Friday, September 22, 2017

Your Swim Smooth Perth Squad Weekly Digest!

Dear Swimmers

Hope you're staying warm and dry in this unseasonal spring weather - it was really shocking down on pool deck this morning. Mustn't grumble though, it'll be "cracking the flags" soon enough to coin an expression from my native Yorkshire!

So we have a couple of news items this week for your attention:

1. School HOLIDAYS / Public Holiday - business as usual!

Despite the next two weeks being the school holidays (and Monday the Public Holiday) you'll be pleased to know that it's "business as usual" at the squad, ensuring you're fit and raring to go this summer. We take great pride in minimising "down time" for your training routines, so hopefully this comes as good news to most of you!

2. Janet claims world title at the World Triathlon Championships in Rotterdam!


We are super excited to announce that 930am squad stalwart Janet Ferguson smashed the field in the 55-59 Age Group category at the recent World Triathlon Championships in Rotterdam. This adds to Janet's World Duathlon title that she won a couple of years ago. Amazing stuff Janet! We look forward to welcoming you back and hearing all about it, if you'll tell us that is (she's hugely modest is our Janet!)!

3. Additional Permanent Spots in the Squad!

It's the right time of year to let us know if you want to seek a coveted permanent spot in the following squad sessions, rather than having to always use the wait list. Given the popularity of the Friday 930am Red Mist Endurance Session, we've even secured an additional 4th lane which we've been using for a couple of months now, so if you can't access the Wednesday 530am squad due to it's popularity, this might be a great chance if you have the flexibility with work.

Here are the spots which are available:

  • Monday (Pure Technique), Wednesday (CSS Development) and Friday at 9.30am (note Friday is a 1.5hr Red Mist Endurance session)
  • Tuesday (Technique Endurance) and Thursday (CSS Development) at 6.15pm

Drop us a line by emailing swimsmooth@me.com if you'd like to secure one of these spots prior to the start of summer, but be quick, they'll get snaffled up quickly!

4. No cigar for Sue but a massive inspiration nonetheless!


As you probably heard via my app notifications this week, sadly Super Sue didn't make it across the English Channel for her 3rd time in a bid to take back her World Record as the oldest lady to have ever swum it successfully. Swimming through freezing fog and water temperatures of 14ÂșC were sadly too much for Sue, 71, and she and her team made the very sensible decision to put safety before heroics. Of course, it's not Sue's ability to swim incredible distances that inspire us all, it's her love for the sport, her passion, tenacity and beautiful nature which makes us all wish that we could be like Sue when we're in our 70s. Well done Sue! You'll always be a hero in my eyes!

5. 1-2-1 Video Analysis Special with Coach Paul or Sally until the end of the month

Following on from being invited to speak at the 2018 Rottnest Channel Swim seminar a couple of weeks ago to specifically talk about injury management and developing the right stroke for your body type, build and swimming goals, we are pleased to announce that we are offering a 15% discount on our world renowned 1-2-1 Video Analysis and Stroke Correction Sessions by using code "summer18" when you book in for a session with either myself or Sally until 30th September. You might be surprised how seemingly small changes to your technique can have a massive impact on your swimming efficiency and injury prevention. Check it out today, you won't regret it!

To take advantage of this great offer, use the booking app from www.swimsmoothperth.com and input code as follows in the screen below when you get to that point in the booking process:


Availability:

  • Paul - good availability from 16th October onwards
  • Sally - good availability immediately

6. Jason Snell to take up the English Channel challenge in 60 minutes time…


Head to http://cspf.co.uk/tracking at 4pm our time (Friday 22nd September) and check the tick box by "Mighty Mo" to watch 930am squad super fish (what is it with all these 930am legends?!) Jason Snell attempt to become only the 8th person to have swum both the English Channel and climb Mount Everest. You can see a video from Channel 10 about Jason and his stroke in my backyard pool here:


7. Rottnest Channel Swim Program

As per previous years, many people from the squad who aim to swim the Rottnest (or Port-2-Pub) Channel Swim as a Team, Duo, or Solo, simply up their attendance regularity and add in key sessions like this the Red Mist Endurance session to ensure they're well prepared come February / March each year. 

If you're looking for a little additional help with your programming though (especially as a Solo swimmer), you might like to check out https://www.swimsmooth.guru/sequence/cK7/20km-rottnest-channel-swim-full-program/ which for $19.99/mo gives you full access and detail to all our recommended sessions, races and the ability to track and monitor your fitness to ensure you're in the best possible shape come race day. We'll be updating last year's program in the next week ready for kick-off proper on Monday 9th October. In the meantime you might like to check out this helpful 74 minute presentation from 2014 about all the key concerns you might have about the event:



These video tutorials that I did as the Head Coach of the 2017 Karma Resorts Rottnest Channel Swim might also appeal:



8. What really is an efficient swim stroke? Challenging convention with the help of one of the world's best coaches and his most unconventional swimmers!

Hopefully you follow our weekly blog at www.feelforthewater.com which goes out with tips and techniques to help you with your swimming every Friday evening (Perth time). If so, you'll have seen our in-depth article on what is referred to as "Swim Golf" or "SWOLF" for short. In fact, if you own a wearable piece of swimming technology, you might have even seen a SWOLF score yourself of your own swimming pop up after each swim you've done. For years this metric has been held up as a good measure of efficiency, but here we debunk that myth for good:


Knowing these stats, trends and quantitive data then, I decided to approach and yesterday interview a coach with 5 Olympic Gold medals to his name, four of who are with the famed and somewhat "unconventional" Janet Evans from the USA, whose 800m freestyle world record stood for an amazing 19 years and was only broken in 2008 by the UK's Rebecca Adlington (one of my favourite swimmers of all time). Watch the video interview below as I challenge convention with Bud McAllister (Head Coach of WAIS swimming), ask the question "why is everyone typically taught to swim the same way even though we KNOW we are all anthropemtrically very different" and ask his advice on his favourite training sets (note how similar they are to our coveted Red Mist Endurance Sessions!).

This was a definite highlight of my 20 year coaching career, watch the interview here and apologies for some of the wind noise in the background:


Coach Paul with coaching legend, Bud McAllister, 5-time Olympic Gold Medal winning coach!

That's a wrap folks! Thanks for listening!

Paul


Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Honey, honey, honey...


Gives you a whole other reason to wear your goggles!

Dear Swimmers

Whilst we are waiting for newzzzzzz of Sue Oldham and Jason Snell to swim the English Channel (should have been today, 13th September but the weather is proving uncooperative), squad swimmer Chris Knott (lane 1 Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 5.30am) has bee(n) buzzzzzy creating some awesome raw honey which quite a few of the squad have already bee(n) using to power themselves through some of the harder training sessions. Details are below should you wish to contact Chrizzzzzz directly - enjoy!

Cheers

Paul