Turning water lovers into Champs
WELCOME TO
Kiddies Aqua
Swimming Academy
Meet Our Instructors
Nikita Erasmus
Instructor
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Nikita joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2017. She completed her BA Human Movement Science degree at the University of Pretoria (2017).She also served as an English teacher and a swim coach at the Deutsche Internationale Schule Pretoria (DSP) for two years.
During her school years, she participated in several sports codes and was also a member of her school’s Student Council and Leadership Board for four years. Nikita also completed a Level-1 Swimming Foundation and Coaching Course with the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) and a six-week in-house training programme with us. During her university years she completed several netball- and athletics referee- and coaching courses. She also holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
Nikita is a very talented-, hardworking individual who takes her work as a swim coach very seriously. Her natural touch in the water and passion for children allow her swimmers progress at a fast pace. She loves working with children of all ages and excels in all the various phases of the swimming programmes our swim school has to offer.
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Estie Botha
Instructor
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Estie joined Kiddies Aqua in August 2011. She holds a Diploma in IT and is also registered with Swimming South Africa. She also holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school. Estie specializes in the bridging phase between the babies and toddlers, learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers and adult swimming. She won our Golden Towel Award in June 2019.
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Estie bonds strongly with her swimmers and parents. She is very patient in her approach and a superb stroke coach. She is creative and innovative in her thinking and gets her swimmers at a very high level of competency very fast. She delivers quality top school- and provincial swimmers year after year. She always makes her swimming lessons exciting and interesting. She is very passionate about children and her swimming parents regularly express their satisfaction with her coaching and treatment of their children. She is a strong and disciplined worker that always puts her clients’ interests first.
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Karmen Mentz
Instructor & Team Leader
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Karmen joined Kiddies Aqua in September 2017. She holds diplomas in Sport Science, Sport Development, Sport Practice, Sport Psychology, Sport Organization & Administration and Coaching Science (NWU). She is also registered with Swimming South Africa, holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
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Karmen specializes in the bridging phase between the babies and toddlers, learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), adult swimming and stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers. In 2018 she received the award for Best Swimming Instructor.
Karmen is a highly talented- and hard-working swimming coach who understands the mechanics of the sport very well and who is getting her swimmers on a high level of swim competency very fast. She is passionate about swimming with a loveable and friendly personality.
She is also a highly disciplined- and well organized swimming coach who knows what she wants. Her swimmers progress at a fast rate, seeing that she places a strong emphasis on water safety and stroke competency. She teaches them the perfect stroke and makes sure they are 100% swim-ready by the time they enter primary school. She builds strong relationships with her swimmers and parents and always makes their interest a top priority. Her parents regularly express their satisfaction with her service.
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Irene Mokoena
Instructor
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Irene joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2001 (at Aqua Kid Swim School in Nelspruit). She completed Matric and is also registered with Swimming South Africa. She also holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
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Irene specializes in the bridging phase between the babies and toddlers, learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction, adult swimming and special needs kids. She has been a swimming teacher since 2001 when she started with Lizette at her swim school in Nelspruit. In the early 2000’s Irene qualified as one of South Africa’s first Black Learn-to-Swim teachers. She worked for Lizette for eight years before Lizette moved to Pretoria in 2009. She took over various clients and pre-schools from Lizette in Nelspruit and never stopped teaching swimming since then. Irene is also assisting us with most of our Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation projects. In 2018 she received the award for the Most Improved Swimming Instructor.
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Irene is a super coach who learnt her trade through Lizette. She is fluent in seven different languages, including Afrikaans, English, Pedi, Venda, Sotho and Shangaan. She is passionate about swimming and a real mother figure to our swimmers. She is a goal-driven, positive, enthusiastic hard worker and a good communicator. She builds and maintains brilliant relationships with her swimmers and parents. Parents insist that their children must swim with Irene. She is an enthusiastic student of the sport and always tries to stay informed on all the latest developments in swimming.
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Jaimé Myhill
Instructor
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Jaimé joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2017. She is a qualified attorney (LLB) and is also registered with Swimming South Africa. She also holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
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Jaimé works for us only on Saturdays and is specializing in the bridging phase between the babies and toddlers, learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), adult swimming, stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers and special needs kids.
She is an ex-provincial swimmer who participated and won medals at provincial- and national swimming competitions during her primary and high school years. She was a top academic scholar and served on the Dean's merit list and also formed part of the Golden Key Society at the University of Pretoria. Jaimé is also assisting us with most of our Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation projects. She also won our Golden Towel Award (July 2019) and our annual award for Best Positive Spirit (2018).
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Jaimé is much loved by her swimmers and parents. She is a serving person and a brilliant team contributor and inspiration to our entire team.
Carmen Botha
Instructor
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Carmen joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2018. She is currently based in New York on a swim scholarship at St. Francis College (Brooklyn Heights). She studies BSc Criminal Justice and will be completing her degree in May 2022. She is registered with Swimming South Africa and holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates. When back in South Africa, she attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school. Carmen works for us only during her four-month USA summer break (May to August every year).
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She specializes in the learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases) and stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers. Carmen is a top performer in the pool as well as at her university in the USA. She used to be in the Top 5 of all female swimmers in South Africa in various events and has been a national age group swimming champion since the age of seven years, winning medals regularly at national- and provincial swimming competitions. She still holds several Northern Gauteng provincial swimming records. Together with her older sister, Mikal, they still hold several swimming records between them at Afrikaans Hoër Meisieskool in Pretoria.
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She has been included in the Junior South African Youth Swimming Squads since the age of 14-years and has been offered more than 90x swim scholarships from different universities in the USA. She also swam for Mpumalanga- and Gauteng Schools and Gauteng North Province during her whole school career. She won the Victrix Ludorum-award (Best Female Swimmer) every year during her school career and also a few times at the A-League inter-schools gala. She joined the University of North Texas (Dallas, USA) in August 2018 on a student/athlete scholarship, but moved to St. Francis College (New York, USA) in 2019, also on a full student/athlete scholarship. She is swimming for them in the NCAA League (Division 1). She once received the award for Athlete of the Week during her time at the University of North Texas.
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Carmen has got a great touch with the children and loves assisting them to improve in their swimming ability. She enjoys sharing her vast knowledge of competitive swimming with the younger generation of swimmers. Her favorite strokes are the Backstroke and the Breaststroke.
Mikal Botha
Instructor
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Mikal joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2016. She studied B Ed (Early Childhood Development and Psychology) at Oklahoma Christian University (Oklahoma, USA). She is registered with Swimming South Africa and also holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates. She renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
Mikal takes great interest in learning from her mom regarding the Self-Rescue Water Safety Method for babies and will be completing her training as Baby Floating Instructor in January 2022.
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She specializes in the bridging phase between babies and toddlers, learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers and adult swimming. Mikal was a top performer in the pool as well as at university in the USA. She used to be in the Top 10 of all female swimmers in South Africa in various events during her school years, winning medals regularly at national- and provincial swimming competitions. Together with her younger sister, Carmen, they still hold several swimming records between them at Afrikaans Hoër Meisieskool in Pretoria. She has also been included in the South African Junior and Youth Swimming Squads at the age of 14-years and has been offered more than 40x swim scholarships from different universities in the USA. Mikal also swam for Mpumalanga- and Gauteng Schools and Gauteng North Province during her whole school career. She won the Victrix Ludorum for five consecutive years in a row during her high school years. She joined Tampa University (Florida, USA) in August 2017 on a student/athlete scholarship, but moved to Oklahoma Christian University (Oklahoma, USA) in 2018, on a swim scholarship and was participating for them in the NCAA League (Division 2).
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Mikal loves working with the babies and young children and takes great interest in their early development. She has got an excellent touch with the children and loves sharing her vast swimming knowledge with the older swimmers. Her favorite stroke is Backstroke. Like her mom, she is planning to open her own swim school one day.
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Mike Dawson
Instructor
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Mike joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2017. He did a 2-year Diploma in Personal Training (Sharks Rugby Academy). In addition to this, Mike also completed the KZN and International Rugby Board Level 1 Coaching Courses. He is registered with Swimming South Africa and holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates. He renews his Police Clearance every year. He attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
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Mike specializes in learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers and adult swimming. We refer most of our Special Needs Kids to Mike, seeing that he is very gifted working with these special kids.
Mike excelled at rugby, swimming, athletics and water polo during his school years. After school he joined the Sharks Rugby Academy and played rugby for their junior teams. He continued to become an assistant coach at Hillcrest High and also did some Boot Camps at Westville Girls High. Mike is also assisting us with most of our Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation projects.
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Mike has got an unbelievable touch with the children, especially with the Special Needs Kids. He understands them and loves coaching them. He also excels at stroke- and stroke correction coaching, seeing that he was a competitive swimmer himself whilst still at school. Most of our adult swimmers swim with Mike. He is an enthusiastic student of the sport and always wants to improve and expand on his knowledge about swimming. He is always going the extra mile for his clients, teammates and colleagues and no task is too big or too small for him.
Lizandré Lewis
Instructor
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Lizandré joined Kiddies Aqua in November 2019. She moved from a swim school in Klerksdorp to us in Pretoria. She is currently studying B Ed Early Childhood Development through UNISA. She completed a Learn-to-Swim diploma through Swimming South Africa and a six-week in-house training programme with us. She also holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
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Lizandré specializes in learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers and the teaching of special needs kids to be water safe and to swim. Her favorite stroke is Breaststroke and enjoys it most to teach children from 2-4-years of age. Seeing that she is so tiny, the children relate easily to her. They think she is one of them. With her friendly, loving approach, is she achieving excellent results with these little ones.
Imaan Adams
Instructor
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Imaan joined Kiddies Aqua in February 2020. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Psychology and is also a qualified Learn-to-Swim Instructor through Swimming South Africa. She completed a six-week in-house training programme with us. She holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school. During her school career she represented Gauteng Province at the South African Age Group Swimming Championships.
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Imaan is a fantastic swimming instructor with many years’ experience in the industry. She started working at our Tuks branch, but then moved closer to home to our Alberton branch. She is the complete deal when it comes to swimming instructors and with her very gentle approach is she achieving excellent results with her swimmers from a very early age. She has got the ability to take them all the way.
Imaan specializes in the bridging phase between the babies and toddlers, learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers, adult swimming and the teaching of special needs kids to be water safe and to swim. Her favorite stroke is Backstroke and she enjoys teaching children and adults of all ages. She is doing incredible upliftment work in the community of Eldorado Park and is dreaming of opening her own swim school in this community one day
Lizanne Viljoen
Instructor
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Lizanne joined Kiddies Aqua in June 2018. She will be completing a degree in B Ed Foundation Phase at the University of Pretoria in 2022. She completed the Learn-to-Swim Programme with Swimming South Africa and a six-week in-house training programme with us. She holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
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Swimming has been part of Lizanne’s life since her very young school days. She excelled in the sport and was regularly selected for the South African Junior & Youth Swimming Squads during her school career. As senior swimmer, she represented South Africa at the African Swimming Championships (October 2021) where she won gold and bronze in the 200m Butterfly and 100m Butterfly respectively. She currently swims for Tuks Swimming Club. She understands the sport of Swimming very well and the hard work it takes to perform at the highest level.
Jackie de Sousa
Instructor
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Jackie joined Kiddies Aqua in April 2022. She completed her BA Human Movement Science degree at the University of Pretoria (2003). She then went on to complete her post graduate certificate in education (UNISA) in 2005. She taught Physical Education and Life Orientation at Pretoria Girls High for 10 years and has been for the last 8 years working at the Deutsche Internationale Schule Pretoria(DSP) as the Head of the Sports Department.
During her school years she participated in several sport codes and played squash at a provincial level and played at a club level long after having finished her schooling. She was also a member of the Schools Representative Council. Jackie is qualified and experienced in coaching hockey, athletics, netball, squash and swimming. She holds a valid First Aid Level 1 and CPR certificate and renews her police clearance every year. She also completed her lifesaving qualification. She is qualified in sports massage therapy(Health and Fitness Professionals Association) and has completed 56 hours of training in the application of muscle monitoring techniques at the International College of Professional Kinesiology Practice. She has three children of her own, one boy and two girls.
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"I love Sports, it has been a big part of my life! I love working with children of all ages. It is important to me that all children find a physical activity that they love. I want to see them become lifelong participants so that they may be able to live with a healthy body and mind and have a good quality of lifestyle far into adulthood." - Jackie
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Lea Smit
Instructor
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Lea is one of our newest members on TEAM KIDDIES AQUA. She joined us in February 2022 and had to complete our 300-hour intensive in-house LTS-training course before she was signed-off as competent and ready to coach for us.
Lea holds certifications in both EMS Personal Training, as well as a 200-hour Vinyasa Yoga qualification.
During her school career, Lea completed more than 200x hours of community service with the Dasha School for Special Needs Children in Nelspruit. She has been a competitive butterfly swimmer throughout her swim career and has also competed in the Midmar Mile (in KZN) on numerous occasions.
She began learning about water safety at the tender age of 12, when she completed her first Lifesaving Level 1-certification.
During her yoga qualification, she was educated on Kiddies Yoga, which included Child Behaviour Management, as well as Child Physiology.
She is well versed in the sport of swimming, yet has a gentle-, loving approach to all her young swimmers. She works well with all age and all-level swimmers, from Learn-to-Swim to Stroke Correction, Gala Preparation and Adult Swimming.
She enjoys cultivating a safe space and trusting relationships with her swimmers and prides herself in her swimmers’ immaculate acceleration in both confidence and skill.