Advancing Stroke Work

The swimming school works through five phases during the stroke development of the swimmer, Pre-Competitive, Novice Level, Level Zero, Level One up to but not including Level Two.

The Pre-Competitive stage is the first step in teaching coordinated, safe and confident movement through water. The focal point is having fun learning the basic mechanics of freestyle and backstroke. Emphasis is placed on a step-by-step progression of drills. Swimmers must learn how to listen attentively to coaches and following stroke instruction. We do lots of kicking to build up aerobic conditioning and efficient technique; we introduce 2-3 basic drills for each stroke. When the coaches feel the group is ready, breaststroke and butterfly drills are introduced along with starts, turns and streamlining skills.

Novice Level is a training group where the emphasizes is on the further development of swimming skills. The focus is on keeping the sessions fun so that kids will want to stay in the water year-round and develop a good feel for the water. We stress fundamental swimming skills: sculling, turns, kicking, underwater efficiency and distance-per-stroke. Participation in other sports and activities is encouraged to enable a well-rounded athletic education. We teach young people to love the water and have fun learning how to master the fundamental skills.