try to increase my team of instructors to widen the amount of students we can take on.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.swimwarriors.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swimwarriorsincorporated/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwimWarriorsIncorporated
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swim-warriors-inc/
Image Credits
Image of instructors with suits on Sarah English Photography Image of all staff is Amy Jo Photography Image of baby is by Vera Fortson All other images are mine.