#theHSCdifference

Is there really a difference between HSC and other swim schools?

Oh, yes, there IS a difference…actually several differences.  Maybe most of us teach freestyle and backstroke, and we all probably have warm water.  But that is likely where the similarities end.

Swim schools are as different from each other as children are.  Even the kiddos that look alike and go to the same school wearing the same uniform are quite different when you get to the nitty gritty.  So, what is the nitty gritty on Houston Swim Club?

It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery… but even when someone copies your curriculum and watches you “from the inside” for years, there are things that can’t be imitated!  Let me start by telling you that the biggest thing that no one can imitate is definitely the biggest difference between HSC and other swim schools…our PASSION!

You see, back in 1994, when my mom bought Houston Swim Club from Phill Hansel, we weren’t searching for a family business.  My sister, Tracy, and I had been working for Phill since 1986 as “phone girls”, lifeguards, and eventually swim instructors.  My mom began in 1987 as a receptionist and quickly became Phill’s office manager.  It didn’t take us long to figure out that our family had a real passion for teaching children to swim.

In 1994, Phill’s health started declining and he decided to sell the school.  My mom scraped the money together, asked my sisters and me for a ten year commitment to help grow the business, and bought a swim school!  Tracy was a high school teacher and teaching swim lessons during the summers; Kara was in college and teaching swim lessons; I had two babies under two years old and was going to nursing school while teaching swimming to pay the bills. We had never owned a swim school and we had never worked together as a family, but we knew how to teach darn good lessons and we LOVED doing it! We had PASSION!

You may come across a new swim school and it may be bright and shiny…but fancy, new buildings can’t outshine our PASSION! It’s not surprising to us that there are two swim schools in our area that are very similar to HSC.  The structure, the policies, and even some of the learning tools they use closely reflect those of HSC.  This didn’t come as a shock to us since their owners started in the swim school business after being long-time clients of, you guessed it…HSC.  But why do former employees of ours who now work for other swim schools still bring their children to HSC for lessons?  While others may want to copy our program and imitate our teaching styles, the one thing they can’t copy is our PASSION.

What I wish people knew was that the franchise swim schools that are coming into Houston are no different than other franchise chains.  The people that own them bought them when looking for a business to invest time and money into.  They likely sat around trying to decide whether to buy a Subway store, a McDonalds, or a Kumon Learning Center and wound up settling on buying a swim school.  They are business people…probably very good business people! But they aren’t passionate about teaching children to save their lives and to love the water!

PASSION…That’s the HSC difference!