Poor technique means that many swimmers gain little benefit from time spent in the water and some may even do themselves more harm than good.

Art of Swimming pupils develop a swimming style which looks, feels and is more efficient and comfortable. This in turn enables them to swim further, improving general levels of fitness.

As with the Alexander Technique, our innovative teaching process develops core learning skills, applicable to a wide range of daily activities. Our pupils report:

    • Improved poise and body awareness.

    • Better balance, co-ordination and breathing.

    • Increased flexibility, strength and vitality.

    • Enhanced aquatic enjoyment and self confidence.

    • Stress relief, as swimming is transformed into a meditative activity.

“We have just returned from holiday in Greece, our first opportunity to put our Shaw Method to the test in a long sea swim. It was wonderful, we were both able to swim longer distances effortlessly. Our swimming has been transformed by your teaching.” Allan and Pauline Maude

“Very carefully constructed, learning each piece and repeating until everyone could move on to the next. I really liked the light hearted way in which we learned.” Clare Martin, workshop attendee

“Learning to swim with my face in the water has been liberating, exhilarating and a great way to build confidence.” Charlotte Parry Crooke, Gozo swimming holiday

“I would like to thank you both for such an excellent workshop on the 3rd October. I found the whole concept an inspiration and look forward to putting everything I learned into practice.”
“It was a most enjoyable day and I hope to take up lessons as Swiss Cottage in a month or so.”  Linda Lawrence

“Thank you for my lessons yesterday. I returned home feeling really glad that I had come, and even more determined to go to the pool most days to practise your method. After years of floundering around doing a particular stroke it will take a while to unlearn bad habits – but I shall do it. You are a remarkably patient man. I am sure you have few pupils as slow to learn as me.”
“A special thank you too for taking me to see 199 Alexandra Park Road. It brought back many happy memories. I spent an hour or two looking through old photos taken in the garden there last evening. Lovely carefree days!”
“I look forward to meeting you again either at a ‘follow-up’ workshop, a ‘follow-up’ lesson or perhaps Egypt.”  Nora Kimmis

“The whole experience was completely fantastic and has inspired me to continue with Shaw Method – having been a bit sceptical I can now see this is the only way to swim. I love swimming even more, which I didn’t think was possible.”  Kath McClinton

“Thank you very much for all the wonderful sessions and support. I thoroughly enjoyed them."  Chie Cross

"Many thanks for all your efforts I have just completed 2 courses at Ironmonger Row and am amazed how quickly I relearnt the breaststroke and how much I’m enjoying this new way of swimming."  Ros Newnham

“I found yesterday was extremely useful, and whilst I didn’t achieve ‘the length’ on this occasion, maybe next time, after lots of practice I will!! Many thanks for my long awaited “breakthrough.”  Cherry Clidge

“Living with MS means that I’m always looking for new ways to look after myself, and I would say this is a fabulous new addition. I did the course yesterday, and by the end of the day felt very tired, and wasn’t at all confident that I’d achieved enough to make a real difference. It turns out I was wrong. The whole experience was so utterly different from how it used to be and the results are certainly clearer now. I felt so good and so invigorated afterwards that now I think this will make a real difference to my life. I look forward to the follow up half day. Many thanks.”  Susanna Scouller

“As a small child, I had private tuition occasionally on holiday. I attended school lessons throughout my school years and as an adult I was taught by a professional swimming coach when I played the part of an ex-Olympic swimmer in a TV series. However, when I met Steven I could not even float on my back, such was my fear. His approach is completely different to any other teaching I have experienced. Firstly, he is in the water with you, secondly, he addresses the fear of water and deals with it before teaching any strokes and thirdly by applying the principles of the Alexander Technique, which makes complete sense in terms of the safest and most efficient body alignment. Steven has taught me with real skill, working at my pace, giving me a sense of progress with each lesson. To my intense delight, I can swim and more than that, I love being in the water. I feel very strongly that teaching of this quality should be available for children and adults throughout the country.”  Lindsay Duncan

“I found the workshop inspiring and very exciting, and am experimenting in my adult swimming classes. Many thanks.”  Esther Silverton

“I would like to thank you and Limor for your fascinating workshop yesterday. It lived up to all my expectations after reading your book and watching the video, which make a truly significant contribution to the all too few really helpful books on swimming, AND just the enjoyment of the water. Most older people seem to find the crawl too energetic for more than a length or two at a time. Yet logically it is more efficient and CAN be more relaxing than other strokes. I think you have given me the answer. Keep up the good work.”  James – Holly Lodge School

“I would like to say thank you very very much to you and Catherine – I enjoyed the lessons enormously. Now that I’ve taken the plunge, so to speak and took myself off to the main pool at Swiss Cottage last week, I shall go as often as possible.”  Myra Green

“The Aqua Development Programme was established in January 1996. The programme is based around the Club’s state-of-the-art 25 metre ozone-treated pool and has proved to be an unqualified success. It has enhanced the Club’s reputation and appeal, helping to attract new members to the Club and receiving high praise from its participants. My own experience of Steven Shaw’s method and teaching has given me a personal insight into the reason for the programmes’ popularity and success. The teaching is focussed, sympathetic and of a consistently high standard, making an hour in the water both instructive and pleasurable.”  Andrew Barker

“Thanks for an excellent workshop today. I really feel I’m getting somewhere now. It may not appear very elegant to the outsider, but it makes me feel great!”  Marion Goldsmith

“On behalf of the Physiotherapist Department I would like to thank you so very much for the informative and innovative talk you gave us yesterday. Your principles of movement facilitation appear to be so relevant to much of our work and we look forward to liasing with you further in the future.”  Marion Goldsmith

“Thank you for an amazing swimming lesson. I felt so relaxed afterwards – it was like a deep meditation.”  Margot Camp

“Since taking part in a workshop in 1999, I can now swim in any pool, without fear and panicking. I am now ready to confront my fear of swimming in the sea!”  Kate Crowley

“In a matter of weeks Steven Shaw taught me how to swim. This was no mean achievement in my 66th year. To say that he taught me to swim, however, does not sufficiently express what that teaching involved. Previously, I had managed to splash about in the swimming pool, but with scarcely controlled anxieties, and no real pleasure. He was able to replace my anxieties with feelings of relaxed enjoyment in the sensation of being in the water and a new freedom of movement that I now see as the true attraction and benefit of swimming. My impression was less that of learning a new skill, and more of discovering something instinctual that I had lost. I remain very grateful.”  Professor Marshall Marinker

“I have benefited immensely from the important work which Steven Shaw is doing and the therapeutic value of this work should be widely available.” Bernie Grant MP

“Steven Shaw’s swimming lessons are a world away from the one width thrashes of my youth. And it has taken me a lifetime to unlearn those swimming habits, which despite propelling me briefly into competitive swimming, did nothing for my posture or my chronic back pain. There is a yawning gap between conventional swimming instruction and the deep understanding of the human interaction with water practised by Steven Shaw and his colleagues."  Vivienne Party – Writer and Broadcaster

“Thank you to you all for the time you gave us on Sunday afternoon introducing us to the ‘Art of Swimming’. Whoever would have thought that five training Alexander Technique bods from Karen Wentworth’s Training Centre could share in an integrated activity and still come out in our entirety with a head, neck, back relationship – “Bloody Marvellous!!!” Discoveries? You bet…….”  Julie McSherry

“This summer (and last) I was in a place in the US for 2 weeks where I had the blissful opportunity to swim twice a day in a large warm lake. I thought of you and wanted to express my appreciation for what I learnt in the 3 days with you and one subsequent lesson with Ian. I thought I loved swimming before but NOW the experience of ease and power is much more and its much easier to stay connected to every part of the movement knowing a bit clearer what to focus on.”  Lucia Walker

“We wanted to express to you both our grateful thanks for a thoroughly enjoyable learning experience. We really felt the private lesson helped us to build individually on the work in the workshop, and then consolidation and experience of the crawl in Limor’s group rounded off a lovely weekend. We will be back in our local pool tomorrow and know we will enjoy swimming more because of your teaching. Thank you for helping us both to begin to let go of our fears of the water, and to explore and enjoy it.”  Judith Allen & Wendy Cutting