I have known the Strong Family a long time, during my twelve years at Bancroft’s School, ‘Mrs Strong’ a colleague, and I’ve taught the girls since they were 7. Sarah and David are both old Bancroftians.
David has always been a keen sportsman, enjoying his regular weekend Hockey matches. In 2023 David had an impactful accident on the hockey pitch that led to a catastrophic Ischaemic stroke. A result of a dissected corotid artery. The accident caused a 25% left side brain injury, which has affected the right side of David’s body, both arms and legs and left him with aphasia, meaning he has difficulty in speaking and understanding language.
After a long stay in hospital and intensive rehabilitation to get David back on his feet, Sarah got in touch. David was now able to walk again, and gaining in confidence and Sarah was keen to see if swimming, which David had once loved could help with his recovery. I have not worked with a stroke survivor before, and it’s certainly not an area of expertise, but wanted to do everything I could to help.
We have had four sessions so far, and in this time we quickly discovered that although he has very limited movement on his right side he could rotate around his spine, and could tune in to the rotational energy that is so important in frontcrawl.
Away from the pool I have been learning to ‘Flow a Rope’ doing an online course with the Way of the Rope and had been practicing for 5 months when David and I had our first lesson, each progressive practice you learn a new functional movement pattern, where the rope helps guide you and in time the rope allows you to move with greater fluidity. I have certainly felt the mental challenge of learning new patterns and the problem solving to figure out why the rope clips you around the head or ankles. The practice offers numerous health benefits, including improved mobility, coordination, balance, increased strength and focus.
Knowing that David could move around his spine, I felt confident that not only would swimming be great for David, but trying the rope would be too. I was a little nervous I was setting David up to fail, and he did look at me with a sceptical smile not sure he’d be able to do the first of the moves that I had learnt. David did take a few attempts to get the rope moving, we positioned his hands so that the left side of his body could guide the right. What happened over the next 10 mins blew us all. David has been a keen sportsman all his life and he still had movement pathways in his body, David started to move in a way that he didn’t think possible, enjoying the movement around his spine and finding a more balance movement between his left and right sides.
In the pool David was able to find a fantastic balanced line on the left side of his body and with a strong brain to body intention he could get the right side of his body to drive and rotate, week after week, David could get a little more movement forward on his right arm.
What we achieved in 4 lessons, is just the start as we will be spending more time together over the coming weeks.
Additional advice on swimming following a stroke:
In only four lessons my husband David, who is a stroke survivor, has been given back his love of swimming. Sue put him at ease from day one, played to his strengths, encouraged and supported him and gave him the confidence to swim again. Her calm approach meant he responded to all instructions and felt a sense of achievement every week. He has now grown in strength and with the introduction of a weighted rope, Sue has worked on his posture and balance. We owe you the world, Sue!
Sarah & David Strong