A personal coach or small group is probably the best way to learn how to swim with a proper freestyle (front crawl) technique. If you’re overwhelmed with all the details of freestyle, you can probably manage with a decent breaststroke or sidestroke. Both of these strokes will serve you well, just not as efficiently as a front crawl.
Freestyle Coaches in Orange County
If you’re in Orange County and want to learn proper freestyle swim technique, the following coaches are recommended:
Ingrid Loos Miller: fearlessendurance.com
Ingrid is a swim coach with a strong triathlon background. Currently, she’s the director of Fearless Endurance, a triathlon team based in Orange County. Ingrid is a former lifeguard with years of experience helping swimmers with their open water technique. Ingrid has helped coach many Fearless Endurance and other athletes with their proper open water swimming technique.
She is a qualified Total Immersion swim instructor as well.
Matt Olaya: trainingwithmatt.com
Matt is a personal trainer who trains dozens of people annually how to swim. Having competed as a swimmer at Cal-State Northridge, he knows the proper technique for swimming. His years of experience both as a personal trainer and teaching people how to swim can help you accelerate your learning to swim freestyle.
There are also other open water swim groups in Orange County including Merpeople (on FB) and OC Seals.
Once you can swim comfortable for 300 yards nonstop;swim 1000 yards without difficulty; know how to duck-dive; and be able to tread water for at least 3 minutes, you can join us for a Tower 9 or HB Pier swim.