LAPSS

LAPSS LLC is a private year-round swimming school owned and operated by me – Ann Grinnell. With 40+ years of experience teaching children of all ages I continue to love to go to work. Along with a wonderful staff of teachers LAPSS has taught thousand of children and adults in the Seacoast area.

We believe first and foremost, that children should be taught to be safe around the water. This helps them to feel comfortable in the swim lessons as well as at other water-based activities. We also believe that when they love their teaching environment, children will learn. Swimming is one of the few sports children will take to their adulthood, especially if they learn to swim correctly and feel safe and comfortable in the water.

Our swimming school starts children swimming as early as 15-20 months old using the LAPSS-PAK. (this should be written so it can link to the lapss-pak web site). At this young age children can enjoy the water swimming in their Lapss-Pak with me and others of their age. With these young students parents are encouraged to join us in the pool, but this is not mandatory.

As students advance they are taught all the strokes, diving, treading water and water safety skills. Just as children learn to read and advance as they age, the same is true with swimming. We want a three year old to learn certain skills appropriate for their age and a 6 year old to have the more advanced skills appropriate for their age. Some students go off to the swim team in Portsmouth while others use the skills they have learned to enjoy swimming.

In swim classes students are encouraged to try water skills, but never pushed to do something they do not like. All students learn swimming skills when they are ready. We will gently expose them to all the skills of swimming and encourage them to try. We are continually amazed at the progress my young students will make in a very short amount of time. Children who come into class afraid to put their face in the water are swimming comfortable in the deep end of the pool by the end of the term. Then the work will begin to teach them all the swimming strokes and skills.

Just to mix it up a little, many of my older students swim in the ocean (in the summer) for their last term with us. Long Sands and the Harbor Beach in York are our favorite spots. We even go bridge jumping and tubing in Spruce Creek!

Please visit the STAFF tab and read about our teaching team.

We hope our web site will answer questions you may have about our program. If not, please contact us at lapss2@comcast .net. The photos in our site are of our students-which we love to teach!!!