Fun Fact about coach Katya: She has a Russian accent but she is not Russian
Katerina Gakhokidze
Katya was born and raised in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She is the oldest of 5 kids in the Gakhokidze family. Katya started swimming at age of 4. In her swimming career, Katya was a former member of the Kazakh National Swimming Team. Katya became an international-level athlete with multiple honors and achievements.
Baby Swimming
Toddlers will have various levels of readiness for swimming, which will depend in part on how comfortable they are in the water. Swimming lessons for baby should not be forced, especially with children who are afraid of getting in the water. Like everything else your baby has learned and accomplished, they will be ready to learn to swim on their own timeline.
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Kids & Teens Swimming
We are skilled at creating an enjoyable and inviting environment for younger children that will keep them interested and motivated to improve. Older children and teens training as competitive swimmers who may occasionally get frustrated or experience moments of self-doubt will find that we have a knack for keeping them motivated and wanting to continue moving forward in their development.
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Competitive Swimming
For those of any age or skill level interested in competitive swimming, we have excellent coaches to help you hone your skills and improve your performance. We have a fluid coaching style that we adapt to the individual student. We can help students master the foundational aspects of body mechanics, breathing, and stroke technique and take those skills to a competitive level.
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Adult Swimming
Adults learning to swim for the first time can find it a real challenge. Adults who are uncomfortable around the water may have negative associations or anxiety that must be overcome. This can make the process as much of a psychological process as it is a physical one. We have worked with first-time adult swimming students of all ages.
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Experience
Katya brought to her team a dozen medals from Asian Swimming Championships, Indoor Asian Games, and European Grand Prix. Katya is a sprinter. Her best events were 50/ 100 Freestyle, 50/100 Backstroke, and 50/100 Butterfly. In the off-season, Katya was doing Open Water swimming. In May 2014 Katya graduated with a Sports Physiology/Coach bachelor's degree at Kazakh National University named after Al-Farabi.
Life Before Moving To The USA
2013-2014
Life During College
2015-2017
Current Career
2017-2022
Additional Information
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Life Before Before Moving To The USA
Before moving to the USA, she worked as an aqua instructor and private swimming coach at World Class Almaty. Katya worked on developing and improving the learning and technical swimming skills of swimmers of all ages. She also worked with special needs students. Katya had created several aqua aerobics programs, as a prenatal aqua program for pregnant women.
Life During College
Back in 2015, Katya got invited to join D2 school as an international athlete student. In 2017 Katya graduated from the University of Bridgeport. She majored in Mass Communication with a concentration in Advertising. In her senior year, Katya was the captain of the University of Bridgeport Women’s Swim Team. Katya was honored with Academic Merit Scholarship 2015, Dean’s list Fall 2015, President’s list Spring 2016. As
a UB swimmer, she achieved NCAA Division II Scholar All-America Honoree and was 2-times East Coast Conference Champion.
Current Career
In 2017, Katya joined Chelsea Piers Aquatic Club as a part-time assistant coach and swim teacher. In 4 years at CPAC, Katya has become an age group coach, Master’s coach, and she was an assistant coach for the senior group. Katya was responsible for
the development of the age group program where she led swimmers to qualify for Junior Nationals, Nationals, and Olympic trials.
Additional Information
Coaching philosophy: I try to make my work simple, and joyful. So, let’s swim smart - and hard!
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