Non-swimmer to TWO miles with The Water Whisperer Gail Rickett

5-year-old Bella Dixon has completed her 2 mile non-stop distance swim and not only has her eye on completing five miles non-stop; Bella has also started to train for triathlons! Gail says, “Bella is one of the most amazing little athletes I have been lucky to meet and help train, Bella also takes part in combat sports and several other sporting activities, I think we just may have an Olympian in the making,” Gail adds, “Belle’s mum and dad are wonderful supporting Bella at all her weekly sporting activities. Si Dixon helps out at one of the local clubs to coaching Bella with Taekwondo.”

Bella also has famous Olympic Champions following her on social media, there’s Jodie Stimpson who is a Team GB triathlete, Wayne McCullough WBC World Boxing Champion and Claire Howard who is TEAM GB Taekwondo coach.

In just a year of training from starting swimming lessons as a non swimmer with Gail, who has appeared on television a few times and is known as The ‘Water Whisperer’ due to her amazing results with her pupils; Bella has learned front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke of which she can swim all strokes to a good standard for a long distance and Bella’s butterfly is coming on nicely. Bella swum her one mile distance swim with Patricia who also went from a non swimmer to swimming five miles in a few months. When Bella saw how well Patricia did, Bella caught the bug for long distance swimming and wanted to try for her two miles distance swim. Gail tells us, ‘a child has to want to swim a long distance, I don’t hold them back if I feel they are ready and they will complete it. Of course, there’s a lot of training during my swimming lessons which goes into it, I have had the occasional older pupil who has not been keen to swim longer distances, say over 200 meters, so I work with what they are happy to do. I see massive achievements in Bella’s future as she is so talented and dedicated for a young child.”

If you would like swimming lessons or have your child improve their swimming skills please do contact Gail on ‪0744 913 5450‬ or visit and add Gail at

Classes are in Southport on Fridays after school and there is a Mum / Dad & Baby / Toddler Classes, and swimming lessons in Ormskirk on Saturday Mornings and in Wigan on Sundays.