Dianna Butterfield

Dianna was my son’s swimming instructor for months and loved her. When she switched her schedule we were so disappointed and my son was not the same. When I heard she had an open spot on Fridays I quickly snatched that time up for my daughter who is extremely afraid to swim. Dianna is the best and am so glad she is teaching one of my child to swim. She is an awesome instructor and is extremely patient.

Dianna is the best thing to happen to my son in the swimming pool. Seriously. My 8 year old firecracker has a hard time focusing, gets distracted easily, and will happily talk your ear off for hours without taking a breath. It takes a special kind of instructor to blast through all of that chaos and really get this type of kid on track in the pool. Dianna’s high energy, tough-​but-​kind, and incredibly positive and passionate teaching style keeps him motivated and moving. He is making huge gains in swimming skills, but more than that, he WANTS to work hard for her. He WANTS to make her proud. And he gets out of that pool with confidence. Exhausted? Yes. She works him hard. She pushes him harder than most of the teachers we have ever worked with. But she does it because she knows he can do it. She sees his potential and she makes him works toward it. We adore her. And we feel so lucky that our son gets to have this time with her. I highly recommend Dianna for swimming skills and technique, and for the confidence she builds in her encouraging and engaging lessons.

Since he was 4, my son had a number of swim instructors over the past 18 months. They each were slightly successful in teaching him, but he is not the easiest student to reach. He is very shy, and doesn’t brim with confidence. He is however sharp minded, very observant and seems to thrive in structure. While taking bi weekly lessons, he successfully managed to deflect bits and pieces of instruction that he faced. He seemed to especially do this with exercises he felt nervous or unsure of. This in turn slowed down the learning process considerably.
Then came a day with teacher Diana. The first minute of that first lesson, my son didn’t even want to get into the pool. Teacher Diana talked with him a moment, then whisked him around the pool pointing out various things and before he knew it, he was sitting on the side of the pool and ready to start his lesson. He didn’t even turn around to see where I had gone, but rather seemed like he was just trying to keep up with the moment. The lesson was straight forward, organized, with no nonsense structure. She asked each of the children at the lessons to perform the exercises and each in turn followed her instruction.
When she reached my son, he was given only a brief moment to adhere to the instructions and before he knew it, he was being guided forward for his breathing/​kicking exercise. By the time he had finished two full class lessons, he had turned a confidence corner and was eagerly looking forward to his pool time with Diana. He had actually absorbed much of what the other instructors had shown him, but it was her direction, persona and confidence he fed off of. Two weeks ago, he would moan about having a swim lesson, and now he was trying to impress his teacher during the lesson! He really blossomed when he got into teacher Diana’s class. Part of her gift is in her techniques as she works with guiding the child though the various swim strokes, she quickly gauges each child’s strengths and weaknesses and works to help them not just grasp the lesson but tackle the task at hand. In my opinion, the most important attribute she instills in the child is not simply the lesson itself but the foundation of self-​confidence behind it. Teacher Diana is simply the BEST swim teacher!

Dianna has been a FANTASTIC swim teacher for our daughter. She started working with her at 18 months of age and in her first 6 months has taught her to love the water and equally important, to survive should she ever fall into water. What makes Dianna so special is her ability to adapt to each child’s (and parents) unique learning styles. She makes swimming fun while constantly striving for improvement.
We highly recommend Dianna for children of all ages.

Dianna did a great job with Christina, our younger daughter. In a few sessions she developed her into a confident swimmer who has fun in the pool. I am very impressed with Dianna’s approach with an opinionated 6 year old. My wife and I are very happy with the investment.