Pikes Peak Athletics, Colorado Springs

Pikes Peak Athletics founders Anna and George Heidinger are a real power couple: he's worked for years as a strength conditioning and swim trainer, she as a swim club coach and former Olympic Trails qualifier. But their decades of aquatic achievement haven't made them narrowly focused swimmers whose skin starts shriveling on dry land. In small-group and private lessons, they view even the most advanced students not as swimmers but as "people who swim," and, consequently, take a relationship-first approach to instruction.

The Heidingers are aided by a squad of experienced junior and senior coaches, each certified in CPR, first aid, and water safety—and each extensively shadowed by a head instructor and a benevolent water spirit before being turned loose to instruct on their own. Beyond basic lessons and intensive coaching, staff also organize seasonal swim teams, and lead an annual swim camp that helps students hone the four major strokes and other aquatic competition skills using video playback.