For swimmers who can swim, but fight the water.
Two lengths and they are out of breath. The stroke looks busy and goes nowhere. Our senior coaches rebuild technique one piece at a time — catch, kick, breathing, timing — with feedback clear enough for a swimmer to act on immediately.
Signs a swimmer has plateaued
Plateaus rarely announce themselves. Lessons keep happening, the child keeps swimming, and nothing much changes for a year. These are the usual tells:
- They are exhausted after two lengths but not otherwise unfit.
- They lift their head forward to breathe rather than rotating to the side.
- Their legs sink, so the kick becomes about staying up rather than moving forward.
- The stroke rate is frantic — lots of arms, not much distance per stroke.
- They have been in the same class level for a year and nobody has said why.
Every one of those is a technique problem with a specific fix. None of them is solved by swimming more lengths, which is what most swimmers try first.
The four things we work on
Roughly in this order, because fixing them out of order wastes lessons.
Body position
Where the hips and legs sit relative to the surface. A swimmer dragging their lower half through the water is pulling a parachute, and no amount of arm strength fixes it. This is almost always the first and biggest gain.
The catch
What the hand and forearm do in the first third of the stroke. Most swimmers push water down and backwards at the wrong angle, which lifts them rather than moving them. Fixing the catch is what turns effort into distance.
Breathing
When the breath happens and what the head does to take it. Lifting the head forward sinks the legs, which ruins body position, which is why this is fixed early. Rotation, timing, and breathing on both sides where it is useful.
Kick and timing
Kick from the hip rather than the knee, and the coordination that ties arms, legs and breath into one movement instead of three competing ones. This is last because it only holds once the first three are stable.
How a session runs
The trial lesson is mostly diagnostic. The coach will ask the swimmer to do what they normally do, from several angles and at a couple of speeds, and then tell you what they saw in plain language — not "work on your catch" but "your right hand crosses the centre line, which is why you roll and why you are tired by length two".
After that, sessions are built around one or two changes at a time with immediate feedback after each attempt. Progress is not linear: a stroke usually gets worse for a week before it gets better, because the swimmer is thinking about something they used to do automatically. We tell you that in advance so it does not read as failure.
What we will not do is promise a time. If a swimmer needs a specific standard for a tryout, we will tell you honestly whether the timeline is realistic rather than sell you the block of lessons and find out together.
coaches, with the senior ones on technique
Stroke correction is put with coaches who have competitive or squad backgrounds — the ones who have had their own stroke pulled apart and know what the feedback should sound like. Certifications across the team include AustSwim, SSI and ASCA, plus lifesaving and CPR + AED. Meet the coaches →
Common questions
How is this different from ordinary swimming lessons?
Learn-to-swim answers "can they get from one end to the other". Stroke correction assumes they can, and asks why it costs them so much to do it.
Practically that means a lesson is spent on much smaller pieces — one arm, one breath, one body position — repeated with feedback after each attempt. It is less varied than a beginner lesson and considerably more demanding to concentrate through.
What do you actually look at?
Four things, roughly in this order of impact: body position in the water, the catch (what the hand and forearm do at the front of the stroke), breathing timing, and the kick.
Most swimmers assume their problem is the kick or a lack of fitness. It usually is not. Legs that sink and a head that lifts to breathe create far more drag than a weak kick, and both are fixable in a way that stamina is not.
Do you film the swimmer?
Only with your written permission, and for children only with a parent’s. Video is a genuinely useful teaching tool for technique — a swimmer who is told their elbow drops will nod, and a swimmer who sees it drops it less next length.
If you would rather we did not, we do not, and it changes nothing else about the lesson. Any footage we do take is for the coach and the family and is never published anywhere without a separate, specific permission.
How long before there is a visible difference?
A single well-taught change — usually head position or breathing timing — often shows within one or two lessons, and it can feel dramatic because it is the first time swimming has felt easy.
Making it permanent takes longer. A stroke habit built over five years does not unbuild in three lessons, and it will fall apart the first few times the swimmer gets tired. That is normal, not a setback, and the coach will tell you when to expect it.
Which strokes do you coach?
Freestyle and backstroke for almost everyone, because they are where the biggest gains are and where most swimmers have the worst habits. Breaststroke commonly, especially for swimmers whose kick is doing nothing or whose knees hurt afterwards. Butterfly for swimmers who already have a solid freestyle and a reason to want it.
If you are preparing for a specific school or squad requirement, tell us which strokes and distances it involves and we will work backwards from that.
Is this for squad or school-team preparation?
It is a common reason people book it. We can work towards a tryout, a distance, or a time the swimmer needs to hit, and be honest with you about whether the timeline is realistic.
We are a coaching service rather than a competitive squad, so we do not run training programmes or attend meets. What we do well is fix the technique a squad will otherwise spend a season working around.
Can adults book stroke correction?
Yes, and adults are often the most rewarding swimmers to do it with, because they can act on a precise instruction immediately. See adult swimming lessons for how those sessions are structured.
The same terms as everything else we do: start with one trial lesson and watch it from the poolside. We quote your rate in writing first, lessons are paid in small blocks rather than upfront packages, and 24 hours’ notice moves a lesson instead of losing it. If the coach is not right for you, we will match you with a different one — or you simply do not continue.
Tell us what the stroke looks like now.
Describe what you are seeing — out of breath after two lengths, legs sinking, stuck at the same level for a year. We reply within one business day.