About

Founded in 1966 by Dr. Harvey Barnett, Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) is now the global leader in the industry it pioneered: survival swimming lessons for infants and young children. Our team of more than 1,000 Certified ISR Instructors in more than 20 countries provides the safest and most effective survival swimming lessons available. The ISR Self-Rescue instruction our students receive today is the product of more than 50 years of research and development and has resulted in more than 15 million safe lessons worldwide.

ISR believes that pool fences, supervision, and pool alarms are important parts of a necessary multi-layered approach to drowning prevention. However, traditional lines of defense break down, and the over 4,000 drowning deaths per year bear a grim testament to the fact that traditional approaches are missing a key component: the child. ISR’s core conviction is that the child is the most important part of a drowning prevention strategy.

Children are curious, capable, and have an uncanny ability to overcome obstacles like pool fences; at ISR we take that ability and teach them skills to potentially save themselves if they find themselves in the water alone.

 

Emma Buckler

Hello Parents! My name is Emma Buckler and I look forward to meeting you and working with your child! Here is a little background information about myself personally so you can get to know me better! I have been around the water since I was a child. My childhood home had a pool and we were in the water daily. I moved to Cookeville, TN in 2005, and after moving up here, I was on the Putnam County YMCA Swim Team until middle school. After graduating high school, I started working at the Putnam County YMCA as a Swim instructor in 2018. As I taught there, I became a Lifeguard in 2018, and then in 2019, I became a certified Lifeguard and CPR instructor. While lifeguarding one day in 2018, Lisa King, RN and Senior Master Instructor with ISR, came in and taught lessons and I fell in love with how she taught. Lisa came back again in 2019 and I asked her how I could become an ISR instructor myself.


In January 2020, I started my 8-month intensive training to become an ISR instructor to teach to the best of my ability! I have been teaching ISR lessons ever since. I have always loved the water and it has been such a big part of my life—through swimming or going to the lake or even the beach. The water is my happy place and oasis. I cannot wait to have the opportunity for your child to love the water as much as I do. Water safety and competence are so important for each child to learn because it truly is a self-rescue, life-saving skill. Since then, I have taught over 300 children in the Upper Cumberland so far and cannot wait to serve this region more!

-Emma Buckler, Certified ISR Instructor, Owner Upper Cumberland ISR

Jessica Parker

I am Jessica parker! I would love to tell you about myself and my family so you can get to know me a little better! I was born and raised in south Florida where I found my love for the water. If we weren’t at the beach or on the boat I would be playing in my backyard pool pretty much year-round. I gladly call TN home now and enjoy all there is to offer! I have two kiddos that I have passed down the love of water to and are both fully skilled in ISR! My daughter started ISR at nine months and my son started at three. They are the reason I found ISR. I started searching our area for a good swim class and it all fell short until I convinced an ISR instructor to come teach here in Cookeville! After that I was hooked by the progress my children were making and how they became awesome aquatic problem solvers. After watching it unfold from the sidelines for a few years I decided I wanted to be able to help children find their love for the water while also learning amazing aquatic problem solving skills. I love getting to see them grow tremendously in the water after every lesson! I am so excited to be able to teach your children the love and safety of the water!

- Jessica Parker, Certified ISR Instructor, Owner of The Freckled Fish Swim School https://www.facebook.com/thefreckledfishswimschoolllc/

Is your swim instructor a Certified ISR Instructor?

There are many instructors who say they teach ISR techniques, however, unless they are listed on the ISR Instructor locator on the official ISR website and meet the criteria below, they are NOT Certified ISR Instructors.

All Certified ISR Instructors:

  • Have an email address ending in @infantswim.com

  • Can provide parents with a copy of their current ISR Certificate for review

  • Offer lessons five consecutive days per week, for a maximum of 10 minutes each day

  • Will require your child to be registered through ISR’s Online Registration Process and approved to begin lessons by our Registration Evaluation Team (approval email will come from an email address ending in @infantswim.com)

  • Complete the Daily BUDS Discussion form with you prior to each lesson

  • Can be found on the instructor locator at locator.infantswim.com