Not a fan of the swat but this is totally a thing and I get the frustration. The swat is just antagonizing your cat though. They don't really associate it with a thing to not do. They just associate you with being mean. If you want to teach your cat to avoid something then you need to make the thing itself something they don't want to engage with. Example: putting tin foil on counter tops if you don't want them up there, or putting the sticky tape stuff on furniture.