An extraordinary relationship with your swim coach
Carl Rogers, a preeminent American psychologist of the second half of the 20th century, stated, "If I can provide a certain type of relationship, the other person will discover within himself the capacity to use that relationship for growth, and change and personal development will occur" (Rogers, 1961, p.33).
Why learning from the best is not always a good idea.
A study in the US showed that a whopping 91% of swimmers aged between 13 and 25 reported at least one episode of shoulder pain. It's a shocking and completely avoidable statistic. Make sure you are not studying and copying habits which may lead you to add to those figures.
How Are You Feeling?
Your swim coach may well get you to perform a drill and then ask you how it felt. And although that sounds like a simple question it's one that many of us are simply not used to answering with any level of detail.
Robbed of Olympic 100m glory ? The Lance Lawson story
Swimming has never been particularly noted for controversy but that's not to say that it hasn't had its moments.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
The acquisition of new skills is recognised as being as much in the mind as it is in the body. But it is perhaps less obvious that a significant part of this is simply to recognise one's own level of competence.
Wetsuits: a beginners guide
Those that prefer a birthday suit to a wetsuit will tell you that nothing beats the feel of the water directly against the skin. However, for newcomers to cold water swimming, using a wetsuit can be a very useful intermediate step – and one many folk never get past. And there's absolutely no shame in that...
Getting into cold water swimming. And getting out again.
If you stand on the shore, dipping in one toe at a time you'll probably never pluck up the courage to get in. However, to take the “Geronimo” approach and leap with gay abandon from the jetty is equally ill-advised.
Taking the plunge: why you should be cold water swimming
You rarely see someone who has just completed a swim in a freezing river, lake or coastline who isn't grinning like a maniac
Don't worry, swim happy
Factors such as time and strokes per length are so ingrained into our coaching and training that it is easy to think that they are the be-all and end-all when it comes to measuring performance
Filming Swimmers: An Opportunity with Challenges
With heightened awareness of child protection and data privacy rules one has to be mindful of the situations where filming is restricted or simply not allowed. The rules are vital for protecting the rights of the swimmer but there is no doubt that they present difficulties for those people who have legitimate reasons for filming.
Lessons from the Dark Side.
Darth's helmet looks impressive but is massively impractical for day-to-day living, restricting, as it does, both vision and movement. However, for the swimmer this is no bad thing.
Don't pay attention to your hands. But know exactly what they are doing !
Turning off muscles is often more difficult than engaging them. Go to any public pool and you will see hands doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things...
Location!, location!, location!
Surely the whole point of doing drills is to try and repeat the same actions in the same way, over and over, in order to imprint them into ‘muscle memory’, isn’t it? Yes, it is. And this is why you should try changing something else about the drill.
Do SwimMastery Coaches Know ‘The Best Way’ to Teach?
SwimMastery have worked with thousands of people around the world and we’re open to the possibility that some new students could come along and present problems we haven’t tackled before and new ideas will be needed.
Open Water Relief for COVID Effects
However, whilst running and cycling are no longer possible, Louise Buxton has discovered that open water swimming is not only still an option but actually one which relieves her symptoms for a brief period.
Learning How You Learn
The surprising thing is, as per my own experience, the way you initially choose to learn something may not be the optimum way for you to learn it. Therefore, knowing what works for you and what doesn't is invaluable in saving you much time and money.
Don't Hold Your Breath
So why do so many swimmers hold their breath while going along, or even just fail to breathe in the most efficient manner they possibly could? When we are running or cycling we wouldn't do that; we would be taking deep breaths in an out constantly. So why do so many hold breath when swimming ?
Back To Basics For Crossing The Channel
... these can be the more challenging swimmers for a coach to help because of their resistance to confronting anything other than the area they themselves have identified as requiring improvement. But Stu surrendered to Coach Tracey’s expertise, becoming willing to benefit fully from her approach. This allowed her to take into account everything that Stu was currently doing and to work on the body as a whole, leading to an amazing breakthrough.
New Beginnings
...as pools and public spaces begin to re-open, albeit under new rules and regulations it seems we can finally begin to look to the future again and begin to make tentative plans for the continuation of our swimming journey. And one question I have been asked is what is the most important part of the stroke to concentrate on after such a long break?