Kids play week: Mermaid swimming courses in the indoor swimming pool in the Mariazell monastery in cooperation with protestant church community Höfe.

A report by Carolyne Eismann on behalf of mjss. 

For all those who are now asking themselves who Carolyne Eismann is, I would like to introduce myself briefly. I am 19 years old and have been working at WUMASO AG for more than two years. I am responsible for the content of mjss.ch. That is, I blog and make posts on our various social media channels: Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. 

For my reportage I was able to accompany two mermaid swimming courses at the Mariazell monastery in Wurmsbach on Monday, October 3, 2022. The organization and course announcement was made by the protestant church community Höfe. Mario Würgler was the mermaid trainer and I was able to accompany him. I was able to take a few pictures and had the opportunity to talk to the young participants. There were a total of 15 girls between the ages of 7 and 11. 

The courses were held as follows: 

• Introduction course 109: Mermaid swimming 1 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. 
• Introduction course 115: Mermaid swimming 2 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

After Mario introduced himself and also me, the little mermaids made a semicircle around Mario. He asked them, "Who among you has ever swum as a mermaid?" Most of them had worn mermaid fins at one time or another. But of course, there were children who had never swum with a fin on. Before the kids could do anything, they had to jump into the water and swim a length. And then back again, of course. We do this to see if the participants can swim at all. The fin is an additional weight. So you have to be able to swim well.  

Now they learned about the body movements of a mermaid. "How does a mermaid swim?" was the next question. None of the children really knew what kind of movement to make. Mario then demonstrated the wave-like movement with his hips and the children could then imitate it. Now the question was where a mermaid has her arms while swimming. Two participants had a correct answer: "She keeps her arms on her side, as if you were standing normally." Or, "She has her arms above her head, her hands pointed like an arrow, and her head between her arms." These were the answers of the two mermaids.  

After the questions and the warm-up, the little mermaids were allowed to slip in their mermaid tails right away. They were allowed to choose the colors themselves. But first something very important! The MJSS protective mats so that the fins are not exposed to the rough ground. Mario then showed them how to put the fin on properly and by the end, the little mermaids were able to do it on their own. After they had the fins on, they all laid down on their stomachs, propped their faces up with their arms and smiled at the camera. "Say mermaid everyone!" I said and took a picture. The whole room lit up from the roar of the kids. It was quite cute. After that, one by one, they were allowed into the water themselves. They got to swim a length themselves with the fin so we could see if they were using the technique correctly. Everyone did great!  

Mario then made a round around the pool and called everyone to him. Now they were allowed to play with our diving shells, which we developed ourselves. Most of them even knew what to do with them. There were teams of 2 and a team of 3. With the second group it worked out perfectly, since there were eight of them. The mermaids hid the diving shells in the water and then the other one searched for them. To help them, they were allowed to put on swimming goggles. 

After everyone had had a turn, Mario suddenly brought out more diving shells. "Now all of you please close your eyes!" He threw them into the water and the participants were allowed to dive for them. One mermaid ended up with 5 shells in her hand. They all had a great time! 

At the end, the mermaids were allowed to swim on their own. There I had the opportunity to talk to the participants, which I did. I went to the edge of the pool, where there was a little girl named Lilia. What a beautiful name! "Did you like today?" "I really enjoyed today's course," Lilia said. I was happy to hear that. Her friend joined us, too, and I took a nice picture of the two pretty mermaids. As a goodbye, each of them received a small gift from us. They received one of our beautiful waterproof transport bags with a keychain inside, a mermaid swimming passport, stickers, patches to iron on and our mermaid trick cards. They warmly thanked us and gave Mario another high five! I then went with them to the dressing room as I went to get the NUNUI fins for the second group. The second group had older participants with them who needed the bigger fins. Then as they all walked out of the dressing room, one girl said to me, "Bye, I really enjoyed it today!" My heart melted at that moment.  

I found the course very interesting and as they say in Swiss German: very härzig. The area is also beautiful and the participants had fun, that's the most important thing! Every year, the protestant church community Höfe organizes a kids play week, where we offer these mermaid swimming courses. It is always fun to welcome such motivated participants. 

Click here to get directly to the mermaid swimming courses offered by MJSS! If you liked the content of the course, you will also like our advertised courses.