How do you know that your legacy is secure? When you’re more known as a brand than as a person, and when your children continue your path, taking it beyond what you initially envisioned, professionalizing your programs, and multiplying your success. Then you know you will never be forgotten. As a young reporter in the 1980’s, this writer met Remberto Lozada, the indefatigable visionary who saw the potential of swimming not just as a competitive sport, but as a tool for a better quality of life. Simple, caring, determined, Tito Bert innovated the way swimming is taught in the Philippines, creating systems that have helped hundreds of thousands of children overcome their fears of the water. The platforms he crafted out of plastic pipes have helped toddlers and little kids safely, securely get into the water for their first lessons, and have been copied by other swimming institutions. Most importantly, the skills he’s passed on have probably saved thousands of lives since he first started at the Manila YMCA in 1956.
A champion swimmer, Lozada started out teaching in homes, sports clubs and private villages, becoming a champion coach in the process. Highlights of his career include being Philippine national coach for the 1991 SEA Games in the country. His programs have produced seven Olympians to date, and international champions like Ryan Papa, Eric Buhain and Roselle Papa. The Bert Lozada Swim School was incorporated in 2002. In 2005, the Philippine Marketing Association named BLSS Best Swim School. In 2009, the United States Swim School Conference also gave them an award. Now, Bert Lozada Swim School (BLSS) is the largest, best-managed swim school in the country, teaching in over 40 locations throughout Luzon and the Visayas, from Batangas to Pangasinan to Bacolod. They are affiliated with the most credible swimming organizations in the world, from the US to Australia and other countries.
Swimming is a valuable life skill that is mandatory in high schools in flood-prone areas of the Philippines. You don’t need any equipment; just find a body of water. In an archipelago, that’s easy. Now, after a long hiatus forced by the pandemic, BLSS has consolidated and refined its programs into WeSwim.
“WeSwim aims to inspire every individual – regardless of age, shape, race, status in life, or ability level – to take action and learn the life skill of swimming,” explains Angelo Lozada, BLSS COO. “With our country surrounded by bodies of water, swimming is a skill that every Filipino must have. Otherwise, lives are put at risk – not just ours but those of others, too.”
From initiating children into the sport, their programs now range from babies to competitive athletes, triathletes and open water swimmers (PowerSwim). They train people to swim for fun, health and safety, and coach varsity teams and help students from schools without swim teams to compete. Taking it a step further, BLSS has developed programs for children to overcome water trauma (Conquer Aquaphobia), a real concern among parents. BLSS is connected with the Philippine Medical Association.
The general public usually becomes aware of swimming’s importance during summer, this time of year. But there are so many benefits to being able to do it year-round. It provides relief for stress, helps one stay calm, strengthens the lungs and cardiovascular system. (This writer needed to swim every day for two years as a child to overcome asthma.) Mentally, swimming gives one confidence to tread into the unknown without feeling overwhelmed, and empowers the ability to stay focused. Swimming is one of the pillars of international sports, and is one of the most high-profile and medal-rich events of the Olympic movement. Thanks to Bert Lozada – the man and the brand – the Philippines is irreversibly safer, stronger and healthier than it would have been without his contributions. Look up the Bert Lozada Swim School on all their social media accounts, and through 8563-5532 or 0917-700 SWIM (7946).