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Yoko Yagishita
Yoko Yagishita exemplifies the spirit of the Virginia Hunt Newman Award and the pioneering, innovative spirit of Virginia herself. Both are little dynamos. Both share a special heart for babies. Both share the foresight, intelligence and conviction to foster teaching methods that allow the tiniest swimmers to grow and learn in their aquatic environment in tear free and positive lessons. Yoko is the first woman to receive the Virginia Hunt Newman Award and the first Asian so honored.
Yoko graduated with two college degrees, the first from Nihon University and the latter from Keio University. She is also a licensed Japan Counseling Association Psychological Counselor.
After college, as a young election campaign reporter, Yoko traveled through-out the provinces of Japan reporting on national political campaigns. Two of the young men she covered, became her friends, and both men eventually served as Prime Minister of Japan. Yoko, under the radio name of Yoko Hamami continued her trail blazing media career as a female disk jockey for Japan National Broadcasting. She interviewed the likes of John Lennon, Jimmy Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Her media career took a sharp turn however with the birth of her son.
It was during baby swim classes that she realized what a wonderful experience it was to spend precious time with her son enjoying the water. So in 1980 Yoko was trained to become a baby swim teacher and received “Baby Swim Instructor “qualification from the Japan Swimming Club Association. In 1990 she was inspired by Virginia Hunt Newman at the World Aquatic Babies conference (WABC) in Tokyo. Yoko adopted a,”wait until the flower blooms” swimming program. In Japan, Yoko introduced her style of teaching in a joyous manner in a parent/child group class format, never forcing her tiny students to perform skills.
Furthering her credentials, Yoko again attended the WABC conference in Melbourne, Australia in 1995. Yoko was inspired by a video showing smiling babies, above and under the water. She was so moved that she eventually made 12 overseas trips to the United States to study, observe and absorb these gentle methods. During her first several years she studied; during the 8 remaining years she acted as a guest teacher in the United States. To finance these two week learning journeys, Yoko worked all night long driving a delivery truck etc. for an entire year, all this in addition to teaching her beloved baby students during the day.
According to Yoko, the Melbourne conference and her broadened perspective on baby swimming world wide changed her life completely. Having been able to reach Virginia Hunt Newman, the mother of baby swimming, and be exposed to those programs that considered the whole child started a new chapter of life for Yoko. She was a woman on a mission to be a part of something wonderful in the lives of children, their parents and in training gentle, patient teachers. Yoko began to realize her dreams. In America, Yoko, speaking only several words of English her first years, communicated with her smile, playfulness and gentle manner. Nothing could stop her, even a bout of cancer which she fought and survived with typical strength and an optimistic attitude. Her positive teaching techniques for babies, while also integrating special needs children into her classes, slowly began to spread to clubs and aquatic programs though-out Japan. She has combined the best of Western technique with Eastern to make a culture and community of nurture, joy and fun for mothers, fathers and their babies.
Today, Yoko has been featured in many Japanese media, including many mothering and baby magazines, such as “Akasugu” and NHK Educational Journal, as well as appearing on “Good Morning Japan”. Yoko now swims three days per week and practices yoga. She has even gone on to conquer the Grand Canyon hiking all the way down, backpacking alone for a week and then hiking all the way back-up. Yoko is also a licensed antique replica doll maker.
Like Virginia Hunt Newman, Yoko is short in stature, but a giant among men. From her beginning teaching days, to today where she is opening baby swim programs for the Tipness group of sports clubs. She has revamped or begun baby swim programs in multiple locations in Tokyo, and in Nagoya, Osaka, Yokohama and Kanto. She is scheduled to open a new program in the prestigious Tokyo National Gymnasium. Yoko has trained over 500 teachers in Japan, creating positive shockwaves through-out the country with countless thousands of happy babies and their parents smiling in the water from coast to coast. Yoko has, bravely and against all odds, given voice to those who have no voice, making Virginia Hunt Newman happy to know that her gentle legacy continues above, as well as below, the surface of the water. |
