Get Fixed / Stay Fixed & Recover from your Rotto Pursuits!

Dear Swimmers

Only 1 more sleep to go before the majority of you cast off the shores at Cottesloe Beach and head bravely forwards across Gage Roads towards Thomson's Bay. I'm super excited to await you all as you finish so make sure you give me a great big High-5 and a zinc-covered bear hug as you cross that line in jubilant fashion!

If I could proffer one final tip…Just. Keep. Swimming. You will get there! Stay in the now, focus on just the stroke that you're taking at that point in time and making it the best stroke you can produce. Know that what you are doing is a great thing and that we're all privileged to be doing this great sport and to have the health that we have to get us safely across. Good luck!

New Swim/Tri-Centric Physio Clinic opening this March!

         

Michelle will open her very own Physio Clinic in Nedlands with fellow physio Matt Thomson - whoop!

I am super proud to announce that my lovely wife Michelle has finally taken the plunge and will be opening up her own physiotherapy clinic in Nedlands at the start of March with fellow squad swimmer (and awesome physio in his own right!) Matt Thomson!

Both Michelle and Matt specialise in shoulder injuries and rehab and would be the perfect physios to consider contacting post-Rotto should you need to iron out those aches and pains. I have personally built their website with funky online booking system, so make sure you get ahead of the gang and book a spot asap if you think you might need some help: www.nedlandsphysio.com.au

Many of you ask me where to go with your niggles and knowing first-hand of Michelle's skill for all manner of injuries, I'll always recommend her as an option. However, since 2007 Michelle has been based in East Vic Park which isn't the easiest of places to get to from over here in the Western Suburbs, so we are hoping that being based within 5.0km of the pool will make this an option for you to consider either now or in the future. Given your consent, Michelle and Matt would also be able to discuss any treatment or issues I would need to be aware of in a coaching capacity, which should really help smooth that 3-way communication between Athlete-Coach-Physio.

Here's the finer details:

"Nedlands Physiotherapy is proud and excited to announce the opening of its clinic at Suite 9, 88 Broadway, Nedlands WA. Appointments will be taken from Monday 29 February 2016 and online bookings are now available on the website www.nedlandsphysio.com.au

At Nedlands Physiotherapy we provide quality, professional health care using the latest treatment strategies. Our interactive and 'hands on' approach to your management puts us at the forefront of the Physiotherapy profession. With a special interest in swimming injuries you can be assured that we will provide effective treatment and a comprehensive rehabilitation program that you deserve to help you return to the pool. Our commitment and empathy to providing the highest standard of care to get you back in action quickly is what sets us apart from the rest. 

We offer a range of treatment techniques some of which include:

• Manual therapy
• Acupuncture (traditional Chinese & dry-needling)
• Fascial  manipulation

Nedlands Physiotherapy. Get fixed. Stay fixed."

Cheers

Paul

Update on M/W/F 9.30am Open Water Sessions

Dear Swimmers

As mentioned previously, for nine (9) of the 9.30am sessions from 29/2/16 to 1/4/16 (inclusive), we have to shift our normal squad sessions away from the pool and down to either the beach or the river. Many of you get very excited about this opportunity to swim in the open water at this time of year and I have some great session ideas up my sleeve for you accordingly!

The poll conclusively suggested Cottesloe was a more popular choice than Bather's Beach in Fremantle, mainly due to the parking restrictions at that time of year down in Fremantle. And so Cottesloe it is! We may look at making a couple of the sessions down at the Claremont Jetty (a great place to swim!) subject to the consensus once we start:

A later start time:

A slightly later start time of 9.45am (rather than 9.30am) will be required for each of these open water sessions (note the pool sessions will stay as 9.30am), owing to my prior session commitments at the pool and to give me time to high-tail it down to the beach. By all means meet-up from 9.30am for a few light stretches but the sessions won't officially commence until 9.45am.

Here are the dates again for your diary, noting the minor change with the switch between the 16/3/16 and 21/3/16 sessions from the dates I previously published:

I have also made these schedule changes within the app, so if you're ever in doubt as to which session is where, simply open the app, go to "My Classes" and click on the date of the session you're querying and if we're NOT at the pool, you'll see this:

Hope this all makes sense - I look forward to seeing you down on the grassy bank in front of the pylon for these nine dates!

Paul

P.S if you do not wish to attend these sessions because of the switch to the open water, can I politely ask you to cancel out of the sessions asap to allow others to join in where in the past they might have missed out - thanks!

5 more sleeps to go until Rotto!

Dear Swimmers

Just 5 sleeps to go until many of you depart Cottesloe Beach for that intrepid adventure across to Thomson's Bay!

As usual at this time of year, the nerves about the taper week are rife, so I refer back to a post that we put out a couple of Rottos ago which still rings as true today as it did back then - enjoy and most importantly, good luck! See you at the pub!

Here's the link:

http://swimsmoothperth.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/taper-time-and-what-to-do-this-week.html

Cheers

Paul

Saturday 1-2pm Open Water Skills: Should It Stay, Or Should It Go? You Decide!

Dear Swimmers

It is with much regret that we contemplate the cancellation of the once very popular Saturday 1-2pm Squad Session which focused on Open Water Skills and a lot of fun!

As you might be aware, I've been personally coaching the session for the last 5 Saturdays whilst we have the international trainee coaches with us, so it's been a good chance for me to see how it's been going and to also then ponder the question: is it still a viable session that people wish to attend?

In it's heyday this session used to attract regularly in excess of 30 people, but as the stats from the last 6-months below show, we are very far from that these days, even despite the current offer of "Bring-A-Mate-For-Five-Bucks":

So could it be that this session has seen better days, combined with an increased race calendar and potentially better access to other weekly sessions now via the well-functioning PAYG (BLUK!) app and thus is no longer serving your needs anymore? Maybe you'd prefer to see it either much earlier in the morning or much later in the afternoon?

It is fair to say that the other 11 sessions in the squad program are proving very popular given the addition of the new PAYG (BLUK!) app and whilst we are keen to look at preserving what is arguably my favourite session to run, reduced numbers in this particular session doesn't actually make for a great session for those who do attend as it's designed to be run, i.e. 12 swimmers vs 24 swimmers involves potentially a much greater spread of ability and thus the difficulty of organising proper drafting group exercises etc to practice your open water skills.

So please, take 2 minutes to tell us what you think!

Please complete the form and I'll collect some data and make an executive decision: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_bHYsKkYwDfI6rB9FhoLZkyp2EcPO7yF9S3tuNIk-XU/viewform?c=0&w=1

Going forwards:

• Saturday 20th February = session as normal
• Saturday 27th February = session cancelled due to the Rottnest Channel Swim
• Saturday 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th March = session as normal to test the viability 

…a decision will then be made post-26th March one way or the other.

Please have your say!

Thanks

Paul

Super Saturday $5 special & Meet the next batch of Coaches!

Dear Swimmers

Looks like it's going to be hot, hot, hot next week! No better place to be then than down at Claremont Pool getting some quality laps in with your mates!

Bring-a-mate-for-$5-Saturday-special

Just a reminder that we still have the "bring-a-mate-for-$5-special" on for the Saturday 1-2pm sessions. We've been getting a good turn-out lately and have been really cranking the fun sessions which focus on open water skills - come and join us, tomorrow's supposed to be El Scorchio so it could be perfect!

7 New Coaches to Assist you with your swimming!

Our next round of 7 international coaches will be arriving this weekend ready for a Monday 7am start (in the heat!). For your reference and introduction again, they are:

• Gemma from Texas, USA
• Shauqie from K.L, Malaysia
• Flip from Belgium
• Merle from Dubai
• Bart from Montreal, Canada
• Seamus from Felixstowe, UK
• Gayle from Guildford, UK

…they're all really excited about meeting you so I hope you will make them feel as welcome as you did for the previous six coaches.

Here's to another great fortnight on pool deck!

Cheers

Paul

Please bin your bottles, foodstuffs & carbo shots post session! Thanks

Dear Swimmers

I've been contacted by the pool to politely request that I remind all of our swimmers to bin any rubbish you may have immediately following a session. This includes:

• used water bottles
• banana skins
• carbo shot packets
• other food stuffs

…this seems to be more common following the longer Red Mist sessions and particularly the Saturday afternoon swim when you might be trying to top-up your energy reserves.

Bins are located around the pool area, particularly adjacent to lane 1 of the 50m pool and half way up lane 8 of the 50m pool too.

Please do the right thing and help us keep the wonderful Claremont Pool in pristine order to reduce our footprint as much as possible.

May I also take this moment to politely request that any fins, paddles and pull buoys that are borrowed from the big blue box, are also returned post session. We've had quite a few pairs of fins and paddles go missing recently so your help with this is very much appreciated! 

Thank you!

Paul

Confirmation - Wednesday 9.30am = "Red Mist"

Dear Swimmers, 

As per the message yesterday, please be advised that for the 9.30am crew this week, your Friday "Red Mist" session will now be run tomorrow, Wednesday 3rd February and your Wednesday "CSS" session will be on Friday, owing to the JTC Swimming Trials at the pool.

Come down and see how you can make the challenge of a tough 90 minute session still feel fun like this:

Kind regards

Paul

This Wednesday / Friday for 9.30am swimmers

Dear 9.30am swimmers

Just a quick heads-up that the preliminary plan this week is to swap Wednesday's CSS session (1hr) with Friday's Red Mist session (1.5hrs) owing to the JTC School's swimming trials which start at 10.30am on Friday. This will be a one-off change and I am just seeking confirmation from the pool that they are good with this swap.

I am hoping those of you who normally attend the Wednesday get excited by the prospect of doing a Red Mist session (maybe for the first time?) and those who only ever attend the Friday, enjoy the prospect of a Fresh 'n' Fruity CSS session instead. 

Please note, you do not have to attend for the full 1.5hrs on Wednesday if you still need to be away by 10.30am.

As ever, I will keep you posted in due course.

Kind regards

Paul