TAMPA, Fla. — A local swim instructor went viral on social media for his "mermaid mantra" instructing technique to help kids overcome their fears.
Tyler Reed, owner of Triton Aquatic Training in Tampa, recently shared a video on social media showing a 2-year-old student who finished a swim lesson repeating the phrase, "I'm big. I'm brave. I'm beautiful."
The video went viral, gaining over 39 million views on TikTok.
"I really am wanting those children to believe those words that they are saying. I want them to feel empowered by what they’re saying and to understand that, yes, they may be two years old, this might be scary to them," said Reed.
Reed is glad the video is reaching so many people to bring awareness to water safety.
He hopes his social media pages become an educational platform for parents. He understands not every parent can afford private swim lessons, but he hopes parents teach their children.
"For their arms, the specific term that I use is reach and pull, reach and pull, especially at that young age. It’s a lot of repetition and word association, but it’s programming their brain to do those actions associated with it and that will indeed give them that forward momentum back to the wall and back to safety," said Reed.
More children ages one to four die from drowning than any other cause of death, according to the CDC. Most drownings in children one to four happen in swimming pools.
"Here we are three weeks later and we’re at almost 40 million views on this particular video, so with that said, it’s just a very rewarding experience for me to just kind of take what I do every day and have people see the importance of this and have it be a conversation starter," he said.
