Different Strokes

Longtime swim instructor Ken Taylor knows how to get results.

Written by Nancy Sokoler Steiner  |  Photographed by Micheal Neveux

Standing in the pool guiding his student, 72-year-old Ken Taylor directs the 9-year-old to float on his back, then rotate onto his stomach and swim six strokes toward his instructor. The boy’s mother, Jayme Schoch, smiles and shakes her head. “He used to be so afraid of the water,” she says of her son. “Now he looks forward to lessons.”

“I encourage, never discourage,” says Taylor, a fixture of the South Bay swimming community since he started teaching in 1973. He swam in high school and, after a four-year stint in the Navy, enrolled in classes to learn how to teach the sport. A friend’s mother, also a swim trainer, encouraged him to start teaching babies to swim. There were no male teachers at the time, and Taylor built a reputation as a patient and effective baby instructor.

In the years since, he has trained students of all ages, predominantly children and adolescents. His experiences include coaching the swim teams at Hawthorne, Leuzinger and Narbonne high schools. He worked at South Bay Swim School and with the swim team at South End Racquet and Health Club, where he grew the group from 10 to about 50 members. He has also coached Special Olympians, including one who earned a gold medal in the national competition. Today, Taylor is on staff at the Palos Verdes Beach and Athletic Club (PVBAC), where he also gives private lessons.

Taylor has prepared hundreds of children to pass the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Junior Lifeguard test. Open to youth ages 9 to 17, the test involves swimming 100 yards within a certain time frame. He’s been the Junior Guard prep instructor at PVBAC since he started there in 1996.

“It’s not a picnic,” he warns participants who take the prep class. “It’s always challenging.” Taylor emphasizes stroke and form, starting students at one pool length and working them up beyond the required distance. He teaches them to pace themselves so they don’t run out of steam before they can finish.

Nikki Zamora knew where to turn when her daughter expressed interest in becoming a Junior Lifeguard. “He’s the one to go to,” she says, referring to Taylor. “Everybody knows him.”

She signed her daughter up for private lessons with Taylor to learn the basics. The child could tread water but couldn’t swim freestyle when she started. “He worked on her form, and in the last two or three months, I’ve really seen progress,” says Zamora.

To develop proper positioning of her arms, Taylor has his student hold a hollow tube straight in front of her nose in alternating hands as she completes each stroke. “You gotta reach,” he tells her.

The 9-year-old loves her lessons, reports Zamora, who says her daughter was one of the few to continue taking them through the winter. “I’ve heard he’s tough, but I haven’t seen it. He’s very kind and has a lot of patience.”

In addition to his teaching abilities, Taylor is known for some idiosyncrasies. He used to ride his unicycle the length of the pool and back, paralleling his students, until the practice was discontinued for safety reasons. He wrestled professionally for 10 years on the independent circuit. And when the South End swim team dared him to shave his head and grow a beard if they made California Interscholastic Federation, he complied.

But when it comes to his philosophy of teaching, he grows serious: “I teach from the heart. I think of my students as a piece of clay, and I’m trying to create something that’s going to last them a long time.”