Private Stroke Development

Our Stroke Development Program

Whether students goals are to be in the Olympics, to get a swimming scholarship to college, to improve open water swimming, or simply to swim efficiently for fun and a lifetime of healthy exercise, our goal is for them to develop strokes from an understanding that the easiest source of energy are the hips and torso, the body’s powerhouse. As we can see in athletes who excel in many other sports such as throwing a football or baseball, swinging a golf club, baseball bat, tennis racket, shot put, discus or javelin, rowing crew, diving, skating, rollerblading- the body’s greatest source of potential energy is in the large muscle groups of the hips and torso. Power and fluidity in all of these sports is derived from torsion/rotational energy. This is also the best source of energy in swimming as rotational momentum allows swimmers to slip/glide through the water resulting in maximal return for energy output.

• At Sarah’s School of Fish, we begin training students when infants in our safety technique of rolling over. Our highly-trained instructors move swimmers bodies in the most efficient way to roll over using minimal arm and leg motion which teaches their muscles to rotate. Swimmers also begin to subconsciously develop an understanding of buoyancy and balance allowing them to swim effortlessly and float in the water like a jellyfish.
• With development of coordination, children who continue in their lessons can develop a roll-over technique that is much like a rocket spinning. Some 3-year olds can push off, glide and roll over traveling over 10 feet without even kicking because of the efficiency of their movement through the water. Because 6 months is a large portion of a small child’s life it is very important that children take maintenance lessons during the winter months in order to maintain safety and technique.
• As swimmers continue in our program, many 4-year olds can swim freestyle and backstroke with good rotation, as well as move very quickly through the water in a wavelike motion generated in the torso and continued through the hips that is the basis for efficient breaststroke and butterfly. Some 4-year olds can swim a beautiful butterfly.
• Older students with or without swimming experience can understand the concepts much better and master the skills for efficient swimming more quickly under the tutelage of our experienced instructors. Almost all students who come into our program can reduce the number of strokes it takes them to swim the length of the pool by at least 1/3 using significantly less energy. These techniques are incredibly beneficial even for our students in their 70′s. It is never too late to learn to swim like a fish!
• Additionally, this rotational swimming puts much less strain on joints enabling our students to be able to perform healthy exercise their entire lives.