[00:00:00] What's good, y'all. Welcome back to another episode of Black in Aquatics: Freedom Through Swimming. Today I'm here with Coach Q of Swimming with Coach Q. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thank you so much, Coach T. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. Thank you. So today we met at an event, Water Safety Festival down here in South Florida, Splash Back to School with Diversified Swimming.

So I just wanted to get a little bit of your background. in aquatics more so and then we'll go from there. Awesome. Well, as you said, I am owner and operator of swimming with coach Q. I have been teaching private lessons and group classes and stroke development for about five years. I do not have a competitive or aquatic background and actually come from the IT field.

And I [00:01:00] was introduced to this by a friend of mine who knew that I was looking for something different. I knew that I enjoyed children, and so I joined a facility, they trained me, and the rest is history. I became a certified lifeguard, taught myself how to swim correctly with proper stroke technique, and I've discovered that I have a big passion for water safety and drowning prevention.

And so you came into this industry kind of later in life. Can you tell me like how that how that's been for you, considering that there's a good chunk of the people that in this industry have been a part of aquatics pretty much like a good chunk of their lives, like since they were children. Yes. That's a really great question.

When I first started out, I had a lot of reservations about my authority and whether or not people would take me seriously. In the aquatic industry because I didn't have that background, but I have [00:02:00] found it to be the complete opposite of that. Mm-Hmm. . This is the most welcoming community that I've had the pleasure of being a part of.

What I don't know. There's always someone willing to mentor or share knowledge they have. And it's just really awesome to be adding another black female to the industry because that is one thing that I found was lacking. Yes. As I continued to grow in this. industry A lot of the faces that I was across from didn't look like me.

Yeah So that was something that I really took a hold of as well as far as really wanting to bring awareness to is our presence and representation in the aquatic industry. Yes. There's so many few black women in the industry, but I will say, you know, I do believe in giving credit where credit is due. There's a lot more black women now than there was when I started about a decade ago.

And I started swimming when I was a little girl. So there's a lot more swimmers too. So it's really nice to see. So what do you have any [00:03:00] plans to like expand your business or like, what are your goals for your business? Yes. Well, as I continue to grow, what I see for myself in the future is just expanding swimming with coach Q to be an entire experience.

Not only do I want to teach people how to swim, but I would love to introduce them to other aquatic activities. Once they. That's exciting. What is that? That's snorkeling and diving together. No, but snorkeling and diving. And just enjoying the activities that come along with the water that just don't necessarily have to do anything with swimming, but being comfortable in the water and having those skills just opens you up to so many other things that you could be doing.

And so I want to share my love for the water and really take people on a complete experience of swimming with Coach Q. That's awesome. That's kind of the same reason why I started Black and Aquatics, you know, just sharing that experience that you have with [00:04:00] others and be like, Hey, Here's this feeling that I have and here's this experience that I go through and I want to share with you guys because it makes me so happy and so joyous and with how things are today I feel like that's very important.

Yeah. Is there anything else that you want to tell the people? I just want to express again the importance that I feel is it is for everyone to learn how to swim. Water safety is important for everybody. And even if you are an adult, it's never too late to get yourself into swimming lessons, learning how to swim, and then also bringing your children into that experience as well.

Actually, I did have one last question for you. So I'll just Bring it back. So you said you after you taught yourself how to swim as an adult you also went on and got your lifeguarding certification. Yes. How was that process? It was a real test of faith. And [00:05:00] like seriously, like it was a big test of faith because I did not consider myself to be a strong swimmer.

I was like, how many laps? Yeah, that, that 300. And I'm like, when I realized what I was asking my students to do every day. I'm like, here, hit these laps. What you doing? Slowing down. And then I finally come to realize that this is work, like this is intense. So I came into it with a lot of apprehension, but I had a really great support system behind me at the facility that was training me and kind of like, Cultivating my experience and background in swimming.

They really pushed me and they were like, you can do this, you got this. And I showed up that day with a bunch of 16 year olds, I was like the oldest person there. And I'm just like, you know what? I don't accept defeat, so there's nothing to do it. And I went in there and I smashed it. I mean, nobody had to come rescue me.

But, I was definitely struggling, but since then, [00:06:00] I know now that I'm a much, uh, more proficient and stronger swimmer, so we don't have to repeat that first experience again. There you go. There you go. That's awesome to hear. Well, thank you so much for being here with me today. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having me. It's been awesome.