Today we’d like to introduce you to DeAnne Twidwell-Preyer.
Hi DeAnne, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My involvement with swimming spans my entire life; actually even before I was born! Getting to today, and why I do what I do…
Back in 1960, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, hanging on the walls in the hotel restaurant were pictures of babies swimming. My mom had just moved to Honolulu after living in Chicago her whole life and saw these pictures. She never realized babies could swim at such a young age and thought how cool it was that they were swimming on their own; they looked so calm and happy. And she thought to herself that if she ever had kids, she wanted them to swim like the babies in the pictures.
Fast forward about eight years later, I was born in Chicago, and right after, my parents decided to move to southern California. The first thing they did when they arrived was rent an apartment on the Esplanade in Redondo. The second thing they did was enroll me in swim lessons at Miss Dawn’s Swim School just down the street. I have no recollection of any of it, but I do know that swimming has been a significant part of my life ever since.
Swimming has taught me so many life lessons: As a competitive swimmer it provided amazing childhood experiences, allowed me to travel, helped build my self-confidence, paid for my college education, and fostered many friendships that I still have today.
As a swim coach, swimming afforded me the opportunity to build a coaching and teaching career I never envisioned. I have met and worked with so many awesome people: athletes, parents, and fellow coaches, and I have been able to give back to a sport that gave me so much.
And as a swim teacher/business owner, I get to negotiate with three years old all day… and while I have to frame things so they are a win-win for both of us, I get such joy out of seeing budding swimmers of all ages (infants to adults, and everything in between!) realize they can choose which story to listen to in their brain and when they choose the positive, they can do difficult things. Hearing the little ones, who may have minimal language skills but own their thoughts 100%, comment on what they are doing can be better than any comedy show. Seeing older kids who first come to me kicking and screaming from fear or past trauma finally let go of the wall and realize the water actually holds them up never gets old. And I have such admiration for adults who make themselves vulnerable with me and trust me to help them learn a new skill. I find it a privilege and an honor to be able to pass on a skill that can bring so much fun and opportunity and could ultimately help save their life.
On the flip side, however, swimming has also been the source of some of the most painful hurdles to surmount. Yet, it was doing the work to get over those hurdles that helped me build the strength that would allow me to overcome other life events that could’ve stopped me dead in my tracks.
As a swimmer, I suffered two significant shoulder injuries; the first one was in high school and resulted in painful reconstructive surgery at age 15. The six months I was out of the water recovering felt like an eternity, but it was during this time that I learned firsthand the power of the mind and that I had the ability to face unexpected obstacles.
The second shoulder injury was in my freshman year of college, 10 days before our Big Ten Championships. I fought for two years to get better, but this one ultimately ended my swimming career. At the time I thought my life was over; I definitely felt defeated not having a say in something I had dedicated so much time and energy to; the one thing I thought defined me. But I l learned that when one door closes, another opens, you just have to be willing to walk through it… And with the nudge of my college coach, I walked through that next door and into my coaching career.
As a swimmer, I also experienced the abuse of a club coach that had long-term effects on my life personally, socially, and professionally. As tough as it has been dealing with the aftermath, I can honestly say that without that, I would never have started my own swim team; it just would never have occurred to me. And I’d probably have a different perspective on what is truly important in life. So ironically, the worst thing in my life was the catalyst to change the course of my life; it gave me the motivation to start my own swim program and served as a glaring example of what I would never allow in my own coaching or program.
In the fall of 1999, I had the opportunity to venture out on my own, so I went for it, and the Zenith Aquatic Program (aka ZAP) was born. Ultimately, ZAP served thousands of south bay swimmers over the years, but what many people don’t know is that we almost didn’t make it through the first year.
About five months after starting, I was also newly married and about 5.5 months pregnant. And for reasons the doctors are still not sure of, I went blind. It was an odd time for sure. And although I lost my eyesight, I never lost my vision. In fact, the whole ordeal made my philosophy even more clearly defined and was my guiding force while I led the program for the next 20 years.
Fortunately, through the determination to keep ZAP alive, and a really awesome chiropractor, my sight returned, and my love for coaching never waned. It was crystal clear to me that I was meant to push forward and coach so I could teach kids the importance of building solid relationships and empowering them to be able to be comfortable being uncomfortable and to be able to expect and handle the unexpected.
The swimmer/coach relationship is important, but I believe it is more important for the athlete to realize that the coach works for the athlete, not the other way around. I think that this idea is often lost, or in some cases never exists in the first place and I firmly believe that that is a HUGE detriment to the athletes in their own personal human development.
We never know what life is going to throw at us, and we need to be prepared to cope and rely on ourselves and be able to reach out and gain strength from each other when unexpected things happen. I believe that teachers and coaches have a responsibility to teach that to our kids. Learning to cope is the greatest gift we can give our children, our athletes, and ourselves. Learning to cope is often ugly, uncomfortable, and unsettling, and I think that’s precisely why it is often left unaddressed until it is too late or rears its ugly head.
In 2019, my fellow ZAP coaches and I were planning a series of year-long celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of ZAP. Unbeknownst to me, however, there was an entirely different plan about to unfold instead. In the fall of that year, my son started his freshman year in college, and a few weeks later, I was diagnosed with colon cancer.
Although a bit scary and definitely not part of my plan, I was able to find peace in the situation because I knew I had the support of ZAP behind me, and I knew that the swimmers would be fine without me around for a bit because they had been taught to deal with the unexpected!
I was also fortunate to have my sister there, able to take the reins while I was gone, but it really was the unquestionable certainty of knowing that the kids had the tools to be able to cope without me there that was what allowed me the freedom to let go and fight the cancer aggressively.
I had surgery in December that year, and happily, I have been cancer-free ever since. As crazy as it sounds, I am actually grateful for the cancer because it was the ultimate test of finding a way to cope, relying on community, and taking time to breathe, seriously. And that combo has definitely proven valuable in the years since because what came next was nothing anyone could have imagined…
My first day back on the pool deck was January 26, 2020. Some of you may have that date etched in your mind forever, but some may not. So let me tell you, it was a foggy morning, but my intentions were clear… I was just going to make a quick appearance at a local swim meet to say hello to everyone, wish the swimmers good luck, watch a few races; just get my feet wet again after being gone for six weeks.
But then everyone’s phones started going crazy, and there was a buzz around the pool… A helicopter had crashed in Calabasas. Lives were lost. Kobe, Gianna, and seven other people tragically died in that crash that day… Kids were crying, parents were in disbelief… Swimming, that day, was a means of coping, a source of community and support. While it was under terrible circumstances, it was refreshing to see everyone rally together, embrace the Mamba mindset, and keep going, despite the holes in their hearts.
Then, just a few short weeks later, in the midst of Championship season… Covid hit. While we never could have imagined what we were in for, we knew we were up against something big and most definitely something different than anything we had ever faced before. My sister is a social worker and was also my head age group coach at the time; and she had some extra insight on what was coming our way. Without her, March thru August of 2020 would have been much more daunting than they were. Together, we got creative, regrouped, and developed a plan to keep the team intact, despite not being able to swim the way any of us had known up to that point.
The program we delivered that summer is probably what I’m most proud of in my coaching career. We went deep, and while it was completely different than anything we had ever done, the focus we put on mental health, coping strategies, and breathing allowed our swimmers and their families to navigate the pandemic much more effectively than they would have otherwise.
Although the pandemic ultimately forced my hand to permanently shut down the ZAP team, and as heart-wrenching, as it was to pull the plug on something I had built from scratch and dedicated the past 20 years to, I found peace knowing our swimmers and their families had the coping skills to be better than okay with the changes they were about to face.
Today, I am no longer coaching competitive swimming, but I am still in the swimming world. I’ve gone back to my roots and am teaching learn-to-swim full time, and have stayed involved with the sport and USA and Southern California Swimming on the governance side of things. Being able to pivot and rebrand quickly was only doable because of the things I’ve learned and the person I’ve become through the ups and downs of swimming. And I’m grateful for all of it.
Through 40+ years of experience teaching and coaching, along with research, collaboration, and experimentation, and especially through the work we did during covid, I have developed the teaching methodology I currently use at my new venture, SwimologyLA. I’m finding that the breath work I’m now teaching in the water also carries over to everyday life outside of the pool as well; I’m seeing life-changing differences in non-neurotypical children, kids with ADHD, and people of all ages suffering from anxiety. Seeing the breakthroughs that my swimmers make daily truly fills my heart.
For me, water has been the source of both the ups and downs in my life, both literally and figuratively, but I’m grateful that I’ve been strong enough to navigate the uncharted waters to get me where I am today.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
SwimologyLA is a swim lesson company that offers private, semi-private, and small group lessons for all ages (infants to adults). What sets me apart from others is the trust and rapport I build with each individual swimmer and the teaching methodology I have developed through years of experimenting and research. I’m most proud of building a solid following because the families have seen the results and the changes in their kids.
What are your plans for the future?
Right now this is a solo venture, but I am mentoring a few other teachers and have discussed expanding in the future.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @SwimologyLA
- Facebook: DeAnne Twidwell-Preyer
Image Credits
SwimologyLA
