I didn’t grow up as a swimmer. I found water later in life. 💙
I was born in Teplice, a spa city in the Czech Republic, where water, thermal baths and wellbeing were part of the environment around me.
But surprisingly, I didn’t learn to swim confidently as a child.
My real relationship with water came much later.
I learned to swim as an adult, and once I discovered what it felt like to become comfortable in water, something opened up for me.
I became curious.
What else could the water teach me?
That curiosity took me into scuba diving, and then freediving, where I began exploring breath, depth, stillness and the feeling of being completely immersed.
As a performance artist, I also started exploring the body differently in water.
I brought Butoh and Contact Improvisation into the water, discovering how movement changes when gravity softens and the body can float, spiral, suspend and respond to another person.
Water became more than somewhere to swim.
It became a creative space.
A therapeutic space.
A place for connection.
Over the years, my journey continued through artistic swimming and mermaiding, as well as surf lifesaving and open-water swimming.
At the same time, I became deeply interested in the nurturing and therapeutic possibilities of warm water.
I trained and developed my practice in aquatic bodywork, flotation therapy, Watsu and Aquatic Bodywaves.
Holding another person safely in warm water showed me something incredibly powerful:
Before we learn strokes, distances or techniques, we need to feel safe in water.
That understanding eventually brought me back to swimming — but this time as a teacher.
In 2020, I qualified as a swimming teacher with STA and founded HE AQUATICS Swimming School.
I later continued developing my teaching through the Aqua Sensory approach, particularly for babies, toddlers and preschool children.
And suddenly, all the different parts of my water journey began to connect.
Swimming.
Movement.
Touch.
Breath.
Play.
Creativity.
Confidence.
Safety.
Connection.
Today, my vision for HE AQUATICS is much bigger than simply teaching children how to perform swimming strokes.
I want to help nurture a positive relationship with water from the very beginning of life.
That can begin during pregnancy, when a mother experiences the support and weightlessness of warm water through aquatic bodywork and flotation.
After birth, it continues through Waterborn Bath Babies, introducing newborn babies and their parents to water gently in the security of a warm bath.
Then we move from bath to swimming pool through baby swimming.
From baby swimming into parent-and-preschool swimming, where play, sensory exploration and connection gradually build independence.
And eventually into children’s swimming lessons, where water confidence develops into swimming skills, safety and freedom.
For some children, that journey can continue beyond the swimming pool and into the open water and sea.
From womb → to bath → to pool → to sea. 🌊
I want children to grow up knowing water not as something they should fear, but as an environment they understand and respect.
A place where they can play.
A place where they can move.
A place where they can feel confident.
A place where they can belong.
Perhaps that matters so much to me because I know what it feels like to discover water later in life.
I learned to swim as an adult.
Now I have the privilege of helping children begin that relationship from their very first months — and supporting parents and caregivers to experience that journey alongside them.
Water has taken me from a spa city in the Czech Republic through diving, performance art, aquatic therapy, swimming, lifesaving and the sea.
And somehow, all those different currents have come together in one place:
HE AQUATICS. 💙
A swimming school built around confidence, connection and a lifelong relationship with water.
From womb to bath.
From bath to pool.
From pool to sea.
A lifetime in water. 💙
Images by Helena Eflerova
About the Author: Helena Eflerova
