Friday, April 29, 2011

The Winter Program

** Please note, there will be NO Saturday 1-2pm squad session at Claremont Pool on Saturday 7th May owing to the Busselton Half Ironman event. The session this Saturday (30th April) will be running and I'd love for you to attend if you can! **

Dear Swimmers

Hope you are all well and had an egg-cellent Easter Weekend - sorry, couldn't resist!!! ;-)

In this newsletter we will cover: the new Winter Squad List; May Coaching Cover & PAYG Card Instructions; and Future Trips. Whilst a little longer than usual, please take the time to read this newsletter as it contains some very important information about the winter program and a personal cheque for $1million....




...OK, so the last part was a little fib! ;-)

Winter Squad List:

Thanks to everyone who promptly completed their Winter Squad Application requests. You can now see which sessions and which lanes we have booked you in for over the winter period commencing Monday 9th May to Sunday 2nd October:


If any of your details appear to be incorrect, please let Francene know on francene@swimsmooth.com

A few things to remember:

  1. You are NOT committed to having to attend every single session, every single week. The purpose of asking you for your requests is to ensure that the lane space is managed as best as possible to avoid over-crowding. Undoubtedly there will be days over the winter when you would rather roll over in bed and stay nice and toasty, but be assured that we'll always be down there come rain, hail or shine (just not severe thunder and lightening storms when the pool has to close!) and so there will be plenty of motivation to stay fit over the winter!! 
  2. Given that we offer maximum flexibility by offering payment on a PAYG basis, we have built in a "Buffer List" for each lane. If you are listed on the Buffer List you can still attend the session. Ideally we'd have 8 to 10 swimmers per lane. Some sessions there might be only 4 or 5 swimmers per lane, but equally we have to try and offset this by offering a buffer of 3 or 4 swimmers so that on occasion the lanes might be a bit busier, especially on fine mornings. Hopefully this all works out in the "wash" for everyone and is fair and reasonable, in fact even at the peak of the summer, I can only recount 3 or 4 total sessions where the lanes did get a little squishy with ~11 swimmers per lane, so not bad going for a PAYG system. It's all about good management and your help in completing the online application form has been of massive use to us in this regard - thank you.
  3. Swimmers whose names are listed in italics are those of you who have informed us that your attendance is likely to be a little sporadic over the winter due to business or holiday trips.
  4. Swimmers listed on the Red Reserve List are NOT yet permitted to attend that particular session. We have given priority to those whom have been attending regularly and consistently over the last couple of seasons, so I do apologise if you've missed out for the moment. We have added your details in the order in which you applied and will be in touch directly as and when space opens up. Thanks for your patience at what is proving to be a surprisingly popular time.
  5. Please make a note of which lane we have allocated for you per session as due to both the amount of lanes we get and also the variability in ability levels within the squad, you won't necessarily always be in the same lane. By sticking to your lane (at least in the warm-up) this will help the coaches run the session nice and smoothly and will help to improve your own enjoyment of the set by being in the right lane for your speed. 
  6. I have also detailed the typical pace per 100m or cycle time per 50m at the top of each lane allocation for each session. This information is mainly for the coaches using the Wetronomes but to simply show you what approximate pace you should be aiming for in that given session allowing for some sessions being harder than others. The Wednesday session features a cycle time per 50m - the difference between this and a pace per 100m time is that the cycle time actually includes your rest time as well, i.e. the faster you swim, the more rest you get. The pace per 100m time is that actual pace I'd like you to swim and will typically work as one beep recovery between each interval.
  7. We have decided to NOT cancel any of the Summer Sessions, at least not at this stage. We plan to see how they go over the first month of winter and make any adjustments as necessary. This means the Monday 7am session, the Tuesday 6.30pm session, Wednesday 5.30am session and Saturday 1pm session will all still be running (see http://swimsmooth.com/perth_timetable.html ). The Monday, Tuesday and Saturday sessions will all be reduced to 2 lanes (given the expected lower numbers) with the ability to go to 3 lanes if we absolutely need to. If you think that you might like to attend any of these sessions knowing that they'll still be running, please let Francene know at francene@swimsmooth.com

May Coaching Cover & PAYG Card Instructions

As you know I will be away from Perth for 3 weeks in May. I will be leaving after all the sessions on Monday 2nd May and will be back to coaching on Friday 27th May. It would be really very much appreciated if you could attend the squad sessions in my absence as you have originally planned to do so. We have some great coaches and fantastic sessions lined-up for you, so whilst the weather might be turning a tad cooler, at worst it'll be the equivalent of a nice summer's day in the UK! ;-)

Myself and Adam are heading back to the UK to run two 3-day Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses for 24 coaches from literally all over the world, tutoring them in our stroke correction and training methods. Unfortunately we had to turn down over 30 applicants due to lack of available space on the courses. These two courses will be run at the prestigious Loughborough and Stirling Universities and form part of our grander scheme to develop a fully functional Swim Smooth coaching network around the world. We are being endorsed by both the British Triathlon Federation and Triathlon Scotland for these Clinics and will also run six 1-day swimmer's courses in conjunction with these. Amazingly every Clinic filled up entirely within 90 minutes of announcing them and we have over 100 swimmers on our various waiting lists. All the hard work of the last few years appears to be paying off, however, it does mean that I have to leave you guys here in Perth for this 3 week period in the very capable hands of our local Swim Smooth coaches. 

I will be meeting with all the coaches this Saturday to discuss your feedback and requests from your online application forms and to ensure an excellent delivery of the sessions which I have written for delivery in my absence. Any feedback or issues you might like to raise whilst I am away can either be addressed directly with the coach on duty or if you prefer with our newest member of staff, Swim Smooth's Operations Coordinator, France Leaversuch. Francene can be reached on francene@swimsmooth.com and will keep me up to speed with how things are going in Perth whilst I'm over in the UK. 

I am very proud to be leaving you with each of these coaches and know that you'll have a great time with them and I'm sure you'll welcome the change to my Pommie accent on pool deck for a short while! Your coaches will be:

  • Shelley Taylor-Smith: 7-times world marathon swimming champion and open water endurance specialist. Will get the very best out of you!
  • Adam Mullens: super-star surf swimmer, unreasonably handsome and dashing (!) and last week's Albany Harbour Swim overall winner. Will ensure a fun session!
  • Sally Scaffidi: top WA triathlete, excellent open water swimmer and uber-motivator on cold mornings. The Biggest Loser fitness trainers have nothing on Sal!
  • Nikki Rogers: Sorrento SLSC coach, Commonwealth Games gold medallist swimmer and technique guru. Will fine tune your technique!
  • Sandy Burt: top Australian age group Half Ironman specialist, regular Tuesday Swim Smooth coach and bronzed adonis. Takes no prisoners!
  • Francene Leaversuch: our newest member of staff, my very own surf skills coach and super-committed. Has a great eye for technique inefficiencies! 

For a full breakdown of who will be coaching when, please see: 


PAYG Cards:

For ease of management on the pool deck, it'd be preferable if you could order any new PAYG cards online by visiting:


...please print off your receipt and hand it to the coach who will either issue you a card there and then or Francene will have prepared it for you and it'll be awaiting collection in the box. If you get onto this over the weekend in anticipation of any cards expiring, I will of course take care of this all prior to leaving on Monday.

IMPORTANT: there are a couple of you using a joint card with your partner, if you both attend a session, please can you ensure that you notify the coach that the card needs to be ticked twice in this instance. Also, please, please, please try to remember your card each session to be ticked off - forgetting it makes for a bit of an administrative nightmare with several coaches running the sessions.

Future Trips:

For your reference I will also be away this winter for the following two periods:

  • 28th July to 12th August (Canada Trip for brother-in-law's wedding)
  • 26th August to 16th September (UK Trip for English Channel attempt)

...as such we will be ensuring continued coaching development of all the coaches over the next 6 months in-line with our global coaching development scheme. It's great to have the privilege to work with such great coaches and lovely people as we have here in Perth to initiate this entire process and as ever I welcome any feedback you might have at any time.

Thanks for your time and enjoy the Winter Program!!

Kind regards

Paul

Paul Newsome
Head Coach
World Class Coaching in Your Language!
Tel. +61 (0) 431 540 980



Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Shelley's OW Clinic at the Busso HIM

** IMPORTANT: Please get your winter squad applications in before 5pm on Wednesday 27th April to secure your spot in the squad over winter. EVERYONE needs to please spend just a couple of minutes doing this at: http://www.swimsmooth.com/perth_winterapplication.html - thanks **

Dear Swimmers, please be advised of the following Clinic (below) with legendary open water swimming star, Shelley Taylor-Smith.

As most of you are aware, Shelley will also now be a regular coach for the Wednesday morning 5.30am session at Claremont Pool whilst I take this opportunity to hop in the pool with you guys each week and get a session under my belt in preparation for the English Channel in September.

Feedback from the squad was excellent this morning towards the way Shelley expertly ran the session and kept you all motivated for what was a very tough session written between us. We know that you'll continue to find Shelley's input very valuable on this session each week and if you ever get tempted to do the full two hours and try that continuous 30 minute swim that myself and Ceinwen did this morning after the set, why not give it a try?!

Equally, Shelley commented on how impressed she was with everyone's attitude and discipline towards this session given the tough nature of the set and need for a "no-nonsense" approach. Well done troops - you've managed to impress a 7-time world marathon swimming champion and do me proud at the same time! Thanks!

ATTENTION TRIATHLON WA MEMBERS and GUESTS!!!!
Whether you're an Accomplished, Capable or Newbie Swimmer


CLINIC DETAILS:
DATE: FRIDAY 6TH MAY 2011
VENUE:  Equinox Cafe (function room) directly opposite the Jetty, Busselton, WA.
TIME: Registration 10.15am, Start 10.30am, Finish 12.30pm
INVESTMENT:
$55AUD (TWA Members)  Register now...Click here
$66AUD (NON TWA Members)  Register now... Click here
Any further enquiries please email Shelley Taylor-Smith at champion@championmindset.com.au
or call 0414 594 245


Have a great Easter everyone and hope to see you down at the beach this weekend!

Paul

Monday, April 18, 2011

Training over the Easter Weekend...

Dear Swimmers

As promised, please be advised that the following changes to the swimming program at Claremont Pool will take effect this weekend given the public holidays of Easter and ANZAC day. The pool itself will be closed on Good Friday (22nd April) all day and only open from 7am to 6pm on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - so this pretty much limits all of our normal sessions during that period which is a shame, but not a disaster! 

Our last "normal" session this week will be Wednesday's (20th April) 5.30am and 9.30am sessions and recommencing a week later with Wednesday's (27th April) 5.30am and 9.30am sessions. 

However, don't panic - we have some alternative sessions line up for you in the ocean - please keep reading!

CANCELLED:

  • Friday 22nd April 5.30am
  • Friday 22nd April 6.30am
  • Friday 22nd April 9.30am
  • Saturday 23rd April 1.00pm
  • Monday 25th April 7.00am
  • Monday 25th April 9.30am
  • Tuesday 26th April 5.30am
  • Tuesday 26th April 6.30am
  • Tuesday 26th April 6.30pm

REPLACEMENTS - a weekend of awesome ocean swimming!

  • Friday 22nd April 7.00am (meet from 6.45am) = The Good Friday 1.6km handicap "race" (Cottesloe to North Cottesloe and back). This won't be an official "event" but chance for you to come down and bring a mate or two and see how well you're going over the mile distance. Meet on the grass bank north of Indianna Tea Rooms directly in front of the Pylon. No charge. It's likely to be very busy this Friday down at Cottesloe, so caution must be taken to ensure a safe swim. Coffee and muffin at Daisies on Grant / Marmion Street afterwards OR you can do the very special "Glenbo Half Ironman Brick Session" by having your bike ready to do a 40 or 60km loop on your bike and then a 5 or 10km run off the bike. Ride LAP AS - North Marine Parade, Turn North Street, Turn South West Coast Hwy follow onto Curtin ave continuing into Rous Head. Loop around the Lighthouse  back north along Curtin Ave Left into Marine Parade to start completing 1 x 20km lap. (Complete two laps or more/less completing a 1.5hrs ride so we all start running and stay together. Run 5km Indiana carpark South to Vlamignh Look-out Pole and back.
  • Saturday 23rd April 7.00am (meet from 6.45am) = long ocean swim at Cottesloe Beach. Loop is out around the pylon, turn left to the groyne and then all the way down to Swanbourne SLSC before returning to the groyne and back in past the pylon. Distance is 5km for a lap. Some may choose to do 2 or even 3 laps...obviously you can shorten your outward bound trip to North Cottesloe (2km complete loop) or Grant Street (3.5km complete loop). If anyone's keen to paddle we'd love to have you along! Meet same place as Friday.
  • Sunday 24th April 7.00am (meet from 6.45am) = long ocean swim from Trigg SLSC. Lap is ~5.3km south to the drain and back (total 10.6km). Meet at the Trigg SLSC tower at 6.45am for a 7am start. Again, do as much or as little as you wish. Paddlers would be a real bonus today!! Let me know...
  • Monday 25th April 7.00am (meet from 6.45am) = an Hour of Power at Cottesloe Beach! Create a lap between the groyne out to the pylon and straight into the beach (~250m swimming) and run back to the groyne on the beach - how many laps can you do in exactly one hour (more than 12 would be amazing!) Same meeting point as Friday. Followed up with a swim down to North Cottesloe and back as a cool down for those hardy enough to take on this little challenge!
  • Tuesday 26th April 7.00am (meet from 6.15am) = Trigg to Cottesloe swim (14km). A long one for those doing the English Channel swim or anyone whose fitness is way up there! Given that this is a straight-line swim, swimmers should meet in the car park at Cottesloe Beach at 6.15am and we'll then arrange to car pool a few cars up to Trigg before swimming / paddling back down to Cottesloe. Time expected is 3.5 to 4hrs. You could of course start this and swim as far as you wish (say 4km?) and then jog / walk the rest on the beach, supporting those still swimming. This is not for the feint hearted! If you fancy this one, please let me know by emailing me back and I'll keep you posted directly on the specifics. Can anyone paddle for us today...could do with two or three paddlers if possible?

There will be no charge for any of these sessions, but a special prize for those who pop down and attempt them all! This could be a really good way to boost your swimming fitness this weekend if you're not planning to be away and at the same time make use of the still very warm ocean temperatures that we're seeing at the moment.

Hopefully see you down at some of these!

Paul

P.S one immediate action we'll be putting into effect as of this Wednesday is to bring in legendary open water 7-time World Champion Shelley Taylor-Smith to run the Wednesday 5.30am session between now and September. I will personally still write the sessions with Shelley conducting and motivating you as you go. One of the main reasons for this change to a Wednesday morning is to actually allow me to swim with you guys as a bit of a novelty and to allow me to train with a squad (as opposed to by myself) leading up to my English Channel Swim in September. I can't wait to be "on the other side" and will obviously be on-hand to continue to run the pre-session stretching and chat etc. I do hope that you'll all continue to enjoy this session if not moreso than you already are doing, and who better to help run this solid endurance session of the week for the next few months than Shelly?!


Sunday, April 17, 2011

Winter Squad Applications now open...

** IMPORTANT - DETAILS OF OUR EASTER PROGRAM WILL FOLLOW IN A SEPARATE EMAIL TOMORROW - THANKS! **

Dear Swimmers

Hope you've all had a cracking weekend. I'm pleased to say that my head seems to have healed up after last week's unfortunate poolside accident and I've now had all the stitches removed and gearing up for a week back in the pool getting the K's in for the English Channel swim in September!

As promised then, everyone needs to please submit your Winter Squad Application (where possible) before Wednesday 27th April at 5.00pm by visiting this page:


...even if you have submitted an application in the last 2-3 months to join the squad as a "new recruit" please be so kind as to re-submit now that we have all the sessions structured for the winter. Thanks.

The winter program officially runs from Monday 9th May to Sunday 2nd October and will be designed to keep you focussed and fit during the cooler months as well as helping those of you with grand ambitions for a Rottnest Solo or Duo swim in February 2012 or the Busselton Ironman in December 2011 reach your goals. The weather might be getting cooler now and it might soon be into single digits at 5.30am, but you can always be assured of a warm welcome and the enticing motivation that comes from training with the Swim Smooth Perth squad. So rather than roll over and think "hmmm, I'll give this one a miss today!" let's keep you in there and pumped up this winter!

We're just making some final decisions based upon your demand for the following three sessions before deciding whether or not to keep them or postpone over winter. They will be:

  • Monday's 7-8am technique session
  • Tuesday's 6.30-7.30pm technique and endurance session
  • Saturday's 1-2pm open water skills session

...all at Claremont Pool. If you'd seriously like to keep attending these sessions over winter or maybe even start them for the first time, now's the time to please let us know so we can make the necessary arrangements.

We'll also be implementing a period of work shadowing and coach education over the winter period with our local Perth coaches and culminating with inviting 8 to 12 of our internationally registered coach network applicants to pop over to Perth in October 2011 for 2-3 weeks of coach training. This will ensure excellent coach delivery over this period when I will personally be away for three short trips for some coaching commitments with the British Triathlon Federation, my brother-in-law's Canadian wedding and of course my English Channel swim attempt in September. It'll be a fun and busy winter period for sure and personally I'm really excited about the fresh mornings down at Claremont Pool for a bit of a change...you can remind me of that when it's pouring with rain and 6 degrees...but we'll still be there!

OK crew, I look forward to receiving your applications as soon as you can get onto them. As usual, priority places will be allocated to those who've been swimming consistently with the squad over the last few seasons, but don't let that deter your application as places do pop up during the off-season and it might be your chance to nab a space!

Cheers,

Paul



Thursday, April 7, 2011

A quick reminder...

Dear Swimmers

Please be advised of the following:

  • Friday 8th April's 9.30am Time-4-Me swim session will take place at Challenge Stadium in the Outdoor 8 lane pool. Hope you can make it. This will be the final change to this program - from Monday 11th April onwards, all 9.30am sessions will run at the Claremont Pool in lanes 6,7 and 8 - easy!
  • Saturday 9th April's 1.00-2.00pm open water skills squad session will again be at Claremont Pool as normal - there are no further disruptions envisaged to this session going forwards...
  • I'll be posting out in the next week or so a quick questionnaire as we head into winter (officially for us between Monday 9th May and Monday 19th September, i.e. ~20 weeks) asking for your feedback with respect to how the squad is going and also to verify which sessions you'd like to keep attending over the winter period. Priority places will be given as usual to those who've been swimming consistently with the squad over the last season or two. I do wish to draw your attention to the fact that in the week immediately after the Rottnest Channel Swim we had a total of 25 new, individual enquiries for swimmers seeking to start training with us. This is an amazing level of interest on no active advertising, however we do not have the lane capacity currently to invite all 25 new swimmers into the program. As such, I have informed them that it is likely that numbers might drop off a little post May 9th and that I can then start opening up a few places and would request that you could let me know as soon as I've released the questionnaire what your best intentions are for the winter period. Hopefully we can sort out a good solution for all parties but as I say, priority places are with you guys.
  • Sessions which might get the axe for winter in light of predicted lower numbers attending would be the Monday morning 7am session and the Wednesday morning 5.30am session - again though, keen to hear your thoughts on this when the questionnaire is released given that Wednesday at 5.30am has proven to be quite a hit this year!
  • In line with the above and in synch with what we're doing with our eight sprightly English Channel attemptees (see the new website at www.channeldare.com ), I'll be keen to hear your thoughts on what we can do as a squad with respect to keeping you all motivated over the colder months. As an English Channel attemptee myself, I'm praying for the colder weather in order to acclimatise properly for the swim, but for you, you might be put off swimming in single-digit temperatures completely - so what can we do as a squad to keep you focused? A self-organised race? An event? A mini-Olympics? Just a few ideas to mull over for now...
  • The lovely Amanda and gorgeous Bae last Saturday paddled for four of us as we made our way down the 14km stretch of coast from Trigg to Cottesloe - the two girls were lifesavers and an integral part of our Channel Swim attempts. If you'd like to get involved and can paddle and have a spare 3-5hrs on a Saturday or Sunday morning (?!) please reply via email with which dates you'd be available for between now and September and we'll start to draw up a roster so that we're not leaning too heavily on just a couple of paddlers. We typically go on either a Saturday or Sunday morning between ~6.30am and 11am for your reference. Please let me know - paddlers sought this week for a long one on Sunday morning doing the reverse of last week from Cottesloe up to Trigg meeting in the Trigg SLSC car park south of the SLSC at 6am for a 6.10am shuttle down to Cottesloe to commence the swim at ~6.30/45am.

Thanks gang!

Paul