Saturday swimming classes available for disabled children at Greenwich Leisure Centre

A swimming class for disabled children and adults has been set up with a trainer who has Olympic coaching experience.

All4one Swimming provides swimming lessons at the Greenwich Leisure Centre on Saturdays between 3pm and 6pm, including one-to-one support with the aim of helping people become more confident in the water.

Francis Hazleton, founder of All4one Swimming, said: “I founded All4oneSwimming to bring together teachers and coaches that had a burning passion for broadening minds, exploring new ways of teaching those with a disability and exchanging ideas and philosophies.

“I was motivated to set up a swim school after discussing the lack of local resources with parents and carers in the Greenwich and Lewisham area.

“They would share their frustrations about the lack of swimming opportunities for children and adults with a disability.

“Those few courses that were advertised were often oversubscribed, at inconvenient or lacked the mobility training to see any real results from week to week.”

Mr Hazleton has been a swim coach for six years, working closely with Olympic and national standard coaches both in this country and abroad.

The programme is built on the understanding that no two swimmers are the same, even though they may be diagnosed with the same condition and the school creates a personal training method for each swimmer.

Mr Hazleton added: “All4oneSwimming has adapted the widely recognised Amateur Swimming Association’s Learn to Swim programme because we recognise that not every swimmer will be able to achieve perfect criteria within each stage.

Freedom in the water can lead to a reconnection with the world around them.

For those who take part in All4oneSwimming it is a chance to find a new skill and get fit, but most importantly it empowers a disabled person and gives them the confidence to grow and achieve other goals in their life outside the pool.”