Ready, steady, wait. (Are you sure you're ready ?)
One ignores a proper warm-up at your peril, particularly with advancing years. It will go a long way to prevent injuries, improve performance, reduce the level of muscle tension and increase the range of motion possible
A look back at the Tokyo Olympics
The Tokyo Olympics saw its fair share of drama and determination, highs and heartaches many of which will live long in the memory.
Time to get in line
The fundamental point of efficient swimming is to displace as little of the water as possible as you move through it and past it. And the position in which you are doing that at the maximum is during Streamline.
Short and sweet
When learning a new movement pattern the average attention span is surprisingly short and it is important to stop before the processing power of the brain has been exhausted
Practice really does make perfect
The student must spend time away from the lessons practising by themselves. This is when the magic happens!
A less than perfect body can prove to be the perfect body
For larger people swimming can provide an invaluable route to maintaining (or starting) physical activity in a safe way which is not provided by other sports.
The rapid development of the Japanese Crawl
Developing a style and method that works for the human form has been a long process and it's one that's far from finished. New ideas are constantly being proposed, tested, adapted and adopted or discarded.
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...