MEET MARY

Mary Gallagher, B.Sc.

Water Safety & Swim Instructor

650-683-7102 (cell)

CV

10+ years teaching: Pool • Lake • Ocean
Children • Adults Private • Groups
Personalized Instruction

Thank you for your interest in my swim lessons!

I have been teaching adults and children to be skillful friends of the water for over 10 years.

As a toddler, my father engaged our family in ocean swimming at Winthrop Beach in Massachusetts and lake swimming at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire during the summer. As a teenager, I shared an aquatics leadership role at a 4-H camp. As an adult, I swam competitively with a New England and a Pacific Masters swim team.

In 2015, I was hired to teach group and private swim lessons for recreation and wellness at Stanford University. In the spring of 2020, I was expecting to teach more students at Stanford, when Covid arrived. In August 2021, the Elks Lodge in Palo Alto invited me to teach swim lessons to its members.

As a Swimming Instructor I am :

Enthusiastically loving to teach swim lessons.
Well-rounded with experience at lake, pool, and ocean environments.
Adaptive to teach individuals of various ages and abilities.
Creative and patient to ensure participants have a positive experience.
Proactive to keep facilities safe and well maintained.

My Teaching Philosophy: Every Swimmer is Different!

My goal isn't simply to teach you how to move through the water; it's to help you develop a relationship with the water that is comfortable, confident and skillful. Families choose Swimming with Mary & Live Buoyantly because instruction is adjusted to the individual swimmer and I provide a positive environment where swimmers can develop at their own pace knowing that safety and awareness are fundamental to learning.

A Brief Intro to my Swim Classes

01

About my Swim Lessons

Each swim lesson has 5 parts:

1. Warm up.

2. Pick a skill or skills.

3. Choose the first drill.

4. Choose a second drill.

5. Playtime/warm down.

02

There are 5 Basic Skills

1. Breathing

2. Floating

3. Streamlining

4. Kicking

5. Rolling while streamline

03

There are about 5 Basic Strokes

1. Front Crawl/Stroke

2. Backstroke

3. Breaststroke

4. Butterfly

5. Safety strokes: Treading, elementary backstroke, and sidestroke.

Ready to Become a More Confident Swimmer?

Let's find the right lesson for you.

Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, San Carlos

Swim Lessons by Appointment Only

Monday — Sunday

Live buoyantly. Learn to swim!

I welcome the opportunity to meet you and your children and to consider how I may teach your children to be skillful friends of the water.

May the joy and peace of swimming be with you.