What changes when you systematize skill development?

 

In 30–60 day windows, coaches see:

 

• Better skills that hold up at race speeds

• Simpler, more focused practices (no more “drills to fill time”)

• Faster performances in training and competition from the same or less work

 

If you coach a competitive squad and keep seeing the same skill issues despite more drills and more feedback, this is for you.

 

If you’re a swimmer or parent looking for personal stroke lessons, this page is not for you.

 

Body Position & Propulsion

 

Gunther – Chinook Aquatic Club

 

Coach: Gunther Niklas, Chinook Aquatic Club

 

Problem: Freestyle breathing, head position, arm recovery, and catch weren’t translating from drills to fast swimming.

 

“Before we worked together, I felt that many of my swimmers were under performing… We would perform drills and the swimmers would receive feedback, but the outcomes were not too impressive.”

 

Change: We moved away from stand alone drills and started using constraints inside his sets to give immediate feedback while swimming. The focus was on stabilizing head/body position first, then cleaning up recovery and catch mechanics within real training sets.

 

Result: Gunther’s group saw significant time drops at their next meet once skills were stable and the stroke mechanics actually held up under race conditions.

 

Coach’s words: “After consulting with Andrew, we started utilizing constraints to give the swimmers immediate feedback… The swimmers in my group experienced significant time drops at our last meet.”

 

David – Hammerheads And Koalas

 

Coach: David Hopton, club coach

 

Problem: Group wide freestyle entry and catch issues were limiting speed and efficiency.

 

“I came to Andrew because I felt like my athletes had some consistent problems across the group. Namely, entry issues that made it hard to get into an effective catch.”

 

Change: We focused on improving arm recovery, entry, and catch mechanics across the group and then locked those changes in with repeatable test sets:

 

• 8×100 best average

• 8×100 threshold on fixed rest and RPE

 

Result:

 

• On an 8×100 best average set repeated 6 weeks apart, his athletes dropped their team average by 1.9 seconds, down to 1:09.4.

• One newer swimmer went from 8×100 threshold holding 1:20 on 1:30 at RPE 8/10, to 8×100 holding 1:16.5 on 1:30 at RPE 6.5–7/10.

 

Coach’s words: “In the last month, we’ve seen athletes make significant improvements in their entry and catch, and it’s translated to faster times.”

 

Zo – Body Position, Speed & Propulsion with Limited Time

 

Coach: Zo Rajaofera, Cercle des Nageurs de Quatre Bornes

 

Problem: Swimmers lacked efficient body position and propulsive skill, and with only 90 minute sessions it was hard to create big technical changes that held up at speed.

 

Change: Zo implemented floating/body position work and propulsive drills (hand position, paddles, dog paddle, etc.) almost every day. He built them into warm ups, kick sets, and sprint prep so swimmers were constantly feeling better alignment and pressure instead of just “doing more metres.”

 

Result:

 

• Within the first week, about 60% of the group picked up the floating work and started swimming smoothly on the surface with far less splash and noise.

• Dive and glide distances improved from roughly 8–10 meters to close to 20 meters for some swimmers.

• With only 90 minute sessions, the approach has shifted the program to quality over quantity, making every minute count.

 

Coach’s words: “In just a few weeks I started seeing real changes in my swimmers’ body position. About 60% of the group picked up the floating drills quickly, and you could see them moving smoothly on the surface with far less splash and noise. Some are now gliding close to 20 meters off a dive, and in the 200–400s we’ve already seen drops of around 10 seconds after a few months of focusing on these fundamentals. With only 90 minute sessions, Andrew’s methods have helped me make every minute count – quality over quantity – and I feel like we’re finally on the right track.”

 

Breaststroke Skills: Undulation, Body Line & Pulling

 

Andreas – Breaststroke Hips & Alignment

 

Coach: Andreas Dyb, Tromsø Swim Club

 

Problem: Breaststroke undulation and body line fell apart at speed and under race pressure.

 

“Before working with Andrew, I struggled to develop technical skills that would hold up at higher speeds and under race pressure. The skill I found most challenging was the breaststroke undulation.”

 

Change: We built a focused progression to:

 

• Keep hips high during breathing

• Lift hips effectively during recovery

• Maintain a clean body line throughout the stroke cycle

 

With specific moments and cues so swimmers could feel correct undulation, then progressively made the drills more race specific.

 

Result:

 

• Within three weeks, swimmers showed major improvements in keeping hips high during breathing and recovery.

• Body line was significantly better across the entire stroke, especially at higher speeds.

 

Coach’s words: “The most valuable part of this journey was learning how to give swimmers specific moments and cues that help them feel how a skill should be performed, and then progressively refining those skills to become more and more race specific.”

​

Sara – Breaststroke Pull & Feel Based Skill Work

 

Coach: Sara Landolt, McFarland Spartan Sharks

 

Problem: Overwhelmed trying to fix “all the things” in breaststroke using mostly words and video, without a simple way for swimmers to feel changes and own their pull.

 

Change: Sara shifted to a feel first, constraint based approach for breaststroke. Instead of explaining everything verbally, she used targeted changes in hand position, resistance, stroke count, and time so swimmers could feel differences in their pull and connect those sensations to better mechanics.

 

Result:

 

• One breaststroker immediately noticed a different sensation in his forearms and pull on day one of the new progressions, which made him curious and engaged.

• Swimmers began experimenting with guided changes, understanding which variations helped or hurt their stroke and why.

• Breaststroke sessions went from exhausting, repetitive explanations to collaborative skill experiments, increasing hunger for improvement, trust, and ownership in the group.

 

Coach’s words: “Before working with Andrew I felt overwhelmed trying to fix all the things with my words and video. Over the 30 days he showed me a different approach – helping athletes feel changes in their stroke and improve based on what they feel. For example, one breaststroker used changes in hand position, resistance, and stroke count/time to improve his pull and felt the difference on day one. 

 

Any coach can benefit from equipping swimmers with methods to feel how specific guided changes help or hurt – it’s an effective, powerful combination that creates hunger for more, trust, and ownership.”

​

Bree – Breaststroke Progressions Across Ability Levels

 

Coach: Bree Renz, club coach

 

Problem: Running monthly stroke & turn clinics for 3 groups (ages 4–18) with widely varying abilities, and needing breaststroke strategies, drills, and sets that actually work for everyone. Bree competed in breaststroke herself, but many of her staff dread coaching it.

 

Change: Bree and Andrew built a tiered breaststroke progression:

 

• Grouped swimmers as illegal, near legal, next level, and skilled, with clear criteria for advancing

• Validated existing drills Bree used and added new, feel‑based drills:

  • For kick: jumping on land/in water to feel pushing with full, flat feet; jumping with feet hip‑width apart vs. wide to feel alignment

  • For pull: side‑wall pull and heads‑up breaststroke

  • For timing: underwater breaststroke to coordinate movement sequence

 

This gave her a repeatable structure she can run each month, regardless of who shows up.

 

Result:

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• Coaches now have a clear roadmap for progressing swimmers from illegal to legal and then to higher‑level skill.

• Bree has more confidence that her clinics can serve all levels, not just the middle.

• Clinics are more purposeful: kids advance as they develop, instead of just “doing drills.”

 

Coach’s words: “We have monthly stroke & turn clinics which draw swimmers with a wide range of abilities – three groups, ages 4–18. The challenge is to have strategies, drills, and sets that work with different levels of swimmers. Andrew helped me develop an approach for all the skill levels by splitting swimmers into illegal, near legal, next level, and skilled, and giving me clear drills for each.

 

I’d recommend this to coaches who want to offer more to their swimmers. I’ve coached on and off since high school, but rules and strokes have changed. I’ve used the internet a lot, but working one‑on‑one with someone on specific issues has been invaluable.”

 

Practice Design & Skill Systems

 

Kyle – From Day to Day Practices to a Long Term Training Framework

 

Coach: Kyle Ackland, Waverly Aquatic Club & Waverly High School

 

Problem: The program lacked a clear long term direction. Practices were built day to day without a unifying framework, and skill work wasn’t clearly tied to training outcomes.

 

Change: Working with Andrew, Kyle built a structured macrocycle and practice design framework:

 

• Clarified long term goals and phase by phase training outcomes

• Integrated constraints and skill work directly into main sets instead of isolated drills

• Created a repeatable process for building effective, purposeful practices

 

Result:

 

• Practices became easier to design and more effective, because each session now fits into a clear long term plan.

• Athletes are more engaged and invested, understanding why they’re doing specific drills and sets.

• The structured training plan contributed to four podium finishes at the New York State Meet, and Kyle continues to meet with Andrew several times each year.

 

Coach’s words: “In a world of hot takes and quick fixes, Andrew’s advice is practical, actionable, and technically sound. While his stroke analysis is excellent, the greatest value for our program has been in workout design and macrocycle planning. Prior to working with him, our program lacked a clear long term direction. With his guidance, we built a structured training plan that ultimately resulted in four podium finishes at the New York State Meet. I can’t recommend Coach Sheaff highly enough, and I continue to meet with him several times each year.”

 

Meg – Turning “Drills to Fill Time” Into a System

 

Coach: Meg S., club coach 

 

Problem: Practices were written to fill time instead of systematically developing stroke rate, rhythm, underwater pulls, and making the most of limited swim time.

 

“The context of writing a training protocol surrounded more of filling time than meeting the needs of the athletes… I would see issues I needed/wanted to correct and throw a drill at them. Sometimes it worked. But I did not have a systematic approach… We need to be fast. We cannot afford to be sloppy.”

 

Change: We took the drills she already knew and slotted them into a clear, purposeful progression:

 

• A structure that turned “swimming for an hour” into “training and learning”

• Drills chosen and ordered to specifically improve turnover, rhythm, and underwater pulls

• A simple system that could be repeated and adapted, not reinvented every day

 

Result:

 

• Drills became purposeful, not filler.

• Stroke became more power driven; turnover increased.

• Swimmers moved more efficiently through the pool.

• Times dropped and athletes learned how to swim fast and stay relaxed.

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Coach’s words: “Instead of throwing stuff at the wall, and hoping it would stick, I knew how to use the drills to maximize the training effect to get the results I wanted to see.”

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Championship Prep & Stuck Athletes

 

Hannah – Turning “Stuck” Championship Swims Around Late in the Season

 

Coach: Hannah Saiz, Army West Point

 

Problem: Multiple athletes were “stuck” heading into the final month before championships .  They were giving full effort in practice but not seeing it in results, including a 100 fly swimmer who hadn’t gone a best time in 3 years and was consistently 3+ seconds off.

 

Change:

 

We went beyond symptoms (“that doesn’t look right”) and focused on seeing the stroke with fresh eyes and finding root causes. Hannah used specific technical and constraint based progressions to change how her athletes felt the water, then built practical, simple adjustments into their existing training so they could execute new skills under race pressure.

 

Result:

 

• One 100 fly swimmer who hadn’t hit a PR in 3 years dropped his first best time this season after Hannah implementied the changes.

• Two other swimmers hit massive season bests and gained confidence in their ability to execute skills that had been out of reach weeks before.

• Hannah herself gained confidence in diagnosing problems and reorganizing training to help athletes get unstuck late in the year.

 

Coach’s words: “One of the best things about working with Andrew is getting an opportunity to see swimming with different eyes. As a former high‑level athlete I often felt things coaches couldn’t see; as a coach, I don’t always know where to look to find the root of a problem over the symptoms.

 

I had a kid who hadn’t gone a PR (and had been 3+ seconds off) for 3 years in the 100 fly hit his first best time this season after just 2 weeks of working with Andrew. Two others hit massive season bests and gained confidence in skills that had been out of reach in previous weeks.”

 

Want Similar Results In Your Program?

 

If you coach a competitive squad and keep seeing the same skill issues over and over despite more drills and more feedback, you don’t need more random ideas – you need a simple, repeatable system around ONE key problem.

 

Two ways I can help:

 

1. 30 Day Swim Skill Sprint

 

Fix one big skill development problem and build a plug and play system around it through 3×45 minute 1:1 calls, practice integration, and video review.

 

→ Join the 30 Day Swim Skill Sprint Waitlist

 

2. Deeper Consulting For Teams

 

If you want help building a full skill development system across groups or an entire season, reach out and we can see if a longer engagement makes sense.

 

→ Learn About Team Development