Interested in being a Dragon?  

Contact Head Coach Chris Sheppard to inquire.  chris@charlesriveraquatics.com

The Charles River Aquatics Dragons are committed to helping team members develop life skills through swimming. Our objective is to provide an atmosphere conducive to development and growth for individuals of all ages. We foster sportsmanship and fair play, and demand respect for others on the team and in the larger community, while instilling in our members a love for the sport of swimming.

The Dragons encourage the growth of the swimmer as a whole person by developing the following:

• Priorities-family, academics, swimming
• Self-discipline-hard work, time management, dedication
• Sportsmanship-teamwork, character and integrity
• Competition-with oneself and others
• Self-improvement-goal setting and achievement

The most unique aspect of the Dragons program is our focus on technique. It is often very enticing to a swimmer/coach/parent to try to go as fast as possible as soon as possible without laying down the proper foundation, and many swimmers can see early success in the pool without proper technical ability. However, this early success eventually leads to plateaus and sometimes even declines in speed and ability. At CRA we want to foster long term success for all our swimmers. The best way to achieve this goal is by teaching proper technique from the beginning and continuing to focus on technique with extensive drilling and education throughout a swimmer’s career. This is why you will not see "doggy paddle" or "ice cream scoops" taught in the CRA Swim Lessons. Another main goal of the Dragons is to provide high caliber training. Many programs focus on training at the expense of technique. This is where the Dragons stand out. Our coaches design practices and workouts that encourage proper endurance training at the same time as focusing on technique. We do not sacrifice good form to swim that extra length. To paraphrase a favorite coaches’ idiom, ‘practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.’ The best swimmers in the world not only have the fastest strokes, but they also have the most efficient strokes. At all levels of CRA we teach the most efficient, modern stroke technique, and work to maintain that technique over longer and longer training periods as swimmers progress. Our program appropriately balances and integrates the need for both technique and training into every level of the Dragons.