Effortless Swimming: Recent Episodes
Brenton Ford
Most marathon swimmers would overlook the critical role of mental resilience—until they’re fighting waves, exhaustion, and doubt in real time. Tim Denya, an elite coach with over 250 English Channel crossings, reveals the unspoken truth: mental strength is just as vital as physical endurance in conquering ocean swims.
In this episode, Tim unpacks the training secrets behind his staggering success rate, emphasizing how strategic mental preparation and clear communication turn tentative swimmers into ocean conquerors. Discover why long-distance swim training isn’t just about logging kilometers but about pushing the mind and body to new limits—all while maintaining focus, confidence, and calm amidst chaos.
00:00 Introduction to Marathon Swimming and Tim Denya
02:51 Training Camps: Preparing for Marathon Swims
05:17 The Balance of Physical and Mental Training
08:25 Technique vs. Conditioning in Swimming
11:20 The Importance of Trust in Coaching
14:20 Managing Expectations and Anxiety in Swimmers
17:01 The Role of Purpose in Endurance Swimming
20:03 Adapting Training to Individual Needs
22:48 Evolution of Coaching Philosophies
25:43 The Importance of Nutrition in Training
28:19 Documentary Insights and Storytelling in Swimming
36:27 The Importance of Connection in Coaching
39:14 Empathy and Trust in Coaching
44:17 Navigating Challenges During Long Swims
50:30 The Art of Coaching: Balancing Emotion and Objectivity
57:35 Learning from the Best: Insights from Elite Swimmers
01:06:11 Continuous Learning and Adaptation in Coaching
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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https://www.redtopswim.com/
The post Lessons From 250 English Channel Crossings with Tim Denyer appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What separates the fastest triathletes from everyone else in the water?
In this episode, I share the seven biggest swimming lessons I’ve learned from coaching professional triathletes over the past decade. We dive into body rotation, kicking, using your lats effectively, increasing stroke rate, breathing strategies, and the open water skills that can help you outperform faster pool swimmers. Whether you’re training for your first triathlon or chasing a new personal best, these practical coaching insights will help you swim faster while saving energy for the bike and run.
00:25 Rule #1 – Rotate Enough for an Easy Recovery
01:59 Rule #2 – Your Kick Matters More Than You Think
03:31 Rule #3 – Your Lats Are More Important Than Your Catch
06:32 Rule #4 – Increase Stroke Rate the Right Way
08:11 Rule #5 – Learn to Swim Hard for Longer
10:52 Rule #6 – Your Hips Are the Engine Room
11:44 Rule #7 – Breathe as Often as You Need
13:09 Bonus Rule – Open Water Skills Beat Pure Speed
14:56 Free Freestyle Technique Checklist
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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The post 7 Rules From 10 Years Coaching Pro Triathletes appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Most people assume ice swimming is just for the crazy or extreme athletes — but what if it’s really a gateway to resilience, mental clarity, and community? In this episode, journalist and ice swimming champion Chris Ballard reveals how daring to step into freezing water can transform your mind, body, and life. Whether you’re skeptical or curious, Chris shares mind-blowing stories of how cold water exposure can push you past perceived limits and build unshakeable confidence.
From the early days of cold showers to competing in the UK’s elite ice swimming events and even becoming a national champion — Chris demystifies the science and psychology behind this ancient practice. You’ll discover: the surprisingly simple ways to get started with cold plunges, how mental toughness overrides fear, and the powerful benefits that extend far beyond the water. He breaks down the core principles that help seasoned swimmers keep pushing, and reveals how this challenging ritual is a ‘quick fix’ for mental health, emotional regulation, and resilience—especially for those facing trauma or life’s hardships.
This isn’t just about cold water — it’s about how you can use the cold to unlock a more resilient, focused, and connected version of yourself. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to turn discomfort into a catalyst for growth, or if you’re searching for a community that’s as committed as you are to doing the hard things, listen now. Perfect for anyone curious about the transformative power of cold water, or eager to break free from comfort zones—this episode may just redefine what’s possible for you.
Chris Ballard is a renowned journalist, author of The Plunge, and a competitive ice swimmer who’s shattered stereotypes and myths along his journey. His insights into endurance, community, and mental health offer invaluable lessons for both beginners and seasoned athletes alike.
Get ready to shiver, learn, and be inspired to dive into your own personal plunge. The cold isn’t the challenge — it’s the doorway to a stronger, calmer, and more fearless you.
00:12 The Journey into Cold Water Swimming
09:46 The Historical Context of Cold Water Swimming
15:16 Community and Mental Health Benefits of Cold Water Swimming
20:41 Personal Reflections and Future of Cold Water Swimming
20:49 Cold Water Therapy and Its Benefits
23:53 Getting Started with Cold Exposure
27:14 The Challenge of Open Water Swimming
28:32 Swimming Technique and Injury Prevention
34:48 The Journey of Writing and Swimming
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https://www.chrisballardwritings.com/
The post Chasing the Chill: Understanding the Attraction Of Cold Water with Chris Balllard appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
How do you break through a swimming plateau when it feels like you’ve already tried everything?
In this episode, I sit down with Sandra Surkamp to discuss her incredible swimming journey—from struggling to swim 25 meters without stopping to swimming comfortably in open water and dropping her pace by nearly 50 seconds per 100 meters.
Sandra shares the key lessons she’s learned over the last few years, including how revisiting the fundamentals, improving body position, refining her catch, and finding the right coaching cues helped unlock a major breakthrough in her swimming. We also talk about the frustrations that come with progress, why improvements don’t always happen in a straight line, and what it takes to make lasting technique changes.
Whether you’re stuck at a plateau, learning to swim more efficiently, or looking for motivation to keep improving, Sandra’s story is packed with valuable insights and practical takeaways.
00:00 Introduction to Sandra’s Swimming Journey
01:18 Overcoming Initial Challenges in Swimming
03:24 The Importance of Technique and Coaching
05:48 Experiencing Breakthroughs and New Goals
08:33 Key Insights on Swimming Technique
11:06 The Role of Mindset in Performance
14:42 Navigating Setbacks and Maintaining Progress
18:21 The Value of Video Analysis in Improvement
20:55 Revisiting Basics for Continued Growth
23:43 Current Focus and Future Goals
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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Join Adam Wilkie as he embarks on a year-long challenge to honor his Olympic champion father by attempting to match his legendary 2:15 record in the 200-meter breaststroke. Despite limited swimming experience, Adam has quit his job to train full-time, proving that dedication can make the impossible possible. Discover his intense training regimen, the emotional journey of honoring a legacy, and the mindset driving his pursuit of greatness. Follow Adam’s inspiring story on Instagram at Wilkie Swims and support his fundraising for SportsAid at inmyfatherslane.com. What’s your 215?
00:12 The Challenge Begins: Honoring a Legacy
08:38 Training Regimen: The Path to 2:15
18:55 The Decision to Commit: Quitting the Job
22:24 Lessons from Dad: Life Beyond Swimming
25:24 Inspiration and the Journey Ahead
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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Try the new Nanoclear Anti-fog Goggles: https://bit.ly/nanocleargoggles
Adam Wilkie’s Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/wilkieswims/
InMyFathersLane.com
https://inmyfatherslane.com/
SportsAid UK
https://www.sportsaid.org.uk/
The post He Quit His Job & Is Now Chasing His Father’s World Record appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Stuck at the same swimming speed? In this episode, we break down how to smash through your training plateaus by fixing the “bottlenecks” in your technique. Drawing from 19 years of coaching experience, we share the exact step-by-step checklist to optimize your stroke: reducing drag through perfect head and body position, mastering breath control to avoid fatigue, and engaging your lats for a more powerful, effortless pull. Stop just training harder—learn how to swim smarter and finally unlock your next breakthrough.
00:00 Why swimmers plateau and the concept of stroke “bottlenecks.”
01:11 The simple formula for speed: Reducing drag vs. increasing propulsion.
01:35 Step 1: Head position, posture, and why you need an “open chest.”
03:22 The “Iceberg” rule: Balancing head weight to keep your hips up.
04:05 Posture secrets: How correct body position lets the water support you.
05:08 Step 2: Breath regulation and how improper exhaling causes CO2 buildup.
06:51 Step 3: Catch and pull mechanics (using the catch as a setup, not for power).
08:17 Mastering gradual stroke acceleration instead of pulling too hard early.
08:58 Muscle activation: Engaging your lats and triceps to prevent shoulder injuries.
10:01 Using video analysis to find your bottleneck and build a 3-to-6-month plan.
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
https://effortlessswimming.com/courses-membership/
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The post This Video Will Find You Right Before Your Next Breakthrough appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, I sit down with Grant to share what I’ve learned over nearly two decades of coaching and racing in both pool and open water environments, including qualifying for Open Water Nationals as an adult.
We explore the gap between pool-perfect technique and what actually works in real race conditions like chop, fatigue, and contact. I break down why swimmers often struggle when they try to carry over overly rigid pool habits into open water, and how that leads to overthinking and breakdown under pressure.
We also get into how I now approach stroke rate, breathing, sighting, and recovery in a more adaptable way, depending on conditions.
A key theme is simplicity, learning to stay relaxed, trust feel, and avoid constantly chasing technical changes. We also cover what truly transfers from pool to open water, and why consistency and mindset matter more than constant technique overhauls.
03:51 – Why pool technique doesn’t always translate to open water
07:40 – Stroke rate, sighting, breathing patterns, and adapting to rough conditions
12:19 – Common mistakes swimmers make with technique and body awareness
16:55 – How Brenton simplifies coaching and decides what not to change
21:49 – Why some swimmers improve long term while others stay stuck
28:29 – Overthinking technique and finding the “feel” for swimming
32:40 – Qualifying for Open Water Nationals and improving later in life
37:20 – Strength, mobility, VO₂ sets, and training after 40
41:50 – Drafting tactics, “effortless swimming,” favorite swim sets, and final advice
https://rephonic.com/podcasts/the-science-and-art-of-open-water-swimming
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I recently joined the That Triathlon Show Podcast with Mikael Eriksson for a deep dive into freestyle technique and what I call the “swim technique hierarchy of needs.”
In this conversation, we break down the key elements of efficient swimming including breathing, body position, rotation, catch mechanics, timing, and how to adapt your stroke for open-water racing. We also discuss some of the most common mistakes triathletes make in the water, how to fix them, and why many swimmers plateau even when their technique looks good on video.
We also get into topics like kick timing, front-quadrant swimming, stroke rate, drills that actually transfer to faster swimming, open-water skills, and what it really takes to become a strong swimmer as an adult-onset triathlete.
If you’re looking to swim faster, feel more efficient in the water, or better understand how to prioritize your technique work, this episode is packed with practical coaching insights you can apply right away.
03:37 A hierarchy of needs for freestyle technique
07:50 Building the frame of the body
12:20 Kick tempo and stroke rate
17:05 Training the Kick for racing options
18:40 Rotation
23:30 The catch and pull
29:32 YMCA Drill
35:10 Timing and creative freedom in racing
38:20 Speed versus stroke appearance
41:15 The importance of purposeful drills
46:05 Capturing your technique on camera
48:00 The nature of swim talent
52:46 Swim frequency and distance
57:00 Structuring swim workouts
59:01 Intensity distribution across swim sessions
01:03:30 Open water versus pool technique
01:07:20 The importance of drafting
01:08:36 Drafting and preparation for open water
01:15:50 – Racing bravely in the swim
01:18:42 -The Goggles
01:23:50 – Choosing the right lens for conditions
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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Why does swimming feel so hard after just a short break from the pool? In this episode, we talk about the importance of consistency in swimming and why regular time in the water is the key to feeling faster, smoother, and more comfortable. We also cover how drills like front scull can help improve your feel for the water and regain confidence after time away from training. If you’re searching for the “secret” to better swimming, this episode breaks down why consistency beats shortcuts every time.
00:11 – Why consistency matters so much in swimming
01:04 – How regular swimming helps you feel comfortable in the water
02:35 – Using front scull drills to improve feel for the water
03:17 – The real secret to swimming faster: consistency
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The post It Sucks, But It Will Make Swimming Feel Easy appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What if the key to swimming faster is actually ignoring your watch? In this episode, we explore how constantly checking pace, splits, and stats can take swimmers out of the moment and disconnect them from the feel of the water. Learn why being present during training can improve technique, effort control, and overall performance — and why taking a break from your swim watch might be the reset you need.
From Strava habits to flow state training, this episode challenges swimmers to focus less on data and more on awareness in the pool.
Accurate Timestamps
00:14 – The cliff road analogy and being present
01:06 – Why swimming is all about feel for the water
01:56 – Watches vs using the pace clock at the pool
02:24 – Manually tracking swims instead
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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The post Once You Ignore Your Watch, You’ll Get Faster appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we sit down with professional triathlete Steph Clutterbuck to break down the real secrets behind efficient freestyle swimming. Instead of grinding harder in the water, Steph explains how better technique—especially rotation, body position, and connection—can dramatically improve your speed.
We dive into why many swimmers struggle with a flat, disconnected stroke and how that leads to wasted energy. Steph shares practical tips on how to stay long in the water, engage your core, and create a smoother, more powerful stroke.
If you’re stuck at a plateau or feel like swimming faster requires exhausting effort, this episode will completely change your approach.
0:11 – Introduction Overview of freestyle technique and common mistakes swimmers make
0:20 – Why swimmers struggle to get faster.
1:10 – The problem with swimming “flat”.
2:10 – Why a flat stroke wastes energy.
3:15 – Importance of body rotation.
4:20 – Timing and coordination.
5:30 – Catch vs whole stroke.
6:40 – Staying long in the water.
7:45 – Using your core in freestyle.
9:00 – Common beginner mistakes recap.
10:10 – How to swim faster with less effort?
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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Follow Steph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephclutterbuck/
The post Secrets To Fast Freestyle with Steph Clutterbuck appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, Brendan Cullen recounts his remarkable transformation from a non-swimmer to successfully completing the demanding English Channel swim. He reflects on how mental resilience, disciplined training, and a strong sense of community support helped him overcome one of the world’s toughest endurance challenges. Brendan also shares how his rural upbringing shaped his mindset, and how personal motivation and strategic preparation played key roles in pushing beyond perceived limits.
00:50 Introduction to Brendan Cullen: The Desert Swimmer
01:50 Brendan’s Unique Background and Journey to Swimming
05:27 The Decision to Swim the English Channel
06:55 Training and Preparation for the Channel Swim
10:48 The Day of the English Channel Swim
24:17 Reflections on the Journey and Lessons Learned
24:40 The Impact of Open Water Swimming on Life
30:37 The Release of Brendan’s Book: The Desert Swimmer
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Check out Brendan’s website: https://www.brendancullen.com.au/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.desert.swimmer/
The post How To Conquer The English Channel When You Live In The Desert with Brendan Cullen appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
One of the most common things I see in newer swimmers… is how flat they are in the water.
Their hips are flat, their shoulders are flat — and what ends up happening is they just spin their wheels.
They’re putting in a lot of effort with the arms, kicking hard with the legs… but nothing is really connecting.
It feels like hard work — but it doesn’t translate into speed.
So in today’s episode, we’re going to break down why swimming flat is holding you back… and how to start linking everything together so your stroke actually works as one powerful, efficient system.
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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The post Why You’ve Been Taught To Over-Rotate with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
You’ve probably heard it before — your freestyle catch is everything.
And maybe you’ve been working on it. You’ve improved the position, you feel stronger in the water, and technically… it looks better.
But here’s the frustrating part — you’re still not getting any faster.
So what’s going on?
Today, we’re breaking down exactly why improving your catch doesn’t always translate into speed… and what you need to do to actually get the benefit from it.
Because recently, I worked with a swimmer who had done everything right. He sent in underwater footage, we reviewed it closely, and his catch position? Nearly perfect.
From the setup… to the moment he begins to press back and generate propulsion — everything was there.
And yet, his times hadn’t improved.
When we dug deeper into the footage, we found the real issue — something subtle, but incredibly common.
He was rushing into the catch.
And that one mistake was costing him speed.
Let’s break it down.
01:05 Going Too Quickly Into Catch Position
01:46 Slow Down To Become Faster
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The post Why You’re Not Faster After Working On Your Catch with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
If you feel like getting faster in the water means you just have to work harder… push more… suffer more… there’s a good chance you’re taking the wrong approach.
Because here’s what most swimmers think: if you’re stuck swimming 1:45 or 1:50 per 100 freestyle, and you’re aiming for 1:30… the only way to get there is by getting fitter, stronger, and grinding harder every single session.
But what if that’s not true?
What if the real reason you’re not getting faster isn’t about effort at all… but about how you’re swimming?
Today, we’re breaking down the biggest misconception holding swimmers back—and how shifting your approach can unlock speed without burning yourself out.
00:27 Do You Need To Get Fitter To Get Faster?
Tendency To Cross Over The Center Line
01:57 Out Of Timing
02:21 Front Quadrant
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If you’ve been swimming for six months or more, but you still run out of breath after 50 meters, this episode is for you.
28:00 Running Out Of Breath
40:00 Humming When You Exhaling
01:43 When To Exhale
02:10 Kicking
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So what does he do that 99.999% of swimmers don’t? How is he able to swim this fast?
I’ve spent my career analyzing the best swimmers in the world, but watching Sam swim up close is a completely different experience. I’ve never seen anyone hold as much water as he does, even at world-record pace.
What stands out the most isn’t just the speed. It’s the relaxation. His recovery looks effortless, and the way he reaches forward into the catch is incredibly fluid—almost calm—despite the intensity of the pace he’s holding.
When Sam shared some of his training with me, one thing surprised me. He’s consistently swimming up to 80 kilometers a week. Massive volume. Huge power in the stroke. But when you ask him what really matters, he often comes back to the basics—simple things like rock-solid head position and clean fundamentals.
If you’re a triathlete or an open water swimmer, Sam’s power stroke isn’t just impressive to watch. It’s actually a blueprint for efficiency.
So today, we’re breaking it all down—the sets, the technique, and the mindset around recovery that helped take him to the very top of the sport.
01:27 Sam Short Intro
01:30 How Do You Describe Your Stroke When You Race?
01:47 Developed Overtime?
2:00 Mobility And Flexibility
02:20 What Does Swimming Fell Like When You Are Swimming Well?
02:39 Any Particular Part Of Your Stroke That You Are Working On?
02:53 400 Free vs.. 10k Openwater Swim
03:12 Kicking Sets
03:28 Cues And Phrases
03:45 Stroke Rates
04:03 Head And Body Position
04:43 When Body Position Is Not Where It Should Be
05:06 Good Feel For The Water
05:28 Breathing Pattern
05:54 Rotation
06:19 Openwater
06:47 Favorite Sets
07:26 Hardest Set
07:50 Distance per Week
08:10 Taper
08:28 Sessions Per Week And Gym
08:48 Being A Smarter Athlete
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The post Only 6 Swimmers In History Have Done This with Sam Short appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Six months of consistent training.
You’re showing up to the pool. You’re doing the sets. You’re putting in the work.
But your times… haven’t moved.
You’re still sitting at 1:50, maybe two minutes per hundred, and no matter how hard you train, it just doesn’t seem to change. And that can be one of the most frustrating places to be as a swimmer or triathlete.
Because it feels like you’re doing everything right.
You’re consistent. You’re committed. You’re following the program.
But you’re not getting faster.
So what’s actually going on?
In this episode, I’m going to show you why swimmers get stuck at the same pace for months, even when they’re training consistently—and more importantly, what you can do to finally break through that plateau and start dropping your times again.
00:56 Plateau of Okay
01:33 Fixing Everything At Once
01:57 Stroke Raste Too Slow
04:04 Fixing The Foundation Of The Stroke
06:13 What To Do?
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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The post I’m Now 8 Seconds Quicker Per 100m appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Last month, a 39-year-old swimmer joined our weekly coaching members call. She was training for her first Ironman. She’d been swimming for about a year—consistent, disciplined, three sessions a week, following her program exactly as written.
But there was a problem.
She was exhausted after every session. And her pace hadn’t improved in four months.
In this episode, we unpack what was really going on—because when you’re doing all the “right” things but not getting faster, it’s rarely about working harder. It’s about working smarter. We’ll talk about why consistency alone isn’t enough, the hidden mistakes that keep adult swimmers stuck, and how small technical and structural changes in your training can unlock real progress.
If you’re training for an Ironman—or any long-distance event—and feel like you’re spinning your wheels in the water, this episode will show you what to look at, what to adjust, and how to start moving forward again.
01:19 From 2:10 to 1:55 Per Hundred
01:43 What Was Happening?
03:04 Getting A Good Catch
04:10 Think Of The Catch As The Set Up
05:53 Connect With The Water
06:54 What To Do?
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The post If Your Arm Collapses When You Breathe, Do This with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What would drive someone to voluntarily swim through the most dangerous ocean channels on the planet — no wetsuit, no cage, no way out except forward?
In this episode, we sit down with Mark Sowerby, one of the few athletes in the world to complete the Ocean’s Seven — often described as the Everest of open water swimming — a feat achieved by just 36 swimmers.
His new film, Don’t Be Prey, captures a decade-long pursuit across five continents and seven of the most brutal channels on Earth. From the freezing Irish Sea to the shark-patrolled waters of Hawaii, it’s raw, unfiltered man versus nature — no protection, no shortcuts.
But this isn’t just a story about distance or danger.
After a life-changing event leaves him searching for direction, Mark channels his anguish into purpose with the help of coach Tim Denyer. Together, they build a mindset around one simple but powerful mantra: keep the stroke steady, don’t splash, keep the heart rate down — don’t be prey.
We go beyond the film to explore the swims that nearly broke him, the unseen moments of doubt, and what the ocean taught him about fear, patience, resilience, and staying calm when everything around you is chaos.
This is a conversation about endurance — not just in the water, but in life.
Let’s dive in.
3:50 Swimming The Ocean Seven
7:12 “I Needed Something”
8:25 Headspace
10:51 Filming During The Swim
13:12 “It Is Not About Me”
15:41 The Toughest Swim
18:56 Strategies
21:15 Don’t Be Prey Mentality
23:42 You’re A Big Ocean Swimmer
27:51 Controlling Your Own Mind
29:10 Managing Trauma
34:05 “I Am Not A Very Good Swimmer”
35:50 Takeaway from The Film
37:23 Inspire Change
38:30 Showing Dates
https://www.dontbeprey.film/
Trailer for film:
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You can watch someone swim in real time and miss it completely. But slow the video down, frame by frame, and suddenly it’s obvious. Every fast swimmer has this. A lot of slower swimmers don’t.
And when you fix this one timing detail, it doesn’t just make you smoother—it feels like someone just switched the engine on in your stroke.
In today’s episode, I’m going to break down exactly what that timing pattern is, why it matters so much, and most importantly, how you can actually feel it in the water so it shows up in your own swimming.
00:52 Waiting Too Long To Begin The Catch
02:29 Begin Catch Earlier
03:22 Back Off The Power
04:10 Early Connection
05:31 How Do We Fix It?
08:09 What To Do?
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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The post The Catch Timing Secret Olympians Use appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I watched a swimmer fix one breathing mistake and drop 12 seconds per 100 meters—not in four months, but in four weeks.
No extra fitness.
No added training volume.
Just one specific change in how she breathed.
That single adjustment took her from 1:48 per 100 down to 1:36 per 100.
In this episode, I break down exactly what she changed, why it worked so fast, and how you can apply the same breathing fix in your very next swim—whether you’re training for endurance, speed, or just want to stop feeling rushed every time you turn your head to breathe.
If your breathing feels like the limiter in your freestyle, this episode will change how you swim.
01:45 Head Lifted Forward Out Of The Water
03:49 Correction No. 1 Your Head Should Be Like An Iceberg
04:32 Correction No. 2 Exhaling Ender Water Mostly Through Your Nose
05:14 Correction No. 3: Breathing Every 2 or 3 Strokes and Learn To Breathe On Both Sides.
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The post The Breathing Fix That Dropped My Time 12 Seconds appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
At 20 years old, I missed qualifying for the National Championships by three hundredths of a second in the 50 backstroke. Fast-forward 18 years, and at 38, I qualified for Nationals in the five-kilometer open-water swim—training mostly just three times a week.
In this episode, I’m breaking down exactly how I did it in my late thirties: the one thing an Olympic gold medalist taught me that helped me generate more power with less effort, why getting injured before the race actually worked in my favor, how just five minutes with one coach changed my technique in the final two months, and the single workout I repeated every week that built my endurance and helped me finish fast.
01:54 Missed Out Again
02:27 Stroke Analysis
4:15 Olympic Gold Medalist Secret
6:23 Swimming Workout
7:52 Injured
8:56 Race Day
9:22 The Best Anti-Fog Goggles
10:16 My 5km Time (Qualified)
Try the new Nanoclear Anti-fog Goggles: https://bit.ly/nanocleargoggles
Transform your freestyle with me through online video analysis:
https://effortlessswimming.com/es-training-and-membership-page/
Need to break 2:00/100m? Start here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/courses-membership/
The post How I qualified for the Nationals (at 38 years old) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, I’ll share ten ways to increase your swim speed and become a better swimmer. So, let’s dive in and explore these effective strategies.
00:35 Train Another Stroke
01:56 Change The Way That You’re Training
03:10 Being Diligent With Your Skills
05:12 To Become Supple
05:59 Joining a Squad Or a Group of Swimmers
09:06 Occasionally, Don’t Track Anything
10:25 Keeping Calm Under Pressure
10:43 Commit To A Swim Block
13:48 Pick One Thing And Stick To It For Three Months
15:35 Get Professional Help
Try the new Nanoclear Anti-fog Goggles: https://bit.ly/nanocleargoggles
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
https://effortlessswimming.com/es-training-and-membership-page/
The post 10 Ways To Increase Your Swim Speed appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Imagine holding a 1:05 pace per hundred for nearly two hours—no walls, no turns, just pure precision. Every stroke efficient, every breath controlled. How do you sustain that kind of speed without breaking down? What should your catch feel like? And how do you stay smooth when the ocean, the pack, and your own heartbeat are all working against you?
In this episode, we dive into the story of Nick Sloman. He’s not the biggest guy on the start line, and he wasn’t a childhood prodigy. But over 12 years, he turned sheer efficiency into his competitive edge. After missing Tokyo, he rebuilt himself—not by training harder, but by learning how to swim smarter. His insights on feel for the water might just reshape the way you think about endurance, technique, and what it really takes to go the distance.
01:07 Head position
01:46 Posture And Body Position
02:20 Kick for balance
03:29 Breathing Pattern In Training And Racing
03:54 Catch and cross-body connection
05:20 Video analysis
06:02 Stroke rate
06:22 Open water swim technique
06:48 Stroke changes in open water
07:30 Sighting
08:03 Drafting
08:27 80km a week!
09:13 Hard swim workouts
11:52 Hardest race
13:30 Rest when you’re ___
Join a camp:
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Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
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Follow Nick’s journey here: https://www.instagram.com/nick_sloman/?hl=en
Watch on YT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lohe5CMAOQs&t=637s
The post What does 1:05/100m for 2 hours look like? with Nick Sloman appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
If you’re someone who avoids flip turns—or you’re completely out of breath every time you try one—chances are, it’s not your fitness holding you back. It’s your technique. In this episode, I’m breaking down a simple, step-by-step method to help you master the tumble turn, so you can actually save energy on your turns, move faster off the wall, and keep up with the swimmers beside you.
By the end, you’ll know exactly how to execute a smooth, controlled flip turn without getting dizzy, without gasping for air, and with way more rhythm and confidence. Let’s dive in.
00:48 Approach The Wall Smoothly
01:50 Set Yourself Up On The Last Stroke
03:29 Initiate The Flip Into The Wall
05:24 Landing The Right Distance
06:34 Streamline
08:08 Eyes Down Into The Water
11:01 Breakout
Try the new Nanoclear Anti-fog Goggles: https://bit.ly/nanocleargoggles
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
https://effortlessswimming.com/es-training-and-membership-page/
Need to break 2:00/100m? Start here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/courses-membership/
Join a camp:
https://effortlessswimming.com/camps
5-Day Catch Challenge https://members.effortlessswimming.com/c/5daycatchchallenge/
The easiest way to improve your catch and shave 5 seconds off your 100m free.
Watch on YT:
The post Why Most Swimmers Run Out Of Air In Flip Turns appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Struggling with your arm dropping whenever you take a breath in freestyle? You’re not alone—and there are five common reasons this happens. In this episode, we break down each cause, show you exactly how to fix them, and help you transform your breathing technique. By the end, you’ll swim farther with less effort and finally feel like you have all the time in the world to take a smooth, controlled breath. Dive in and level up your freestyle.
00:38 Breathing
04:17 Rotation
05:57 Hand Entry
07:31 Exit Of The Opposite Hands
08:59 Starting Catch Position And Reach
09:54 Where Is Your Shoulder As You Reach Forwards
10:54 Quick Fix
Join a camp:
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FREE Freestyle Technique Checklist https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-checklist/
A simple 1-page guide to help you spot what’s holding you back in the water.
7-Day Freestyle Fix https://members.effortlessswimming.com/7-day-beginner
One tip a day for a week to help you swim further without getting tired.
Courses Membership https://effortlessswimming.com/courses-membership/
Get access to all of our online courses, drills, and training plans.
Transform your freestyle to be effortless and smooth with online video analysis:
https://effortlessswimming.com/es-training-and-membership-page/
Need to break 2:00/100m? Start here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/courses-membership/
Watch on YT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRX3de5BXSw&t=301s
The post Why Your Arm Drops When You Breathe appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
There are so many different things you can do to get faster in your freestyle. In this episode, I’m gonna break down five proven ways that you can swim faster for less effort. Let’s get into it.
00:26 Point Your Toes Inwards (42% Faster)
2:07 Don’t Pat A Cat
3:19 Press On Your Chest To Bring The Hips Up
4:24 Reach And Extension
7:15 Increasing Your Distance Per Stroke
8:41 Accelerate Through Each Stroke
Get your Nanoclear goggles here and get 15% off from your first purchase. Code: PODCAST
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Grab the freestyle checklist here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-checklist/
Work with us (stroke analysis coaching):
https://effortlessswimming.com/es-training-and-membership-page/
Join a camp:
https://effortlessswimming.com/camps
5-Day Catch Challenge https://members.effortlessswimming.com/c/5daycatchchallenge/
The easiest way to improve your catch and shave 5 seconds off your 100m free.
5 Freestyle Fixes That Actually Work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv2Mcs7n0p8
The post 5 Freestyle Fixes That Actually Work appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
If you’re taking 50 strokes a lap but should be in the low 40s, the issue might be your body connection — not your strength. In this episode, we explore how elite swimmer Becca Mann fixed her “shoulders and hips not connected” problem, dropped her stroke count by nearly 20%, and became a record-breaking open-water athlete.
You’ll learn what shoulder-to-hip connection really means, how to tell if you’re disconnected, and the simple posture cues and drills (like 6-1-6 and side-kick rotation) that instantly improve your distance per stroke.
A quick, practical guide to swimming farther and faster with less effort.
Join a camp:
https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
FREE Freestyle Technique Checklist https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-checklist/
A simple 1-page guide to help you spot what’s holding you back in the water.
7-Day Freestyle Fix https://members.effortlessswimming.com/7-day-beginner
One tip a day for a week to help you swim further without getting tired.
Courses Membership https://effortlessswimming.com/courses-membership/
Get access to all of our online courses, drills, and training plans.
The post Reduce Your Stroke Count From 50 To 40 Strokes appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
If you’ve ever been confused about the different types of freestyle kicks — two-beat, four-beat, and six-beat — this episode is for you. I’ll break down what each kick pattern means, how to do them correctly, and when to use each one in your own freestyle to improve efficiency, rhythm, and speed in the water.
In this episode* 00:48 — What do “beats” refer to? * 00:59 — 2-beat kick * 05:31 — 4-beat kick * 07:38 — 6-beat kick
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles — 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15 * Free freestyle checklist * Stroke analysis coaching — work with us * Join a swim camp * 5-Day Catch Challenge — the easiest way to improve your catch and shave 5 seconds off your 100m free * Transform your freestyle in 33 minutes (video)
TranscriptRead the full transcriptsome of the best Ironman athletes, depending on the, on the pace they're going. Some of them do have a light six-peak kick. Um, some of them are doing less than that. So it just depends on the person. But if you can get yourself to the point where you can change gears by changing your kick type, then you'll find that it gives you a lot more options going forwards. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast, the show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford.
If you are confused between the different types of kicking, two-beat, four-beat and six-beat, I'm going to explain what each of those things mean, how you can do them and when to use them in your own freestyle. What the beach refers to is how many kicks you do per stroke cycle. And a stroke cycle is a right arm and a left arm. That is one stroke cycle. A two-beat kick is when you do one kick per arm stroke. So it's kick on the right arm, kick on the left arm. That would be a two-beat kick. And this is a really good way to start as a beginner. It's the most efficient kick because you're kicking the least and it's a really good way to help with the timing of your stroke as well. And you'll often find a lot of longer distance swimmers will use a two-beat kick because it can save energy. And when you've got the buoyancy of saltwater or a wetsuit, you find that you don't need to kick much at all. And so a two-beat can be the preferred style for a lot of people. Now with a two-beat kick, the way we want to think about it is with the upper part of your legs, so your, where your thigh bones are, that's not going to move a whole lot, but the lower part of our legs are going to go from one side onto the next. So we're going side to side like this. What we're not doing is staying flat and just moving our legs up and down. We're going to be on our side and our legs will be slightly apart and then we'll kick and that'll switch us to the other side.
So we go from one to the next. Now, if you think about timing your kick with a two-beat as when your left hand enters, your right foot's going to press down and that's going to help you switch onto the other side. And then as your right hand comes in, your left leg is going to kick down as you switch. So you can think about kicking yourself or pressing yourself into that streamlined position. So we're not trying to do this big massive kick where we're trying to really propel ourselves forwards, but it's this switch from side to side that gives us this grounding point, this sort of point in the stroke where it gives us a bit of propulsion because it feels like we've got something to almost anchor against. So that's the importance of the kick. So that's a, that's a two-beat kick. Now we often find in this, this type of kick that some people will actually need to bend their knee a little bit more than what they would for the others. Just to help them get that switch happening, which is okay. As long as they don't kick too big where the legs are coming way outside the body line and creating a lot of drag. So that's a two-beat kick, very efficient, great for open water. Great for people who aren't too concerned about the speed that they're going, but they want to conserve energy and they want to time their stroke really well. At Effortless Swimming, our mission is simple. Make swimming more enjoyable. Whether you're training for your next race, swimming for fitness, or just love being in the water. We're here to help you swim faster, smoother, and with more confidence.
And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles. If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid-session, you know how frustrating it can be. That's why we created the Effortless Swimming HydroClear Anti-Fog Goggles for long lasting crystal clear vision. I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day. And I'm not the only one. Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear. No fog, no frustration, just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a HydroClear Goggles different? It's all in the technology. Unlike ordinary anti-fog coatings that wear off over time, HydroClear super hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself. Here's how it works. Instead of fog forming as tiny droplets, water spreads evenly across the lens, creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting. And the result? Consistently clear vision, swim after swim. And the durability? Our lenses are CNAS certified. Tests show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth, under a 200 gram load, the lens stays fog free. No gimmicks, just serious performance that lasts. Using them as simple. Just wet the lenses before putting them on and you're set for a fog free swim. Ready to see the difference yourself? Get 15% off your first pair of HydroClear anti-fog goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlessswimming.com. That's 15% off your first pair of goggles with the code
podcast at shop.effortlessswimming.com. We also have a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason, you can simply return them for a refund. Don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim. Try HydroClear today and experience clear vision from start to finish.
Now a four beat kick is when we do four kicks for each arm stroke, for each arm cycle. Except what I find a lot of swimmers tend to do with the four beat is they go one, two, three, four. But the way we want to time our four beat kick is actually different. It's one kick on one stroke and three kicks on the other stroke. So it's one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, not one, two, one, two. I see a lot of swimmers doing this two, two, when they come for video analysis, but I find it often limits their ability to get faster with that two, two. So the way we generally want to work on this two, this four beat kick is one kick on one stroke, three on the next. Now that means you'll have this little bit of a pause or a delay after that one, and that's kind of where you'll get the glide and the distance in your stroke, as you can see in this video here, takes a little bit to get the timing, but what I like to think in my mind is it's one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. So having that tempo in the back of your mind. Another way you can kind of think of that timing is you can go one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, same thing, just different way of thinking about it, but those two types of ways of thinking about it can actually help you get that sort of tempo and timing, but that does take a little bit
of practice for most swimmers I've worked with it, it's taking them two or three sessions of dedicated practice to get that sort of timing. And that's kind of an in-between level of kick. It's still very efficient, but it does allow you to start to increase the pace. And if you look at some of the best distance swimmers in the world, many of them will do a two-beat kick for their 1500, but as they start to ramp it up in the last three, 400 meters, that'll introduce more of a four-beat kick when they want to pick up the pace that little bit. So it can often use a little bit more energy, but it can come along with increased speed. A six-beat kick is three kicks per arm stroke. And that is more of a continuous kick. You'll see this all the time with sprinters, with even people doing 400 and 800 meters who are used to that sort of kick level of kick. But, and you'll also see in the 1500, sometimes where they're finishing off the last 50 or 100 with a strong six-beat kick, it can use a little bit more energy, but it can also be efficient and easy to do if you keep the kicks light enough of, but more times than not, we will see this with your average adults when they're looking to increase the pace. So it's good to develop these different gears in your swimming so that you can change speeds. But a six-beat kick, you will feel like it is just a constant kick that doesn't have any pauses or interruptions to it, but that can come with a higher heart rate. But it's not to say that you can't maintain that for an entire Ironman swim.
If you look at some of the best Ironman athletes, depending on the pace they're going, some of them do have a light six-beat kick. And some of them are doing less than that. So it just depends on the person. But if you can get yourself to the point where you can change gears by changing your kick type, then you'll find that it gives you a lot more options going forwards. And it's probably not something for beginners, but if you are around that 145 per hundred for one kilometer or faster, it's something that you may want to consider developing as part of your stroke and you're going to be doing so many laps in training anyway, you're going to be doing some variances in speed that it's a good thing to at least attempt and see what works best for you. And it may be that you don't actually need to go to a six-beat kick. It might be that for whatever you're doing, two beat is absolutely fine. And that's all you need. And so you might want to stick with it, but at least give yourself the option to be able to change gears by changing your kick type and something that does take time to develop if you are new to the sport, if you're looking to develop your swimming, you can work directly with myself and our other coaches in our coaching membership. So if you can get footage of your swimming, I'll put the link below to join our coaching membership. And that's the best way to work directly with me to help make yourself faster and improve your own technique. Thanks for watching. If you want to see another video on freestyle, check out this one here. Thanks for listening to the effortless swimming podcast.
If you'd like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlessswimming.com
The post Which Freestyle Kick Is Best? with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Two years ago, Brian Hans was swimming 2:00 per 100 yards—struggling to find rhythm and wondering if he’d ever feel smooth in the water. Fast forward to now, he’s cruising under 1:30s and just placed 9th out of 171 in his Half Ironman swim. How did he make that kind of jump? What changes in his stroke made the biggest difference? And what nearly stopped him along the way? In this episode, Brian shares the breakthroughs, setbacks, and lessons from his two-year transformation—proving what’s possible when you combine patience, feedback, and the right focus in training.
In this episode* 01:43 — Introduction to Brian Hans and His Background * 04:36 — The Journey from Recreational to Competitive Swimming * 07:06 — The Importance of Technique and Video Analysis * 10:06 — Experiencing Breakthroughs in Swimming Performance * 13:01 — Navigating Open Water Challenges * 15:57 — Training Consistency and Session Structure * 18:29 — The Role of Flip Turns in Swimming Efficiency * 21:39 — Current Focus and Future Goals in Swimming * 24:11 — Patience and Long-Term Progress in Swimming
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. https://shop.effortlessswimming.com/ * Grab the freestyle checklist here * Work with us (stroke analysis coaching) * Join a camp
TranscriptRead the full transcriptThanks to you and your really helpful video analysis, I started to kind of go from 210 to two down to 150, this is per hundred yards, down to 145. And I think when I was right around that pace, you said the next kind of breakthrough for you is gonna be connection, right? So you gotta hit, you gotta kick while you're catching on the same side and you gotta feel that connection and feel like, have the water help you move. Don't move against the water, like use it to your advantage to just kind of glide. And you gave me that skating analogy. You know, like one catch side, one catch kick, just skate to the other side. I think that was another one of those sort of moments where once I practiced that and got it down, that was another sort of like five, six second jump. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast, the show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford. Two years ago, Brian Harns was swimming two minutes per hundred yards, struggling to find rhythm and wondering if he'd ever feel smooth in the water. Fast forward to now, he's cruising under 130s and just placed ninth out of 171 in his recent half Ironman swim. How did he make that kind of jump? What changes in his stroke made the biggest difference?
And what nearly stopped him along the way? In this episode, Brian shares the breakthroughs, setbacks and lessons from his two-year transformation, proving what's possible when you combine patience, feedback and the right focus in training. Welcome to the podcast. Just for those that are listening, if you can give it like a quick background on yourself and your swimming and your triathlon background as well. Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me, Brenton, great. Great to be here. I'm a regular listener to the podcast, so it's an honor to be on. I think you guys are doing amazing things at Effortless Swimming. It's an incredible platform that you've built and you guys are incredible at helping adult swimmers get comfortable and kind of distilling things down into digestible terms. So it's really, really great to be here. Yeah, so just a little bit of background. I swam just kind of recreationally growing up. Like I wasn't a competitive swimmer, just a little bit. I played a lot of sports and then wound up, when I was in high school, middle school and high school just kind of started to focus more on wrestling and that was my thing in high school. So I did that mostly, but I also ran and I played baseball. So definitely played a lot of sports and like I said, just kind of swam recreationally, but wasn't a competitive swimmer. And then after college and went to law school, I was kind of looking for something to keep that competitive atmosphere going and I picked up running. So I did a lot of half marathons and marathons and that was fun. I was like for someone who had a demanding job and I was like a decent runner for half marathon.
Like I could keep like a 715 pace for a half marathon. So it was pretty good. And then my older brother got into triathlon and he was like, hey, you should get a bike and try this, this is amazing.
So I did, I started biking a little bit and I started hitting the pool a little bit. I did a sprint race and that was it. I was just like totally hooked. I was a fairly decent cyclist and pretty good runner like having a kind of running background, but the pool and the swim, I was like so uncomfortable. Like everything, the race atmosphere and the open water and just being able to sustain because I had never really swam competitively, but I was okay. I could kind of just put together a decent enough swim to get myself in a position to be in the mix somewhat on the bike and the run, but it just became a focus where I wanted to get, I just wanted to feel more comfortable, basically swimming. So like around that time, I was probably, like a 210 per a hundred yard pace, like somewhere around that, but not particularly relaxed, like feeling that was like working when it shouldn't have been, because I was pretty good running shape. So I just started to kind of watch some YouTube videos and about technique. And I realized it wasn't about, there's a kind of thing like you talk about where, more effort doesn't equal more results. Like I was starting to go to the pool a little more and it just wasn't translating into better results. So I started to watch a few YouTube videos and pick up a little technique. And I was there one day and I remember,
I forget exactly what it was, but it was either something about like head position or body position. I was trying it for a while. And then one day, like it just clicked, the actual like technique and I felt it. And then that was it. I've just been completely obsessed with swimming since that moment. And it's not like at that moment, I just all of a sudden was, as good a swimmer as I've become over the years, but it was just enough to bring me back. And then I just completely fell in love with,
how highly technical it is swimming and that like tension between, needing to put in the time and how fit you can get swimming. But at the same time, just the mental side where you have to be putting in like smart work, not just more work. And yeah, so ever since then, I've just been just going at it as much as I can. Because when I speak to people, it's like they love the run, they love the ride. Their swim is often the thing that they want to avoid because it's not fun and it's not enjoyable. So that moment there, is that the one that kind of converted you to enjoying the swim more than the other legs? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, once I feel like I hear people talk about golf a lot like this, like they hit one shot that just like takes them, just like makes them fall in love with it and brings them back. And like that, yeah, that was it for me. Just feeling that moment where that technique just like clicked into place and then just like seeing the difference in pace and feeling how you're supposed to be moving through the water. Yeah, then I just started kind of prioritizing swimming over biking and running. And it just became by far my favorite of the three, for sure. And then take me back to about two years ago, I think when you sent your first video in for analysis, what made you decide, all right, I think I need a little bit of help here. Yeah, I just kind of realized that I wasn't gonna figure it out myself. You know what I mean? And I was talking, there was a guy at the pool
who I kind of watched. We were equal and we were pretty friendly, like really nice guy. He did tries, like a local try guy. And we would talk at the pool and I started seeing him, we were pretty equal. And then I started seeing him all of a sudden and I was like, man, I can't keep up with this guy anymore. You know, and then all of a sudden he's like hitting flip turns and like dolphin kicking underneath the water and just like, I mean, literally just lapping me. So I asked him like, what's going on? And he said, oh yeah, he said, I started doing online tutorial. Like I started watching videos and I sent in to do a video analysis and just like completely changed my stroke. Like I never realized everything I was doing wrong. So I was like, oh, you know, let me give it a shot. So that was what prompted me to send you that first video. And can you remember back to that first one, what were the main couple of things that you got out of that first analysis? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think you were pretty kind to me. I think you went pretty easy on me because there was a lot, but it was just the basics. It was just head position, body position. I think I was over rotating, which was causing my legs to kind of splay out. But it was mostly just like the fundamentals because I never, you know, even though I love it, I didn't like grow up as a swimmer. So I just didn't have a good sort of like base foundation. So like I said, I think you talked to me about like head position, not over rotating, like lighter kick and just kind of like feeling the water, you know, kind of like skating through the water,
not muscling your way through the water. So I think those were the sort of first kind of cues that you gave me that were super helpful. And then we've obviously done more videos over the last two years. Was there any particular piece of advice or a moment where you were swimming one day and you made a change and you noticed like, oh, okay, this feels just as good as that first kind of breakthrough you had when you changed that initial part of your technique a couple of years back?
Yeah, I think it was, so I started to, you know, thanks to you and your really helpful video analysis, I started to kind of, you know, go from 210 to two down to 150, this is, you know, per hundred yards, down to 145. And I think when I was right around that pace, you said, you know, the next kind of breakthrough for you is gonna be connection, right? So you gotta hit, you gotta kick while you're catching on the same side. And you gotta feel that connection and feel like, have the water help you move, don't move against the water, like use it to your advantage to just kind of glide. And you gave me that skating analogy, you know, like one catch side, one catch kick, just skate to the other side. I think that was another one of those sort of moments where once I practiced that and got it down, that was another sort of like five, six second jump. And then I think the biggest one, you know, more recently was, was breathing. So, you know, just sort of breathing position, breathing technique. I think I was coming up out of the water a lot, which I just, at the pool, I kind of see and kind of notice a lot of people doing that now, ever since you pointed out to me. So you gave me that cue, that like, like goggles split, you know, like where the water should be sort of one, you know, one goggle underneath, one goggle over. So the top of your head is kind of pressing into the water. And that was total game changer,
because that took so much of that, so much of the effort out of the wrong part of the stroke and put it into the right part of the stroke. Like there was no more, like there's no more effort to breathe. Now it's just like waiting for the, you know, catch hand to be at the right spot to like put the pressure on. So that was, that was another just kind of cue. That was a total game changer. And what I really like about seeing your progression over the last two years as well is the, you haven't been in a rush to like, all right, I need to be 20 seconds quicker by the next month. It's like, you know, two years, it's a long time, but it's also a short amount of time. And typically it's people who are willing to just focus on one or two things for several months, make those changes, like your head and body positions and really basic stuff, but a lot of people just don't have that in place. And that's why I went easy on you, so to speak. It's like, well, there's no point trying to like give you everything. Let's just keep it super simple and get that right. And then we can reassess and go from there. And now, so your most recent triathlon, most recent race that you did, it was a 32.50 for your half Ironman swim, where you got ninth out of 171 in your age group for the swim. One of the things you mentioned in your email a few weeks back was you allowed yourself to get a little bit scrappy in that race. Can you talk a little bit about what that means for you? Yeah, and, you know, first of all, I think like, you know, testament to you and everything you guys are doing there.
Two years ago, when I, you know, really was enjoying swimming and thinking like, I'll just try to get better and just see what happens. Like I enjoy that sort of technical challenge. If you told me I would have like a top 10, division swim at an Ironman branded event, I would have told you you're completely out of your mind. So that was, you know, that was pretty cool. And I think, you know, as I mentioned to you in the email too, you know, I think I didn't really seed myself appropriately. I should have probably put myself up a little further because I was kind of climbing over people for most of the swim. So I'm gonna take that with me. And like you always talk about, you know, you can't be a victim out there in the open water. And I think I had a little bit of that syndrome in the seeding. Like I sort of just seeded more appropriately. So I'm gonna remember that for next time. But yeah, so in terms of like the scrappiness, I guess like what I met was, there was a really like a pretty good chop in the water. But it was kind of like, it was a wind driven chop, right? So right underneath the surface was just like nice clean water. So I couldn't, you couldn't do your normal, like easy kind of feeling fluid split goggle, like breathing like you can in the pool. So I had to kind of just figure out like how am I gonna keep my catch, you know, the way that I want it to be, like it is in the pool because I got this nice clean water. But every time I went up for a breath the first couple strokes, I was just like eating water. So I just had to kind of like figure out with elbows in my face and kind of heels, like almost, you know, hitting me in the goggles, just kind of, I skipped the breath about, you know, a couple of times,
just was whatever, hopefully I could get some air on the next one, you know, and then just would breathe like a little bit behind, a little bit in front, like coming up a little bit more maybe than you would if you were trying to execute really good technique in the pool. So basically just trying to like make sure that the basic mechanics were down that I know work, but just figuring out like how to get the breath and just how to get around people. And one other thing that was really helpful was I think I did like a pretty good job of, and I heard you talk about this in one of your podcasts, I forget who was on, but talking about trying to get like a feel of what's around you when you're in the open water, somebody's on my left. And as we're kind of stroking together, I'm trying to get a sense, is that a heel? Is that their catch? Like, is that their arm? And then as soon as I figure it out, I can figure out kind of without breaking my stroke, figure out how to navigate it around, right? There was one guy we were together for like a bunch of it. And then I realized I was gonna like just turn it up a little. And I realized that it was his, it was his catch that I was feeling, right? So I figured after I feel the elbow like kind of slide through, I'm just gonna slide like right over that shoulder and just like get in front of them. So, you know, things like that, just kind of figure it out on the fly. Hmm, so that the awareness in the open waters is such a big one. And we had our Maldives camp last week, two weeks ago. And so we had Sharon Van Rivendel there who was the Olympic 10K champ. And it was really good hearing her talk about the awareness in open water is one of the first things.
And we did a lot of exercises with the group where we'd be drafting, I might be in front and then we'd have three, three, three, and we'd all have to work together in this group. And then we'd kind of do it as like, all right, let's all try and swim at the same pace. And, you know, if you find yourself dropping off or you've got to make sure that you're not out by yourself because you're gonna be having to break all of that water in front of you. So you've got to make sure that you have that awareness, right, where's the group or is there someone nearby that I can slip in behind or get on their hip and just get back up with the group. And especially in an Ironman race where you're going to have hundreds of people spread out. Well, you've got lots of opportunities to slip in behind and then slip past them and kind of use that to your advantage. And then in terms of the scrappiness with the stroke, you wanna be in flow with the ocean. You wanna adapt your stroke to the conditions that you've got. And quite often the surface of the water is not pretty. And so your stroke's probably not going to look that pretty as well. And you have to be willing to get a little bit, yeah, a bit scrappy with it. And often that sort of one-two timing, like one stroke's longer than the other, often that works pretty well in those choppy conditions, especially if you normally breathe to the one side. So just allowing yourself to get scrappy. I'm glad it worked well because I find people usually start off by trying to be too perfect in the open water, especially when they're working so hard on swimming well in the pool, but then they just don't adapt for the open water. So is that something that you feel like you've developed over time or you were generally pretty good at it when you started?
No, I think it's not, yeah, I think it's something you just develop by just doing more races, just doing more open water swimming. So I think this was my, this was my seventh, seventh 70.3. And then I've done one full Ironman and like a bunch of sprints in the Olympics. And I think just the experience, you know, like going out there and knowing like at first, and then this is something that I think actually is, you could work on the pool that I worked on is, you have to be able to really like put a burst on and like feel pretty uncomfortable for 50 meters and then be able to settle back down, right? And just like calm back down, get into your normal stroke or like one race, I swam like right into the buoy. Just, you know, that'll, that'll kind of throw you out like for a loop, you know, you're like, I'm like right under it. And then, so you need to, you know, you get kind of disoriented, you got to, you know, get your stuff together mentally again. But yeah, I think, I think it kind of just comes with experience. Yeah. And it's, yeah, you, I mean, you've progressed a lot in those, in those two years being around two minutes plus to, just under 130 per hundred yards in a lot of your training sessions. And a good question to ask is, how much swimming are you actually doing? Because I know with us, we focus a lot on the technical side of things, but you've got to marry that up with training consistently and putting in the, in the case still. So what's your standard week look like in terms of how many sessions and how many kilometers or miles are you doing? Yeah. So, so yeah, as we've talked about, I have a young family and I work a lot. So if I could, I'd be at the pool,
you know, five days a week, every week, but that's not, that's not realistic. So usually, usually I hit the pool three days a week and I do a 4K session. So, you know, usually around 12. And then if it's a good week, I'll do a fourth. And then over the winter, I like to kind of throw in some longer sessions just if I can on the weekend, like I'll go do like a five or 6K swim in the pool if I can, if I have time, just to try to, you know, ramp it up a little bit. But that's usually, that's like pretty, pretty typical. Three, three or four swims a week and kind of minimum 4K per session. And what's a typical session look like in terms of structure and then like, what are some types of, say, main sets that you've found to be really beneficial, especially for your racing? Yeah. So I like to, I like to switch it up. Sometimes I'll do, you know, just open with like a straight 1K, just straight. And then, you know, the next K, do sort of hundreds on, you know, 150 or two minutes
and just mix in some, mix in some drills. So I'll do, so I'll do like a warmup and sometimes I'll mix in drills to the main set as well. So I'll do like 50 drill or a hundred drill. And then after that, like with no rest. So like take, you know, fins come off, snorkel comes off and then you're right in and do like either two or 300. So I'll do that, you know, for six or seven reps as like a main set. So I usually, I usually keep it pretty varied. And, you know, the hardest set, one that I don't like, but I think is really beneficial. And I think translates really well into the open water is doing sets where within each, you know, within each hundred or 200 or whatever that particular rep is, like you'd go out really hard and then have to settle in. So I'll do like, you know, 50 at pace plus, plus, plus. And then like, you have to settle in cause you're doing like 300 for that particular rep. So you don't know, you can't stop. You have to like, and you can't take it easy on the 50 either. You got to really like let it rip. So I like those, but they're really, I mean, those are, those are super painful. I think one of the ones I got from you, which was torture. I think I was like cursing you while I was doing it was doing 30, 31 hundreds on like 150, something like that. So, I mean, I like stuff like that where you just mentally, it's like physical and mental. So you have to keep it together mentally cause you know you've got a long way to go. And it doesn't sound like it doesn't sound that hard
but you're only going, you're only going 100 yards, right? But when you're at like 15, 16, 17 and there's not a lot of rest there, that's like to me when you get that combination of the mental and physical challenge where you really got to like focus. Yeah, I mean, both of those kinds of sets are great. I mean, at the World Champs recently, an Aussie guy, Matt Houser won that race and his initial 100 meters in the swim, he went out like an absolute rocket. He was like, he got a body length on the field pretty quickly. He went out so hard and so fast. And I mean, most triathletes not gonna have to do that especially in an Ironman race but perhaps as a pro you'd have to but the change of pace stuff where you have to go hard and then you've got to settle, bring the heart rate back down, it is great to practice. And I've told this story a little bit on the podcast probably a year ago but a friend of mine is a pro triathlete and he was training with one of the best Ironman swimmers about a year ago. And he said that he was actually about the same pace in training but the thing that he wasn't very good at personally was that he wasn't very good at going out strong, kept being with the group and then sticking with them. So he had to work on that front end speed. And when he ended up training with this top triathlete he was doing a lot of sets which was like 150 hard and then five seconds rest into 250 moderate or like a seven, seven and a half out of 10. And then they do a hundred hard
and then like a 200 moderate. I mean, they do that sort of thing repeatedly. And so it's great for that front end speed if you want to kind of make a break for it. And then those like sustained efforts with short rest. Yeah, it really simulates that race. Like if you're doing a, well, what is it? 1.8K, 1.9K swim for a half Ironman. Well, if you can do 3,100s with five, 10 seconds rest, quick turnaround time. First eight, nine are fine but then you really start to feel it halfway through. And we did a set like that this morning which was just five seconds rest after each hundred. And yeah, the feedback I got was that set sucked but it was really good as well. It's just hard, it's painful but great for practicing what it's gonna be like in a race. Yeah. The other is really helpful. Yeah, yeah, for sure. The other thing that is hard for kind of a pedestrian swimmer like me who's gotten better but didn't grow up swimming is I try to do the other strokes too because it's so uncomfortable. Like to do butterfly or backstroke is so hard, it's so uncomfortable but I have started to feel how it kind of balances you out. Like I don't breathe to my non-comfortable side particularly well, but I started doing backstroke more and just kind of doing the drills where you swim like half the length and then kind of flip over and swim the rest backstroke. So doing things like that where it takes you out of your comfort zone.
Well, again, for someone like me who didn't grow up as a swimmer, I found those really beneficial. The other thing that really worked really well for me which was so hard to get used to was again so I didn't grow up with a swimming background so I wasn't doing flip turns at the pool, right? And someone said, just try doing a flip turn. You're gonna be a lot more comfortable if you could just keep the momentum going. So I started doing flip turns two years, maybe two years ago or so and it was so painful. I thought my lungs were gonna burst every time I pushed off the wall because I wasn't getting that quick breath. But I think it translates. Now it feels much more natural. I think it looks like a reasonable flip turn and it translates really well to the open water, right? Because you don't know, like I said before, you might go up for a breath and get like a foot in the face and not get like a clean breath or just get like a chop in the face and to be able to kind of know you could still stay settled down and you'll catch the next one. Like doing the flip turns and pushing off the wall and just kind of being patient in that extended position has been a game changer for sure. How did you get more comfortable doing flip turns? Just practice. Just keep doing it. I think I sent you, I sent you some videos. I was like, look at this horrendous flip turn. Can you help me please? And you sent me back some really helpful pointers and then I stuck a video camera on the bottom of the pool and would just watch my flip turn and just kind of compare it to some real flip turns
and over time it has actually progressed into like a halfway decent one. I can't like fully dolphin kick yet and get like a quarter down the length, but it looks halfway decent and yeah, it was just a matter of practice.
That's good.
Yeah, it's one of those initial hurdles for people where it's like, I might actually be going slower initially, I'm more tired, I'm more fatigued and so they don't wanna go through that two or three month period where they're having to adjust to it, but I think long-term, it's just, it's so much more enjoyable if you can get your flip turns and your speed will be better. And as you mentioned, it can correlate to being more comfortable in open water because you may not get every breath easily. Yeah, it's worthwhile putting the work in and from memory, I think, I think you might've been sort of like going in like hands in front maybe and trying to get around initially and then worked on getting the hands to the hips, flipping over and then straighten the streamline because I find when people were coming into the wall, like hands in front and then doing this big pull through with both arms, it's hard work. It's like, yeah, you're doing twice as much effort rather than just finishing both hands at the hip, tucking up nice and tight and then flipping over on your back. So there's some common mistakes there that do make the flip turns a hell of a lot harder. And one thing that people do too, which I don't think you were doing, but quite often they know that a good thing to do is some dolphin kicks under water and try and break out past the flags. But for most adults who haven't had that swim background, trying to do like four or five dolphin kicks under water, you're spending way too long under there. So I'd suggest for most people who are learning them, just push off, do a few freestyle kicks and break out and then you'll get your next breath fairly quickly. Don't try and replicate a Caleb Dressel
off the turns when we're baby steps. You know, we wanna start small. Yeah, yeah. No, yeah, no, it's definitely been a progression. And that was another one of those moments where once that just kind of made me become even more hopelessly addicted to swimming was, like once you can hit that, like I could do a turn off the wall and then just like keep the momentum and the rhythm going where you don't feel like you, if you do an open turn, like you're stopping, you're starting, you feel like you got to start all over again, that's tiring. But being able to hit the wall and just like bounce off, that was another one of those moments where I was like, and I just, you know, I just love that. Like, you know, you pick something, you pick like some technical issue that you're having, you work to resolve it. It's painful and hard. And sometimes you wanna just like take your swim stuff and throw them in the dumpster and just like light them on fire. But you know, if you keep going, like it's gonna get better. And with the flip turn, it was definitely one of that. So that like feeling of being able to just like spring off and just keep the momentum and the rhythm going was another one of those like light bulb moments for sure. And what about now? What are you focused on now with your stroke and with your swimming? Yeah, so a lot more to come offline with you on this one. But I can't, right now, I am just leaving so much on the table because my left catch, I can't get my head back in the water fast enough to really be in proper position to get like the full catch and really get in a good position. So my left arm is dropping because I'm just kind of like spending too much time getting the breath.
So I'm just trying to get my face back. So I'm basically like, if you look at it, I'm swimming with just like basically, you know, like one effective catch and the other one is like serviceable. But I'm just trying to get, work on getting my head back in the water faster so that I could be like head straight ahead to like set up that left catch. So that's been, it's, I haven't been working on it that long, but I think you, you know, you helped me identify that one. And that's so far that's, it's been a, I've had to, I've had to think back to, hearing you say on many podcasts, like don't chase speed, right? And it's okay if you make a change and initially you're slower. Those are two pretty counterintuitive things. So that's hard, but yeah. So that's where I'm at right now. Yeah, fantastic. Well, it's, yeah, it's a long journey and the patience that you've got with working on these things and not trying to do it all at once, I think is why you've had such, partly why you've had such great success over the last couple of years. And I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes you in the next 12 to 24 months. And to see someone who initially is maybe a stronger rider, a stronger runner and a weaker swimmer, but then change and turn into loving swimming, that to me, I really love to see it. I'm being obviously a swimmer and a coach. And when someone finds that passion for swimming and especially the passion for the nuance of the stroke and finding these small areas that they can improve, that's really like to see it.
So I appreciate you jumping on the podcast and sharing that with everyone, because I think there's so many people who are in your shoes, especially that sort of two minute, two minute 10 pace. It's where a lot of people end up starting or getting to after 12 months. But then they feel like that next hurdle might be trying to get under that two minutes or down to 145. And then to get to that under 130 is a big hurdle for people. So I'm sure there's a lot of lessons in that. Is there anything that any say words of wisdom or anything you'd leave people with if they're wanting to do the same thing that we haven't covered yet? Yeah, no, I think like we talked about, it's just that patience. I think like you talk about, you have to just sort of take a long-term view of things and just know if you stay the course, like you're gonna make a change and things you're gonna get faster. It's just sometimes it's not linear. You know what I mean? Like if your approach is, I'm gonna go to the pool and try to make this change and in a few sessions, I'm gonna be like blazing around the pool, like you're just gonna be mad and frustrated. That's like the most helpful thing that I took away from what you always talk about. It's just like take, if you really love it, which I really, like I said, I really fell in love with swimming, like just take that long-term view and over time there's gonna be ups and downs, but it should trend in the right direction. Absolutely. Yeah, you might get like two or three strokes of like, oh, that felt nice, but you might not get it for a pool session for a while. So yeah, fantastic. Well, Brian, appreciate that a lot
and looking forward to seeing what you do over the next year or two and continuing to work together. So thank you for jumping on the podcast. Yeah, thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here. If you can relate to what Brian was talking about in today's podcast, check out our Effortless Swimming Coaching membership. This is where we'll give you feedback every single month on what to focus on to take that next step with your swimming and how you can make those changes with certain drills and how you can make those changes permanent over three to six months. So if you'd like to improve your own swimming, check out our coaching membership at effortlessswimming.com and we'll be back with another episode next week.
The post How Much Can Your Swimming Improve In 2 Years? with Brian Hans appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Bob Bowman — the legendary coach behind Michael Phelps and Leon Marchand — was recently on the Exponential Athlete Podcast, and listening to that episode completely changed the way I think about swimming. In today’s episode, I’m going to share with you 12 powerful ideas I learned from that conversation — insights that can help you take your swimming to the next level.
In this episode* 00:53 — Consistency Beats Perfection * 01:40 — Practice Performing Under Pressure * 02:43 — Process Over Outcome * 03:35 — Relax And Focus Under Pressure * 04:02 — The Power Of Underwaters * 05:08 — Different Approaches Can Work For Different People * 06:97 — Training Volume And Breaks * 08:04 — Visualization * 11:52 — Making Deposits To Your Swimming Bank Account * 13:04 — Creating An Environment Where Success Is Inevitable * 14:09 — Always Be Willing To Experiment * 15:20 — Importance Of Feedback And Data
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * Grab the freestyle checklist here * Work with us (stroke analysis coaching) * Join a camp * https://members.effortlessswimming.com/c/5daycatchchallenge/ — The easiest way to improve your catch and shave 5 seconds off your 100m free.
TranscriptRead the full transcriptWelcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast, the show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer, and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford. Bob Bowman, the legendary coach of Michael Phelps and Leon Marchand, he was recently on the Exponential Athlete Podcast. And I listened to this episode and it completely changed the way I thought about some parts of swimming. So in this video, I'm going to share with you 12 powerful ideas I got from that podcast so you don't have to listen to the whole thing. What's actually relevant to the amateur triathlete or swimmer that you can take away and practice that's going to make a difference in your swimming, rather than wasting the next six to 12 months, not progressing in your swimming. Consistency beats perfection. Michael Phelps and Leon Marchand never really had many 10 out of 10 sessions, but they had a lot of eight out of 10 sessions. So he found that they would never really have these standout sessions where they were just absolutely smashing it, but they were very, very consistent with the high level of training that they did. Very rarely would they dip below their average. Occasionally, if they're sick or didn't get a good night's sleep, they might, but over the, over the course of many, many years, most of those sessions were an eight out of 10. So we're not looking for perfection every single training session, but we do
want to maintain a very high level across the board. And if you've got that consistency, more times than not, that is what actually makes a difference. Practice performing under pressure. Bob Bowman, one time accidentally broke Michael Phelps' goggles before a race. He accidentally stood on them and Phelps didn't realize this until after the race. So he did the turn of butterfly, I think it was, and the goggles leaked. But he said to Bob, I like, I just counted my strokes and that's how I actually knew where I was in the lap. And so if you can create these environments and these scenarios in your training, where you are putting yourself under pressure and you're having to adapt and you're having to be challenged by the time the race comes around, you've experienced it and you know, you can handle it because more times than that, you are going to find yourself in a race situation where there's something that is thrown at you left field and you have to deal with it. And so if you can put yourself in that situation in training as often as possible, then you know, by the time the race falls around, you've experienced every scenario that could possibly go wrong. And so you know how to deal with it. Process over outcome. Bob Bowman said that Michael Phelps slept like a baby before every big competition because he knew the work had been done and there was nothing more that he could do by the time the race rolled around. And so he said that anything that you want to do can be achieved.
If you make the first step small, whether that's winning an Olympic gold, whether that's doing your first Ironman, if you make that first goal small enough to achieve, then you can build up that momentum to reach that final outcome. And so that age old saying of how do you eat an elephant? It's one bite at a time. He said, just even that would really help them think about these big goals that they've got for world records, for gold medals at Olympics. It starts small and then you just tick those things off each and every day. Relax and focus under pressure. Bob shared that Leon especially was not initially great at staying calm in these high pressure situations of well, championships and Olympics, but he got himself to that point where he found that he could stay in that relaxed state of mind, even when he was at the highest level of competition, but it's something that is trainable and doesn't necessarily need to be an innate skill that you've got. The power of underwaters, the fastest that elite level swimmers can move in the water is when they are in a streamlined position and doing dolphin kicks. Now this is not necessarily something for the average triathlete or the average adult swimmer where they have these great underwaters that can generate a lot of speed. But for Michael Phelps, for Leon Marchand, these guys, they have incredible underwaters, but it's something that they would work on all the time. And that's when it became really a, a real weapon of theirs.
And they were able to surpass the competition because they worked on these great underwaters. Even if it might not be the thing for you as a triathlete, it might be your ability to adapt the stroke to open water. It might be a different skillset, but they were very intentional about the skills that they wanted to work on. And those underwaters were a key part because they felt that if they could generate great speed off each turn and get themselves close to 15 meters off every single wall, that would give them a huge advantage over the rest of the competition. Different approaches can work for different people. Bob Bowman shared that Michael Phelps and Leon Marchand were very different in their approach to how they trained and how they performed and rested and all these different things. So he said that Michael was very intense. Once the session was set, there'd be no deviating from it. And he felt like that was partly upbringing in culture, being American, being brought up in the household he was brought up in. He was very much set in those ways and wouldn't miss a training session for many years on end. Leon, on the other hand, being French, being European, he has a much more relaxed style of not training necessarily, but how he approached things. He would take six weeks off after a major competition. Once the session was set, it would be okay if part of that main set was changed. He would be okay with it, but he had very different personality to Michael.
And so the thing I took away from that is there is so many different ways to skin a cat, so many different ways to get from A to B. And it probably depends a lot on your personality, how your body responds to things and perhaps the way you see things. And so that's good to know, I think from a coaching perspective, but also as an athlete, you may not have to necessarily train the way or do the things that you see some of the elite triathletes doing or the elites from us doing, everyone's got their own different approach and it can work depending on the person. The seventh big idea I got from this is training volume and breaks. So I referenced it just before, but Michael spent something like five or six years where he didn't miss a training session, didn't not train for a day, even over Christmas, they would do something like 1500 meters just to get in the water and say that they'd trained, whereas Leon was okay with taking weeks off after a major competition. And I think we saw this through COVID where a lot of the swimmers couldn't get in the water, but we actually saw some of them had incredible Olympic campaigns, even though they'd spent several weeks or sometimes even months out of the water. So again, it just depends on the person, but to me, it shows that rest is very important for, for everyone, but for a lot of people, you may actually need to rest more than what you think if you feel like you are overtraining. And I see that a lot with some triathletes, Ironman athletes. They really have this idea of, I've got to train as much as possible,
but they forget how important rest is. And I speaking to Kat Matthews and her husband, Mark, it's interesting to see their balance between work and rest. She is very smart about the way she approaches her rest, where she sees that that is a very important part of her ability to perform. And I think for a lot of people, they just have this go, go, go mentality, which for some people, it's not the right approach necessarily. Michael Phelps started visualization at 11 years of age. And by the time he had gone to his main competition, he had swung that race in his head more than a hundred times and he'd actually visualized the things that could go wrong. Every little situation that could go not in his favor, he pictured going through that experience and coming up with a plan B or what would happen if this, this challenge is presented to me. And so I think it's an important way to get ready on race day is look, you may not have the ability to get into a pool anymore. You might not have the ability to fit in any more training sessions and your body might not have the ability to recover from any more training. But what you can do is you can visualize the race in your head and you can put yourself in that situation and your body doesn't know the difference between living it out in real life and visualizing that in your mind. And so by picturing yourself on race day, what's going to happen? What do you want to happen by the time you stand behind the blocks or
you're standing behind that start line, you are going to find this level of comfort that you wouldn't have otherwise. And so I remember when I was 14 years of age, I was training for the 400 IM every night before I'd go to bed, I would picture myself swimming this 400 IM and by the time my nationals rolled around that race pretty much played out exactly how I pictured it in my mind, I was about half a second off the time that I'd set myself and pretty much just felt like living out a movie that I played in my head multiple times. And so I think it's one of the most undersold parts of performance when it comes to swimming or triathlon. At Effortless Swimming, our mission is simple. Make swimming more enjoyable. Whether you're training for your next race, swimming for fitness, or just love being in the water, we're here to help you swim faster, smoother, and with more confidence. And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles. If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid-session, you know how frustrating it can be. That's why we created the Effortless Swimming Hydro Clear Anti-Fog Goggles for long lasting crystal clear vision. I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day. And I'm not the only one. Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear. No fog, no frustration, just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a Hydro Clear Goggles different? It's all in the technology. Unlike ordinary anti-fog coatings that wear off over time,
Hydro Clear Super Hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself. Here's how it works. Instead of fog forming as tiny droplets, water spreads evenly across the lens, creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting. And the result? Consistently clear vision, swim after swim. And the durability? Our lenses are CNAS certified. Tests show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth under a 200 gram load, the lens stays fog free. No gimmicks, just serious performance that lasts. Using them is simple. Just wet the lenses before putting them on and you're set for a fog free swim. Ready to see the difference yourself? Get 15% off your first pair of Hydro Clear anti-fog goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlessswimming.com. That's 15% off your first pair of goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlessswimming.com. We also have a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason, you can simply return them for a refund. Don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim. Try Hydro Clear today and experience clear vision from start to finish. Bob would use the term of making deposits into a swimming bank account. Every session that they would do, they would be making a deposit so that when it rolls around to the end of the season, you can take out this deposit from the bank and you can put that into your final race. So that simple analogy is a good way to think about your training.
You are not looking to spend your money there. You're looking to put these little deposits into the bank account. And if you can have that delayed gratification of all this work that you're doing will eventually pay off, then that is when you'll find yourself swimming better 12 months down the track. And I find the same thing when it comes to technique, the swimmers that are trying to fast track their improvement and be swimming 10 seconds faster next week often don't make the changes that are going to stick. And so the ones that work away at their stroke for two months, three months, and they're not too concerned about their times because they're just focused on the technique. If they can delay that gratification, it's three to six months down the line, they find that they're actually a lot faster. The techniques have become their habit and they lock those in. And so I think that delayed gratification works in many different ways. Bob Bowman saw his role as a coach as creating an environment where success is inevitable. So he said that whenever someone would come to him and they were looking at potentially moving to his squad, he said, the one thing I can promise you is that if you come through our squad, you're going to be stepping into an environment where we are performing at the highest level. And if you do, as I say, you will achieve these goals that you've set because the standard that we set in our group and in our squad is of excellence. And I think that is such an important thing to note because what are the other training partners that you're swimming with like?
What is the, what are the other people like that you're hanging around? Who are the club members, your, your squad, your coach, what's their expectation on you and what level are they performing at? Because I think that culture and that position that you, you put yourself in, uh, can really make or break whether or not you're going to hit those goals that you want. So who are those people that you're surrounding yourself with? Always be willing to experiment. Bob Bowman shared that they would always be trying some new things inside of the things that they know would work. So if you're coaching the same program for 10 years in a row, those swimmers that have been doing that program for 10 years, they're probably going to lose some interest, but they know what works. So how do you keep it interesting? Well, the way they keep it interesting is that they do either change the way that they explain things or change how they do things slightly. So that adds a little bit of novelty to it, but they'd also be throwing in some things that are brand new. And he would let them know that this is something that we're going to try. If it doesn't work, we can always go back to what we were doing, but I have a feeling that this is something that's going to help us going forward and quite often when you change anything, you will have regression initially, but if it's something that's ultimately going to work two or three months down the track, you're likely to see the results of that thing. And hopefully that's in a positive way, but it's very normal to experience some sort of regression initially when you're looking to change any part of your program or your technique or the things that you're
doing. And the last idea I got from the podcast is the importance of feedback and data. They do a lot of lactate testing and they want to see whether or not the work and the practice that they're doing in training is helping the athletes clear lactate from their blood faster. And so with their lactate testing, they want to see basically the level of lactate that they get and then how quickly that clears from their blood. And so what we want to be doing in training is being able to train in a way where we are working hard. We're building up this level of lactate in the blood, but it's more important to make sure that we're clearing it and how quickly do we clear it. So for some of these guys like Phalx or Leon, they are doing multiple races on the same day. And if they're not able to clear that lactate from the blood, it means that they're going into their next race as with fatigue and it means they're probably not going to perform at their best. And so they wanted to use this data to make sure that the training they're doing is actually working. And then when they saw that it was working, it not only was good to know, but it showed the athletes that it works and it gave them the confidence in the program. And so that builds up on itself, not only with the confidence, but they have more buy-in to the program. And so that's a big part of how they use that data and that feedback. So I hope you enjoyed this video. I'll link to the full podcast below if you want to take a look at it. But I think it's great to see how two different people from who have
achieved very similar things, have been able to do that with the help of a coach like Bob Bowman. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming podcast. If you'd like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlessswimming.com.
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If you find yourself gasping for air after just one lap in the pool, this episode is for you. After coaching nearly 10,000 swimmers over the past 19 years, I’ve discovered that mastering your breathing is one of the quickest ways to transform your swimming.
In this episode, I’ll show you how to regulate your breathing so you can swim lap after lap without feeling exhausted — like taking an evening stroll in the water instead of fighting to stay afloat. You’ll also learn the number one mistake most beginners make that can stall their progress for months, and how to fix it fast.
Plus, if you’re new to swimming, don’t miss our free 7-day email series that breaks down every key part of your stroke to help you swim more efficiently and confidently.
01:14 Why Does Your Breathing Matter?
01:42 Breathing In
02:16 Are You Exhaling Enough?
05:36 Time Your Breathing Correctly With Your Stroke
06:53 Breath In The Correct Position
08:20 Breathing Patterns
10:14 Keeping The Heart Rate Down
10:54 Drills
12:00 Adapting To Openwater
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https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
FREE Freestyle Technique Checklist https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-checklist/
A simple 1-page guide to help you spot what’s holding you back in the water.
7-Day Freestyle Fix https://members.effortlessswimming.com/7-day-beginner
One tip a day for a week to help you swim further without getting tired.
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The post Exhausted After One Lap? 5 Ways To Swim Forever appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
The freestyle catch is one of the most confusing parts of the stroke — and that’s exactly why so many swimmers either avoid it or get it completely wrong. In this episode, we’ll break down what the catch actually is, how to do it right, and why it’s the key to real propulsion in your freestyle.
If you’ve been swimming for a while but not seeing much progress, this might be the missing piece. I’ll share what I’ve learned from watching thousands of swimmers, coaching nearly 10,000 people in our freestyle clinics here in Australia, and studying what truly makes a great catch work.
By the end, you’ll understand how the freestyle catch ties into your whole stroke — and how to use it to swim with more grace, speed, and efficiency the next time you hit the pool.
In this episode* 01:20 — Parts Of The Stroke * 2:00 — Anchor Your Arms In The Water * 02:46 — Beginning Of The Catch * 03:17 — Fingers Below The Wrists, Wrists Below The Elbow * 4:57 — Catch-Slow To Fast * 05:33 — Initiating The Catch * 7:23 — Pulling Straight Back * 11:43 — Angle At The Elbow * 12:16 — Rotation * 12:50 — Pull/ Press Phase * 13:29 — Power Diamond * 14:37 — The Exit * 17:30 — Recovery * 18:20 — Skinny “S”
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * Grab the freestyle checklist here * Work with us (stroke analysis coaching) * Join a camp * https://members.effortlessswimming.com/c/5daycatchchallenge/ — The easiest way to improve your catch and shave 5 seconds off your 100m free.
TranscriptRead the full transcriptWelcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast, the show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer, and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford.
The freestyle catch is one of the most confusing parts of the stroke. And that's why a lot of people tend to avoid it, or they just do it completely wrong. In this video, I'm going to share with you exactly how to go through your catch in freestyle, because it's where most of your propulsion is going to come from. And if you don't do it right, not only will it mean that your swimming probably won't progress much over the next 12 to 18 months, but it also means that you're leaving a lot of speed and efficiency on the table. And I have seen so many videos on this topic, I've read so many books on this topic, and I've coached almost 10,000 people in our freestyle clinics here in Australia. And so I've seen exactly how it's done well, and how it's not done well and mistakes that a lot of people make. So let's jump into the freestyle catch, how it ties into your stroke, and how to make sure that you do it well, so you are swimming with grace and speed and efficiency, the next time you go to the pool. And if all of this sounds like a lot of information, we've condensed it all down to our five day catch challenge, which more than 15,000 people have done. So I'll link to that in the description. Now when we think about the catch in freestyle, it's just one part of the stroke. So if we look at the different phases of the stroke, we have the catch, which is from here down to here on our arms at about 45 degrees. Then from here all the way back towards the hip, I would call the pull or the press phase of the stroke, and the exit as the hand is coming out past the hip. And then we've got the overwater recovery.
So there's different parts of the stroke. And the propulsive phases of the stroke are the catch, the pull and press, and the exit. And the non propulsive is the recovery. Now our aim with the catch is to ideally anchor our arm in the water and have our body move past that point. So we're not trying to pull our arms through the water necessarily, we're trying to anchor them so they stay in almost the same spot while it's our body
moving past that point. And that's not going to exactly happen like that. But that's what we're trying to work towards. It's almost like if you imagine a ladder on the bottom of the pool, and that ladder has rungs on it. And every time you set yourself up and you perform the catch, you're anchoring on that rung of the ladder, and you're moving on to the next arm and anchoring on the next rung forwards. So that's what we're trying to achieve with a good freestyle catch. So let's start with the beginning of the catch. This is where we are rotated onto our side to 30 or 40 degrees, our arm is extended forwards, and we're long from our fingers all the way through to our toes. And this is where we're going to be longest in the stroke. And this is where we're going to be the furthest on the side. So typically our hips and shoulders will be at about 30 or 40 degrees if we're looking front on and measuring that with the surface of the water. The next step is we need to make sure we get our fingers slightly below our wrist, wrist slightly below our elbow, as we're going to begin the catch. Because if we have the opposite where the fingers are above the wrist, the wrist is above the elbow, not only does that create a lot of drag out in front, but we can't actually press back from that position. And where our propulsion is going to come from is our hand and forearm pressing backwards on the water. That can't be achieved if the elbow is dropping. So we need to start in that position. And we typically find that the fingers are about the same depth as your underarm in that position. Now to get to that position, we also need to make sure that our scapula has slid up along our rib cage. And it's almost like we're somewhat shrugging the shoulders, not shrugging them up here, but shrugging them up this way, where the shoulder can actually move up next to our cheek here.
So a good catch, if you look at any footage of a really good swimmer, you'll find that their shoulder is next to the side of their face, next to their cheek. So it's not covering their ear, and it's not down low, it's just slid up alongside their cheek. And that allows you to achieve that position. And that's a crucial position to getting to, because it's that position that will connect up the arm with the rest of the body. Because a mistake I often see made there is people either don't extend forwards and they just they stop here, or they let their shoulder drop down, and then it really disconnects that scapula from the body, and then we don't really generate much power from it. The other important thing here is that the catch, and particularly this extension phase through here as we're going to start the catch, this is the slowest part of the arm movement. So when we're swimming freestyle, we're slowest out in front, we're quickest out through the back. So think of it as slow to fast, but we're not trying to stop, we never want to pause and lose all of our speed there. It's going to nicely flow into the next part of the stroke, but we are traveling the same direction. So this is the slowest in that part of the stroke. Now as we go through the catch itself, there's a few things that we need to do here. The first thing is to initiate the catch, our hands actually going to move slightly away from the center. And along with that our elbow, and this is the important part, the elbow is going to slide out to the side as well.
Because that's going to allow us to open up through our underarm and allow us to get what we'd call a high elbow catch position. Now high elbow doesn't refer to the depth in the water, that's going to depend on the swimmer, but high elbow refers to the position where we really want the elbow to be higher than the hand in the water. But the way I would picture a high elbow catch is, if we draw a line from your shoulder to your fingers, if your elbow is higher than that line, if we're looking from the side, that would be a high elbow catch. And that's going to give you more surface area of your hand and forearm, pressing backwards on the water. And that's the thing that's going to help move you forwards. So that is what a high elbow catch would typically mean. Now as your hand is coming slightly away from the center and the elbow is going out to the side, that is going to open up through your underarm. And you can see at this position we're still able to connect our scapula, our shoulder blade to the body when we do this. Now if we don't do that, let's say our elbow stays very narrow, so we're here, that sets us up in what we call a dropped elbow catch, where most of the surface area is going to be pressing down and that doesn't move us forwards very much at all. So that's why it's important to get that elbow out to the side, fingers point away, and then we're setting up with the catch. And this is often where it can get confused when people are trying to learn it. They either will think about almost bending the elbow a lot instead of just letting that elbow slide out to the side. And another mistake that people will often make here is they sometimes will think about pulling straight back.
But in order to set up this catch, the hand will move downwards in the water, the elbow will move down a little bit, but it's not going to move down too much at all. So we're not trying to pull straight backwards, it's almost like we're trying to roll over this imaginary ball out in front, and that's going to set up that position. Now to make sure that we're getting as much propulsion from this movement as possible, we need to make sure the palm of your hand is facing backwards. If the palm is turned out to the side or turned inwards, then the direction of that force isn't going to be backwards, so it's not going to be as effective. And we also need to make sure that our hand and forearm is together. If we bend the wrist too much here, we've effectively halved our paddle. So we need to slightly elevate the wrist, just pop it up slightly so that's straight. We never want to drop the wrist or bend it too much in that direction. And through this movement, we're not putting a lot of force on the water. Firstly, because if we go for broke straight away, we're only pressing down, which is not that effective. And secondly, in this position overhead, we're not that strong, especially compared to under here, which is more the power phase. So it might feel like a 3 or a 4 out of 10 in terms of the effort. We're not going for zero, but we're certainly don't want to go for a 7, 8 or 9 in the catch phase. We will build up that power and intensity as we go through the rest of the stroke. And that's quite often where a lot of mistakes will get made when someone is trying to overpower the catch.
Not only does it put your shoulder in an awkward position, it's very uncomfortable. That is where a lot of injuries can come from, because applying a lot of force through this movement here really tends to load up the front of the shoulder. And quite often the common mistake we'll see here is people will initiate the catch with their elbow, where they're pulling back straight away with the elbow. Instead of letting the hand travel down and the fingers point down while the elbow bends and folds, they're pulling back with the elbow straight away. So we need to delay that step just a little bit so that we can set ourselves up in that high elbow. At Effortless Swimming, our mission is simple. Make swimming more enjoyable. Whether you're training for your next race, swimming for fitness or just love being in the water, we're here to help you swim faster, smoother and with more confidence. And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles. If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid-session, you know how frustrating it can be. That's why we created the Effortless Swimming Hydro Clear Anti-Fog Goggles for long lasting crystal clear vision. I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day. And I'm not the only one. Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear. No fog, no frustration, just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a Hydro Clear Goggles different? It's all in the technology. Unlike ordinary anti-fog coatings that wear off over time, Hydro Clear Super Hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself.
Here's how it works. Instead of fog forming as tiny droplets, water spreads evenly across the lens, creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting. And the result? Consistently clear vision, swim after swim. And the durability? Our lenses are CNAS certified. Tests show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth under a 200 gram load, the lens stays fog free. No gimmicks, just serious performance that lasts. Using them is simple. Just wet the lenses before putting them on and you're set for a fog free swim. Ready to see the difference yourself? Get 15% off your first pair of Hydro Clear anti-fog goggles with the code PODCAST at shop.effortlessswimming.com. That's 15% off your first pair of goggles with the code PODCAST at shop.effortlessswimming.com. We also have a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason, you can simply return them for a refund. Don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim. Try Hydro Clear today and experience clear vision from start to finish. Now, if you're looking at videos of your swimming, let's say you've sent in videos to our coaching membership or you're analyzing your own underwater footage. Find that a good catch for middle to long distance swimmers will have this angle of 100 to 120 degrees at the elbow when they're in that high elbow catch. So if you are looking at footage of yourself swimming and your angle is 160, 170 degrees at the elbow from the front,
then you're probably going a bit too deep and straight or you might also be dropping your elbow through the catch. Now the other part of that too is your rotation. So as we are reaching out in front and we start our catch, that is when we're going to be on our side, 30 or 40 degrees. Then as we're going through the catch here, we're starting to rotate back to the other side. So once we finish the catch, that is when we are almost back to flap as we're switching onto the other side. So we're not just going to be doing this move in isolation. We're going to be tying that in with the rotation of the body. So as we're going through this catch, we're starting to rotate back onto the other side. The next phase of the stroke is the pull or the press phase. And this is really the power phase of the stroke. This is where you'll be putting in the most effort. But again, we're not going for a 10 out of 10. You might go for a six or a seven out of 10. So in the pull and the press phase of the stroke, this is once we've finished our catch and then we're going all the way back to the hip. Now as we go through this part of the stroke, we need to have a few things happening. Hand and forearm needs to be facing backwards. And we also need to make sure that we're not pulling back too early with that elbow. We need to make sure this is all going together. And if we look from the front, a position or a term that we came up with for where we want the arms to be is the power diamond. So as the hands are coming underneath the shoulders, your arm will look like half a diamond as the hands about to pass under that shoulder.
You see that with the very best swimmers in the world. They always get to that power diamond position. And what that means is that through their lats and their back and shoulder, they're very strong through there. And it's well connected with the rest of the stroke. Now someone who isn't really getting that position will typically have the arm too straight. So we need to make sure that elbows still out to the side, the elbows pointing to the side there and the fingers are pointing mostly downwards. And it's almost like if you were to get yourself up onto a ledge, then that is where you'd have your arms. So very similar position because that's going to be the strongest part of the stroke or strongest position to be in. Now, as you go through this part of the stroke, this is when you pretty much starting to get onto the other side. So we're not trying to stay flat through this movement. Our body will be rotating along with it. Now, the other reason why this is the power phase of the stroke is this is when we're starting to travel past our hand. So we've done the hard work of setting up the catch and then our body has almost moved past our hand and our arm. So we're getting past it there. And that is when we can obviously be a lot stronger through the stroke. And we've we're able to accelerate a little bit more through that part of the stroke as well. And that's why it can feel like we're going from slow to fast because it's easier to move through that part of the stroke because we have gotten our body past that point. Now, at this point, you can bring your hand close to your center line and we do want it to start to move somewhere in towards the center.
Now, it shouldn't cross the center. It doesn't need to brush the center, but it should start to move inwards through here. So the first part, we are in line with the shoulder and then we come away from the center slightly. And then we're going to come in closer towards the body through that back part of the stroke. Now, quite often I'll see with people, they go through the catch and then they continue to go out wide. But they lose that connection with their arms, with the body, if they do that. So that is why from this point, we actually need to start to come in closer towards the center and almost close this window. All this gap through here as we're starting to finish the stroke. Now, as we go through the exit, the exit is when the hand comes just past the hip. Normally we're exiting just near our upper thigh. And a lot of people will ask, do I have my thumb brush my hip as I do it? It's not a bad way to teach or train that movement, but the thumb doesn't have to touch the thigh necessarily. But in the exit, we want to make sure we finish the stroke and release the water where we've still got a little bit of bend remaining in the elbow. Because if you push back as far as you can and your elbow gets locked out, that is when it's hard to get the arm over the top and we get stuck. So we need to keep that a little bit of bend in the elbow as we finish it. And that way we can release the water and come over very easily and comfortably. So we're pushing back. We're not trying to force as much water out the back as we can.
We're not trying to muscle that part of the stroke, but we will be accelerating through the back end a little bit there. And that helps us transition nicely into the over water recovery. And through this movement, we're still keeping the hand and the forearm pressing back all the way through. And you will find that naturally the hand just turns into the body, the last little bit of that to help it come out of the water. That's fine, but we don't want the hand to turn into the body too early, which I see with a lot of swimmers that I'm coaching at clinics and camps is they turn in too early. But keep that palm facing back because that will give you more surface area, which will give you more propulsion. And once you finish the stroke at the back, the recovery over the top of the water, we want to make sure that we're not trying to come too close to the body. So if you think of what's a sustainable and a comfortable way to bring our arm over the top. Well, if we use our rotation to help us come over the top of the water, then we should get our hand out to the side, elbow pointing up to the sky. And we just bring the arm over in quite a comfortable way where we're nice and open through our underarm as we come through. Now, a lot of people will think they need to have this high elbow recovery and they need to do this. But if you look at where that shoulder is and where the arm is, that's not sustainable or comfortable. So we release out the back, bring the arm through where it feels like the elbow is causing the rest of the arm to come over the top, and then we can place it in front. And then we would start the process all over again.
Now, if we think of the path that the hand should take through the catch in the pool, if you look at it in this video here, with the hand will start in line with the shoulder when we extend it out in front. It will come away from the center slightly and it will come in towards the center. And then just as you're coming out past the hip, it's going to come slightly away from the center again. So it looks a bit like a skinny S shape pull through. Now, you will hear a lot of swimmers and a lot of coaches talking about trying to pull through almost completely straight. Naturally, we're going to have some curve. You are never going to be completely straight there because we're basically our hand in our arms trying to find this still water for us to be able to press back on as we move past it. So we're always going to have some left to right movement. But it's not like they used to teach 40 or 50 years ago with a big S shape pull. We want to make sure that we're doing a little bit of it, but only just enough to help us find that still water to keep the pressure on the hand. Now, there's a number of ways to learn how to do this. The way that we do it in clinics and camps and in our online coaching. I do like to use quite a few drills to help people get used to this movement. Outside of our online coaching membership, we've got all of our freestyle drills that you can do for the catch. And this can help you learn how to do that movement without thinking too much about it. But if you want to keep this nice and simple, get our five day catch challenge below, which 15,000 swimmers have gone through.
And that's a great way to learn this step by step without overthinking it. If you enjoyed this video, check out our 33 minute breakdown of freestyle technique in this video above. And let me know in the comments which part of the stroke you think is going to help make you faster than yesterday. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming Podcast. If you'd like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlessswimming.com.
The post Transform Your Catch In 17 Minutes with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, Brenton and Tas discuss the key takeaways from their recent training camp in the Maldives. They cover essential themes such as identifying bottlenecks in swimming technique, the importance of community support, overcoming self-doubt, and the significance of consistency in training. The conversation emphasizes practical strategies for improvement, including the use of simple cues, the power of reframing concepts, and the benefits of practicing techniques on land. The hosts also highlight the value of rhythm in swimming and the effectiveness of contrast drills to enhance performance.
00:57 Identifying and Focusing on Bottlenecks
04:13 Simplifying Drills and Progression Sets
07:26 The Importance of Community in Swimming
11:23 Believing in Yourself and Overcoming Doubts
15:37 Consistency Over Perfection
19:54 Process and Feel Over Data
23:54 Simple Cues Unlock Big Changes
26:11 Breaststroke Technique Insights
28:08 The Importance of Reframing Concepts
29:56 Rhythm in Swimming: The Waltz Analogy
33:13 Practicing Technique on Land
36:18 Using Contrast Drills for Technique Improvement
40:04 Sighting and Pack Swimming Strategies
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EmbedPress: Please enter your YouTube API key at EmbedPress > Platforms > YouTube to embed YouTube Channel.The post 12 Ways To Make Your Swimming Unrecognizable In The Next 12 Months with Brenton and Tas appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, I’ll show you the 5 key steps to swimming freestyle with ease, so you can save energy, improve your speed, and feel confident every time you dive in.
If you’re an adult swimmer or triathlete who gets tired quickly, this is a must-watch. You’ll discover how to finally relax in the water, connect your stroke together, and build a freestyle that feels natural.
00:42 Good Body Line and Balance
02:05 Good Head Position
03:22 Setting Up the Catch Position
07:30 Recovery Not Working Against You
09:53 Check The Timing Of Your Breathe
11:42 Rhythm and Kick Timing In Place
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=== About Effortless Swimming ===
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Sam Short recently went a 3:41 for his. 400 freestyle. Let’s take a look at what he does really well in his freestyle technique and he uses a galloping style of freestyle. So let’s take a look at this style and how this kind of technique might benefit you. And I think it can be a very effective way to swim open water for a lot of people because in the open water you’ve got a bit more buoyancy with the waves and the chop.
This sort of technique can go a long way, and you do see this with a lot of the good. Triathlon swimmers, and a lot of open water swimmers as well. So let’s take a look from the underwater shot to begin with.
00:50 Head Position (Shoulders Near The Cheeks)
1:48 Elbow-The Widest Part Of The Arm (Power Diamond)
3:26 Galloping Stroke
4:07 Timing
8:17 Catch
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Transform your freestyle in 33 minutes:
TranscriptRead the full transcriptWelcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford.
Sam Short recently went a 341 for his 400 freestyle. Let's take a look at what he does really well in his freestyle technique. And he uses a galloping style of freestyle. So let's take a look at this style and how this kind of technique might benefit you. And I think it can be a very effective way to swim open water for a lot of people, because in the open water, you've got a bit more buoyancy with the waves and the chop. This sort of technique can go a long way. And you do see this with a lot of the good triathlon swimmers and a lot of open water swimmers as well. So let's take a look from the underwater shot to begin with. We've seen with Sam's head position. He looks pretty much straight down at this point. Now as he's reaching forwards with this arm, have a look at where his shoulder is. It's near his cheek. It's next to the side of his face. And we see that with good freestyles as they're extending forwards, they aren't going ear to ear to shoulder. They're going shoulder near the side of the face near the cheek, closing this gap a little bit in order to help them set up their catch. Now you don't necessarily need this shoulder to touch because that's probably going to be uncomfortable for you. But if it's near the side of the face, that can help you move the arm in a way to set up that high elbow. Because what happens at this point if you drop your shoulder is the elbow drops with it. And that means you've got to drop the elbow catch, which isn't very effective. So we see that with a good catch is the shoulder will stay near the side of the face near the
cheek as you go through that catch. Now you'll also see here that when he enters the water, he's in line with his shoulder, extends out, gets fingers below wrist, wrist below elbow, then points those fingers down, and the elbow comes out to the side here, where the elbow is the widest part of the arm. So if you look at your stroke, and your hand is the widest part of the arm, then you're in a weaker position than what you would be otherwise, because that is the position. Well, this is the position that allows you to use your lats, your back through your chest as well, through that movement of the catch and the pull. So it's common to see with all the good freestylers, they get to that position when their hand is moving under their shoulder. We call this the power diamond, right here. So the power diamond is the hands under the shoulder. It looks like half a diamond or a diamond if you've got both arms there. And we came up with a drill a couple years ago called the YMCA drill, which you can see here. And in that drill, we have some as kick for five seconds in four positions, those positions being the start of the catch, the high elbow position, and then the power diamond is the third one. And the exit is the fourth. Now it's a bit of a funny drill. And you might look a bit strange doing this at the pool. But we find a lot of swimmers do that drill. And then they've got a much better sense of where they should be through the stroke as they're swimming. And so they naturally start to move through these ideal positions in their stroke. So the three, the YMCA drill is a
bit of a strange one, but quite often do it at clinics. And a lot of people like to do that to help improve their catch and their pool. Now if you have a look above the water, this is that galloping stroke that you can see here. So Sam goes, he actually submerges himself under the water here. And then he lifts himself up and out of the water quite high over the top here. And then he comes over and goes back down very similar sort of stroke that you'd see with micro falps. He had a similar sort of style. And it just depends on what suits you best. If you look at Elijah Winton, next to him in this race, he stays pretty flat, he's pretty even, whereas this more galloping sort of stroke is what Sam prefers to do and works well for his style, how he's built and what he's developed over time. And it can be extremely effective. Now one thing that we see with this more galloping sort of free style is a difference in timing of the arms. So you notice on this side, his right hand enters the water, this hand is almost finishing the catch. So that enters this one's just finishing the catch. If we go to the next stroke, you'll see that he initiates this catch earlier, the right hand catch is going earlier. And when his left hand enters, which we have the best frame for that there, but you'll see that he's a lot further through the stroke. There we go. So his left hand has entered the water here. This arm is almost at his navel or his belly button
there. So he's a lot further through it. So the timing is actually quite different. One side is a bit more catch up. The other side is a little bit more sprint stroke. So it's a quicker on one side on the other. So that's what you see with that galloping stroke. So the side that you're breathing to is where you'll have a bit more catch up. The side that you're not breathing to is the one that will initiate that catch sooner. And that's where you get that lift through the stroke is just sort of driving yourself through, list you up a little bit higher through here. And he throws that other arm over the top of the water. And that's and then he also has to come down from there. So that's where he gets submerged under the water a little bit more. So this can be a good thing to practice in the open water, especially if you're going race pace, you can do this a lot easier, not so easy to do at slower paces. But if you are going faster, this is when you can start to work towards this sort of technique. Now it's not for everyone. It does require a relatively strong kick and effective kick. So if you're, if you much prefer like an easy two bit kick, and now you're swimming around sort of two minute pace, I wouldn't necessarily suggest a galloping sort of freestyle stroke necessarily, you're probably better off looking for that more even stroke. But just depends where you're at this can be a really effective way to swim at effortless swimming, our mission is simple, make swimming more enjoyable. Whether you're training for your next race, swimming for fitness or just love being in the
water, we're here to help you swim faster, smoother and with more confidence. And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles. If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid session, you know how frustrating it can be. That's why we created the effortless swimming hydro clear anti fog goggles for long lasting crystal clear vision. I've been using them myself. And the difference is night and day. I'm not the only one Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River. And the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear. No fog, no frustration, just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a hydro clear goggles different? It's all in the technology. Unlike ordinary anti fog coatings that wear off over time, hydro clear super hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself. Here's how it works. Instead of fog forming as tiny droplets, water spreads evenly across the lens, creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting. And the result, consistently clear vision, swim after swim. And the durability, our lenses are CNAS certified. Test show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth, under a 200 gram load, the lens stays fog free. No gimmicks just serious performance that last. Using them as simple. Just wet the lenses before putting them on, and you're set for a fog free swim. Ready to see the difference yourself. Get 15% off your first pair of hydro clear anti fog goggles with the code podcast at shop effortless swimming.com. That's
15% off your first pair of goggles with the code podcast at shop effortless swimming.com. We also have a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason, you can simply return them for a refund. Don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim, try hydro clear today and experience clear vision from start to finish. Now if we have a look from the side under the water, you'll see his catch from this side view, we get fingers pointing down, elbow bending a bit there. And it's a good catch. It's nothing extreme or over the top, but it doesn't need to be anything crazy. He's still getting a big paddle. And you'll somewhat see it here is he's got that elbow bent a lot on that side. So the left arm in the water there gets a really good catch. But it's not like we're going from 90 degrees. So sometimes people think, the more extreme I can make my catch the better. It's not the case. It's what's comfortable, what's sustainable and what suits you best. And you can say it's still a very, very good catch from that position. So there's some of the main things that we can see in Sam's stroke. Hope you enjoyed this video. If you would like to get a full breakdown of freestyle technique, click this video above. Thanks for listening to the effortless swimming podcast. If you'd like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com
The post This Stroke Crushes In Open Water appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What does it really take to swim the English Channel or any marathon swim? My guest today, Craig Lewin, is a triple crown marathon swimmer and coach who’s helped athletes tackle some of the toughest swims on the planet. We talk about how to train for hours in cold, rough water. How to stay motivated over years of preparation and the mental tricks that can carry you through the tough times when you feel like quitting.
If you’ve ever wondered how ordinary people achieve extraordinary swims, this episode will show you how and if you’re already into long distance swimming. Myself and World Record Holder, Andy Donaldson will be running two long distance retreats next year. One in the Whitsunday is in June. And one in Tahiti in September.
So if you’d like to enhance your open water skills, learn from the best, and also have one of the best holidays of your life, this is a chance to join myself and Andy Donaldson on a long distance Swim retreat. I’ll include the link in the show notes below.
02:26 Starting Your Journey: The English Channel Swim
05:39 Training Plans for Long-Distance Swimmers
10:57 Maintaining Motivation Over Long Training Periods
16:11 Nutrition and Fueling for Endurance Swims
21:20 Acclimatization to Cold Water Swimming
27:50 Pacing Strategies for Long Distance Swimming
31:48 Overcoming Challenges in Training
36:41 Mental Strategies for Endurance Swimmers
39:11 Choosing Your First Marathon Swim
43:15 Addressing Fears: Sharks and Open Water Swimming
47:27 Safety Tips for New Open Water Swimmers
50:59 Upcoming Events and Resources for Swimmers
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Website: swimbeyondthebreakers.com
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Email: Craig@enduranceswimming.com
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https://www.swimbeyondthebreakers.com/2025-presentations
The post Navigating the Challenges of Marathon Swimming with Craig Lewin appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Recently, Australian swimmer Lani Pallister made history by becoming the third-fastest woman ever in the 1500-meter freestyle. In this episode, we’re diving into her stroke to see exactly what makes her technique so effective and what we can all learn from it.
00:25 2-Beat Kick
01:01 Head Position/ Breath Timing
02:26 Have The Head Turn In Time with the Shoulders
03:30 Catch Position
08:31 Kick Timing
10:01 Rotation
12:38 Recovery
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Transform your freestyle in 33 minutes
TranscriptRead the full transcriptWelcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford.
Australian swimmer Lani Palastar recently became the third fastest ever woman in the 1500 meter freestyle. Let's take a look at her stroke and break down what she does incredibly well. We can see from this front view that she uses a two beat kick, one kick per arm stroke. And you find a lot of distance swimmers like to go this two beat kick. It's much more efficient than a six beat kick much more sustainable over those longer distances. You can pick up your kick later in the event. A lot of swimmers like to finish the last 50 meters or sometimes last 100 meters with a six beat kick. But for those longer distances, a two beat kick is what a lot of swimmers prefer to do, especially those that are doing English channel and those sorts of marathon swims, two beats really popular. Now you'll notice with Lani as well, her head position is looking primarily down just slightly forwards. And what I really like here is her breath timing. One of the things that good swimmers do really well is they time their breath where as one hand is coming underneath the shoulder. So for her it's her left hand, she's pulling into the breath, her head turns nice and early there. And she gets her head off to the side as she's finishing that stroke. So the left hand is finishing, she's getting her breath. And the important part right here is that she returns her head with her catch. So her eyes are back down when this right arm completes the catch right here. The reason that's important, the reason we want
to get the eyes back down with the catch is you can get your catch a little bit easier when your head comes back in time. Because if your head stops the side and you're going through your catch, it takes away some of that power and control that you get in that position because of the position of your head. The second thing is from here, you're back into a more streamlined position. And then she can make sure that she's going through that propulsive part of the stroke that she can really drive herself through from there. So the way I like to teach it the way I like to think of it is pull into the breath. So you pull here to initiate that turn of the head. And then you return the eyes back down with the catch as you could see she does there. Now another thing to be mindful of there have the head turned in time at the shoulders. So we want the straight to be almost like a symphony. Everything's playing together in time with one another and turning the head in time with the shoulders and back with the shoulders is a really good way to do it. Now if we have a look at her greedy, you'll notice here she turns to the side to breathe. She looks primarily to the side here, part of that bottom goggles in the water. Now, only a part of it, she's not looking directly to the side that's slightly higher than that. And usually at that speed, she's swimming a 102 pace per 100 for this 1500 meter freestyle, which is incredibly quick. She has to turn that little bit further to be able to get that breath low. And you can see she's reaching around a little bit with her mouth, almost
like a sort of Popeye type breath. And then she returns it quite quickly as that hands coming back through. So that's really nicely done there. Now if we go back to this front one dude, let's have a look at a few other parts of the stroke. We can have a look at her entry position. So her right hand enters in line with her right shoulder, close to the center here. It doesn't cross that sense line, which is good. She extends forwards a little bit. Very quickly, she starts to bend at the elbow and point those fingers down. You can see what a great catch position. This is right here. Really good catch position. So one of the two things that we look for when you do the catches, we want to firstly reach forwards, but then point the fingers downwards. And you'll see the fingers point directly down. And the second thing is the elbow needs to bend or slide out to the side. If you don't get your elbow going out to the side, you can't get a high elbow catch position. A lot of a lot of consumers who make mistakes with that is they will pull through but the elbow stays narrow. You've got to get that going out to the side to get your catch. So if we look at that from the side view here, we'll see with with Lani on the side. So she reaches out and what we'll notice is fingers bow wrist, wrist bow elbow, which is where we want to be setting up the catch. Then we should point those fingers down, elbow slides out to the side and that creates our high elbow catch. So if we draw a line from the shoulder to the
fingers, you'll notice that the elbow is above that line. So that's a high elbow catch because she's got all this surface area here that she can use to press back on the water, which helps her move forwards, which is obviously the the goal. So really nice catch on that side and she presses back and you'll notice that the palm of the hand faces back behind her the whole way through. Now a mistake I see a lot is from about here, some people will let their hand turn in towards the body like they're slicing out the back and that means that their surface area of their paddle is about half or a third of what they used to have. So keep the palm always facing back from the time you've got your catch all the way back to there when you finish the stroke and she finishes the stroke near her upper thigh. So he hips there finishes near the upper thigh and releases and then comes back over the top of the water. On the right side, similar thing, you can see what a good catch that is there. That is extremely good catch. Now if you are tight and stiff through the shoulders, you may not be able to get that position like Lani's got because that requires quite good mobility and a lot of the adults that I work with don't have that same range of motion. But if you can get somewhere close to a high elbow catch meaning let's say your arm is this green line instead where your elbow is a little bit above that line, that would be more than enough. That is still going to give you a good paddle to work with and if you're extremely tight
through the shoulders, well at least we try and not drop the elbow. So work with him whatever you're comfortable doing there is a good thing to do. At Effortless Swimming, our mission is simple. Make swimming more enjoyable. Whether you're training for your next race, swimming for fitness or just love being in the water, we're here to help you swim faster, smoother and with more confidence. And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles. If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid session, you know how frustrating it can be. That's why we created the Effortless Swimming Hydro Clear Anti-Fog goggles for long lasting crystal clear vision. I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day and I'm not the only one. Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear. No fog, no frustration, just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a Hydro Clear goggles different? It's all in the technology. Unlike ordinary anti-fog coatings that wear off over time, Hydro Clear Super Hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself. Here's how it works. Instead of fog forming as tiny droplets, water spreads evenly across the lens, creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting. And the result? Consistently clear vision, swim after swim. And the durability? Our lenses are CNAS certified. Tests show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth under a 200 gram load, the lens stays fog-free. No gimmicks, just serious
performance that lasts. Using them is simple. Just wet the lenses before putting them on and you're set for a fog-free swim. Ready to see the difference yourself? Get 15% off your first pair of Hydro Clear anti-fog goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlesswimming.com. That's 15% off your first pair of goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlesswimming.com. We also have a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason, you can simply return them for a refund. Don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim. Try Hydro Clear today and experience clear vision from start to finish. Now the next thing is the kit timing. When should we time and coordinate our kicks with the rest of our stroke? Well what you'll see here is that when her left hand enters, which is it's entering there, you'll see that's when her right foot kicks down. So left hand entry, right foot kicking down, which is what we're after there. You'll notice on the other side as well, you'll see the right hand will enter the water there and her left foot kicks down. So right hand entry, left foot kicking down at the same time. So the opposite there, right hand entry, left foot kicking down. Now I've also explained that another way. I will sometimes explain that as kick and catch on the same side. So if we look at this side view here,
you'll see she gets the right catch there and this, so left catch and left foot going together. So that left catch and left foot go together there. It's the same thing because that's essentially when the right foot's kicking down. If we go to this one you'll see that her right, oops sorry, her right arm is catching. So right arm's catching, right leg is kicking down. So similar thing, just a different way of thinking about it. So it really just depends on what suits you best when we think of the timing of the kick and catch. Alright, so same thing but just different approaches to it. Now another thing we can can look at here as well is the rotation. Now good rotation, I see is being 30 to 40 degrees through the back of the shoulders with the surface of the water. So with the landing there, if we look through roughly through the back of her shoulder, she's about 30 degrees at her furthest point of rotation, so 30 degrees from that angle. If she were to go beyond that to 90 degrees, she's probably going to have a hard time getting a high elbow catch and it's probably going to limit her stroke rate as well because it takes a lot longer to go side to side if we're going too far. So 30 or 40 degrees, maximum rotation through the back of the shoulders with the surface of the water which you can see there. Now what you'll notice with her hips, her hips are rotated about the same. So if you're doing anything more than really like 50 meters sprint,
maybe 100, your hips, torso, shoulders, they should be rotating about the same amount. We want to work it together and keep them connected like you'll see here. So imagine that you're rotating around your spine, head stays still unless you're turning to breathe and you're rotating around that spine and that rotation, this is the important part, that rotation comes primarily from the reach and extension forwards. So don't figure out trying to twist under your side and roll onto your side. Good rotation will come from a good reach and extension forwards like you can see here and you'll see the hips shoulders going together. So she enters the water fingers first, extends forwards out in front, begins the catch, then she starts to rotate back onto the other side and just kick out the back here, helps her rotate onto that other side as well. Similar thing here, she enters on the right, extends forwards out in front and then kicks down and that helps her initiate that rotation back to the other side. So she's just so streamlined through here and there's no delay, there's no pause in her stroke. She's got a quite a high tempo, quite a high stroke rate and she can do that efficiently. Sometimes when people come to me and they've got a very low stroke rate, might be 45 strokes per minute, which is just too low for most people, they think, ah, if I increase my stroke rate, my heart rate's going to go up, which can certainly be the case until
you get efficient at it and get used to it. But often with a light kick or a two beat kick, then you can actually maintain a relatively high stroke rate for not too much effort, especially once you do get used to it. Let's have a look at the recovery of the stroke. The recover is when the arm comes over the top of the water. So you'll notice that Lani releases the water at the back here and when she pushes back, she's still got this little bit of bend remaining in her elbow. She's not pushing as far back as she can, locking that elbow out. If you do that, you're going to have a hard time getting over the water comfortably. So releases the water out the back, brings the arm over. See how this shoulder is out of the water. You've got to have enough rotation where the shoulder's out, then the arm can come over comfortably and this elbow's pointing up. So if you're thinking high elbow recovery means this, it's not the case. It means elbow pointing mostly out to the sky as you bring the arm through, but it can be out here. It doesn't, it shouldn't really be here. Let it be out to the side in a more comfortable position. And then as she comes through, she goes to enter there, fingertips first, and she slides the hand forwards into the water from there. Similar thing on this left side as well. And she does get that little bit more rotation here on that breathing side, which is pretty common as well. So you see that entry, fingers first, elbow slightly up, and she slides it forwards. So this is a really nice stroke that I think a lot of people can start to work towards, especially people who prefer that two-beat style of kick. Now you may notice in the front
view, it does look like she comes pretty close to that centre line, maybe crosses it slightly there, but she does correct very quickly. And it's in line with it. It's not crossing it necessarily. So I, yeah, I think that's, it's fine to be in that sort of range. And I've seen that with quite a few longer distance from us. You look at Gregorio Paltrenieri, he does a similar thing. Now not that we're trying to cross the centre line with our hand, but if we get close to it, that is okay. The time where it becomes not okay is if it's impacting your catch. If being across the centre is stopping you from getting into a high elbow catch, because it's staying there through the movement of the catch, that is not what we want. So then we'd look to come out a little bit wider to make sure it doesn't impact our catch. So I hope you've enjoyed this breakdown of Lani's stroke. If you would like to get our free style technique checklist, where I go through all these things in detail and what order you should focus on them in, click the link below and you can get that for free in your inbox today. Thanks for watching. If you want to see my full breakdown of free style technique with even more detail than this, click this video above. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming Podcast. If you'd like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com.
The post This Stroke Looks Calm…But Flies Past Everyone appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
How does an Olympic medalist take 19 seconds off her 800 meter time and nearly beat Katie Ledecky? In this episode, I’m joined by Jaimie Fuller from EO Labs, the creators of the Swim Better Handsets, a company I’ve worked closely with since their early days to share how this breakthrough tech is transforming performance from helping Paige Madden make that jaw dropping improvement to giving triathletes a way to measure swim power in Watts, sync with training peaks, and use AI to pinpoint exactly where they’re losing speed.
EO is changing the way we understand the swim leg from Olympic podiums to your local pool. This could change the way you approach every stroke.
00:00 Introduction to Elite Swimming Technology
02:50 Transitioning to Triathlon Focus
05:34 Integration with TrainingPeaks
08:20 Gamifying Swimming Data for Triathletes
11:08 Membership and Data Analysis
13:52 Understanding Technique and Power Dynamics
17:01 Visualizing Swim Data and Performance Metrics
24:53 Analyzing Swim Performance Data
28:37 The Role of AI in Swim Training
32:23 Understanding Swim Technique and Efficiency
37:45 Learning from Other Sports
39:56 Case Studies of Elite Athletes
45:39 Implementing Changes and Measuring Outcome
Grab the freestyle checklist here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-checklist/
Work with us (stroke analysis coaching):
https://effortlessswimming.com/es-training-and-membership-page/
Join a camp:
https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
The post The Latest Swimming Analysis Tools Are Getting Wild with Jaimie Fuller appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
This episode is taken from our latest Feedback Friday video. We have a triathlete from Sydney who holds 1:30/100m on his Ironman swims. Let’s take a look at his strokes and see where he can find additional speed.
Watch on Youtube:
In this episode* 00:37 — Head Position * 01:04 — Body Position * 04:10 — Reach And Extension * 06:13 — Arm Angle
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * Grab the freestyle checklist here * Work with us (stroke analysis coaching) * Join a camp
TranscriptRead the full transcriptWelcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford. Welcome to Feedback Friday. In this video, we've got Gilly from Sydney. He can hold around 130 per hundred in his half Ironman swims. Let's take a look at his stroke and see where he could find some additional speed. Yeah, you'll notice here that he's swimming really well. If you're swimming 130s, it's pretty quick for your triathlon swims. So you've got to be doing a lot well to be swimming at that sort of pace. So we do see here that head position is quite nice. He's looking slightly forwards top of the head's just out of the water, which looks great. And he's timing his breath where he pulls into the breath to initiate the turn of the head gets a breath relatively early and he brings the head back down with this catch here. So the timing of his breath looks really good. Now there's two things that stood out here that I think will help him increase his speed. One of them is body position. One of those is what happens at this moment here. Let's dig into this one first. So what you'll notice at the finish of his stroke is that the back end of it pushes up towards the surface of the water. So from here you'll see the direction that this palm is going upwards and then that hand gets drawn out of the water
in that direction. What we want to do instead is keep the palm of the hand pressing backwards all the way through, come out on the way back and then come over. So to me that indicates it is just not finishing his stroke as well as he possibly could. So he's going to lose a little bit of that propulsion through the back end of the stroke and it also means that his recovery might be impacted as well. So he might be losing 5-10% of his propulsion through the back end of the stroke. Now that might be the symptom of something else that's happening in the stroke. At Effortless Swimming our mission is simple. Make swimming more enjoyable. Whether you're training for your next race, swimming for fitness, or just love being in the water, we're here to help you swim faster, smoother and with more confidence. And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles. If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid-session you know how frustrating it can be. That's why we created the Effortless Swimming Hydro Clear Anti-Fog Goggles for long-lasting crystal clear vision. I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day. And I'm not the only one. Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear. No fog, no frustration, just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a hydro clear goggles different? It's all in the technology. Unlike ordinary anti-fog coatings that wear off over time, hydro clear super hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself.
Here's how it works. Instead of fog forming as tiny droplets, water spreads evenly across the lens, creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting. And the result? Consistently clear swim after swim. And the durability? Our lenses are CNAS certified. Tests show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth under a 200 gram load, the lens stays fog-free. No gimmicks, just serious performance that last. Using them is simple. Just wet the lenses before putting them on and you're set for a fog-free swim. Ready to see the difference yourself? Get 15% off your first pair of hydro clear anti-fog goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlesswimming.com. That's 15% off your first pair of goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlesswimming.com. We also have a 30-day money back guarantee. So if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason, you can simply return them for a refund. Don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim. Try hydro clear today and experience clear vision from start to finish. And I think it's a symptom of his reach and extension on his left side. So if you look at his right hand, this one enters nicely. He reaches out, gets good rotation, and you can see this link through the body here. This looks good to me. On his left side, he enters there, which is our, and then when he reaches forwards, he doesn't extend out quite as much there. And I think that he could go for a little bit more
reach at the back. And that, sorry, out the front. And if he reaches forwards a little bit more, that will help him rotate the hips slightly more. And that will also help him keep that palm facing back behind him. Because what can often happen there is that if you cut yourself short with the reach, then it's harder to get the hand out. And if the hips are flat, it's harder to get the hand out. So I think he could get a little bit more extension in front before he goes down. And that will help him rotate a little bit more through the hips, which can help him finish that stroke with the palm facing back. So we want to look at the cause, not the symptom. And to me, that's probably the cause. Now he did mention in his note study has been trying to go a little bit deeper, a little bit earlier, with this arm, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. So you can still go a little bit deeper if it feels like it helps. Slightly deeper than the shoulders are extending forwards. But I think he's just missing out on a little bit of that reach and rotation and rotation through the hips, which is stopping him from finishing his stroke on that right side as well as he could. All right. So that's the first thing. Now that kind of can lead into body position as well. So in terms of body position, at least from this side view, there's room to bring the hips up and the legs up ever so slightly. So looking at this here, you can see how the hips and legs are just slightly lower. And what I'm thinking is that that could be from not extending and reaching out
quite enough. Now if we were to get really picky with some things, another thing he could do over the top is on this left side, when he enters the water, his hands at a little bit of a funny angle there. So it's almost at this sort of angle, as you can see, where it's kind of entering like that. And he's sort of pushes forwards with it, eventually gets to a really good position. But what he could do instead would be get that middle finger going in first and extend straights out in front. It will reduce the drag ever so slightly and it can make that proper extension and reach a lot easier to achieve. So it might just be these either trying to relax the hand a little bit too much where you need enough tension in the hand so that you can enter correctly, but he might be keeping it too relaxed where it's coming off to the side there. So that would be one other thing which may help him with that reach and extension. Couple things that I like here, like his catch. This is really good with the catch there and the power diamond underneath. So that's a big part of his propulsion and his speed. He does that so well. Similar thing, like the left side as well, he gets a good catch on this side too, where we see the fingers pointing down, elbows out to the side and it's quite a nice angle with that catch too. So he's very good at those propulsive parts of the stroke and again I think that's why he's able to go that 130 pace. So at this speed, this is typically where we're trying to refine a few parts of it. We're trying to make sure we've got the right rhythm and tempo
and we're looking to work on race strategy as well. So if you want the full breakdown of how to go from 230 down to 115, watch this video above and if you'd like the freestyle technique checklist where I have got dot points of all the things that you need to be doing in your stroke, in what order, click the link below. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming Podcast. If you'd like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com.
The post How To Break 1:30/100m | Stroke Analysis appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Have you ever walked away from a swim thinking,
“Why does this still feel so hard?”
You’re not alone. Most adult swimmers struggle with the same few challenges—again and again—and it’s usually because no one ever showed them how to fix it the right way.
In today’s episode, we’re diving into the most common mistakes adult swimmers make—and more importantly, how to finally fix it.
Let’s get started.
00:17 Mistake #1: Holding Too Much Tension
04:07 Mistake #2: Looking Forward the Whole Time
06:12 Mistake #3: Over kicking or Stiff-Leg Kicking
07:38 Mistake #4: Beginning Your Catch Before You Finish Reaching Forward
09:28 Mistake #5: Rushing the Breath
7-Day Email Course for beginners:
https://members.effortlessswimming.com/7-day-beginner
Grab the freestyle checklist here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-checklist/
Work with us (stroke analysis coaching):
https://effortlessswimming.com/es-training-and-membership-page/
Join a camp:
https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
The post Most Common Mistakes Adult Swimmers Make (And What To Do Instead) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Why Your Kick Is Slowing You Down And How To Fix It
Most swimmers think a harder kick equals more speed. But for adult swimmers and triathletes, it usually means more effort and less progress. So, if your legs feel heavy, your breathing feels rushed, or you’re constantly tired after short swims, it might be your kick that’s holding you back. Let’s fix it.
00:32 Mistake #1: Kicking From the Knees
02:33 Mistake #2: Too Much Kick
06:16 Mistake #3: Stiff Ankles
08:29 Mistake #4: Using It For Propulsion
09:15 Bonus Cue: Fishtail Feet
Links from this episode* 7-Day Email Course for beginners * Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
TranscriptRead the full transcriptMost women think a harder leg kick equals more speed, but for most adults and triathletes, it actually equals harder and slower progress and being more exhausted at the end of your lap. So if your legs are feeling heavy and your heart rate's really high at the end of each lap, let's take a look at these main reasons why your kick might be slowing you down and what you can do about it. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford. Mistake number one is kicking from the knees. Now what does this mean? You've probably heard the term before. Kicking from the knees really implies that you are bending at your hips and your knees too much. If we look at your body line, so where your body is in the water, if your quads and your knees are coming much below that line, that's kicking from the knees. That is going to create a lot of additional drag with your body in the water. And when you're kicking harder, it's actually going to be slowing you down and causing your heart rate to go up. So we want to make sure that we're not kicking like we're trying to kick a soccer ball or ride a bike. This is something I see quite often when we run our freestyle clinics and when people send in their videos for our analysis inside of the Effortless Swimming membership. What we want to do instead is have the thigh bones, think of the thigh bones at the top here, moving slightly back and slightly forwards from your hips. That will create enough of a movement of the legs that it's not going to
break your body line. It's not going to come outside of your torso there, but it will still give you a little bit of propulsion, but it will help you with your balance and your timing. So that is the biggest mistake we see with people's legs, kicking in a way that's actually slowing them down if you're kicking from the hips. Meaning you're kicking where your thighs and your quads and your knees are coming below your body line. One way that we actually get people to help make that change, we start them off by doing 25 freestyle with a really big kick, an exaggerated kick. And you will likely notice that you are exhausted at the end of that lap. Then we get to do a little bit of vertical kick where you're vertical in the water. You can hold on to the wall or the lane right with the hand just to keep you upright, and then we get them to just move those thigh bones back and forth from the hips ever so slightly. And that will help you feel the correct movement of the kick. Then we go on to 25 freestyle with that smaller narrower kick, and you'll likely find that the speed goes up, the effort goes down. Mistake number two, kicking too much. Often people will kick small, which is good, but kick really fast and a lot in order to try and keep their hips and their legs up. And this is a mistake because yet uses more energy and it's not actually going to support you at all. The kick is then dominating the stroke, which is not what we want. So if you feel like you're doing small kicks, but they're very rapid and very fast, then you're likely kicking too much. A lot of swimmers, especially those
that are somewhat new to the sport, they can go a long way with just a two-beat kick, which is one kick per arm stroke. Not to say you can't do a what we call a four-beat kick or a six-beat kick, but a lot of swimmers will have enough speed and balance to have a good two-beat kick which keeps the effort level down. So if you're kicking rapidly and it's causing you to tire, or it's even like a 12-beat kick, which would be six kicks per arm stroke, that's just too much. So don't let the kick dominate the stroke. If you can learn how to hold your body well in the water, so long through the body, you lean on your chest a little bit to let those lungs support you, you'll find you'll be horizontal in the water and you can be well balanced when you do that. Then the kick can just help you rotate from one side to the other and that's kind of all you need from the kick, because the upper body is the thing that's actually going to move you primarily forwards. It's that 20% of the stroke where 80% of your propulsion comes from. So let the arms be the things that move you forwards, not your legs.
At Effortless Swimming, our mission is simple. Make swimming more enjoyable. Whether you're training for your next race, swimming for fitness, or just love being in the water, we're here to help you swim faster, smoother, and with more confidence. One thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles. If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid-session, you know how frustrating it can be. That's why we created the Effortless Swimming Hydro Clear Anti-Fog Goggles for long lasting crystal clear vision. I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day. I'm not the only one. Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear. No fog, no frustration, just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a hydro clear goggles different? It's all in the technology. Unlike ordinary anti-fog coatings that wear off over time, hydro clear super hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself. Here's how it works. Instead of fog forming as tiny droplets, water spreads evenly across the lens, creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting. And the result? Consistently clear vision. Swim after swim. And the durability? Our lenses are CNAS certified. Tests show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth under a 200 gram load, the lens stays fog-free. No gimmicks, just serious performance that lasts. Using them is simple. Just wet the lenses before putting them on and you're set for a fog-free swim. Ready to see the difference
yourself? Get 15% off your first pair of hydro clear anti-fog goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlesswimming.com. That's 15% off your first pair of goggles with the code podcast at shop.effortlesswimming.com. We also have a 30-day money back guarantee. So if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason, you can simply return them for a refund. Don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim. Try hydro clear today and experience clear vision from start to finish. Mistake number three is stiff ankles. If you have run since you've been a kid and you've developed these stiff ankles from running, it can be good for running but it's not so good for swimming. Now mobility takes a long time to make changes to for most people but you can improve on your ankle flexibility or your mobility. So it's important to be able to point your toes. One way that you can not fast-track that improvement but you can make some better changes to the way that you kick, if you point your toes and turn your feet slightly inwards almost like a little bit of pigeon toad that can give you a bit more flexion in your feet because something that I see fairly often with adult swimmers and a lot of guys have a tendency to do this I think more so for balance. They'll point their toes but then occasionally when they're kicking their foot will turn outwards and that outward turn of the foot creates a lot of drag
on the outside of their body with the top of that foot and even though it doesn't look like much surface area it is killing your swim speed. So a good approach for that point the toes turn the feet slightly in and it's okay to have your big toes brushing past one another at least to develop that way of kicking. Now I don't want you to point your toes so much that you're cramping in your feet and in your calves that's not sustainable that's no good. So we need to keep the ankles loose and floppy when we're doing that kick so it's all within reason. If you want to improve on that ankle mobility there's a number of ways you can do it sometimes wearing fins something like a damn sea fins some good fins or the fins that we've got you can point the toes with those and it will actually give you a little bit of a stretch there you know if you're kicking because you've got that extra weight or extra resistance of the fins that will force you to stretch a little bit through that movement. You can also sit on the top of your feet that can help stretch it a bit and there are other exercises some with therabands as well that can help you with that. So if you want those comment below and I can link you to a video with those exercises that you can use with the theraband. Mistake number four is using your kick for propulsion. Now if you're trying to kick yourself forwards instead of when your arms move you forwards then you are going to be fatigued after 25 or 50 meters so remember the kick is not to help move you forwards but more to keep you
balanced and help you with your rhythm in the stroke so don't try and use it as the primary method of propulsion let the arms do that. So you've got to work on good body position first so eyes somewhere down, lung through the body and a small narrow kick and lean on your chest a little bit to let the lungs help keep you up in the water then you can let the legs kind of just do their thing and you can have that easy two beat kick after that. Now bonus tip here is fishtail feet so imagine that your foot is this fishtail at the back when you kick down it's like this whip of the foot or this flick of a fishtail that lets you get that little bit of propulsion and lift from the kick so if you're trying to be very stiff and rigid with it it's not going to help you we need to have that looseness and floppiness through the feet. Another good analogy that I heard is it's almost like you're trying to kick off a sock so if you've got this movement of trying to kick off a long sock off your foot that's a similar way of how you should kick in the water. If you enjoyed these tips grab our seven tips in seven days how you can swim easier over seven days I'll send you an email every single day with a small tip that you can try next time you go to the pool and this can help you relax more in the water be very comfortable and start to increase your swim speed as you're going get that in the link below if you'd like to get the full breakdown of freestyle click this link above. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming podcast if you'd like us to help you become a
faster more efficient swimmer go to www.effortlesswimming.com
The post Why Your Kick Is Slowing You Down And How To Fix It appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Do freestyle tips from the 1960s still hold up today? In this episode, I’m diving into some notes I took from a DVD created by 1960 Olympic gold medalist in the 1500m freestyle, John Conrad. About ten years ago, I was deep into studying freestyle technique—trying to learn everything I could—and John and I actually had a few back-and-forth discussions about our different approaches. We didn’t always agree, and today I want to revisit some of his ideas, share what I took away from his teachings, and talk about where I see things differently.
If you’re working on improving your own freestyle technique, I’ve also put together a free checklist to guide you step-by-step—you’ll find the link in the show notes. Let’s dive in!
01:22-Apply Energy Only When Needed
02:03-Swim At Floatation Depth
02:52-Anxiety Is Number 1 Priority
03:21-As You Relax, Your Body Increases In Volume
03:55-Swimming Efficiently Means You’re Relaxed And Loose
04:23-Look Forward When Learning. Look Down When More Comfortable
05:13-Pivot Your Body
05:08-Relax Your Kick. It Is Not Worth The Effort
06:17-Kick On Your Back Instead Of Your Front
07:09-Both Arms Don’t Go At The Same Speed
07:52-Delay The Pull
09:20-Learn By Exaggeration
10:32-The First Component Of Swimming Is Relaxing. The Second Is Catch Up. The Third Is Almost Catch Up
11:35-Don’t Confuse Arm Speed With Swim Speed
12:25-Don’t Rush The Breath
13:08-Exhale All The Time From The Nose And Mouth
14:04-Breathe Every 2 But Change Every 25 Meters Or So
14:46-Kicking On The Side Is Good For Developing Your Breathing To The Opposite Side
15:24-Keep Your Hand Loose In The Recovery
16:01-Use Body Roll To Bring Your Elbow Through The Recovery
16:45-Pull Harder Not Sooner To Go Faster
17:56-Don’t Pull Too Early, Extend And Push Down Slightly
Grab the freestyle checklist here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-checklist/
Work with us (stroke analysis coaching):
https://effortlessswimming.com/es-training-and-membership-page/
Join a camp:
https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
The post Does 1960’s swim technique still work? appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing 10 things I wish I knew when I first started swimming. Whether you’re just beginning or have been in the water for a while, these lessons can help you take your swimming to the next level.
Let’s face it—most beginners train too hard, focus on the wrong details, and waste a lot of time and energy. That not only slows progress but can lead to frustrating plateaus or even injuries like shoulder pain.
These 10 key insights will help you avoid those common mistakes. We’ll break down what truly matters when it comes to gear, technique, training, and mindset—so you can swim smarter, stay injury-free, and start seeing real improvement in the pool.
In this episode* 2:00 — Essential gear only * 3:24 — Basics first * 4:56 — Training * 6:40 — Open-water challenges * 8:09 — Interval training works * 11:56 — More Than The Pool * 12:56 — Drills Equals Fast Swimming * 13:57 — Staying Consistent * 15:02 — Persistence pays off * 16:13 — The Real Reward
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
TranscriptRead the full transcriptStop training like a runner. You're a swimmer now when people run they often go for long runs and it's just all at the same pace and there's no breaks in between and For running that can be a really good way to approach it a lot of the time But in swing if you look at any of the best swimmers in the world They are all breaking their sessions into sets warm-up Cool down main set preset and more importantly, they're breaking it down into intervals of hundreds and two hundreds and fifties with rest in between and the thing about doing that is it feels like it's actually Not going to help you because you're taking rest in between But even five or ten seconds in between the intervals gives you this short amount of rest Where if you take ten seconds on the wall your heart rate comes down a little bit and your muscles get that little bit of Recovery so by the time you push off for that next interval you are refreshed and then you can get your technique back on track Welcome to the effortless swimming podcast to show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water become a better swimmer and live a Better life. Here's your host Brenton Ford In this video, I'm going to share with you ten things that I wish someone had told me when I first started swimming Or if you've been swimming for a while These tips will also help you get to the next stage with your swimming goals because let's be honest most beginners train too hard focus on the wrong things and waste a lot of time that stops them from getting to under two minutes per hundred and
they end up wasting a lot of effort and Sometimes it leads to shoulder injuries and other things when they focus on the wrong things But these ten lessons will give you clarity on the gear technique training mindset and what actually leads to progress These are the things that make the biggest difference for me and the swimmers that I coach and when you apply them You'll feel more confident. You'll swim smoother and faster with less effort and swimming might just become one of the best parts of your life Let's start in not all swim gear is worth it. Here's what actually helps There's a lot of stuff that you are told to get when you start swimming but in reality you could get away with just having a pair of swimwear and Goggles that is really all that you need to get started But there are some things that can help you Progress faster the things that I recommend my swimmers get number one is a good pair of fins a pair of fins that are comfortable Flexible and give you a good amount of propulsion without changing your stroke something like the damn sea fins Very very good for the majority of swimmers out there There are other brands that have stiff and rigid fins that actually can make your swimming worse So it's best to avoid those when it comes to snorkels Most snorkels are all pretty much the same as long as you find a comfortable front snorkel Then that can be a good tool for the majority of swimmers out there It helps take away the need to turn your head to breathe and that can be a good thing when looking to develop Your catch and your pull and your kick and rotation. So that's also another piece of equipment that I'd recommend
Another thing if you are doing triathlons or open water swimming You may want to build your strength using a pool buoy and paddles So getting a pair of those can be worthwhile for some types of swimmers But in reality some swimming some swimwear some goggles will take you a long way in your journey Technique overwhelm is a real thing and if you've watched any of our videos or you've scrolled on Instagram or on YouTube You've probably been inundated with technique advice But the thing with too much advice is if there's too much there You're probably not going to do any of it. If you look at learn to swim lessons for children quite often They'll start with breathing and bubbles and then they progress from there as an adult There's a good chance you should probably follow the same sort of progression now You might be able to go through some of those Aspects of the stroke a little bit quicker than young kids might be able to however We still need to learn good foundations and fundamentals So don't try and work on your catch if you're still struggling to swim more than 50 meters You probably need to go back to the basics of breathing blowing bubbles Floating getting your body horizontal in the water. Some of these fundamentals are where we need to start and Sometimes our ego and our pride gets in the way. Well, I thought I don't need to do that I'm an adult kids kids can do it But I don't need to but quite often the stuff that we're teaching adults in our clinics It stems from a lot of learn to swim stuff and getting those basics, right?
So if you can get your ego out of the way and be willing to go through something that might seem really basic There's a good chance that long term to three years down the track You're going to progress a lot quicker and a lot more Sustainably where you can reach higher levels in your swimming if you get good at those fundamentals By trying too hard and got slower When I look back at my swimming career as a teenager one thing that I realized is that I went too hard Too often in the easy stuff. So I was in that gray zone where my slow stuff was too fast My fast stuff was too slow. So I was in that training gray zone where I wasn't really training in the right zones Now as a result of that I feel like I probably didn't progress as far as I could have If I had been willing to do my aerobic sets at an aerobic heart rate and my faster stuff actually to have the speed and Have that recovery in there where I could hit Faster faster speeds and and higher levels there So one of the mistakes a lot of people make is they don't look at those different zones They train in that middle section and I think the reason I did that was because I thought the harder I train the harder I work The more I'll progress Which is true to a certain extent. However Sometimes if we get stuck in that zone, then we're not hitting the right heart rates and other things So I feel like that probably stunted my progress a bit as a teenager now for you as an adult
maybe you're doing everything at one speed and You're not changing the pace that you're doing or perhaps you're stuck in that gray zone as well So it's good to make sure that we follow a good training plan follow something with some structure and we're Committing to it and sticking to it something like the LES squad workouts that we've got in their membership They break it down into different speeds What efforts what speed you should be going to so you actually see real progression and you don't get stuck at that one zone Open water swimming isn't just a pool without walls You know from what out there are so many variable conditions that it can really feel like a different sport in a way And so if you're coming from Swimming in the pool with a background in it and you're very comfortable in the pool You might have a bit of a shock when it comes to open water swimming where you feel like everything you've lands in the pool Doesn't apply in the open water now It does Except that it just takes a bit of getting used to the variable conditions where the water wasn't flat It's not smooth and you're probably having to Almost go against some of those things you learned in the pool in terms of your breathing You might need to turn a little bit higher You might need to begin your catch a little bit sooner your stroke rate might need to come up There's certain things that you do need to change in the open water Compared to in the pool, but it is something that you can get good at even if you come from that pool background it just takes time and it takes practice and There's not really any shortcuts to it apart from putting in the work
so if you can get really good at siding at maybe coming over the water a little bit higher a little bit quicker over the top and Knowing how much you need to increase your stroke rate in the open water and being willing to be Imperfect and a little bit choppy with it Then you can become very good at open water But it does sometimes feel like it's a different sport when you first come to it Though it does take time to get used to At effortless swimming our mission is simple make swimming more enjoyable Whether you're training for your next race swimming for fitness or just love being in the water We're here to help you swim faster smoother and with more confidence And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles if you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid-session You know how frustrating it can be that's why we created the effortless swimming hydro clear Anti-fog goggles for long-lasting crystal clear vision I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day and I'm not the only one Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear no fog no frustration Just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a hydro clear goggles different? It's all in the technology Unlike ordinary anti-fog coatings that wear off over time Hydro-clear super hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself Here's how it works instead of fog forming as tiny droplets water spreads evenly across the lens creating a thin film that prevents the fog from even starting and the result
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Stop training like a runner. You're a swimmer now When people run they often go for long runs and it's just all at the same pace and there's no breaks in between And for running that can be a really good way to approach it a lot of the time But in swimming if you look at any of the best swimmers in the world They are all breaking their sessions into sets warm up cool down main set preset and more importantly they're breaking it down into intervals of Hundreds and two hundreds and fifties with rest in between and the thing about doing that is it feels like it's actually Not going to help you because you're taking rest in between but even five or ten seconds in between your intervals gives you this short amount of rest where if you Take 10 seconds on the wall your heart rate comes down a little bit and your muscles get that little bit of recovery So by the time you push off for that next interval you are refreshed and then you can get your technique back on track So quite often when someone's going to a pool swimming one kilometer two kilometers straight. No change in pace No Rest in between they start to fatigue and their technique and form begins to fall away So if you can get used to breaking your session into intervals, even if it's 10 100s With 10 seconds rest in between you'll find that you're much more likely to maintain good form And good form leads to speed and that speed leads to faster times in a in a brace So even if you feel like it's not as good of a workout necessarily because you've had some short rest in between
More than likely it's actually going to help you because you'll maintain your form and you've got to maintain form to maintain your speed Swimming isn't only racing in the pool. There is a whole world out there When I grew up it was all about pool competitions and racing In the pool short course and long course when I became an adult when I started coaching adults I learned about the world of open water swimming and swimming camps and swimming trips and just going for Swims with your friends. There is so much more to swimming than just racing in the pool and especially as an adult you have so many opportunities out there to be able to Do more than just race in the pool So what I thought swimming was all about just going up and down in the pool But in reality there is so many other things that you can do So if you find that like I don't actually love going up and down the black line while there's open water swimming There's swimming holidays that you can take like our male dive strip and our Thailand trip There's so many other things out there that you can do if you find that following the black line is not necessarily for you simple drills equal fast swimming Whenever i've filmed olympic level swimmers quite often they're all doing very similar drills And they're not just doing that because that's just what they were taught They're often doing it because there are a couple of drills that if done really well have a great correlation between your swimming technique So a lot of the drills that I see olympic level swimmers doing particularly for freestyle a lot of them are doing sculling drills
single arm drills And something like long dog paddle or underwater recovery freestyle They're the main drills I see olympic level swimmers doing as part of their warm-up because it can set up all those key things that they're working on Lengthen the stroke good catch and pull the right rotation and connection within the stroke So if you've got a good staple of drills that you can do as part of your warm-up each session and you know How you need to be doing them then that can go a very long way to helping you progress in your swimming What's the secret to staying consistent when you swim? It's absolutely fine to begin your swimming journey on your own going to the pool trying to figure things out And working working it out and what you can do to get swim a little bit further However, if you want to be able to maintain your swimming and really stick with it Most people i've seen stick with it. They find a squad They find a friend or a group of friends that they swing with it's that accountability It's that social aspect of it that keeps a lot of people in the sport So once you get going and you learn the basics of swimming It's worthwhile trying to find a group or some friends out there that you can go swimming with because that's what makes it much more Enjoyable and even though it's a very solo thing to do swimming up and down You don't really get to talk to people when you swim Outside of that in the intervals on the wall before and after a session That's often when you get that social aspect of it So if you can find a master's group or a triathlon group or something similar
That's often where people stick with it for much longer and find it so much more enjoyable Learning to swim is frustrating and it's not very appealing to get to the pool But once you get good enough at swimming It's frustrating when you don't get to the pool So whenever we learn a new skill, particularly something like swimming that there can be a bit of a learning curve, too It's very frustrating in the beginning because we don't know what we need to do to get faster We're not getting that enjoyable feeling of gliding through the water And so that is where a lot of people stop and they give up on their swing journey But once you eventually get over that learning curve You get to the point where swimming is enjoyable and it's fun because you get that Feeling of all that endorphin release after a good training session Get that feeling of gliding through the water the water rushing over your arms and your shoulders where you're going side to side It's a very good feeling and you actually miss it when you don't do it But it takes a while to get to that point So if you can persist with your swimming for three months or six months and get to that point where it is enjoyable That is when You're over that that hard part where you actually miss it where if you don't get to a session You're kind of frustrated, but you didn't get to do it. The real reward Isn't speed It's who you become I remember growing up. My dad was my coach and every single morning we'd go into the pool and we'd train He would always remind myself and the other swimmers there that There's no one else our age who was up at four thirty in the morning
Going to the pool early training hard. We were doing all this stuff before most of our Friends were awake and so he made the point that it was about who we were becoming the skills We were learning that that's actually more important than getting good at swimming Now obviously getting good at swimming is a is a byproduct of doing all these things But the the main thing that comes out of it I think of getting good at any skill like swimming is the person that you become it's the the dedication It's the commitment that it requires and so there's so much more to it than just getting faster and that's why I think swimming in particular is one of the The best sports for most people to be able to do because they're they can see that progress It takes a lot of effort and time And and thought to be able to get To be able to progress this for me So that is why I think it's not so much about just getting faster But it's about the person become by doing the hard work If you're not sure what to focus on next have a look at this next video Where I break down freestyle in a lot of detail so you know exactly what to do to get faster Thanks for listening to the effortless swimming podcast If you'd like us to help you become a faster more efficient swimmer go to
Effortlessswimming.com
The post 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Swimming with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we’ll break down that key insight—how chasing speed can hold you back, why real progress comes from subtle adjustments, and the shift in perspective that turns resistance into flow. If your stroke has ever felt more like a struggle than a rhythm, this episode is for you.
1:10 Progress Isn’t Linear
2:18 Video Yourself Early
3:12 Control The Mental Side
4:23 Consistency
5:52 The Clock
6:49 Your Stroke Does Not Have To Look Like The Pros
9:26 Comfortable Gear Matters More Than Fancy Gear
10:24 Have A Goal Even A Small One
12:05 How To Stay Calm In the Chaos
13:37 Swimming Beyond The Pool
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
The post Most Swimmers Take Years To Learn This appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, I’ll give you the exact issues that hold swimmers back at each pace from beginner swimmers at two 30 per hundred or slower, all the way to advanced swimmers at one 15 per hundred for a kilometer. And I’ll also give you actionable drills and strategies to help you progress to the next level.
In this episode* 02:10 — Horizontal body posture * 03:30 — Balanced tempo * 05:00 — Efficient breathing * 06:20 — Catch & pull mechanics * 08:00 — Kit/gear suggestions * 09:30 — Putting it all together * 11:00 — Programming & progression * 12:30 — Real-life example * 14:00 — Summary & tips to keep improving
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
TranscriptRead the full transcriptThey feel the inconsistencies sometimes they feel like they are flying along and feeling really good And then other times they feel like they are Sinking in the water and they lose a lot of their speed So there's often a big Fluctuation between a good session and a bad session Sometimes they've been between strokes a good stroke and a bad stroke and they become aware of those differences between what's good and what's not Welcome to the effortless swimming podcast to show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water become a better Swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host Brenton Ford In this video, I'll give you the exact issues that holds from his back at each pace from Beginners from us at 230 per hundred or slower all the way to advanced from us at 115 per hundred for a kilometer and I'll also give you actionable drills and strategies to help you progress To the next level and as I go through this comment below your current pace and which tip you'll try first over the last 18 years I've coached thousands of swimmers from beginners all the way to pro triathletes and seen what it takes to go from 230 all the way down to 115 let's get into it. So at 230 per hundred. This is our beginner level of swimmer This is where people are typically having trouble swimming more than 50 meters or 100 meters at a time Usually their body position is quite low. So the hips and legs are sinking a lot They're often having trouble breathing
They lift their head to breathe. They're looking up to the sky or they feel like they are taking in water And they often find that they are fatiguing a lot quicker than what they should be This is where we typically find that people are a bit panicked or they're not comfortable in the water And some of the frustrations that people experience at this level is they can't swim further than 50 meters Without tiring even though they might be relatively fit outside the pool and the other frustration is it's not Fun yet because they're not able to glide through the water They're having to work super hard to go not very fast and not very far And that is completely normal when you are at this 230 or slower pace Now some of the things people at this level need to focus on number one. It's regulating your breathing So in terms of regulating your breathing, it's getting comfortable and relaxed with your breathing Sometimes people will breathing too much so they'll inhale too much where they're Gasping for air and they'll try and exhale everything But we need to breathe in a somewhat natural way where we inhale and we exhale But we're not pushing all of the air out of our lungs. We still need to keep 20 to 30 of our air in our lungs So it's this more normal and comfortable breathing that we're aiming for They also need to focus on getting horizontal in the water So that means that we are minimizing drag So we're more streamlined Because if your hips and legs are low the amount of drag that that creates is a lot
And it takes so much energy to overcome that drag that you're never going to be able to swim with Much ease and much speed at all if you don't first get your body position horizontal So they're the main things we need to focus on How you can go about that? Number one, I love to do some drills like sink down drills This is where you'll take your breath in and you'll then exhale through your mouth or through your nose and sink down to the bottom of the pool and After a second or two of having no air left come back up and go again Now this might seem like a bit of a frivolous drill At first sight But I've had so many people do this drill and give me feedback that actually you managed to keep calm In the water whereas before they are quite panicked and quite tense So they sink down drills if you do this five to ten times even at the start of a session You start to relax and you start to get rid of a lot of that unnecessary tension in the body Another drill that we like to do here is ball floats So this is where you hug your knees you put your head between your knees and you're just in a ball Now make sure you take a big breath in before you do this And the purpose of this drill is to show you that you can float Quite often i'll get a lot of males who are Over 40 who think i'm just a sinker. I've got dense bones I've got a lot of muscle mass and I just sink straight to the bottom of the pool But I've never seen anyone sink while doing this ball float drill So your lungs are filled with air that gives you this buoyancy in the water
And that is the thing that helps keep you up in the water And so if you realize that you can actually float in this ball position That first it gives you the confidence to know that okay, I don't actually Have to kick really hard and thrash my arms and thrash my legs to stay up My lungs my body will actually support me if I use it the right way So we go into this ball float Into an x float which is where you extend your arms out and your legs out behind you And most people can get somewhat horizontal In that position especially when they go from a ball float Into an x float because they start to figure out how to hold themselves in the water to be able to get horizontal and that learning that balance and control of the body is really the first step at them being able to relax and minimize drag One more drill that we tend to do at this level And I actually had a swimmer recently who for more than he said I think 30 plus years he could never really swim more than 100 meters without being completely gassed And so one of the drills we had him do was this Body position kick drill Where he's face down arms extended kicking out behind him And the aim is to get the shoulders and the back and the hips out of the water as much as possible And again, this is just about figuring out how to hold and how to use your body so that you sit in that horizontal position Once you've gotten comfortable with your breathing once you've learned some of that balance in the water Then you're going to be starting to get close to that two minutes per 100
Now at two minutes per 100 This is more of our casual swimmers and triathletes and this is where we're starting to get a good idea of Being horizontal in the water a better idea of the rhythm and momentum we need in the stroke But some of the issues that people run into at this level Is refining their body position So a lot of people at this level have got their head too high We're just their faces in the water And they're not having the head deep enough Now the problem with that is that if they've got just their face in you're probably holding four or five kilos up above the water So your hips and legs are sitting still a little bit low So making sure that our head is like an iceberg 10 to 20 above the rest of it should be below Another thing we find at this level is that Their core control and the way that they're holding their hips and their legs Is in as streamlined as it could be So what we want to try and do there is make sure we draw the belly button into the spine Squeeze the butt cheeks together a little bit to make sure that's nice and straight And then importantly with the kick we want to make sure that we're not kicking like we're riding a bike We need to kick almost like you think of a ballerina moving their legs They need to be long a little bit of knee bend But we what needs to maintain is kick where it's almost like it's in a bucket Not too big not too narrow but somewhere in between so the kick isn't coming much outside of our body line Another thing we find at this level two
Is the breath timing quite often the breath timing is out Where people are often lifting their head Turning and it means that their breath timing is a little bit late And so their stroke is out of rhythm and out of sync So it's important at this level to learn to turn your head in time with your shoulders I also find at this level people are often muscling themselves through the water More than they would at those faster speeds So if you find that your legs or your arms are getting tired fairly quickly There's a very good chance that you're muscling yourself through the water That can often come from swimming too flat Now when we swim freestyle hips torso shoulders we want that rocking side to side Typically 30 to 40 degrees side to side If you are flatter than that Then you'll find that a lot of effort goes into just kicking or just the arms Because without correct rotation You don't get to use a stronger muscles through your back and shoulder And you don't get to set up your caption pool as effectively So that's where the muscling of the the stroke comes into it So at this level we need to make sure that we're rotating side to side evenly 30 to 40 degrees And the last thing we often say at this level too is a poor catch and a poor pool So lacking propulsion in the stroke And if you are not rotating correctly, it's very difficult to have an effective caption pool
So we also start to work on some elements of the catch and the pool at this level Because that is a big contributing factor to increasing speed Some of the frustrations that we run into at this level is that you might be fit And you might be getting overtaken by people who are less fit than you So it's very common to see triathletes here High bo2 max but they're getting smoked by people who have a vo2 max which might be half of bears And so that can be quite annoying And also at this level you might feel that your swimming is a little bit forced And it's not smooth and it's not efficient So what we can focus on here Refine the body position make sure that the heads are the right depth And we have head hips and heels at the surface We also need to focus on making sure we rotate 30 to 40 degrees side to side Because that will then help you set up a better caption pool And we can start to introduce some propulsive drills or caption pool drills To help you improve that aspect of the stroke as well Now at this level some drills that we would often do here Number one front kick with a snorkel So this is where you're kicking face down the water Arms extended and we are aiming to be horizontal Gilling that tautness through the core and through the hips And making sure that we hold this long streamline position Like a needle not like a noodle that's loose and floppy Then we go to side kick one arm extended one arm by the side
And here we want to make sure we're rotating to about 40 degrees as we do it Getting used to being on our side and getting comfortable in that position Then we'd often progress to a 6-1-6 drill where we do six kicks on the side We take a stroke and we swap sides Getting used to being on our side taking a stroke and then switching So we're starting to introduce that side to side rotation And making sure we get the feel for what is 30 to 40 degrees rotation Now equipment at this level you might start to use a pool billy You might start to use some some fins and maybe a snorkel at this level To help you do some of the drills And in terms of using a pool billy That can help you get the feel for getting that propulsion from the rotation And from the catch and pull as opposed to kicking yourself forwards At this two-minute level this is a really typical level that we'll see People go through our eight week faster freestyle course online Or attending one of our freestyle clinics here in Australia So once you're starting to master your body position Have good rotation and starting to feel a little bit of that propulsion Then you're going to be starting to get all the way down to 145 per 100 So at the 145 per 100 this is our intermediate level of swimmer This is where people have typically swum for about 12 months or more And they're starting to get a sense of what it's like to move effortlessly through the water Some of the common issues that people run into at this point
The first one is that they've got habitual errors or mistakes in their stroke So they've now swum for long enough that they do have some habits there But those habits might not be necessarily effective or efficient And quite often there's poor synchronization or timing within the stroke Where they're not necessarily swimming with front quadrant timing Meaning there's always there's not something in front of the head at all times So they might be a little bit rushed with the stroke Quite often people here as well they feel like they've only got one speed So they find it hard to judge how long do I need to keep my strokes And how much do I need to increase my stroke rate So finding that sweet spot between the two of those And being able to change that to go faster And also at this level we do often find a lot of swimmers are late with their breathing So they begin to turn their head too late So that throws off their stroke rhythm And eventually that causes me balance And it means that they drop their arm in the catch as well And so that's where they feel like their catch slips Or it's not very effective on one side or maybe both sides Some of the frustrations that people run into at this level They feel the inconsistencies Sometimes they feel like they are flying along and feeling really good And then other times they feel like they are sinking in the water And they lose a lot of their speed So there's often a big fluctuation between a good session And a bad session Sometimes they've been between strokes A good stroke and a bad stroke And they become aware of those differences between what's good and what's not
And I also find at this level There's frustration in putting in more effort But not necessarily seeing the results of that effort Translate to faster times So at this level what you can focus on to get down towards 130 The first thing make sure your breath timing Is in time with your shoulder rotation So what you think of that is pulling into the breath Turn your head when this hand is coming past your shoulder So when you initiate the turn And then the more important thing is Bring your head back down with your catch So your head and your arm goes back down together So we need to time our breath correctly We also need to start working on a high elbow catch position When we go through our catch So once we've finished reaching forwards and rotating Then we need to point our fingers down and bend our elbow out to the side So elbow goes out wide Getting that high elbow catch So we've got a lot of surface area pressing back If you can start to improve on that That means that the propulsive side of your stroke is really starting to improve And if we think of what makes your swim speed Well it's about minimising drag Which we do in those earlier levels Then we need to maximise propulsion And this is where we really have to put a lot of our focus at this point We also need to make sure that we are timing the stroke correctly Making sure we're in that front quadrant Always having an arm in front of us And that doesn't mean doing catch up freestyle Because you'll lose your speed And you'll just salarate if you do a full catch up Swimming is all about rhythm So we need to make sure we're always keeping the hands in motion
Without ever stopping and pausing completely But we need to make sure we've always got something in front of our head So getting that type of rhythm and timing in the stroke Is an important aspect here Where a lot of people get stuck in rushing the catch So they don't end up extending forwards And then during the catch they just enter and pull straight through So we've got to start to work on that front quadrant timing in the stroke And here at this level we can also start to work on balancing stroke length And stroke rate A good way to do this is doing sets where we are changing speeds For example, four 100s where we descend one to four Or build one to four So first one's the slowest one Last one's the fastest one And we're looking to get a bit quicker each one Now when you first do sets like this You might find that you actually start too fast And you drop off And you finish slower than what you started in But with more practice And getting used to finding that balance between stroke rate and stroke length You can get really good at changing gears and changing speeds And so this is a really good time to begin to do that And get a sense of how much extra pressure do I need to get on the catch How much increase in stroke rate do I need to put Do I need to do to see that results in faster times And quite often it's very incremental People think to go faster I've got a double in and out of power Double their stroke rate But it's very incremental It's like turning up the dial from six to a seven
Seven to an eight It's very small And so figuring that out at this level is what can help you Get that 130 per 100 Now drills at this level Some very common drills that we like to do This is a great time to do single arm freestyle So one arm by the side Other arm in front Wearing fins and working on single arm The benefit of this drill is when you've got one arm to think about You can get each aspect of it to improve to be better And it can also help you refine some of the things like your breath timing So single arm drill with fins on is a great one Another drill we typically introduce here is setup drill This is a one arm drill where you're kicking with both arms in front Going through your catch and coming back We're just isolating the movement of the catch And getting used to that elbow bending and going out to the side As you initiate the catch Because if you can get really good at that movement That helps set up a high elbow catch And that helps you then have an effective catch and pull So often starting with some specific catch drills This is a good time to do it And you might start to introduce some paddles at this point In order to build some strength and get a feel for A little bit more pressure or propulsion through the catch and pull And in terms of courses or products A lot of people go through the five day catch change Which is our five day course Which helps them improve their catch and pull And this is typically where swimmers will get the most out of that course
Because going from a 145 to a 140 or a 135 With the better catch that's doable at that level Because more propulsion If you've already got good body position More propulsion is how you can really see a big increase in your speed
At Effortless Swimming our mission is simple Make swimming more enjoyable Whether you're training for your next race Swimming for fitness or just love being in the water We're here to help you swim faster, smoother and with more confidence And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid session You know how frustrating it can be That's why we created the Effortless Swimming Hydro Clear Anti-Fog Goggles For long lasting crystal clear vision I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day And I'm not the only one Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River And the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear No fog, no frustration Just an uninterrupted swim So what makes a hydro clear goggles different? It's all in the technology Unlike ordinary anti-fog coatings that wear off over time Hydro clear super hydrophilic technology Is built into the lens material itself Here's how it works Instead of fog forming as tiny droplets Water spreads evenly across the lens Creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting And the result? Consistently clear vision Swim after swim And the durability? Our lenses are CNAS certified Tests show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth Under a 200 gram load The lens stays fog free No gimmicks, just serious performance that lasts Using them is simple Just wet the lenses before putting them on And you're set for a fog free swim
Ready to see the difference yourself? Get 15% off your first pair of Hydro Clear Anti-Fog Goggles With the code podcast At shop.effortlesswimming.com That's 15% off your first pair of goggles With the code podcast At shop.effortlesswimming.com We also have a 30 day money back guarantee So if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason You can simply return them for a refund Don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim Try Hydro Clear today And experience clear vision from start to finish So if you're doing those things You're gonna start to get down to 130 per 100 So at 130 per 100 This is our competitive triathlete Competitive swimmer sort of level And if you're an age group triathlete You're gonna start to be pushing towards the front of the broop At this 130 type of pace That for most people Now some of the issues that people run into here That stops them progressing to 115 It's small inefficiencies with their catch and pull So typically they've got pretty decent propulsion Their catch and pull is okay But there are things that they can refine and improve on Maybe they're pulling a bit straight Maybe they're dropping the elbow a little bit on one side This is where you can start to refine that aspect of it Quite often we're working on finding The right amount of rotation as well Typically people will over or under rotate On one side or both sides here So this is where we typically video Film from the front
See how much they're rotating And making sure it's in that 30 to 40 degree range Quite often in terms of the training as well This is where we really need to introduce specific training Making sure we're doing enough aerobic work Threshold work Introducing some speed work So being a little bit more targeted And specific to the type of training that they're doing To maximize their fitness And their ability to race whatever races they want to do And usually at this level People have difficulty maintaining their stroke length As they get tied So here we're looking to be able to maintain Stroke length for those longer distances And not have that drop off too much as you get tied Some of the frustrations that people find at this level The first thing is that next level of 120 or 115 Seems completely unachievable Because they can't physically put in any more effort And so it seems like that's not possible But the thing is it's not about necessarily getting more fitness behind you It might be these finer technique parts That we need to refine in your stroke And the other frustration here Is that those technical errors are harder to pinpoint So you're not sure what you need to work on at this point Where you feel like you're doing everything you can To swim at 130 But you don't know what can take you to 120 or 115 So at this 130 pace What you can focus on to get down to 120 and 115
The first thing is making sure you've optimized your rotation Making sure you're rotating the right amount So that you can get your catch and pull as good as it possibly can On both sides The second part there is making sure that you are consistent With your catch and pull Typically when someone turns to breathe It's that catch arm that drops away Where the elbow drops So making sure on your breathing strokes That you're still maintaining a good catch And the third thing is making sure you're optimizing your training You're doing the right amount of sessions You're optimizing how much aerobic work Threshold work and speed work that you're doing So that you have the fitness and the I guess the aerobic fitness And also the speed to be able to start to edge those faster times Drills that we would often do at this level Single arm freestyle drill Where you're breathing to your opposite side Also known as unco drill So single arm breathing to your opposite side with fins on This is a drill that I see all Olympic level freestyles doing It's a challenging drill to do well But if you can do it well It translates really nicely into the stroke So single arm drill bring to the opposite side The other drill long dog paddle This is a drill that I love to give to people This is a drill I love to do It's where you're extending out finishing past the hip And then you're recovering underneath the body So long dog paddle This is great for working on the right amount of rotation Improving a catch and pull
And connecting that with the rotation through your hips So that's a those two drills sort of cover all of your fundamentals there Now at this level you're probably using a range of different equipment Probably using fins for your warm up Probably doing a bit with pull buoy and paddles to build strength Maybe a bit with a snorkel as well And you're probably incorporating a few different pieces of equipment Within your sessions each week And people at this 130 pace They're typically coming to our long distance camps Like we've got in the Witsundays Like we've got in the Maldives And often coming to clinics as well Looking for that What they need to work on to get down to 115 Where they're looking for more assistance With helping pinpoint what they can do to get faster So as you start to refine your rotation Improve your catch and pull And get the right amount of training behind you That's when you're going to start to find yourself Getting close to that 115 pace per 100 So 115 per 100 This is our advanced swimmers This is our high level triathletes and swimmers Often people who have got several years of swimming behind them And this is really your front end or front pack type of swimmer Now at this level some of the issues that people run into here It's about maintaining Excellent form, excellent technique Under pressure and under fatigue Any changes that they make are for fractional gains So we're not seeing 5 or 10 seconds faster per 100 at this point
It might be half a second It might be 1 second per 100 At this point rather than those bigger gains that people have Earlier on in their swimming journey At this point we're starting to see a highly effective catch With minimal wasted effort Even at this level we're still fine tuning the breath timing To make sure it doesn't impact the stroke rhythm So at this level and myself included We can often refine our breathing So that it goes in time with our rotation Because for a lot of people that I've filmed And coached at this level We can still find improvements there And really at this level Especially for even open water swimming or pool swimming We are looking to work on race strategies Race tactics And really refining those parts of our race as well Some of the frustrations that you'll run into at this level Is improvement is very minor And it takes a long time to see the results Of the work that you're putting in Often 3 months or 6 months Working on one aspect of the stroke In order to see a half a second Or a second improvement per 100 The other frustration here Is that any minor technical flaws Could be the difference between making front pack And second pack So there's a finer line that you've got to work with there In order to be hitting that front pack or second pack And so those minor flaws really start to show at this level So at this level what you can focus on Is refining those small or single
Technical aspects of your stroke And being consistent And working on that for several months at a time And here you can also start to focus on Race strategy and tactics And making sure you're becoming familiar With what's required to compete at the very top level In terms of your pacing In terms of how you should be drafting Or strategizing where the other swimmers are So this is where those things become a whole lot more important Drills at this level Often doing a lot of sculling to enhance and develop that Feel for pressure on your hand and forearm They're very important drills to do As well as continuing with the single arm And the long dog paddle drills as well Like we did at the 130 level At this level you might start to introduce a swim parachute Or working on some power aspects of your stroke And strength aspects of your stroke As well as continuing with use of fins and pool buoy And paddles as well And at this level it really requires some expertise To help you get better Having someone help spot where the flaws or faults are In your stroke And things that can help there Something like the EO swim better The devices that measure your Propulsion, direction of force That's a great way to find things that aren't necessarily very visible to the naked eye Getting some underwater filming and analysis as well To help you identify that So here we're really looking to technology To help work on the finer aspects of your stroke at this point So if you can master your technique at your current pace That is what can help progress you to the next level
Comment below where you're currently at And what you want to focus on in your technique And if you're looking for help in your own swimming Then check out our effortless swimming membership below And I work with people every single day From 2.30 down to 1.15 To help them identify what they need to do to get faster Thanks for watching Check out this video here for a full breakdown on freestyle technique So you know exactly where to start And how to improve some of these things that I've covered in this video
For a faster, more efficient swimmer Go to www.effortlesswimming.com
The post How To Go From 2:30 to 1:15/100m appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Hey, Brenton here. If you ever find yourself uncomfortable in the open water and not feeling that calm when you’ve got other people around and not knowing where to sit or where to draft off people to be most effective at it. This episode’s for you. I joined the Low Tide Boys, Chip and Chris on a podcast, and they asked me all about the science of drafting.
So on this episode, I get stuck into that so you know exactly where to sit. In a pack or with other people around to maximize the draft, as well as how to prepare for this stuff if you don’t have much access to the open water. So I hope you enjoy this episode. There’s a lot of value for anyone who’s training for open water swims or doing any sort of triathlon racing.
This episode is filled with things that will help you maximize your next open water race. Just to give you a heads up, we’ve added some dates for our 2026 camps for the Maldives and also for Thailand. I haven’t released this anywhere else yet, but I’m just giving you the heads up on the podcast. If you wanna join me next year on one of those camps to work on your swimming, then there’s a few dates that we’ve added@effortlessswimming.com slash camps.
02:57 General Consideration Around Open water Swimming
05:58 Sighting In Open water
12:58 Optimal Way To Draft
18:06 The Closer The Better
21:01 Keep It Tidy
22:16 Mindset For People Who Is Leading The Swim
29:03 Overtaking In Open water
33:11 Surging In Open water
36:59 Gears When Swimming
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Low Tide Boyz:
https://lowtideboyz.com/
The post The Fastest (And Easiest Way) To Draft In Open Water appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Have you ever realized you’re spending thousands on supplements that do little more than clutter your cabinet? One athlete was on the hook for $6,500 a year—until Taryn Richardson helped her strip it back to what truly makes a difference. In this episode, Taryn breaks down how to use simple blood tests to guide your choices, and spot the supplements worth keeping (and those you can dump). Stick around—you’ll finish this show knowing exactly which pills, powders and potions deserve a place in your daily routine.
00:00 The Supplement Dilemma: What’s Worth It?
03:06 Blood Tests: A Key to Personalized Nutrition
07:07 Iron and Vitamin D: Essential Nutrients for Athletes
11:25 Creatine and Protein Powders: The New Norm?
15:26 The Multivitamin Myth: Are They Really Necessary?
19:11 Electrolytes and BCAAs: When to Use Them?
21:11 The Strategic Approach to Supplements
Taryn Richardson
https://www.dietitianapproved.com/academy
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
The post Which Supplements Actually Help Your Swimming with Taryn Richardson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
This a rebroadcast from the Get Fast Podcast with Jordan and Gerard Donnelly from TriVelo Coaching Trivelo Coaching: https://www.trivelocoaching.com.au/
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Effortless Swimming Podcast. This is a rebroadcast of an episode where I was a guest on the Get Fast Podcast with TriVelo Coaching with Jordan and Gerard Donnelly. On this episode, I’ll talk about how triathletes can swim minutes faster in any races that they’re doing.
So if you’re a triathlete or you’re interested in triathlon or open water swimming, there’ll be a lot here that can help you improve your swim speed and ultimately make it easier. And a lot more enjoyable. Let’s get into this episode on the TriVelo Coaching Get Fast podcast.
In this episode* 01:15 — Why Swimmers Get Stuck * 03:30 — Are Athletes Doing It Wrong After Coaching? * 06:50 — How Long Does It Take To Change Swim Habits? * 10:05 — Is A Lack Of Fitness Holding Your Technique Back? * 13:30 — Overcoming the 2nd Plateau * 19:45 — The Ultimate Swim Technique Overhaul Plan * 23:50 — Ideal Time Ratio For Swim Technique Vs. Fitness * 28:00 — Why Elite Swimmers Avoid Long, Slow Training * 32:50 — Why Adult-Onset Swimmers Struggle To Improve * 36:40 — Overcoming The Mental Barrier Of Going Slower To Get Faster * 39:00 — The Best Tests For Swim Fitness And Speed * 43:30 — Pool Vs. Open Water: Understanding The Differences * 46:40 — Swimming Myths Debunked * 51:31 — When To Push Through Bad Form (And When To Stop) * 55:30 — Swimming Is A Technique Thing
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. https://shop.effortlessswimming.com/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
TranscriptRead the full transcriptthere are things you can do to see an increase in speed. So there's a very good chance you might be working on the wrong thing. And the wrong thing is possibly something that's a few steps ahead of what you actually need to work on. So I will quite often get people come to clinics or they'll send videos into me and they're like, yeah, okay, I can see that like my catch, my elbow is low and I've been working on my catch and I can't seem to make it any better. But if you look kind of earlier on in the chain of what needs to be worked on, it's like, you can't possibly get a good catch because you're firstly lifting and turning really far to get your breath. So you're over rotating. So your arm's dropping straight down. And so physically you're not capable of actually getting a good catch on that side because of the breathing. And so we need to really just bring it back to the first order of priorities and focus on those, get those right and then build up from there. So I think more often it's a case of just working on the wrong things. And typically when people, I mean, people watch the videos that I put out and I've had a lot of people say, look, I quite often get distracted by working on different things and I hear it on podcasts, I see it in videos and you can get a lot of really good information there but it can also just be like the wrong thing for you. And so I think I'm guilty of it myself as well. Just like you hear a good idea like, okay, well, that's certainly gonna be better than what I'm doing. But if it's not really specific to you, it's not gonna be to change anything.
Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast the show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford. Hey, welcome to this week's episode of the Effortless Swimming Podcast. This is a rebroadcast of an episode where I was a guest on the Get Fast podcast with Trivelo Coaching with Jordan and Gerard Donnelly. That's a mouthful to say. But on this episode, I'll talk about how triathletes can swim minutes faster in any races that they're doing. So if you're a triathlete or you're interested in triathlon or open water swimming, there'll be a lot here that can help you improve your swim speed and ultimately make it easier and a lot more enjoyable. Let's get into this episode on the Trivelo Coaching Get Fast podcast. So a very big welcome back to the podcast, Brenton Ford from Effortless Swimming. Brenton, this is now I think makes you the most repeated guest we've ever had. So thank you very much for joining us again. Thanks for having me. I expect the plaque or the trophy coming very soon. Thank you. So we want to launch right into the main premise of today and the topic, which is just the notion of this inevitable swimming plateau that everyone hits. And how do you break through the swimming plateau? Because improvement in expectations, improvement expectations in the sport of triathlon seem to be just lower than what you can get in the bike and the run. And a lot of people just accept that the swim is the swim. And once they hit that two minute pace
or 150 pace or 140 pace, they just stay there for years. And so why do you think so many triathletes get stuck at the same swim pace even after years of training? Is it mindset? Is it technique mechanics or is it something else?
It's usually working on the wrong thing. I think it comes down to working on the wrong thing and maybe not sticking with it for long enough to see a change. So if we look at someone, let's say they're being stuck at two minute pace for three years and like, oh, this is my pace. I just simply cannot get faster. Physically, I think majority of people they can go beyond that pace. And so look, it may be a mobility issue. Like maybe physically you can't get into some positions that you are required to get faster. But I think for like pretty much everyone, it's just, there are things you can do to see an increase in speed. So there's a very good chance you might be working on the wrong thing. And the wrong thing is possibly something that's a few steps ahead of what you actually need to work on. So I will quite often get people come to clinics or they'll send videos into me and like, yeah, okay, I can see that like my catch, my elbow is low and I've been working on my catch and I just, I can't seem to make it any better. But if you look kind of earlier on in the chain of what needs to be worked on, it's like, well, you can't possibly get a good catch because you're firstly lifting and turning really far to get your breath. So you're over rotating. So your arms dropping straight down. And so physically you're not capable of actually getting a good catch on that side because of the breathing. And so we need to really just bring it back to the first order of priorities and focus on those, get those right
and then build up from there. So I think more often it's a case of just working on the wrong things. And typically when people, I mean, people watch the videos that I put out and I've had a lot of people say, look, I quite often get distracted by working on different things and like I hear it on podcasts. I see it in videos and like that you can get a lot of really good information there, but it can also just be like the wrong thing for you. And so I think I'm guilty of it myself as well. Just like you hear a good idea, like, okay, well, that's certainly gonna be better than what I'm doing. But if it's not really specific to you, it's not gonna change anything. Do you find that if you give some really good feedback analysis, which is what you do very well, you get people to send videos to you and you analyze it and send it back to them and ask them to work on three major things and you give them drills specific to the things you're looking at. So that's a bit of a quick summary. So do you find that when the athlete comes back, maybe six or eight weeks later, that they haven't changed anything about what you've asked them to do because they haven't done maybe the drills or they haven't thought about it enough? What are the things they're doing wrong in that period between you giving them the instruction and it should work. You know, if they, it's like going to the physio with an injury and then the physio gives you all these exercises to do and you go back four weeks later, you haven't done one exercise and you say to the physio, it's not any better.
You know, is that something that you find is prevalent a lot in a lot of the athletes?
Yeah, it certainly is. It's, there's a few things that can result in someone not having improved down the track. So one is they either haven't done the, like the exercises or the drills, even if it's five or 10 minutes, which is normally what I would prescribe for most swimmers, a little bit in their warmup goes a very long way. So quite often they haven't done the drill or also they probably just haven't exaggerated the change enough for it to make a change. And so when we film it at clinics, second filming, I quite often ask people to exaggerate what they're trying to say. And whenever they do that, I would say one in 50 people go too far with the change. Like I'm getting them to exaggerate head position, rotation, whatever it is. One in 50 might actually have gone too far that we're like, okay, you can scale that back a little bit. But the majority of them, it's like, right. It's right there. It's like, oh, that's really good. But it feels like such a big, big change. And so I don't think people get comfortable enough with the exaggerate, how much they need to exaggerate the change. So more often than not, it's that. So that it feels weird. So like, this can't be right. And then we don't like to stick with something that feels unnatural or weird. And so we just go back to what's normal. So it's just, it's more often that than anything, especially for someone who has, say, practiced the drills that booked in for a follow-up filming. Like they've spent the time, they've spent the money working on, I think working on it.
But if we don't see a change, it's quite often that. Or it's just like they've tried to focus on three things instead of one. So if you, I mean, I was getting some coaching myself a couple of weeks back, I had the coach give me one thing to work on. It was looking really good on video. And she said, all right, now I want you to, I want you to focus on your breath timing and this aspect of your catch. And it fell apart most of the time. Like two is, you can't do two really when you're swimming. So I think it's often confusion as well, or just complicated, too complicated.
What I love about your videos and whenever you're on a podcast is you give such good hope to people that the improvement is possible. And even just your early answers, someone listening will just go, okay, that actually makes me believe that I can improve. You mentioned something really interesting there with not enough time dedicated to it. So when there's a change that needs to be made, what is that amount of time in terms of working on it per session, as well as is it a six-week block that you should expect improvement or 12 weeks where you really should expect that habit to start happening naturally? So when I first started running clinics 12, 13 years ago, there was a guy who emailed me on a Monday morning. So this was up in Sydney. He attended the clinic on the Sunday. Monday morning, he said, I did my 400 time trial and I was two seconds slower. Like, what's going on here? I just attended the clinic.
And then I had someone from that same weekend email me nine or 10 weeks later. And she said, I was working away at the technique stuff. My times were the same. Nothing much was happening, but I thought, look, I'll just stick with it. And then I had this one session where it clicked and she went from, I think it was 140 to 134, and she stuck with it from then on. Like, it just clicked and she stuck at that pace. And I see that as like, if you've got the patience to stick with it for eight, 10, 12 weeks, then you're much more likely to see those results. But don't feel like you're wasting your time if you're not getting faster straight away, or maybe it doesn't even feel better straight away. Like it might just feel awkward because it's different. So normally, and from my own personal experience as well, I think two to three months is pretty typical of how long you should expect it to take. And I was getting some coaching at the start of the season as well for myself. And I got this one cue just about breath timing. My breath was a bit late. And what I found there is that it took me, it was like six to eight weeks practicing it in training. The first two races of the season, there were glimpses of it, but then it was sort of three, four races in where it really started to gel. And yeah, it just takes quite a bit of time, even if it's just one thing. So, but I mean, the thing is, you're gonna be putting the time in anyway. When you're going to the pool, might be in twice a week, three times a week, you're going to be there.
You may as well just be okay with just working on your technique rather than just trying to get the fitness gains from it. Obviously they're really important. Fitness is a big factor, strength is a factor, but you may as well just be focusing on something technically as well, because you're gonna be putting the time in regardless. You could be sending a message out that it's okay to swim slower, to swim faster eventually. And if you stick with the process, that's actually gonna be so much better than if you just keep defaulting. Every time you're under pressure, we'll default to our normal swim stroke, which is actually what you're trying to prevent. You're trying to get this new method of swimming technique ingrained into that being a new default swim technique. And I'm doing the same thing. When I'm in the pool and I'm getting tired, I know my thought process has gone out the window. I'm going back to my old stroke and my times go back to what they were. And if I'm not conscious of saying, no, I'm gonna put up with this, I'm just not going to improve. I'm going to be the same swimmer. And we all keep doing that. And a lot of the time, and the question I'm gonna ask you is, is the fitness causing us, our lack of fitness holding the new position or the new entry or the new catch or the new push through phase or the new breathing style, is it that we don't have the fitness to maintain it? That's why we go back to our old form. Is that what's causing us to default to the old way? Is it because we're not fit enough in the water and how do we manage that?
It can be a number of different things. When we're making a change, we often using different muscles or using the muscles in a different sequence or in a different way. And so quite often we have to engage more muscles in the beginning of this process as we work on this change in stroke. So I think it can be more tiring and more fatiguing in the early days. Plus you've got to put a bit of mental, like mental effort into it as well. And so the way that we swim right now without thinking, like we can sustain that at harder efforts for longer periods of time because we don't really need to think about it because we've got that ingrained. And so when we're making that change, we've got to use that mental energy. We probably have to use more, more of the muscles around the area that we're looking to change until it starts to become subconscious. And so I think it's, and there's also the element of like, we don't wanna lose our fitness gain. So we're afraid to actually take a little bit of a step back in terms of the times we're holding. So it's, there's a bit of that as well. And I feel that too, when I'm swimming like, geez, I hate, I don't like being three, four seconds slower than what I'm used to. And I wanna just kind of push the effort and not be too concerned about the change. So it's, in a way you just have to know what to expect. I think that's probably the first thing. It's like, if you know that that's probably gonna happen, then be okay with it. And think long-term, like let's say 12 months down the track. What's my main goal?
Is it that I wanna be, all right, I wanna be fit and fast for the next three months or 12 months down the track, do I wanna be five, 10 seconds quicker? So yeah, looking ahead, that patience and just knowing that the results will come if you're okay just taking a step back.
Yeah, it's such a great discussion and why we wanted to really go through this because there is this notion of the plateau is there and it's really hard. Whereas what we've already uncovered in the first 10 minutes is that there are so many little things that you could do to push you through. And I think that notion of not wanting to go slow, start with or slowing down to go faster later is so funny because you do know that and this is exactly what you're talking about, Dad. When you just default, you'll be that same swimmer. So you might as well try something different. And the only way you're not going to improve is to not try something different, not to try any one of the things we've already said. Whereas if you try something different, at least you have the opportunity to improve. And if it doesn't work, you'll just default to your normal swim stroke and you probably swim the same anyway. But the next part of the plateau I wanted to ask about is often what the pattern we see is, especially for beginner athletes, they go get their first bit of technique help and they get that first bit of improvement, whether that's five seconds per 100 or 15 seconds per 100, they really make that jump and they get stuck at that next wall because they've worked on some good things. They've got a nice kind of looking at catch and pull and stroke and things are on track. Is that next hurdle any more difficult? Because that's where people who are especially experienced swimmers, and I'm thinking about more experienced triathletes here who have been in the game for maybe years, they've made those progressions really well and now they're stuck at 142. Now they're stuck at 136. Is it a myth that that's a harder barrier to jump over or is it the same principles again? That's a good question.
I think that earlier gains can typically be the easier ones because some of the things we need to work on, you can see that much bigger gains as a result. Obviously, because it's, let's say if you're at 230, getting down to two minutes, it's 30 seconds, but it's like, there's some really easy wins you can do there, like better body position, head position, those sorts of things. It can certainly get a little bit more challenging because there's more nuance to it. Some of the changes are a little bit more refined, I think, so the improvements are, yeah, can be a little bit more challenging to make, but it doesn't mean you can't make them by any means. I think of, there's a guy who came in on the weekend for a follow-up filming. So he did a clinic in January or Feb, so a couple of months ago, and he dropped 15 seconds from his 100 pace, just like his long distance 100 pace. I think he was, I think it was around two minutes, he's down to 145 now. And he had just some basic, like some basic stuff where he was swimming, he was crossing over, he was swimming pretty flat, he was really rushing in the stroke. And so we just, we worked on more rotation, good head position, not crossing over, just some of those things. And he improved them really well because I was going through his video the other day. And so now what he's got to work on is that he's quite like, he's actually swimming a bit too wide. So he's actually over-corrected the change, which is like, all right, well, that's good. At least you're not doing the same thing. So we need to work on that. We need to get a little bit more streamlined.
We need to work on a little bit more rotation. And actually the one thing for him is his breath timing. His breath is very late. And so it's kind of throwing the rest of his stroke out. So if he doesn't correct his breath timing, he's unlikely to make many gains from there because that, to me, that's like the bottleneck that's holding him back right now. So I think the faster you get, typically there's like, there's one thing there that can be stopping other things from falling into place. So I think it's about really getting that dialed in and figuring out what that one bottleneck is. And then just being hyper-focused on that one thing for several weeks and then moving on to the next thing. So yes, it is harder to get faster the faster you get, but I think it just means you've got to be more focused on one certain thing. And it can feel like a challenge to know what that is sometimes, but if you do have someone who knows what to look for, look at it, it can make such a big difference, I think. So it doesn't have to be me, it can be anyone else, but I think, yeah, it's often just that one bottleneck. Realistically, because the bottleneck is individual to everyone, you can feel like, oh, what is my bottleneck? It can be so complicated, but if you narrowed it down, it's probably one out of what? Eight to 12 main things, where it's the catch, the pull, head position, like you just said, timing of breath, the position of the arms, tram tracks,
position of the legs. When you actually list them all, there's not that many it could be, so it's gonna be one of those ones. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's like, there's nothing that I feel like I haven't seen with people swimming, and you're right, it's just like, you could probably make a bullet point list of eight to 10 things, and it's going to be one of those things. But I think it's often the more basic things that are the bottleneck for a lot of people. It's just the basics of, all right, good head position, body position, and the right kick, the right amount of rotation, breath timing is a big one that's sometimes overlooked, and then obviously you've got the catch and pull and those sorts of things. But yeah, it can really boil down to just a couple of things, really, for most people. If, this is something I really want you to consider. If you feel that some of your athletes are plateauing that much, that you would stop them from training, because repeating the same incorrect stroke is nearly as bad as not training at all, because you're just reinforcing that the, you're not gonna create a change by continuing to repeat the same technique that you're trying to get out of. So would it be worth just stopping people from actually training as a swimmer and then just getting them to strip it all back and just do the drills and forget about the fitness, forget about the fitness gains that you should be doing in the swim session? And really, can you do it that far?
Or what I'm worried about is people getting new information, understanding what they should be doing, but still they do that in the drills properly, and then when they go to swim, they just go back to their own stroke again. They just keep, and they're only practicing the drills properly, but they're not actually, should you stop people, if you see that happening, would you be stopping them from doing the swim session and saying, look, we're just gonna have to do drills the whole time if you're not gonna change a stroke. Would that be how you would approach it? Or yeah, let me hear what you think about that process. That's a tough one, because it depends on what their goals are too, right? It's like, they might have a race in six weeks time or even 12 weeks time. It's like, well, we still need to have that level of fitness there. What's that person willing to put up with as well? A lot of people aren't willing to do just technique work for the next two months as well. And like I understand it as well, like you can sometimes just go to the pool because you wanna get a good workout and all of that. So it really depends on how, yeah, on what they've got coming up and what they're willing to do for it. But I think it's- If you had a, put it this way, Brett, if you had a person who said to you, I don't care about any races that are coming up. I wanna change my technique so that I can use this for the rest of my life. How would you structure that next eight weeks? Would you strip it right back like that? If you had the person who's mentally on board,
then they're willing to give up then the next six months of races to swim slower, to swim faster in a year's time. How would you structure their program?
Probably similar to what you said. I would go, like let's, we'll pick one thing to, well, maybe one or two things to kind of focus on for them and just firstly have a look at their stroke, see what they need to work on. We'd do some drills as part of their warmup, just focusing on one or two things. But then I would certainly give them some swimming to do and we might bump up the pace as we're going through it because I wouldn't want them to swim just slow. Like I want them to have to try and hold that stroke at different paces. But when they're really starting to fall apart, it's like, all right, let's stop there. Because you want them to get to this point of failure in a way it's like, okay, I can feel like things have fallen apart. So let's just take a break and go again. But that would probably be the approach and it would probably not be in a squad environment. So I think squad is great for fitness, social. I get a lot from swimming in a squad, but in terms of technique, that is often where things just go out the window, especially in squads where people are pretty competitive, you're pushing off a second behind someone, you're gonna have dirty water in front, you're gonna have this choppy water and you're just gonna be trying to keep the feet. So what I normally recommend there is just try and get one session a week at the pool by yourself with hopefully a little bit of space there and work in that calm water. Now, you're not gonna be racing in probably calm water if you're a triathlete, but if you can't swim well in calm water, you're probably not gonna be able to swim well in choppy water.
So just try and find some space and time where there's no pressure to be able to get there the feeling of what we're trying to do. So yeah, I would really just strip it back. Still, you still wanna put in not a lot of Ks, but you still need to do a bit each session. But yeah, it would just be very technically focused swimming. We'd be doing a bit with stroke count as well, just trying to maintain stroke count. So if you're going from say 40 strokes to 45 strokes a lap, something's going wrong there. So being aware of that as well and giving them tools to be able to know whether or not they're starting to fall apart like stroke count. Like it's a simple one, but it can work really well.
It's such an interesting discussion point around what I think is priorities. And we are big proponents of every single one of our sessions. We ask our athletes to spend 400 meters, four to eight minutes at least on drills. And we would do more, but the athletes often just either skip it because it's kind of boring or don't really focus on it as a priority. And I guess in terms of thinking about the really interesting point you made there with the value of swim squad versus the fact that it's really good for, not just social, but intensity, you know, being really pushed for pace. But the consequence of that is, your stroke can go out of the water and you're potentially thrashing around. And really finding in your week, what's the priority here of time spent on drills, time spent on your own VO2 sets, time spent on endurance, time spent at swim squad. If you were to think about, regardless of the athlete preferences, what would be ideal amount of time to spend on swim stroke and technique as a ratio? The last point I'll make on that is the bike analogy, for example. We know that, you know, straight threshold training would be the most valuable thing. If an athlete could just do that twice a week, you know, an FTP test or a 60 minute threshold session, it would be as valuable as you can get, but it's just so grueling, you know, and it's just not possible to repeat mentally week after week. So in a swimming sense, you know, where do you place the value in terms of time spent with drills? If the athlete didn't have a say in it, what would you be really allocating to?
It makes me think it was like, if you have kids, it's like, you'd love them to have like meat and three beds every night for dinner. And, you know, you can have this perfect diet, but then it's like, what are they willing to actually have? So, yeah, with a triathlete, let's say you're doing a 3K set, I would look to do probably a K of that as some warmup with technique within that 1K. And then the rest of it would be, I mean, some sort of swim set where you're trying to maintain that form. So I don't think you need to do just a full session of just technique. I really like to incorporate this stuff into your normal swimming because that way you really get to, like, you're not gonna hold perfect technique across a 2K swim. It's just not gonna happen. But you're going to start to notice, when does it fall apart? You're going to kind of have to challenge yourself to maintain good form, to maintain your speed. And I think it's good to work it out within the normal swimming. So sometimes, what I wouldn't suggest though is that I had a swim on the weekend. She said, I train, I do 3K every swim, and it's three by 1K. And I just like, I just do three by 1K. And that's fine if that's like just good for your mental health or your fitness, whatever it might be, but you're probably not improving much at all because the intervals are too long. You probably need that mental and physical reset
after 100, 200. So just give yourself that little bit of a rest in between to be able to just switch back on. And now that you've got some drills, all right, let's just focus on these things at the start. So it doesn't, yeah. And what would give someone the biggest bang for buck? We talked about FTP with the cycling. Depending on the person, I think one longer swim can be really good where it's like maybe some slightly longer intervals, they're just holding an aerobic pace, but then also like a threshold set as well where they are and one way they may be just building and progressing through the set. Like I love the sets that crescendo towards the end where it's like you start off comfortable, you're building, you're building, and then at the very end you're like, you're going for it. I think those sort of sessions are so good for the average triathlete, provided that it's not getting really messy and their times haven't dropped off. Like I want them to actually get faster because then they're actually holding good form. Like that's a sign. It's like if you, yeah, if you're going 130s and at the end of the session, you're going 140s, but you're trying to go 125s, well, something's gone wrong there. So you might need to start out easy in what you think. Is the theory behind the shorter intervals if we took the elite Olympic world champion swimmer and then all the way down to the beginner, you don't see a lot of the elite swimmers who train twice a day, who probably swim, I don't know, you'd tell me five or six K in the morning, five or six K at night, that might be more than that.
They don't do a lot of long, slow, three by one K reps for a reason. And that's sort of the message I'm trying to get across to the triathletes. Sure, we need to do open water swim where we are actually getting used to swimming. But if the analogy of a runner was, you need to do that long endurance run or a bike ride, you need to do that long endurance bike ride. So your body gets used to holding that aerobic capacity. But as a swimmer, we know that the swimmers don't do the same as a bike rider or a marathon runner. They don't do that long, slow swim. What's your theory on that as the world's evolved with swimmers over the journey? I know we're looking at people who are swimming Olympics of 50 meters, 100 meters, 200, 400, and of course there is a 1500. But the majority of the events are all around 100, 200 to 400. So is that the reason why we're not doing more long, slow training, or is it because it's not appropriate for swimming?
If you think of the, if you look at the long distance swimmers, like the marathon swimmers, I should say like the 10 K at the Olympics, they will do longer intervals. But again, very rarely are they doing like, yeah, one K intervals. It's like, and I think part of it is just boredom. That's like, if you don't get that reset after say 400, it's like, it's quite boring and it's easy to switch off and then your technique can start to fall apart a bit. I think part of it is that. And also just the monotony of it too, where if it is one K intervals and you're doing an eight K set, like it's just, it goes so much quicker if you break it down to shorter ones. There's different reasons why they do it. But I personally think a lot of it is just, you do start to switch off if you're going for too long. And when you start to switch off, technique falls apart. You might be fatiguing a bit quicker as well. So even that 10, 15 seconds at the wall after a 400, and you go into the next 400, that can make a world of difference to how you're swimming. So it's, yeah, to break it, break up a boring session, it's to get that rest and recovery. I see like sometimes with the marathon, marathon swimmers like the 20 K, 30 K, your English channel swimmers, if they have to do a lot, they will sometimes break it into like one K intervals
and 1500 intervals just to get through the miles sometimes in the case. But I think in terms of performance, yeah, it's normally shorter. So yeah, and now I think of myself, when I did one marathon swim, which was 20 K, and it was very hard doing one kilometer like intervals. I might do one K swim, one K pool boy, one K pool boy paddles, and maybe repeat that twice or three times. But my God, it just goes so slow.
Yeah, right, yeah. Even if it's the same distance, it just goes so slow. It takes a certain type of insanity to commit to a 20 K marathon swim. How was it?
For the most part, enjoyable, apart from getting really cold. I just don't deal with the cold. So English channel is not on my list. And yeah, I'd put on a bit more fat next time. But I had a friend who did the English channel and he put on 15 kilos for the swim and he started taking it off 10 years later. Yeah, that's put me off. Yeah, everything is context dependent though. And an example of where a three by one K is quite appropriate and we do with our athletes is for the Ironman athletes who, and especially a lot of beginner athletes who have never swum that kind of volume, they just didn't need to experience three by one K in the open water and get a feel for that. So that the 3.8 K in the Ironman is not a shock. And that can be broken down to six by 500, but that is appropriate there. And I think that's important for the athletes to realize is that, yeah, there's no blanket rules. That's why we're having this conversation. But I did really like your kind of ratio of, in a three K set, almost a K of drills and two K of a set. That's good to think about. But again, it is always context dependent on where the athletes at and what their race is. Absolutely. And that's the, like I had a swimmer on the weekend at a clinic. She said, oh, my last coach showed me to, was like, I thought I should sort of cross my legs and my kick and do something else. And I'm thinking like, well, that's not what I'd suggest for you right now. But like possibly at the time when he was coaching you, like that might've been appropriate. It's like, I'm not going to say, oh, he's wrong. It's like, he saw what he saw and he gave the advice he gave probably
for a good reason. So it's all context dependent. So yeah, if you're saying, oh, well, I heard you should never do more than 400 meters. It's like, well, yeah, you might need to. Yeah. Just on the, probably a topic that a lot of the listeners would like to hear your opinion on.
The athletes in the world pro tour level in triathlon, we've watched Lionel and Sam Long really struggle at the back of the fast swimmers of this generation who are incredibly good swimmers. They're just below Olympic level almost. And yet they can still ride and run. It's gone are the days where you were just a swimmer and you couldn't ride or run. Now a lot of these top triathletes can do it all there. But Lionel and Sam haven't grown up as squad swimmers. And I'm just using them as two examples. There are hundreds of other pros out there who are struggling just as much as these two guys. But because these guys are in the news a lot more than the others, it sort of means more to people to hear your opinion on this. At Effortless Swimming our mission is simple. Make swimming more enjoyable. Whether you're training for your next race, swimming for fitness or just love being in the water, we're here to help you swim faster, smoother and with more confidence. And one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles. If you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid-session you know how frustrating it can be. That's why we created the Effortless Swimming Hydro Clear Anti-Fog Goggles for long lasting crystal clear vision. I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day. I'm not the only one. Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear. No fog, no frustration, just an uninterrupted swim. So what makes a Hydro Clear Goggles different? It's all in the technology.
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And they were 130s, 140s when they first started. And, you know, but the guys at the front are now swimming 105s in their sessions. And, you know, one to 105s and leaving on the 110 or leaving on the 120. So what is it that's, you know, with the swimming compared to as a runner or a rider, it takes so much longer to actually get to the level where you're wanting to get to. Yeah, it's, with the level of swimming now, especially in the PTO, it's like these guys, they are so quick. They are just, the level's really, really stepped up there. So I think that gap shows even more for that sort of level of racing. And absolutely it's harder. It's absolutely hard if you haven't grown up swimming. And look, you may not get to that same level of the very best triathlon swimmers in the world. Because as you said, they're like, you know, they're almost off, just off Olympic standard for swimming. Like they're just, they're swimming very, very well. But I think a trap that people sometimes get caught in is that they're not, they're worried about losing the fitness gains by taking that step back, that they never fully commit to the changes in their stroke. That they don't want to get to race season and not feel like they've done the same amount of work. Even though like aerobically, they're probably, they're just so fit anyway. Strength wise, they're probably pretty similar
in terms of their swim strength. So I think it can be a trap that they sometimes just get caught in. Feeling like they haven't done the work in the pool and just smash themselves in the pool. But swimming so technical that I think for the majority of them, they're just better off being willing to take that step back and getting beaten in training by their training buddy because they know that they're working on their technique. Because when you get in that competitive environment, a bit of ego flies around and you don't want to be that guy who's like, well, I'm five seconds behind when I used to beat this guy next to me. I know I'm better than that. So it's very easy to get caught in that trap. So for those high-level guys, I think that's a big factor. And I mean, even for your age group, we've got egos as well. We want to beat the person who's nipping at our heels. So yeah, it just takes a lot, I think, to be willing to take that step back. And it's a tough one. Because the thing is it's not guaranteed either. It's like, if you take that step back and you haven't really changed your stroke and you're not swimming faster, and maybe you have lost a little bit of fitness, like, well, that was a waste of time. So it is a little bit of a roll of the dice and you have to trust the process and you have to trust what you're working on. So yeah, it is a gamble at the end of the day. But I think for a lot of people, it's a gamble that is worth taking.
That's that mindset element that I think is the last piece of the puzzle to come into it. And that was the whole purpose of this topic is to not let any mental barriers, like you're saying, and that ego of potentially being unwilling to go slower to go faster and try something new can get in the way. But what is your advice around athletes? You just, it's a warranted fear to be like, I don't want to go backwards. I'm putting the time in. But I just feel like my stroke is stuck. What do you say to get past that mental barrier, not thinking from a technique or fitness or training perspective?
If you look at what the options are on either side, you go, all right, well, is the way that I'm swimming now, if I'm at 140, is it because I'm just, I'm not fit enough? Like, where can I get to if I just get a little bit fitter and a little bit stronger with my swimming? Like, what's the possibility there, realistically? And it might be like, it might be a 120 to someone. Maybe they're just not very swim fit and they're at 140. But I think realistically for a lot of people, it's not the fitness side of it that's actually holding them back. Like they know it's their technique. They've trained three times a week for the last five years in the pool. Like, it's not a fitness thing. It's a technique thing. So if you can objectively take a look at it as an outsider and determine what's actually holding you back and then just go after that thing, work on changing that thing that is holding you back and just know that it is a bit of a gamble to work on it. But like long-term, what's like, really, what's that gonna look like? Maybe I do get a little bit slower initially. Maybe I take this gamble and I don't race quite as well this season. That may happen. But yeah, at the end of the day, it's probably more technique that's holding you back if you have been at the same pace for year after year. And we see that in the data. And we really agree with what you've just said then because one of the things we're often looking at in swim training sessions is how, what's the gap between your threshold work
and your hard efforts compared to your endurance efforts. And so often an athlete is swimming 142s for their hundred sets. But then in their four by 400, they're swimming 144s. The cap is so small. And then you go, okay, well, you've got fitness. Your techniques can probably stop you from going faster. Whereas if the swimmer could swim 130 in their hundred sets, but when they go to an 800 meter effort, it goes to 150. You go, oh, there's probably a bit of a fitness gap there. You agree with that?
Yeah, that's a great way of identifying it, right? It's like, you can see that you can't get faster than a 142, but you can hold 144 all day. Well, that's a very clear sign. So that's a good way of analyzing it. And what do you guys do for testing their, well, testing their swim fitness or swim speed? What are your go-to tests?
It's a very similar principle to cycling and running. It depends so much on the race goal. And the same way that we do 20 minute FTP tests regularly on an indoor trainer, that doesn't help necessarily inform us of the most accurate data for an Ironman race or a half Ironman. But we do it regularly just to have that comparison. So we do regular pull tests, whether it's 1K swim at 1.5K or longer, depending on the athlete. But then they need to go test in the open water as well and show us what they can do in a wetsuit. And especially as you get closer to race day and that becomes difficult depending on where you live and the time of the season. But it's the same principle. It's translating the same way on a bike. You've got to get off the trainer and go out and do a 20 minute FTP test outside. You've got to go out and do a 60K time trial or a 90K time trial for your half Ironman. The same principle applies for your open water stuff. And it's not just a time trial. It's go do your two by 1K efforts or four by 500 in the open water and show us what you're holding there. And that informs us how well you're translating your pull stuff to your open water stuff. Yeah, that's such a big one with the pull versus open water. I know we've talked about that on previous podcasts, but that can be quite eye-opening for someone who's never tested in the open water. They're like, all right, I can hold 145 in the pool. And on race day, it might be 155. And they're like, well, what's going on here? Yeah, so it's good to see that before your race and then try and figure out whether it's like, well, was it bad conditions? Was it because I just don't swim as well in my wet suit? Like, am I shortening up?
Like, am I just going off course? Like, why am I slower? And just making sure you figure that out before race day. It's interesting, isn't it? We do have a lot of athletes who don't actually swim in the open water at all, except for race day. And they do come back with that. Oh, I'm so confused. Why am I swimming so much slower? And every example you just gave is probably contributing to that result. But one of the things I say to them is when you're in the squad all the time, you're swimming in moving water, and you're getting this inflated pace because you're drafting the whole time. And you need to do some swimming, as you said, in still water, where you're breaking the surface as the number one. The only person in the squad who's really swimming properly is the person at the front of the line who's getting to break the water. And so that's more a realistic pace, isn't it? That you can compare. You just can't compare if you're sitting fourth or fifth swimmer in that pace line and expect that that's the time you'll be able to do outside. And I have a lot of trouble convincing people. You understand what I'm saying. Do you have that same problem with a lot of your athletes? Yeah, so many people think they are faster than they really are because they're used to swimming behind other people. And you can save up to 30% of your effort when you are drafting, especially behind multiple people. So I can, yeah, people can think they're swimming so much faster than they really are. But it's like playing Gran Turismo on PlayStation
and then getting in a real car and thinking you can drive around a racetrack the same way. It's not the same. You've got to get out into the real world and just see where you're really at there. So I think certainly that's a big way that people convince themselves that they're swimming faster than what they are. So if they can do, say, a time trial without being on anyone's feet, like that, then you've got still water. You get a much better sense. And then the open water where conditions can change and it's choppy and it's not smooth, that can, and you don't have the turns to get the extra speed and sometimes a little bit of rest as well. That can change the pace that you're actually swimming too. So it's worth getting that data. We see so often on the bike that the trend is more beginner athletes are more efficient on the trainer because they've got this assistance in helping them pedal efficiently. And when they try and translate that power outdoors, they can hold better power indoors and outdoors. And we find with more experienced athletes, they're actually better at holding, they can put more power outdoors and indoors. They're better at pushing against the resistance of the road. And it's an interesting phenomenon that that would happen. And so it's funny with swimming as well. Athletes tend to show some variability. In summer, it's just slower in the pool. And once they check a wetsuit on and for them, they get some buoyancy. It really improves that stroke. And for others, they get out in the open water and they're so much worse than in the pool. So what are the common reasons or trends you see about those differences? That's interesting. Yeah, in some ways, in some ways it's actually,
there are some similarities there between say, beginner and more experienced cyclists. So for some swimmers, if they have really bad body position, the wetsuit lifts them up and they can be faster. But it makes me realize what you said there that with a lot of people who do go from the pool to the open water who are less experienced swimmers, they sometimes have a harder time holding their pool pace in the open water. And I think, but the more experienced swimmers are typically a little bit quicker than they would be in the pool. And this is with a wetsuit on as well. And I think one of the reasons for that is like they, they're obviously more proficient in being able to kind of hold. It's like pushing against the road or the resistance from that. It's like similar in the pools, in the open water. More experienced swimmers are just, they can really increase their stroke rate and they can get a better grip in the open water and they can maintain their line and their rhythm when they're siding. Like it's just, yeah, that experience counts for a lot. And I see the same thing. That's, so that's interesting. A bit of a realization there, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we have had a big discussion on open water swimming and you can listen to an old episode on that, but there is so many elements to it that are just different to the pool. Like the siding, you know, that can throw anyone's stroke completely out of whack. Just that one factor. Yeah, that's right. And you could be doing 2.2K for your 1.9K Ironman swim and that's six, could be six minutes
where you're going slower. So yeah, just that one factor alone is worth getting right. I love that you said that because it's probably our core message to triathletes when thinking about the races. You know, not swimming at 800 meters counts for a lot because if you run an extra hundred meters, it's potentially you're losing 20 seconds. But if you swim an extra, you could be losing two minutes in the swim. So it's something really to get right. Before we go on to, I kind of wanted to finish off with some, some quick rapid fire myth busting questions to see your opinion on, but anything on these last topics data on the plateau or these last topics that you wanted to ask before we go to this final segment? No, I've loved that conversation so far. I think the listener should get the gist now that, you know, it's just not about being fitter in the water. It's all about doing both, having good technique and practicing perfect swimming rather than practicing imperfect swimming will be the thing that you should be actually aiming for as an athlete when you're training. But yeah, I'm really keen to hear some of the, the myth busting questions that you've got lined up to see what Brenton's answers are to this. It's always good to hear his version of what he sees as the important things. And let's get this straight. You are one of the experts in the field around the world, and people should be really honing in on the answers to these questions. And as a preface to this question, these questions, you know, some of these might seem really obvious to some people, and some people will have never heard that answer before. So I think it's really important to, you know, people are coming from all different contexts and backgrounds of education with swimming. So yeah, we want to ask away.
So first one, you need a high stroke rate to swim fast, true or false? False. Add in quickly why.
It's a combination of stroke length and stroke rate. So you can have long strokes and a lower stroke rate if to swim fast as well. Yeah, more Ks or time in the pool always equals more speed. Yes or no? No. I think we've got exactly why, but it's… We would have just negated our whole podcast. Exactly.
Yeah.
This is funny as well. Drills are a waste of time for experienced swimmers and triathletes, and thinking with pros like this as well. Agree? No. Yeah. They're not, yeah, they're not a waste of time. And can sometimes be even more important because it can help them still work on the changes that they need to make. Kicking is almost irrelevant for triathletes. They should save their legs.
Oh yeah, almost, yes. It's like, if your legs aren't doing the right thing, it can really throw off the front end, but you don't need to be kicking hard at all to swim well, or you don't need to be kicking a lot. So it's like, if your legs are doing the wrong thing, it can completely stuff you up, but it only provides probably five to 10% of propulsion for most triathletes, if that. So yeah. Awesome answer. And I'm really realizing now, reading some of these, that I didn't expect the conversation to necessarily go the way it did, and we've answered some of these. Sorry, oh. Sorry, this is me. So wetsuits fix bad technique, reality or myth?
Myth, yeah. It can help improve some things, but it's not a magic wand by any stretch. It's too late to fix your swim if you start it as an adult. True or false? False, you can, yeah, obviously you can improve.
You touched on this before, but I'm interested to hear a slight explanation. You should hold the same technique at easy versus threshold efforts. Is that realistic?
So, not necessarily, but it can, depending on the person. So, yeah.
Yeah, go on, yeah. I was just gonna say, like if you look at someone like Katie Ledecky, if she's swimming easy, she's fairly even, she's fairly balanced. When she goes fast when she's racing, she has more of this sort of gallop stroke. And so some people, like they'll change their stroke that way, whereas other people are pretty consistent no matter the speed. So, it just depends on the person. I'm curious about, you know, potentially thinking about changing your stroke between pool and open water, would you, you know, especially when it's a little bit choppy, like, you know, you definitely can find that trying to get on top of the water and over it, and that's okay for trafficists to think about if they experience those conditions. Yeah, quite often people will be better off with a bit more of that uneven, or unevenly, uneven stroke or gallop stroke, where you're sort of quicker on one side, longer on the other side. That tends to lend itself pretty well to open water, especially with a wetsuit, just to help kind of get over the top of the water. And Dad, chime in with any thoughts you have in these. And I think you were laughing because anytime you, we do this, Dad hates these kinds of questions, because every answer is, a good coach would say, well, it depends, but we still want to get some thoughts on it anyway. I think you're doing a great job, Brendan, because we wouldn't have got past question three with me. A couple more to go. So there is a agreed preferred breath rate and breath first stroke rate. Is that true?
No, no, it depends on the person. It depends what your stroke rate is. Like if you've got a high stroke rate, you could breathe every three, you'd be getting the same amount of air as someone with a lower stroke rate, breathing every two. And just depends what you prefer. Last one. You should never swim with bad form. Is there ever a place for just getting it done, even if it's not pretty?
To a certain extent, yes, but whenever you are really pushing it, your technique will begin to fall apart, but you don't want to continue that for too long and really train that bad habit. But I think it is good to get to that point and be able to push yourself there as it does start to break down, because that's kind of a necessary requirement for people who are looking to compete at a certain level. Just on that question, I'd love to hear your answer, Brenton. The minute you feel like you've lost form, should you take a break in a training session, give yourself 20 or 30 seconds and then reset and go again? If it's within an interval, I think let's say you're doing like a 300 and you're starting to push it, you might start to fall apart halfway through it. Finish off that interval, try to get back on top of it. Try and just make that switch. Maybe you're back off the pace a bit. So you don't necessarily have to go, hang on, stop. All right, I can't continue any further. Try and just correct it the next stroke or the next lap. But if it's just like repeatedly just falling apart, you're having one of those sessions, then you might just want to change what you're doing.
Awesome. Yeah, great answers all around. That's a really good way to finish. Yeah, you did really well there to dispel some of them. And the purpose of asking some of those questions was really just to help any listener gain some clarity on some… It happens in every discipline. There's just some common things. And we, the cadence one, we get that in running all the time. Like I got told I need to have a 175 or 185 RPM with cadence and it's just not true rather. It's true in certain contexts, but yeah, we just want people to avoid falling into the trap of blatant rules. Because as with everything, it's really ever that black and white. Yeah, that's right. And as I said, it depends on the person and the context and what they're training for. Yeah, hopefully people have been able to get something from this podcast where even if it is a little bit of hope that they can get better. Because I see it all the time. I mean, you see it all the time with people that you're coaching. It's like they maybe done a six hour half Ironman and that might've got down to sub five. It's like you can absolutely get better at anything you put your time and your attention to and your focus on. And swimming is no different. Might be a little bit harder in terms of, rather than just putting the effort in, you've really got to put the focus on it as well on the technique, but it's absolutely possible to get quicker. I also really love that side of swimming that it is such a technique thing. I think that's really encouraging because you would look at some Olympic swimmers or the top level pro triathletes or even the top level age group athletes who are 120s and go,
geez, that gap seems so far away in terms of the training. But to know that it's really a technique thing means it's possible for anyone. Anyone can improve their technique, which is really encouraging. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's not just brute strength or height or anything like that. Like it's, yeah, it's almost like a secret, like a card that you've got in your back pocket for anyone and you can play it at any time, but just by working on it. Yeah. Anything last from you, Dad? No, I loved it. And look, I still remember when I used to take you guys to squad training when you were seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 years of age. And I'd see a lot of the big guys come into the pool after they'd been in the gym and they were huge, muscly guys and flexing their muscles. And you had seven, eight-year-old kids just flying past them in the water with no muscle development, no strength, but super efficient swimmers as an eight-year-old. They just used to make me laugh the whole time. These guys are just powering through the water with just brute force, with no technique. And I think that epitomizes the beginner swimmer. They just feel like they've got to brutalize the water to get through it. And it couldn't be further from the truth. It's such a technical sport that if you don't get that right, you are going to be so frustrated for a long time. So I've loved the fact that you're really pushing the technique and just throwing more time at things is great, but not always going to get the right results.
And I think you've really made that clear today, which I really appreciate. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I love telling you about this stuff and especially with you guys. And I appreciate you having so many people come to our clinics and me being able to work with them. It's something I really enjoy doing. And yeah, especially with adults, because they can come in thinking, well, look, I don't, can I actually get any better? I'm just frustrated with it. It's annoying. And I don't love the swim. But I think when you see improvement, that is when you begin to enjoy something and you can see how you can get better. So yeah, it's possible for everyone. So thank you for having me on. And your coaching is aptly named Effortless Swimming, which is exactly what we're talking about. It's supposed to be more effortless and not brute force. So that's a great way to finish. So Brenton, yeah, thank you very much for coming on again. We know that our listeners will get a lot of encouragement from it and we hope we can help anyone out there understand that you can break through a plateau and it is possible and give that hope. So thanks again. And thank you to everyone that was listening and we'll see you on the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming podcast. If you'd like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlessswimming.com.
The post How Triathletes Can Swim Minutes Faster with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Imagine a group of busy parents hesitating in front of a pair of 25 pound dumbbells, unsure, even a little intimidated. Fast forward two years and those same people are confidently pressing 75 pounds, moving through life with more energy and far less pain. That’s the kind of change Kate Galliett creates.
Kate works with moms, dads, and everyone in between to build lasting strength without burning out. In today’s conversation, we’ll talk about why tiny consistent steps matter more than all out efforts. How tuning into your body can help you avoid injuries, and a simple morning habit. No fancy gear required that can boost your energy and sleep.
Whether you are juggling family work or a swim routine, I think you’ll come away with at least one idea to try on your next workout. Let’s get into today’s podcast with Kate Galliett.
In this episode* 00:00 — Introduction to Sustainable Fitness * 04:51 — Empowering Moms Through Strength Training * 7:47 — Dads and the Importance of Listening to Their Bodies * 10:42 — Fundamentals of Exercise Programming * 14:43 — The Importance of Patience in Training * 17:42 — Client Success Stories and Transformations * 24:42 — Personalizing Health Approaches * 27:29 — Finding Balance and Diet Exercise * 30:57 — The Anti-Challenge Challenge * 33:36 — Four Pillars of Health * 36:58 — Understanding Circadian Rhythms * 41:56 — Connecting with Nature and Gardening
Links from this episode* http://pillarperformance.shop * Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
TranscriptRead the full transcriptAnd so I've had to really teach them about the fundamentals and the importance of listening to their body and specifically for dads is to learn how to, if you have this mentality where you're going to just hammer yourself to death in the gym, you're going to do 500 curls. You're going to bench press until you get hurt. You're going to swim until you're so crushed, your shoulder's killing you the next day to learn how to listen to your body better because you're a dad. And if you're not a dad, maybe you're a husband and you're taking care of aging parents or you have a spouse or whatever you got going on. You are needed by other people in this age of life. You are definitely needed. And if you're injured because you went to her in the gym because you saw some guy on YouTube do it and you're like, yeah, I'm going to do that too. You're not being as useful to your family as you could be. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford.
Imagine a group of busy parents hesitating in front of a pair of 25 pound dumbbells. Unsure, even a little intimidated. Fast forward two years and those same people are confidently pressing 75 pounds, moving through life with more energy and far less pain. That's the kind of change Kate Galliott creates. Kate works with mums, dads and everyone in between to build lasting strength without burning out. In today's conversation, we'll talk about why tiny consistent steps matter more than all our efforts, how tuning into your body can help you avoid injuries and a simple morning habit, no fancy gear required, that can boost your energy and sleep. Whether you're a juggling family, work or a swim routine, I think you'll come away with at least one idea to try on your next workout. Let's get into today's podcast with Kate Galliott. Kate Galliott, welcome back to the podcast here on a couple of years back and we talked about becoming unbreakable, how people can listen to their bodies and make changes so that they are not getting injured consistently and just so that they can live a healthier, better life where they can do the things that they love. And typically the people who listen to this, the things that they love are swimming and potentially triathlon and just general health and fitness. So I wanted to get you back on today to talk about some topics similar to that, but basically how can we be living in a way that is not going to get us injured, that is going to help us be fit and healthy long term and how we can listen to our bodies. And I think you are the perfect person to speak to when it comes to those topics. That's nice to be here. Thank you.
Now, Kate, you've been working with a lot of people in your area at the moment. You're over in the US and two of the types of people that you've been working with that you mentioned before the call was moms who were afraid to go heavy with weights and then also a lot of parents or dads who are just used to going hard until they break and then they've got to take time off and then get back into it, but you're showing them a more sustainable way of approaching that. So which one would you like to sort of kick off with in terms of who you'd like to chat about first? The moms are, of course, I want to start with the moms. It's been wonderful. I've been building an in-person practice here in my town and the last several years have been great for that. Just with the people I've met and the type of work I get to do, which is kind of, as you summarize, they're really fun because it helps people who weren't previously, for example, like the moms who weren't lifting heavy, who weren't training, so to speak. They were training, but it was the little aerobics here, lighter weights there, this that or the other thing. It was intentional being active and working out, but not with a really specific intent with really structured programming. I hate to say it, and the audience here will already love this, but I hate to say it. We really have to be that mindful and intentional when we're training as we get older because there is no such thing as too old, but your body does need more directives as you get older because when you're not 20 and bouncing off the wall resilient where you could go out drinking at the bar on Friday night and then go hit the pool
or the gym on Saturday morning, too, your tissues do turn over more slowly. You need more direct inputs to tell those tissues how to respond, whether it's tendons, ligaments, muscles, and so on and so forth. Some of the moms I've gotten to work with are awesome because they were in that phase of like they're trying to do stuff, but it's not super structured for creating really distinct specific change. The changes they were going for was to be strong, but to get in better shape, kind of feel good in their body, but also to learn how to do this for a lifetime. And I think that's really important because I do think knowing how to train your body is important for a lifetime. I don't think you can get away with not learning that at some point. And thankfully a lot of the people listening here, of course, are very into like learning a lot of things about their body. So if anyone listening right now feels that way, don't ever lose that because I do think the smarter you are, the wiser you are, and the more you learn about what your body needs, the more capable you're going to be as things come up. You might be at the pool and you get a weird shoulder tweak. You might get something happening and the body starts to kind of go, oh, I need an adjustment here. And it's up to you to know what to do for that. So these moms were training, having a great time, but it wasn't super structured. And we started working together. And at first it was like starting with what we had, which wasn't even heavy weights. We didn't have any weight. We had what we had. We had like a 25 pound dumbbell, like a couple of things, you know, and slowly we started doing this work consistently of strength training with progressive overload, consistency in the exercises, not doing random stuff every
single week. And what happened was they started to really notice that the soreness was good soreness. It wasn't like, Oh, you just feel wrecked because you beat your body up doing a bunch of weird things. But also that they were getting stronger and then they were feeling more energized and their body was starting to change. And now we've gotten to a point where they've got all their home gym setups and they've got heavy weights and they're, they understand and appreciate and value the, the consistency that I was just speaking about that you have to have as you're training to take care of your body. And they've gone from the 25 pound weight was intimidating and heavy and like, Oh, I don't know what if I get hurt. I don't know. It's so heavy to they're hitting PRs. At the end of this last training cycle, we just finished a couple of these gals that they're, you know, inclined bench pressing like 75 pounds, which is quite a bit more than 25 pounds when we first started. So that's really cool to see. And I love that for women, especially because we get this, we're still, we're coming out of it. I think we're mostly out of it at this point, but we still, a lot of us my age and a little bit older got the messaging when we were younger, like don't get too bulky, don't have too heavy of weights, focus on aerobics, cardio is really important. But none of those actually create the change that we want. Most of us want as women, you know, is to have a high metabolism, have a shapely body that can perform well, that doesn't just look good or can do things, but it's both that we like. And so that's an important thing for these moms. And I just, I love that for them. And it's extrapolated out into so many other things. We went into, instead of just doing cardio for the sake of cardio,
to learning how to do zone training, training for a half marathon, having the best training program they ever had for their half marathon, no injuries and so on and so forth, how they eat, how they live their life, what they teach their families. It really has ripple effects. So any of the moms out there, get, get into it with strength training and proper training and all the activities and sports you like to do because it makes a huge difference. Now on the flip side, you mentioned the dads that I work with, I love the dads too, because they're same but different. They are saying that they've been busy. They've been kind of prioritizing other things just like the moms I've been there, like raising a family work and doing all the stuff. But where they're a little bit different is that the dads I've worked with are great because they, most of them lifted in high school and now they're in their 40s or 50s and what they know is what they learned in high school, which may not be great if you all remember being in the weight room in high school. And we've learned more, like exercise science has learned a lot more in 20-something years, right? So with the dads, it really has been more about getting them to appreciate the fundamentals a lot more rather than trying to kill themselves in the gym with 500 bicep curls because that's what they remember and that's what makes them feel that kind of energetic spunk like they had when they were in high school. And so I've had to really teach them about the fundamentals and the importance of listening to their body and specifically for dads is to learn how to, if you have this mentality where you're going to just hammer yourself to death in the gym, you're going to do 500 curls. You're going to bench press until you get hurt. You're going to swim until you're so crushed, your shoulders killing you
the next day to learn how to listen to your body better because you're a dad. And if you're not a dad, maybe you're a husband and you're taking care of aging parents or you have a spouse or whatever you got going on, you are needed by other people in this age of life. You are definitely needed. And if you're injured because you went too hard in the gym, because you saw some guy on YouTube do it and you're like, yeah, I'm going to do that too. You're not being as useful to your family as you could be. And so our efforts with dads is to say, I love that you have the passion already, but we got to hone in the fundamentals a little bit because we need you to train consistently and still be able to do your life where it actually matters that you show up every day like being a dad, taking care of the house, taking care of aging parents, taking care of your spouse, so on and so forth. So in the same way, they come from similar but slightly different places, but the success we've been seeing has been phenomenal and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. I mean, it's all my clients, it's all them, they put the hard work in. Let's get into some specifics in terms of how do you approach what exercises people should do, how often they should be training and what sort of reps, how many sets. Do you have a general approach that you would take with most clients? Yeah, borrowing some unique circumstances. I think everybody does well with basic programming, at least for a while. I guess that's the funny thing, isn't it? You've probably seen this with coaching. All the hot, flashy, sexy stuff shows up every couple of years and everyone's like, we're doing this wild, intense, crazy, really specific training program and at the end of the day,
and then it fades off. At the end of the day, what comes back is like, you've got to put the time in, you've got to put the reps in, you've got to do it consistently, you've got to do progressive overload, whatever that means and the activity that you're doing and beyond that, we're kind of just playing in the weeds and if that makes you feel joy about your training to play in the weeds, have at it, have a good time. We can do weird crazy stuff, but at the end of the day, everyone does well to start with full body training three times a week. If they're not swimming, if they are swimming, they're probably going to only be able to fit twice a week in. If you're more experienced taking that full body routine, turning it into a split routine where we're doing upper or lower on different days and then again, everybody does well in that six to eight rep range, especially for endurance athletes, I will say you already are putting in so much volume that I do, I do with endurance athletes try to shy away from anything higher than eight reps on leg exercises, back exercises, chest exercises, but if we're doing arms, that might be a little bit different, but because you're putting your volume in, you do want to think about your tendons a little bit and make sure you're not overtraining and creating tendonitis, but here's the funny thing. Man, I love the people who are doing research and exercise science right now because they're looking at all this stuff going, okay, all the bros have argued about rep schemes for decades. So who's actually right? Let's actually figure it out. Who's right? And the funny thing is that always comes back is they were all right. 15 reps was great. 8 to 12 reps, that was great. 4 to 5 reps, also great. Like every rep range worked for creating gains and change provided you were working up to within
one or two of your maximum. So when folks are thinking about strength training in the gym, sport training, whether it's on the bike or in the pool or running, figuring out what that represents for you. So in the gym, it's easy. Could you have done one or two more reps? Okay, then you did enough. If you've could have done five more reps, you probably should have kept going or made the weight heavier. But in the pool, you have to think about that a little differently, same with the bike and running. Maybe the goal is to say, could I have swum that just a little bit faster, or could I have bike that for just a little bit longer? Okay, well, that probably means you're working at that range of your body is going to create the adaptations that you want. So I don't want people to get tied up around the axle between 15, 12, 8, 6, 3, however many reps they should do. But I do think if you're working at a weight that gets you to within one or two of your last good reps that you could do reps in reserve is what we call them. You're going to see success with your program. So that's how I kind of approach that. Yeah, that's the progressive overload that you talk about. We've got to get to that point where we do break down and break the muscles down so that we can build and then continue. And it's one thing that I've found having been consistent for a little over two years now with my gym routine has been that I went too hard at the start and injured myself a bit with some of the exercises that I was doing, brought it back, and then I just built it up much slower than what I did at the start. And now, being two years into it, I feel like I am very hard to break with having built up this strength
through these different exercises. Now, obviously, I still do sometimes get injured if I'm surfing and I maybe wipe out or have to duck dive and it's with a big wave and a big board and I might jolt my shoulder. This episode is brought to you by Pillar Performance. Our new sponsors Pillar are a sports micronutrition company. And the easiest way to describe it is that while hydration and carbohydrates products will take you through to touch the wall as fast as possible, Pillar's mission is to get swimmers to the starting blocks in the best condition over and over again. I recently started taking Pillar triple magnesium after a friend had recommended it and it's been a game changer for my sleep and recovery. I take one scoop 30 minutes before bed each night in the same way that you might start your day with a coffee. I finish it up with a magnesium and recover better for tomorrow's session in the pool. Pillar Performance is used by some of the biggest names in swimming and triathlon, including Zack Stubble to cook, Jan Frodeno, Ben Canute, Ash Gentle, Taylor Nib amongst the host of other well-known swimmers and triathletes. Where Pillar differs from other micronutrition you may have taken before is both the quality of the types of magnesium and the tangible results that I see on my garment each morning. If you'd like to try Pillar today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code effortless for 15% off. That's effortless for 15% off all first-time purchases or for anyone in North America. Enter the same code at thefeed.com.
So I still get injured occasionally but it is much less often and I feel much more unbreakable having taken this very steady approach to increasing the weights. And you hit the nail on the head there like I think when across the board whether it's health, wellness, performance, sport, whatever you're doing, the vast majority of us need to take our medicine when it comes to patience with the process. Like we are ready for the results right now. We're like I've decided I'm going to get fit. Let's go right now. I've decided I'm going to do swimming so I better be good at it right away. I've decided I'm going to do a half marathon so I better have the fastest half marathon ever. That's not how body works. And you will get injured when you do that. Everyone does that. Everyone does that at least once which I think maybe that's a sign that it's like a learning thing you have to go through. I've done that too. But if we can say I'm in this for the rest of my life and the progress will happen provided I continue to push for that one to two reps left in reserve, which means your weight will have to go up over time or your reps in the pool will have to go up over time. If you do that consistently, the change does come and actually comes much faster than the person who does go balls to the wall right out of the gate, then they get hurt, they're off for three weeks, then they got to come back again, then they get hurt again. The steady, the tortoise wins the race, right? Tortoise on the hair.
Yeah, that's especially in the gym I think for anyone who has either not been in there much before or is just getting back into it. That steady approach where you think oh I'm actually going, I'm progressing too slow with this. I feel like that's the better option even with swimming as well. It's like don't expect to be, make a change to your stroke and don't expect to be faster straight away. If you have got the patience to stick at that change for two months or three months, you will come out the other end and go oh wow okay I'll look back three months and geez I've improved, but yeah it's just it is not as instant as you. It's not as flashy and exciting but I say that to my moms all the time like the amount of stuff they've learned in the last going on two years that we've been working together they're amazed at how many things have changed and I said to them just recently I said what would you have said if I on day one said here's all the things you need to change because we've done everything from like dietary nutrition changes we've done lifestyle changes we've done how they train we've learned about we've done all these things and they said it right out of the gate they're like we would have thought you were crazy like it would have been impossible to do all of those changes and I said yes exactly because everybody wants give me the whole thing give me all the answers right now I'm ready for the answers but in reality you're not you're actually not going to be able to take all of the answers on and do all of the things and go hard on everything right away you have to accept that you're going to go you know what my technique is not great yet in the pool but I'm working on it and I'm still not good at that drill that he keeps showing us to do but I'm going to keep working on it
and one day this is going to get better because that's what bodies do they respond they get better if you keep teaching them what to do what you mentioned there it's it's keeping it keeping it simple and just adding one thing at a time over the course of many months and many years and I mean I look at yeah like I have and how many sessions I've done at the gym I think it's probably it's probably getting close to 250 three maybe 300 sessions since I started at this at this keys gym and same for my wife she started Pilates when we moved down to the coast and I think she's nearly up to 400 sessions and just like the way that it's kind of come on very slowly where like she just feels so much better and it probably took a good 12 months to really notice the difference there so it's uh yeah looking back you see a big change but at the time it's it is a very slow slow and steady approach hundred percent is there a certain client that stands out to you who is has made a big change and has really changed that their life because of the stuff that you've been doing yeah 100% I have this one client that um this individual had
been on this path maybe you all can relate where when they found getting in shape the first time around something about how their brain works took them towards that place of being a zealot about it like kind of getting annoying and obsessive with about it like they're doing all the things they were paying attention to all these like in the weeds kind of details annoying their family members with how they're cooking differently and doing all these different things like really just like embracing it but to the degree where you're like oh geez okay take a break here but they thought that was what they needed to do at that point which I again I do get all these things I'm like oh I see bits of myself and that for sure from my experience in my history but they that's where they were at and they were constantly trying new supplements trying new routines trying new treatments trying trying everything that they would see online they would try it and then they sustained a couple of injuries and that's how they found their way to my path and so we started working together and at first of course we're like working on the rehab after the injury has healed kind of thing we're like okay we're building you back up and doing all that but of course through talking you know I'm picking up information about like you're taking like 50 supplements and you're eating a really like abundantly strict diet to the point where it's causing some detriment to your performance your health your well-being oh you're being really rigid about a lot of things okay so I'm gathering all this stuff so then I just started you know kind of talking about well hey you want to talk about some food today hey let's talk a little bit about this hey because of the training we're doing I'd like you to focus on some things and I just started throwing out little invitations
for this individual to try new things that I knew would take them the direction away from where they were going but I was like let's just see what they'll do because it's not totally up to that person to decide if they want to do something they're happy with it good I'm just here to invite them to do something different if they would like to and so over the span of two plus years this individual went from being like broken in their body despite doing all this rigid specific stuff they were still were very fragile in their body and very they had to follow the rules otherwise everything went haywire if they even ate one wrong thing their whole body kind of would react right we went from that to they are now same thing they are lifting so hard in the gym they are swimming that's one of my clients who started swimming they're walking regularly which was a very painful thing for them to do before they've reintroduced so many foods into their diet they're eating way more than they were before and have a thriving metabolism because of it we've gotten that supplement list down to like almost nothing which is a miracle because you know how it is like you see stuff online and an influencer will be like I take such and such supplement and they're compelling and so then you're like oh maybe I should buy that maybe I should buy that so we got all that pared down and they have such freedom with what they're doing they're still very passionate about learning so many things about how the body works they constantly ask me questions which I love but they don't feel like stuck if the family is going out for a restaurant meal or dessert or something like that they don't feel frustrated by the fact that they their body can't respond even when they eat a certain food they are just living freely and
training super hard and same thing if I had told that person in a year or two time I'd like to see you eating tons of food more than you are training really hard in the gym doing a bunch of sports you never would even think you'd be doing they would have been like you're insane I'm never talking to you again so it's been really incredible and we're still working together today and continuing we've knocked off all the goals that we were trying to achieve and now we're going okay the next thing let's build the performance now let's get you training at even higher levels and what else do you want to take on that's why they tried swimming because I was like would you like to try swimming sometime it's it's pretty fun and it's it's like you could be in the pool you can train hard you can do some cardio but it could be kind of unloading on your joints so that we're not running and walking too much you know and re-enduring anything or do anything like that I'm like okay I'll get that a try and then when I said and you know you do build muscle when you're in the pool you start to get that swimmer physique and they were like oh I'm into that perfect perfect so here we go now we're swimming and it's awesome I have good it like you said you see yourself in that client in some areas I am exactly the same probably 10 years ago I was into keto diet for probably two months or three months and then fell off that train and I've tried a million different diets and exercise routines and what I do get from that is like I tend to go very hard and almost colt colt like in some ways with the with the approach step out of it go back to where I was but I may I've added that knowledge of all right well this was one of the benefits from that diet or that way of approaching things and I can use that
going forwards and so now I'm a little bit more aware of it where I feel like if I come across a new approach whatever it is I'll just take the one or two key things from it and include that into my routine or maybe replace something I was doing and then just keep going on my way and kind of collect these different ideas or exercises and and just kind of yeah make these minor changes in the direction that you're going to hopefully end up in a in a better spot and now I'm more aware of it I don't go quite as hard on some of these new things that I come across I don't know if you're the same that was my story too and you I think I really do think some of these things nobody can teach you like someone listening today will be like yeah right okay whatever that's good for them but I'm gonna do it my way and then maybe in a year or two they'll be like ah yes I also was zealous and I did not need to be but that's how you that's how you do find that middle ground I do think a lot of people go want really hard one way really hard the other way and then that's how they find the middle ground and you get this wisdom from learning to listen to your body to try things to actually like with the supplements for example I've used to buy a million supplements so like oh I need this and I need that and now I'm like okay I'd like to try that supplement I'm gonna try it on its own for a month and just see what happens that a novel idea my gosh friend do you know how many times I tried supplements and didn't do that I was taking like five things at once and I really couldn't even tell what was working whereas now I'm like yeah like with that soon for me or no I do not like what that is doing for me okay I'm not going to continue that supplement you know it's taking really that personalized approach
take the knowledge learn from other people but then personalize it to yourself yeah yeah that's I'm exactly the same when I went keto for two or three months I made this dessert that was what was it it was it was either like coconuts I don't know if it was coconut milk but it was like it was almost like a frozen cheesecake type thing with a lot of no cashews so it was ground up cashews and some berries and stuff and and coconut oil and it was it was about this big it was would have had hundreds of grams of fat in it and I ate it in two nights and like because I'm like well I'm pretty I'm pretty hungry here and it's this is kind of sweet so it tastes good and like I finished it in two days I'm like what am I doing to myself like this is not healthy to have this much you know this much fat and all that at night so you know you can look back and laugh but I've thankfully changed most of most of my approach now because I think I'm a bit smarter with it yeah and just taking that sane approach is my really it's truly my favorite thing to do is to teach people like a sane fundamental approach to like how we can just take care of our bodies for a lifetime not be over the deep end like doing whatever diet and doing whatever training program because those things never last those are always a flash on the pan you might learn some things and that's what you should carry with you for the rest of your life but that like intensity can't exist for an entire life or if it does you're going to a hundred percent break down from that like I've definitely met some women who have done the super intense super hard never listening to their body just go go go do all the things try all the things
and their bodies are now rebelling like they are experiencing the effects of driving on adrenaline and cortisol for way too long over training for way too long under eating for way too long not listening to their body which is screaming at them like hey this thing in my back it's it's like not nothing you should do something about this pain back here you should do you know that they're dealing with it now and and some of us have to go through that you know we do have to hit the point of going and this really isn't working before we go okay let me try something different you know and that's okay if that's what happens well and one of the things you mentioned prior to the call also was there's a big there's a big element of people getting into fitness with like a 30 day fat loss challenge and things like that and I mean I think part of that is it's almost like a sales tool to get someone into a gym or with the trainers like hey you know you might feel you might look overweight and you know we can promise that you'll lose 10 kilos in the next 30 days so it's a bit of a sales tool it's obviously not a sustainable approach and it's probably not the right approach for people so what's your take on that yeah I was really tired of seeing those approaches and you know I owned a gym as well in Illinois so I get the idea I totally get it I can see where a gym owner might be coming from with that or where a coach is coming from with that but I'm so sick of those things because I'm like I said I'm like two plus seconds into this I've been around all enough to be like okay those things never last they're flash in the pan they don't teach you good long-term habits because whatever you did to lose however much weight in 30 days you're not going to be able to keep that up for the rest of your life and I know
some people think they will but you won't you will not you actually have to learn how to create a good metabolism exercise in a way that doesn't also rely on like willpower and hating yourself into exercising because I think that happens a lot with these challenges too people just turn into a competition against themselves which is not who you should be competing against you should be on the same team as your body and learning how to listen and work with your body with things you can do every day for the rest of your life so I got sick of it and was like you know
I would make a great challenge it would be like the anti-challenge challenge it would be great because what we're going to do is spend six weeks total but 30 days for a challenge but we're going to challenge ourselves to do really basic action items every day for 30 days because that's how you actually build change you actually build change by saying every day for 30 days I'm going to see the sunrise every day for 30 days I'm going to eat a certain food or a certain meal quantity or focus on having better circadian habits in my home every day for 30 days I'm going to do that and so that's what I did I built the transform challenge for my clients at first I just said hey guys I want you all to do this let's see what happens and the results were fantastic like it gave people that 30 day mentality which I think is very doable longer than that starts to get challenging but that 30 days wasn't like go crush yourself in the gym every day for 30 days and do such a restrictive diet that you can't wait to eat dessert as soon as you finish your challenge it was like do things that are going to stretch you a little bit they're going to like one of our action items in the transform challenge is see the sunrise every day just catch it for 30 seconds it's all you got to do and there's some specific rules around that but just go do that that's not hard fundamentally but it is if you live a modern life where you haven't been doing that where you haven't considered your circadian health at all for example and you're doing all this other stuff and you're on your phone first thing in the morning or on your computer or whatever that is hard and so my tagline for my clients whenever we do transform now I have a sign other people up for it now is we're
trying to make the bar so low we can step over it because when you do that that's how you create real change bj fog is a permanent habit researchers research are long before James Claire they kind of tag team buff each other um that's what he always said make the bar so low you can step over it is that exciting no but is that what you and I talked about like 20 minutes ago hey real quick in case you didn't know we work from is all around the world to help them become faster and more confident in the races and the training that they're doing so if you've got access to an underwater camera or a phone even recorded above the water then I work with people on a weekly basis where they send in their videos and I give them feedback and advice on what to focus on and how to make changes to their stroke so that they start moving up in the lanes in squad or getting better results and not having to work so hard so check that out at our effortless mean coaching membership which you'll find on our website at effortless mean dot com all right back to the podcast where we're like we just need to do the consistent thing showing up every day it might take you 12 months to see noticeable change but wouldn't that be better than having fits and stops and all that kind of stuff so that's what we do in transform we focus on four pillars of health food of course that's a big one we want to make sure we're eating all the right foods that support a lowering inflammation building a faster metabolism which is possible as you age I promise you that it is movement so of course exercise movement mobility things like that environment so creating both an internal and an external environment around us that supports metabolism and lowering inflammation and then circadian health as I mentioned light that's the fourth pillar that we work on
and those four all work together very synergistically to create a healthy body because you can't separate them out one by one that's the other challenge with challenge with challenges is if you do like a diet challenge for 30 days but you don't account for the fact that the type of light you're being exposed to in the morning and in the evening and even throughout the day is going to change how your body responds to eating carbs for example it will change how your metabolism works it will change these things that are influencing your food that you wouldn't even think about if all you're thinking about is doing a 30 day diet for food you know so that's what we do in the transform challenge and it's so much fun to teach this program because I feel like I'm getting to introduce folks to things they might have heard of before or know a little bit about or maybe know nothing about and going look at all this awesomeness about how your body works this is how your body works naturally we just have to get it back into harmony by doing some really simple things and that's your only job for the next 30 days is to do these simple but not easy to do for 30 days things and then let's see what happens after that and the goal is to then integrate it into your real life because that's the other thing I hate about challenges okay great you're done with the challenge now what like now how are you supposed to eat and move and live so in in transform we have an integration week where we say okay you finished the challenge congratulations now we're going to see how you uniquely are going to put this into your life how are you going to take what you learned about your body through those four pillars and apply it into your everyday life so it is doable for the rest of your life
and I now have like repeat people repeat people coming back because they love the accountability and the seasonal nature of the program and it's just it's just really fun not to be a salesperson for my program I just love it it's like one of the funnest things I get to do right now is teach that program very similar to with our clinics and say eight week course that we've got at go through the course we go through the clinic and this is you know this is wonderful with you've learned a lot hopefully but now what you know how how are you actually going to incorporate the stuff that we've gone through into your normal routine and like the easy thing for most swimmers or triathletes to do is incorporate something like six or eight fifties of drills and skills as part of their warm-up every session you're already going through your warm-up so we can probably just replace some of your existing warm-up with a few of the drills that's specific to what you need to work on and that's it you know like that just keep it as simple as that and that way when you train for the next six months you will have worked on something that's specific to what you need to do to get better you've you've been able to do some drills so you can hopefully set yourself up well for the rest of the session and like and that's it like it's it's simple it's achievable and we're not necessarily adding new things into what they have to do like quite often if we want to change a habit see the replacing an old habit or we're trying to strip back and we're trying to like the client you're talking about 30 50 supplements whatever it was and all these different exercises and things that they're looking at but if we just cut if we strip things back to the bare essentials then it's actually a lot easier
to maintain it and so I think that's such a such a good approach you know you don't you don't need all this stuff like just get get back to basics get back to fundamentals and you'll find that that accounts for 80 or more of what you need to be doing absolutely I couldn't agree more
and in terms of the circadian rhythm I want to dig into that a little bit more yeah can you talk about how what is it what is it that most people wouldn't know about circadian rhythm and the types of light that you think people should know about it because I'm I guess a little bit familiar with it but I probably don't know much about it yeah yeah for sure and I love that it's making it through to the mainstream now which is really great um so most people listening probably the least have heard of it you know if not if maybe they know a lot maybe they don't know much at all I have just heard the word or something like that but your circadian rhythm is the kind of the master rhythm that regulates everything in your body literally everything is being influenced to some degree by your circadian rhythm and that's essentially like you have a master clock in your brain and it goes out to peripheral clocks all in yourselves and that clock is being set by some really important things called psychibers which are essentially like specific inputs that when your body senses those signals it goes up we know what time of day it is and when the body knows what time of day it is not not on your watch just like on the wake sleep cycle it can work more efficiently so when we think about circadian health we want to first think about light for sure because our bodies are directly influenced by the kind of light we're receiving so if we're receiving natural sunlight shortly after we wake up that signals a hormone cascade to get going all throughout the day if we're receiving you know a blaring alarm clock with a really bright light and bright bathroom lights and none of it's natural and it's all very kind of blue lit heavy our body's going to get a
different signal where it's going to drive course all a little bit higher and have a little bit of a different rhythm as we start the day the thing is our digestion our training performance our ability to recover our immune system our hormonal health our heart our mind all of it is set on a circadian clock there's all influence with that so when we don't get things like our light environment and there's other things that also go into that but I'll just stick with light for now when we don't get that right when we don't consistently signal to our body hey it's this time of day because this is a kind of light you're getting the clocks kind of get a little discombobulated it would be a bit like if we took every clock in your house and set it to a slightly different time and then said okay I need you to get out the door by 745 in the morning but you don't actually know which clock is right and you don't know which one's running fast and which one's running slow and that will negatively impact your ability to get ready on time because you're like should I rush do I not need to rush do I have time to do my hair I don't even know our bodies are kind of dealing with the same thing and so anytime we see some circadian dysregulation we're going to see some sort of slightly less functional slightly less optimal situation occur and so for folks when they're first starting to learn about this the first thing you'll hear about is light but after that is meal timing so the simplest thing people could do listening to this podcast to start addressing their circadian health would be two things number one make natural sunlight the first thing you see in the morning which takes a little bit of intentionality because you might have to not open your phone right away or pull the computer up or turn the tv on you might need to go wait a minute the first place I need to go is to the
window pull the window open okay just gaze outside look at the light you don't have to stare at the sun don't stare at the sun we don't want you going quick just gaze outside get some natural sunlight okay now you can get started with your day and then eat breakfast within one hour waking up meal timing is the second most important signal to your circadian rhythm and when you do that consistently it signals two things like your body about how it should produce insulin throughout the day to manage your body's blood sugar response well how you should digest foods um how much digestive enzymes you should have available to be able to do that how your liver should work these are all going to be influenced by your circadian rhythm so if you could go get natural light first thing when you wake up and then eat breakfast within one hour of waking up you would do more for helping your circadian rhythm get on point then then I could even offer to you and beyond that there are other things you could certainly work on and they're important to get to over time but those are the most important signals to start your day on the right foot to make your whole body work well yeah it's uh I know when days where I have got the uh when I've done that not open the phone gotten that gotten that early sunlight eaten within an hour typically the day kicks off pretty well from there so it's uh yeah those those basic things go a really long way they really do and that's the thing with circadian stuff like it's right there for you and there's a there's a ton of science you can get online and look up circadian health and you'll be down rabbit holes with people talking about things that you're like what are you talking about it's so scientific now it's amazing because it's just coming to the masses but again it's simple can you live more closely to
your natural rhythm and what's it going to take to make that happen consistently hmm well um Kate I've really appreciated you being on the podcast uh for those that are listening what's the best place to get in touch with you if they're interested in perhaps the transform program uh or any of the other stuff that you've spoken about today yeah folks can find me at fit for reallife.com that's my home on the web and that's where you'll find transform um all my about me stuff anything you want to find it'll be at fitforreallife.com fantastic and what have you got coming up I know you're going into summer now so probably a pretty good time for for you and your clients it's much easier when the sun's up earlier and it's a little bit warmer so but what are you looking forward to in the next couple of months oh man well the training is not slowing down we've got transform going on right now so folks are really just diving into that whole realm and then all my clients are doing really well in the one-on-one sessions as well but honestly for me it's garden season so in between and outside of and around work and all the things it's time to be out in the garden growing my vegetables and taking care of the fruit trees and trying to bring in as much food as I can for the year you know that like whether people can have a big garden or just a little patio garden I think that's another really cool thing you can do that is totally not fitness-y it's not in the pool it's not gonna I mean maybe it'll make you better swimmer because it'll make you more like in touch you know but but growing something yourself because that does start to bring you closer to your natural world that you're living in your natural environment thinking about things like you know it's a little different down where you live but up here tomatoes don't grow except in summer
up here so then you see those tomatoes in the grocery store in January and you're like those where did those come from those can't possibly taste good it gets you in touch with like what food is around at certain times of year and what is nature telling me my body needs because it is your nature is always telling you what you need at different times of year so I'll be out gardening a lot this summer and enjoying all that outdoor soil time and encourage anyone listening to this that is totally not a fitness-y tip to give but there you go that's my tip throw a little garden if you haven't already fantastic look my grandparents they when they bought it when they built their house probably 20 years ago now they bought the block next to it so they got two blocks the second block is all garden that's fruit trees a greenhouse they uh they really went to town with it and um yeah they're always giving away vegetables and fruit and we come back with buckets of them so it's uh yeah it's really cool and it tastes tastes good too tastes a lot better oh yeah for sure for sure that's awesome I love that so there you go everybody plant a garden thanks Kate enjoy your uh your summer and appreciate you being on the podcast you too have a good one I'll talk to you soon thanks for listening to the effortless swimming podcast if you'd like us to help you become a faster more efficient swimmer go to www.effortlesswimming.com
The post Real-Life Strength: Building a Body That Serves You for Decades with Kate Galliett appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
On this episode, we’ve got a guest who’s been at the sharp end of elite performance for over 50 years — Robin Williams.
Robin’s a former Cambridge rower and the coach behind multiple Olympic gold medal crews. He was actually recommended by one of you — a fellow listener — and once I dug into his story, I knew we had to get him on the show.
This episode kicks off with a promise: We’re going to uncover the lessons Robin has learned from decades of turning raw athletic power into smooth, relaxed efficiency — and show you exactly how to apply those insights to your stroke in the pool.
We’ll dive into his athlete-centered coaching philosophy, how to give and receive feedback without offense, and even explore some over-speed training hacks — no speedboat required.
A few standout moments to listen for: 🟡 The “spoonful of sugar” analogy that helped an Olympic champion transform clumsy pulls into effortless power. 🟡 A game-changing moment in Lucerne 2012, where one of Robin’s crews found an extra half second — and turned silver into gold. 🟡 And yes… the brutally honest feedback that once branded him “a gerbil on steroids.”
Plus, Robin shares three no-talent-required habits that any coach or swimmer can start using today to supercharge their training culture.
Let’s dive into this powerhouse conversation with Robin Williams.
In this episode* Timestamps: * 00:00 — Introduction and Background * 01:03 — Evolution of Coaching Philosophy * 02:13 — The Importance of Feedback in Coaching * 05:10 — Coaching Techniques and Communication * 08:15 — Power, Relaxation, and Efficiency in Rowing * 13:08 — The Connection Between Power and Rhythm * 17:18 — Finding the Balance: Tension and Relaxation * 20:43 — The Role of Technique and Performance * 23:29 — Optimizing Performance for All Athletes * 28:16 — Breathing Patterns and Oxygen Efficiency * 31:10 — The Importance of Aerobic Training in Rowing * 35:13 — Drills for Enhancing Rowing Technique * 39:41 — Exploring Speed and Performance in Rowing * 45:41 — Mental Toughness and Team Dynamics in Rowing * 48:28 — Building a Positive Culture in Sports Coaching
Links from this episode* http://pillarperformance.shop * Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
TranscriptRead the full transcriptbut when you when you're working harder trying to race or go faster particularly at the beginning of the stroke as the ore goes in you have to it's like lifting a weight in the gym you know you have to brace really hard so and also breathing is very is very linked to posture in rowing so in the we call it the recovery phase when you're coming forwards to begin you know to begin a stroke it's important to sit sit in the right way sit tall so the lungs can fill properly and you you're in a you're in by mechanical good position with posture and length at the at the beginning of the stroke so breathing is definitely part of that as you inhale it helps posture welcome to the effortless swimming podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water become a better swimmer and live a better life here's your host Brenton Ford
welcome to the effortless swimming podcast my guest today is Robin Williams a former Cambridge rower and coach of multiple Olympic gold medal crews robin was recommended to me by a fellow listener of the podcast so i thought it'd be great to get him on and this episode kicks off with a promise we're going to uncover lessons from 50 years at the sharp end of elite rowing and translate them straight into your stroke robin has spent decades perfecting the art of turning raw power into smooth relaxed efficiency and will dive into his athlete centered coaching philosophy how to ask for feedback without a fence and how over speed hacks and over speed hacks you can use in the pool with no speedboat required a couple of moments you might listen out for the spoonful of sugar moment it's a simple analogy that helped an Olympic champion go from clumsy pools to effortless power he also talks about a moment that happened at in Lucerne in 2012 where one of his crews gained an extra half second in the dreaded third 500 of a two kilometer race to search from silver to gold and don't miss the brutal feedback that once branded him a gerbil on steroids plus the three no talent required habits every coach and swimmer can implement today to supercharge their culture let's get into today's episode so robin thank you very much for joining me on the podcast I'd like to give those that are listening a bit of a background on how this came to be so we had a listen at the podcast Mike Taylor sent me an email and said
I love the conversation you had with Nick Winkleman and and Bobby McGee and someone who I think would be great to get on is Robin Williams so yourself who has a lot of experience in rowing so I'd love to chat today about maybe some similarities or some things that we can garner from rowing that can translate across to swimming and also the aspects of coaching how coaches coach how they can be more effective because I think there's a lot to be had and a lot to be improved when it comes to how coaches get their message across so welcome to the podcast robin thanks for joining me thanks very much Brenton good good to be here so in in terms of let's say coaching philosophies and the way that you've developed your way of coaching over the years how would you say that your what your approach and your style is like perhaps compared to what it was in the early days of your coaching I think it's a it's a constant evolution is one thing I think you know we were saying recently that as you as you get better and better as a coach of course you pick stuff up but it's difficult to get feedback people tend to get better education or more courses that sort of stuff and they become more qualified if you like but that doesn't necessarily mean you become a natural better coach so I've become really interested in that I always say to other coaches when I'm with them or mentoring them I say you know you your job every day is to tell these athletes how to swim better or row better or be better who helps you who tells us where we're where we're going a bit astray or whether we're doing things really well so in recent years that's what I've been doing
and I found it very rewarding I mean I've had a quite a long career in rowing I've been at it for over 50 years now believe it or not as a rower and then as a as a coach so it feels like it's it's brought things around to a full circle in a way and putting something back into I think coaches are so important because they steer the whole process athlete-centered but coaches are I think key to helping them get to where they're trying to get to in the shortest amount of time if that makes sense yeah absolutely what are some of those actually how would how should a coach go about asking for feedback because it can be I know personally like I uh depending on who it's coming from I'm going to be receptive to it or not and it can be hard to hear sometimes but often the feedback that is hard to hear is the stuff that we we need to hear so as someone who may want to give feedback to a coach what's a good strategy to approach them
I think you obviously have to have the right kind of relationship because it can be quite intimidating or even threatening to have somebody come up to you and say why did you say that why do you say it this way or that wasn't very good you know if if things are too blunt and you'd just be defensive straight away so I think you have to accept the right tone and normally when I go with other coaches I I generally do at least sort of three visits the first visit is a sort of getting to know you visit so there's some trust and you have a discussion about what are you seeing what are you trying to do and then it builds from there so I think it can take a little bit of time but the more honest the coach and the and the and the mentor can be or even a coach and a coaching buddy it could be a co-coach you know the more honest you can be the better the feedback because we'll all say oh brilliant well done that was fantastic because it's nice to hear and what's not to like but nobody's perfect and you know even the best coaches in the world can and should still improve but the question is is how if you're often say I use the example in rowing you know Jurgen Grobler was a legendary coach I mean he won gold medals that I think eight or ten consecutive Olympic games I mean it's astonishing record really and he's a sort of a figure of authority he runs a you know a very strong program and he's got he's got his strong methodology but I wonder how many people would actually maybe ride along on the bike beside the rowing lake and say hmm not sure about that Jurgen you know or even question him
it's much less likely to happen the more senior you get so I think that's interesting
but I'm working a lot at now at sort of club and intermediate level and it's very it's much easier there because you know I've been to five Olympics and I've got a certain track record and a bit of age in my favor so people feel quite comfortable I've finished my real competitive coaching so there's no threat there either you know what I mean but if I go into the national training center it's much tougher you know I'm not asked to give that kind of feedback to them but I watch them coaching and they're brilliant coaches I mean they're winning gold medals Paris last year you know is very successful but I still I still think there's that feedback could be given to those coaches they should want it it's just a question of how how you do it but I think it's really key you know and what about in terms of ways to ways to coach so one of the things I spoke on the podcast with Nick will comment about is using cues stories metaphors as some of the the ways that you can get your message across are there any particular things like that that you've come across in your time that you've used coaching that you've found to be really beneficial as there's actual coaching techniques or in terms of yeah coaching techniques well I guess in the early days I was I had a New Zealand coach mentor Harry Mann who's not with us any longer but he was a big influence on me and I thought he was a fantastic coach it was in the days when I was coaching Cambridge University in the University boat race which was a big deal in rowing in the calendar I did 11 years
there and Harry used to come over and visit and do some coaching and I basically tried to sort of copy his coaching style and it didn't work at all for me you know in fact I had athletes say to me that I don't you know that you were bombarding me with things I didn't follow what you were saying they gave me all this sort of really negative feedback and it made me question I thought I was doing it just like Harry that clearly I wasn't so I think you have to be original you have to be yourself but you can also sort of project the bits of yourself which are useful for coaching you know I think we all have this ability sometimes coaches say oh you have to just be you you can't be something you're not and that's true but you know if you're a naturally quieter sort of more passive kind of person then maybe you have to kind of rev yourself up a little bit and deliver a bit more passion and a bit more energy or maybe vice versa you know and I think this is where the feedback comes in because if if you know if another coach says Robin you know you're like a kind of a gerbil on steroids you know kind of thing you know way way too busy well I'd say okay well if that's how I'm perceived that I need to quieten myself down you know so it's how others perceive us so I've learned I don't have a particularly strong voice for instance so communication for me is tricky you know and in rowing as opposed to swimming pool you're quite a long way from the athlete so you need to work out communication
if it's verbal vocal you've got to choose what to say how to say it at the right time so that the row the rowers would hear it or you use a megaphone or a radio communication so communication is a huge thing for us because they're on rivers and lakes and it's quite quite difficult and I often say to coaches you know I don't know if swimming coaches actually get in the pool with their from as maybe they do but you could do feasibly and certainly with young kids that's sort of how you help teach them to swim but in rowing you can't do that you have to do it all through description you can't even really demonstrate because you're riding a bike and there in a boat so I think I've learned a lot about that you know on the on the communication side and I had one one athlete some years ago who said told me to my face I don't think you're tough enough Robin so I found that quite hard to hear but at the same time I thought well fair enough you know that's something I'm going to have to listen to so I think being being honest with yourself and not being trying not to be offended by feedback as long as it's sort of not malicious feedback of course and uh and I think the other element Brenton is that I've always when I was a rower I used to just enjoy with such a passion I worked in London I'd finish work and I'd race down to that river as fast as I could because it's where I wanted to be and I think sports should be enjoyable I don't know the word fun is I don't know if you know serious competitive swimming you'd call it it's a serious business but
but there should be satisfaction enjoyment and it shouldn't be you know I don't know what's the word a sort of a to grinding a negative process so I think coaches have that ability to bring atmosphere and and set the right tone and in a way that's our job because athletes will get tired or fresher have ups and downs because that goes with training I think coaches are there to kind of help steer that level straight course and you know that's part of our job as well so you know I always feel like I need to enjoy my coaching as much as you need to enjoy your swimming or your rowing yeah those are sort of broad lessons but they're things that I think go quite a long way absolutely in terms of the when you got the feedback about not being tough enough what did you do following that how did you change the way that you were coaching well I think it depends a little bit on the athletes that are in front of you because you know my at that time my assumption was to the athlete like well you're here training hard at national level I expect that's a given I don't expect to have to tell you to be tough or to try harder because that's a basic level that you have to bring to training every day because that's what everybody else is going to bring who you're going to compete against I therefore gave myself permission to be a little more relaxed and laid back whereas I think what the athlete wanted was somebody who's going to kind of bang the drum a bit harder and you know a bit more yeeha you know which isn't really my style so much but I thought well okay appreciate particularly
if you come into competition time you know the race briefing in rowing again it's quite tricky because you might have um you know it's mostly crew so you've got more than one person stood in front of you to be briefed for your race so you might have you know it could be a four or you know you could have an eight you know and you've got to look at a group of people in front of you and deliver your briefing in a way which presses the right buttons for each person you know and somebody they'll obviously some will be a bit up and some will be a bit lower um so I think when it came to race briefing I would make sure I checked in with this with this athlete and gave gave them the sort of you know thought you know the appropriate
type of wording and framework and um but I had um the two women I coached particularly through 2012 2016 Olympics Helen Glover and Heather Stanning it felt I didn't need to be like that with them in fact Helen was quite a revvy kind of person who would you know you'd have to hold her down a little bit and Heather was very very even you know so um and they were so tough on themselves the coach didn't need to be tough on them as well mostly so I think it depends a bit on the athlete really and it's again it's a judgment thing but um but it's not like one style of coaching fits all I guess is the lesson you have to you have to work out what's best for those athletes that are in front of you. Yeah which is it takes a while to get to know the different personalities and the different athletes knows what know what makes them tick and and the best way to to get the most out of them and it takes quite a bit of quite a bit of time right so I want to go into some of the technical aspects of rowing and see what we can take from rowing into swimming because I it's in in water there's a lot of common things I think there so I'd just love to get your take on a couple of topics if we can can go into them and the first one is the connection between power relaxation and efficiency so in in swimming one of the most common things that I see from people who come into the sport quite new quite fresh is they really try and muscle their way through the water and when you get to that more elite level things are smooth they are
they have this sort of controlled chaos in a way and it's it's quite a different approach once they they get really good and experienced in the sport so what was your what would what did you see at that that top end of rowing between power relaxation and efficiency
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I guess the you know that I mean rhythm is is a huge thing I'm sure you know I'm sure it is you know in swimming too but in rowing it's a massive thing and it's a very it's a word which people use a lot so when you talk to a crew after a race you know if the race has gone well and they're giving you feedback they'll all they'll always say oh we had a fantastic rhythm or if the race hasn't worked out they'll say yeah the rhythm was bad or it fell apart you know and they'll say these things and then you say well tell me then describe then what you mean by that by the rhythm and then they often get a little stuck and they can't quite put it into words so it's quite important that therefore in my world you know you do try and define good good rhythm because in rowing because there's a work phase and there's a there's a glide or recovery phase you know I suppose I'm trying to sort of think of a definition in a way which would be succinct here without going into big spiel but essentially that you know the power needs to be fed through in a progressive way so it's not bullying and tight and tense like you let your saying is well in swimming you're not muscling it a rowing or is pretty long you know so at the beginning of the of the stroke the loads are the highest and the leverage is greatest so if you try and over muscle that part then it doesn't reward you with any speed so there's there's a kind of a there are sweet spots in the stroke so that's definitely part of it the changes of direction at the start and the end of the stroke are very key so that the rhythm is not broken up by the ends where you're leaving or joining the water so I think
there are sort of parallels there with swimming um the power that you can deliver will help help to generate the amount of glide that you get so out of that what you get is the sense that if the rhythm is strong then you can row in a more relaxed way and if you can be more relaxed then sort of neuromuscularly or neuroly speaking you could you could execute better skill level so the people that muscle their way through don't give themselves a chance to be relaxed and sort of in control of their movements um therefore their skill level is lower so there's a there's a complete sort of correlation between these things but in in rowing I mean that you know you've got the person obviously they've got a boat that they're sitting in probably with other people as well and they've got the oar and then you've got the things all moving in different directions and so on so if you if you I don't know if you're listeners have seen pictures of of rowing eights but you know rowing eight is a weighs nearly a ton with all the people in it you know a big a big heavy big open weight men's crew it goes 20 feet per second through the water or more you know they're going quite fast and they just look like in some ways like they're like a kind of like a walk and who like they sort of physically just pumping this thing along but actually you know the the weight of the of a boat is about the same as one rower okay the weight of a racing eight is 90 to 94 kilos something like that about the same weight as one rower and there are eight rows plus a cocks in the boat so in terms of synchronicity given that you're you're all moving in one direction
then you've got to return to begin another stroke if one rower is even a hundredth of a second off time with the others for that moment on there on the loading point you feel the weight of boat is doubled and even for a hundredth of a second or a few hundredths of a second that's catastrophic you feel it in your muscles in your body you feel that I've met this sort of deadness you know so I think these are the intriguing things about water sports because there's this interaction between us and the water and and how you deliver power but also have feel and relaxation and they they appear sort of contradictory in some ways but they have to be brought together for it to work it's that dichotomy of tension and relaxation and it's about finding this the sweet spot in in between there and an analogy that I use in swimming is that in terms of how much we want to how much force you want to apply in the water it's almost like if you pick up a glass of water you're not going to grab it as hard as you can you're going to grab it with just enough force to keep the shape and hold it so you can lift the cup up or the glass and it's a similar thing with when we're extending forwards going through our catch in our pool it's like we need just enough tension and force there so that we we hold our shape and form but we don't need anything above that because then it's wasted effort and I imagine a similar thing applies through the rowing stroke as well yeah actually I did an interview with a guy called jack bowmont who stroked the gb men's
quad in the tokyo olympics and they got a silver medal and he was describing this sort of pickup point to me and he said he said imagine if you've got a bowl of sugar then you put a spoon in if you try and scoop out more sugar than the spoon can hold it just falls off the spoon and it's the same with your hand going in the water or the ore going in the water you know if you just if you're over ambitious the water just falls off you you know you you can only take the certain amount and I thought I really like that image because a lot of rowers will will snatch at the water or try and just get as much as they can get and you know I know as a not very good swimmer I'm sure that's what I do too you know in the pool I still I'm one of these sort of recreational swimmers that all the old ladies go passing me by like doing nothing and going twice as fast it's really frustrating even though it's a rowing coach I'm trying to tell myself the same messages that I would tell my rowers and then come on Robin you're swimming work this out you know but I that's where the coach comes in I need that feedback in the pool to get any better because I I sort of swim like that rather than like that I'm not energy efficient for sure you know so even though in theory I've got an idea of what I'm trying to do I clearly am not doing it well or it sounds like you you swim like I wrote I I wrote I wrote in college for I think it was just one year and I made the A the A crew because I was fit from swimming and we made it through our first race and then we're looking to qualify for the final
and I was the one in the eight that caught a crab and just ruined our race and I felt so bad I had no rowing experience before this but the amount of training that we did and you know just letting the other seven down and the coach I just felt I felt so bad but it was when everything was humming along and everyone working together it was such a great feeling just no one's talking you can just you can feel it you can hear it and I imagine you've had more than a few probably thousand hours of hearing that that noise is the they always leave the water and they click up and come back it's a yeah I I worked out that I think I coached that women's coxas pair for six years through two olympics cycles and I think I saw them do four million strokes thereabouts in that time you know and I often say you know it never got boring because they were great to work with and there was a sort of synergy between crew and coach with kind of mutual objectives and I always sort of felt that I mean rowing you know it is a physical sport there's no doubt that you might be technically not tip tip top but you could still win if you've got amazing physiology and you know it's a power endurance sport but they were I think the best rowers are intrigued by the the nuances and the sort of the the you know the the better we often say no technique is your gearbox you know your your
body is your engine or the physiology is your engine but your technique is your gearbox so especially as they were middle-sized athletes they weren't the biggest most powerful ones there so they had to really optimize the accuracy and then the synchronicity and so on of that technique so we had lots of these sorts of conversations with them about it's almost sort of philosophical really isn't it like how you think about what you're trying to do in the pool or on the river I often say to coaches you know that if you can get your athletes to sort of get their approach right the concepts in their head you know what are you trying to do you've done half the coaching job because they are then searching themselves whereas you know sometimes they just wait to be told the next thing oh okay and I'll do that now because you told me that should make me better but I think when they've internalized it and they're really trying to understand it and develop the thinking themselves I think that's the best most rewarding situation for the coach because you think now we're we're all we're trying to solve this together and they give the coach feedback the coach gives you feedback and it's this mutual lovely mutual cycle um it's a sort of real kind of meeting of minds in that sense I had a had a parent call me this week saying that they wanted to bring one of their kids along to a session to a clinic that where we do underwater filming and analysis so technique is is the main thing that we specialize in and they're frustrated because the coach that the kids got at the moment said but they don't do any sort of technique work the coach just said
they'll like they'll find their way and they'll find the most efficient way to to get to the end and in a way that is true but if you just leave someone to their own devices they are going to take a lot longer to get to that point and they're probably missing some really big gaps obviously I'm missing some really big things in there in their stroke and probably need some feedback and some guidance there so I think it's like the truth is somewhere in the middle you know it's people need a bit of direction you've got to steer the ship in the right direction then they can sort of go on that path and then you have to shift you have to steer it again and make sure it's still going in the in the right direction it's not um you can't just leave it to it to its own devices or it's just trying to get from point a to point b without a without a compass it feels like yeah I think that I think that's so true you know and I think also um I mean that's exactly true that if people were pretty much uncoached they could probably get quite a long way through experimentation and trying error trial and error and sort of copying other swimmers but it would take them longer so I think the coach can shorten down that process by helping them avoid the obvious sort of pitfalls and and and that's part of big part of the coaching job is just to help people streamline the process but I think um I've all because I I rode they have we have a lot we have slash had a lightweight category in rowing I was my race weight was 70 kilos and for for lightweight women it was uh 57 58 kilos and so
basically you're all the same size height weight and pretty much power so you had to look for what's going to be the edge here because I can't just be six inches taller because I won't make the weight you know or I can't be 10 kilos heavier obviously because it's not allowed so it made that's always made me think about you know the the the rowers who are or the sports people who are sort of maybe good but not not amazing how how you can help the sort of the average more average person if you like still achieve a really really good standard and maybe achieve their dreams and so you know I think I think a good a good coach can help those people a lot the people who are given granted you know the perfect body for swimming or for rowing or whatever their sport is they've just got that head start and other people because you know they've got the longer arms or they've got the better born with a better genetics but but there's a lot of people out there who can still win their medals and still perform at a really really high level if if they optimize everything else they've got and you know I had um there was a female lightweight rower um she won a gold medal in in 2012 at the at our Olympics in London she was um Sophie Hoskins would it be about maybe five feet five or so and at the time you know with the thinking was oh we need to find lightweight women who are more like five eight five nine tall you know tall lean good leavers and and probably in 2010 I think it was she came up to me and she said I'm look I'm training in the team I've given up work for
the time being to try and make this happen am I wasting my time because it seems like they don't want athletes like me and and I said to her well no you're not wasting your time if you if you can show show your speed and we can help you and and use you you meet the selection criteria why wouldn't it be you and I wasn't her coach her regular coach I have to say and that Paul Reedy who's actually an Aussie who was coaching him he he delivered them to that gold medal in in London but she was maybe not I mean she's a very good athlete but maybe not your sort of um what's the word sort of you know the target body shape that the document says these are the sorts of athletes that you need and I think sport is fantastic that there are so many people that there's no normal really you can be all kinds of shape sizes and physiology and still do really really well as long as you understand yourself and you get good guidance and help from your coach and people around you it's so true I mean you look at the Steph Curry in the in the NBA and obviously it can help to have some of these you know these height and limb length and that sort of thing it can absolutely help but you can also find a lot of examples where people have succeeded without that and I mean for me with the athletes I work with it's a lot of people who are doing triathlon as a bit of a challenge or it's it's their sport that they choose to do kind of recreationally and one of the things that I always come to me with is like especially men who are maybe 40s and 50s they're like I'm a sinker I just cannot float like I just
I just don't I don't float so I know I'm not going to be a very good swimmer but what they haven't been taught is well how to how to use their lungs which is obviously got the buoyancy and how to kind of shift that center of mass forward so that they can bring their hips and their legs up like they just they don't know what they don't know and that just either been told or they just believe that they're a sinker and so that they'll never be able to swim well but there's a lot of people who have maybe got a heavier build or don't have great mobility but they can still swim very very well so I think they've just got to take that into consideration and know that it's no excuse to just kind of stop trying or to limit themselves because there's a lot of other examples where they have succeeded with the same build. Yeah yeah yeah it's so true. In terms of I mean rowing I think one of the most aerobically challenging sports that I've done and seen just some crazy endurance feats that these guys are doing and in terms of the sort of breathing and like breathing patterns oxygen efficiency could you talk a little bit about that and what you see there with rowing because I think swimming particularly like a 400 medley or a 1500 freestyle also very challenging events where people are under a lot of pressure for a long period of time so what was your yeah what did you learn there? Yeah you know it's an interesting one because I think in rowing it gets overlooked a lot because you're sitting in a boat as opposed to having your head in water and you know you
can kind of within reason breathe as you choose but when you when you're working harder trying to race will go faster particularly at the beginning of the stroke as the ore goes in you have to it's like lifting a weight in the gym you know you have to brace really hard so and also breathing is very is very linked to posture in rowing so in the we call it the recovery phase when you're coming forwards to begin you know to begin a stroke it's important to sit sit in the right way sit tall so the lungs can fill properly and you you're in a you're in by mechanically a good position with posture and length at the at the beginning of the stroke so breathing is definitely part of that as you inhale it helps posture if we're in a seated position obviously as opposed to being horizontal and when you're rowing at a steadier pace it's quite easy to you know you can exhale and inhale again before the next stroke but when you're up at pace it's you know as you're describing in those sort of more sprint events or medley events where you're changing strokes there comes a point where one breath per stroke cycle is not enough you can't bring enough air through through your system so you have to you have to get you have to get two breaths in but I think I mean there is a bit of research on it I know I got a somebody I know down in Bristol who's actually I think she's a physiotherapist by trade but she's been looking at diaphragmatic breathing in rows and believes that there's there's some improvements that could be made if people looked into it more in in rowing actually and I think
actually rowers who quite often if rower gets a combined injury they'll send them off to the pool for some rehab you know and they always come back saying oh actually you have an enforced breathing regime in a swimming pool which which actually helps a lot when you when you're not in the pool when you're back in a back in a boat so I think swimming helps rowing but very much in that sense and when you're swimming just nice and steadily and there's not too much of an oxygen demand it's okay you know you can do your bilateral breathing or whatever one of the first problems non-swimmers find when they try and go harder is that the the rhythm goes to to pop because they have to work out suddenly well okay I can no longer breathe in that pattern and that becomes the sort of overarching problem until you know until they solve that so um yeah so I get you know I guess I guess in rowing the training side of rowing is geared towards building a big sort of cardiovascular resource because it's you know it's a sort of six or seven minute race you know and then you've got you've got the oar and the and the the drag on the boat you know there's loads load on your body and you have to produce I think open weight men are something like 500 watts of power over a over a 2k race you know it's quite a lot of power that you've got to produce so that sort of volume training is important so we're we're we're rowing around probably like when swimmers are doing just the sort of volume distance stuff you know low cadence um uh to just create this aerobic base
the problem is that so we do a kind of 80 20 split normally in a top typical rowing program 80% of your training is sort of aerobic volume stuff and 20% would be um crossing over into that sort of anaerobic and higher end stuff but the actual sort of speed work side of things is a relatively small part of the program and of course that's when the breathing challenge really comes in as it does with technique and everything else so it's a big challenge as to how do you give the the the the performer the experience of what it's like at the intensity end of the sport when actually almost all of the training is done kind of down the other end or in the intermediate level so it's quite a challenge but we do have drills and things which we bring in to try and to try and help solve that and teach them what are some of those drills that you do um well we we do um things like you know so like short strokes so for instance the full a full rowing stroke i'm trying to sort of think i mean we measure it in terms of the the arc that the ore travels through normally which is sort of 90 degrees if you've got the just the one or but in terms of distance the handle travels something like it's about six feet sort of 180 centimeters something like that so if we if we want them to do so if you say right do the whole stroke but i want you to up the cadence and up the power they're going to get fatigued quickly it becomes hard very very quickly i think you use about 85 percent of all of your
muscle groups in rowing almost every muscle is engaged so everything's producing lactic acid there's very little chance to sort of flush stuff through you know so one of the things we one of the things we do is say okay well if you row like one quarter slide or one quarter of the stroke the back quarter you can effectively practice the whole of the back part of the stroke but at a higher cadence but without carrying the physical sort of penalty or workload with it so you you can be up at a racing cadence just on that part of the stroke and you could do that for you know several minutes if you want so you're producing the speed of movement and the flow and the rhythm and the and the all the kind of biomechanical stuff in just that section of the stroke so i think a lot of sports do this you know runners they do they do kind of high high knee lifts and sprints and this you know short sprints or short step work it's the same principle really so you take a compartment or a piece of the stroke and try and and and drill that and then of course you've got to put it into the whole thing again at some point which is always going to be more difficult but i mean that's typically what we do but we try and make them sort of you know really functional drills because what we find is that if you do a drill at so low effort low cadence that's fine to just get the correctness part of it but it doesn't mean you'll do it up at pace when you're working hard
quite often people drills can look quite pretty and quite nice when they're just sort of incomplete control and calm so we always say you have to stress test drills so whatever the drill is you then i i normally say okay now do it still with a low cadence but put more power in to see does your body now tighten up or can you maintain competence and then have the power and the cadence because that's ultimately what we're trying to do when we go out to race so that's a sort of the process for drills that we use not to just do them for the sake of doing drills but to do them because we're looking for a specific outcome. I had another guest on recently andrew shave who's an american swim coach and we spoke a lot about drills and he mentioned something very similar where it's okay we might go slow might go easy because we might need to work on a particular movement and one for swimming is is the catch it's that initial movement it's a big one one of the drills that we do in our clinics is is just that catch movement like just just practicing that horizontal just get them to bend their elbow and point their fingers down because most people just do it the wrong way now it's all well and good to do that slowly with fins on and everyone gets it right doing that but then we need to build it up with the speed and the power and ultimately people will fail at doing that at speed that yeah initially if they don't have a great catch it's going to take a while to build up to that but yeah you do need to to really just push it and and do it at faster speeds or whatever it might be
so we advocate a lot for drills and I think a great way to do it is part of your warm-up in swimming and that can help set you up but yeah it does eventually have to be done at speed or really have to challenge yourself throughout the drill can you do can you do like over speed drills in swimming yeah so one yeah you can so basically a lot of people a lot of sorry coaches will give something like 15 meters of over speed where they're looking for the swimmer to get their rating up very high let's say it's like 110 120 strokes per minute individual strokes and have very little hold of the water so they're basically spinning the wheels let's say it's freestyle for example so you can and the tech the technique will suffer a little bit but they do it just so that when they eventually come back down the stroke rate will feel easier and they've kind of just like fired up the neuromuscular system so yeah you can but I guess it's a little bit different to rowing you can't really do a half stroke in freestyle anything like that no I mean it's a tricky one in rowing because I mean you don't want to do half strokes or quarter strokes you you want to practice the whole thing but but like you know runners can do it usually because they just run downhill or if they're doing resistance work they can drag a parachute or a car tire or or another person or something like that behind them you know you can you can resist or assist cyclists can do the same thing because they can easily over over spin the legs downhill
uphill you know so in it's an interesting one because in rowing you know if you take a like the the the target speed for a from the open men's eight to olympic target is five minutes 17 you know but nobody's ever gone that fast but they've got to 518 it's it's territory nobody's ever experienced but probably in 10 or 15 years time somebody will do 517 or 516 so it'll happen the question is how do you how do you sort of preempt it or make it happen you know how do you how do you find out what it's like to go to speed that nobody's gone before so we've tried towing boats at speed but the trouble is you know if you have a long rope or something to a speedboat you know it's going to be very very long otherwise the weight from the speedboat upsets the rowers because they're in wash and also a rowing boat the speed kind of slightly oscillates because it's not you know there's two phases to the rowing stroke so it's you can easily resist because we add straps around the boat or you know you can do that obviously in the pool as well so adding resistance is quite easy and quite straightforward you just swim in a t-shirt or something but the assist I think is is is a bit that fascinates me because you're trying to say to somebody it's like a simulation you know if you could swim as fast as I'll say Michael Thorpe because he's a name that is it might know Richard Thorpe I can't remember who was the famous Ian Thorpe it's the ASEAN and Michael Thorpe it's all my first things wrong Ian Thorpe
like most of us will never experience swimming that fast but if you if you could be going through the water at the speed that he went through the water it would be mind-blowing so I find that kind of that side of it's quite intriguing how do you give the the the rower or the swimmer the experience of going faster than they're capable of going because if you can show them what it's like they might be able to solve the processes that actually the necessary the speed of the although technique of the catch at the muscle contraction whatever you know so it's an interesting one at effortless swimming our mission is simple make swimming more enjoyable whether you're training for your next race swimming for fitness or just love being in the water we're here to help you swim faster smoother and with more confidence and one thing that can make or break a swim is your goggles if you've ever struggled with foggy lenses mid-session you know how frustrating it can be that's why we created the effortless swimming hydro clear anti fog goggles for long lasting crystal clear vision I've been using them myself and the difference is night and day and I'm not the only one Deborah swam 36 kilometers down the Derwent River and the entire time her vision stayed crystal clear no fog no frustration just an uninterrupted swim so what makes a hydro clear goggles different it's all in the technology unlike ordinary anti fog coatings that wear off over time hydro clear super hydrophilic technology is built into the lens material itself his artworks instead of fog forming as tiny droplets water spreads evenly
across the lens creating a thin film that prevents fog from even starting and the result consistently clear vision swim after swim and the durability our lenses are cnas certified tests show that even after 2000 rubs with a wet cloth under a 200 gram load the lens stays fog free no gimmicks just serious performance that lasts using them as simple just wet the lenses before putting them on and you're set for a fog free swim ready to see the difference yourself get 15 off your first pair of hydro clear anti fog goggles with the code podcast at shop dot effortless swimming dot com that's 15 off your first pair of goggles with the code podcast at shop dot effortless swimming dot com we also have a 30 day money back guarantee so if you're not happy with the goggles for any reason you can simply return them for a refund don't let foggy goggles ruin another swim try hydro clear today and experience clear vision from start to finish yeah that actually reminds me so they we do have like rubber not rubber bands elastic cords that people will swim against and then they can also get pulled in by the coach so they can go over speed that way and I know at the AIS in Canberra I don't know if they still got it but they used to have a electronic device at the on the roof and they attach it to the swimmer at the hips and they would actually get pulled along at speed and I had some friends who had used it and they said it's just swimming at world record pace at the time
was like a 48 second 100 freestyle they said it just feels unbelievable like it just it feels feels so quick and like it is just it's mind-blowingly quick and and one thing I've noticed when I've watched Olympic level swimmers compared to even just very good swimmers it's there's a whole another level to it and I imagine this is something that you've seen in your in your coaching like there's just you know you watch someone who can swim very very well but then coming across the bit like the top point or 1% in the world it is just you notice it you can see it you can you can just see something different about them is that something that you you've noticed in your time coaching yeah definitely I mean I think when I was working at the national training center with the national team there you collect so much data in training that you sort of know your speeds and it's an outdoor sport so you have to factor in water temperature and wind direction and things like that plus the fact that crews change a little bit because somebody might have a small injury one day so they change change somebody in the boat but there are lots of variables but on the whole you you build up this body of data so when you go to compete you know already that you're in sort of final a territory or podium territory you know you know that you're in there with a good chance of of having a having a crack at the top top result but I think I mean in my own case when I was rowing I think the early stages of people are you know as you get better at a sport you think I've got a chance of winning
and then it becomes like a very good chance of winning and then it becomes a very small a very small chance that you might lose that in other words you're more likely to win than lose and I think those swimmers and performers who are just out in front the chances of them losing are really small and it would usually be something like you know maybe something like a slight they've had a slight head cold or maybe just on the day there they've got some other little stress or something going on it be some some sort of interference like that I remember there was a race we did with the with the women's pair in Lucerne in Switzerland one year and we had big rivalry with Kiwis actually and they had this very good women's pair that were trying to beat us and I'd said to the two to the two Brits over 2000 meters we'd split it down to 500 meter chunks and you get split times for that and I said to them you know you're quick off the start you have a very good transition into the mid part of the race and the third quarter which is where all actate kicks in and it starts to really bite hard I said you know they they they're they're sometimes a bit quicker than you there you know why why should they be quicker than us if we're better we're better you know being better off the start is about some dynamics and sprint and so on the transition into rhythm we can do with that so if we're fundamentally faster we're faster anyway they took that on board and in in that particular race in the third quarter of the race they took another half a second off the Kiwis
and we got to the end of the race and we I was I was sort of really quite tearful because it was such a brave hard thing for them to do but I said you look at those results and the opposition there's no weak link they can analyze in your performance because in every quarter of the race you've had a superiority even if it's been by a width of a fingernail and I think that's what the top performers do is they they can they can just judge those pacing and those fine margins I mean the touches on the end of the pool amaze me but the person who's won they know they know that they're winning and that they're always going to win and it to a you know just watching from your couch at home I mean it's mind-boggling how slim the margins are but the winners win you know yeah it's I imagine at that level too a lot of it a huge component of it is going to be the mental side of it and not only the mental resilience but also just the the confidence and knowing that you've done the work and almost seeing your competitors as as no we're like they're not as good as us like we having that sort of confidence and I see this in a lot of the top performers like some of the top Australians from as lovely lovely people but when it comes to racing they flick a switch and they are like they hate losing they absolutely hate losing and I you know I think that that kind of almost has to be the trait of of those that are going to win a gold medal they have to have
a little bit of that in their mentality where where they just hate to lose what did you see with the with those two great britain rowers so something something like that that sort of mental attitude definitely I think what I I don't know how it is in swimmers but I think a lot of rowers I think that that they they're sometimes quite sort of like understated type people you know that they're sort of not necessarily quiet you know what I mean they're they're not like you know how like boxes they basically goes with the trade you stand there and you say I'm gonna you know knock you flat and you're you're terrible I'm great you know it's very outward kind of toughness bravado
you know I think a lot of rows have have that it's very much an inner in inner toughness so like like you're saying with a lot of your swimmers you know they're just regular people conversationally and away from the sport but when they get in when they get in the boat or they they're on the water they just have some extra level of toughness and and self-belief
I think I think another thing that plays into rowing a lot which I love is is the loyalty aspect so I was doing a bit of work with a spanish a couple of years ago and we had a two person crew and generally the first round of the race didn't quite work right you know so we we switched the order round and and and it produced a different sort of slightly different psychology in the boat and you know they would try harder harder for each other than they could individually if that makes sense if you put them out individually they'd push hard but when you're in a crew with another person or other people you'll drive yourself to the very very very limit for the sake of other people and I love the fact that it brings that out of people you know people will work hard for other people not just for themselves and in the single skull in rowing which is I guess like being an individual swimmer there's an element of kind of you've got to be slightly mad to do it really you know because it's it's super super tough I mean on your own you've got nobody to sort of help you along or give you an encouraging call so that they're they're a breed almost you know in their own really the single scullers which I think is you know
sports where you are the you know an individual person I mean it's it's that's how you have to be but I think crew rowing is I love that dimension because yeah you know I can think of more than one rower who could achieve something extra in a crew boat because they've got this interaction with their crewmates and they'll they'll they'll kind of go to the end of the earth for them you know literally sort of in a in a physical mental sense in a race it's very much the same in in swimming I know like the like the coaches the and the swimmers as well they they just all look forward to the to the relays like talking about the Olympic Games it's just you see a lot of incredible times swam in those relays and yes like people are a bit faster because they've got a a flying start you know it's a they don't have to leave when the buzzer goes they can leave a bit earlier when someone's coming into touch but outside of that like you just see some some absolutely crazy times because yeah those people put themselves aside and it's just doing it for the for the team and it's I just love watching the relays at the Olympics for that for that reason and the fact that Australia is fairly competitive at the moment also helps with that it's nice to watch yeah yeah for sure Robin so when you're like you go around and run workshops and clinics and things like that for the coaches and you've done this with throwing and and just for coaching as well are there any particular messages that come to the
front of your mind that you try and get across every time you're you're doing these like some some real things that have just kind of been there that are that are fundamental that you think all all coaches or all rowers should should know this yeah there are actually and I've learned a lot from doing it because you know I get to see a much bigger variety of of clubs and rows and coaches than I than I used to when I was just doing my national job so there are three things really Brenton so the first thing and they're in order actually the first thing is sort of the culture like when you go to a club and you walk through the door of course every club feels a bit different but the atmosphere the buzz just the joy of being there the sense of understanding what the club is about these sorts of things I think count for a lot
so from a from a performers point of view or athlete point of view there are clubs you know the best clubs you go through the door and straight away you feel welcome you understand if is it a participation level club is it a high performance club you know but you understand what you're in there to do and therefore you understand your role and people support you and you've got like-minded people so I think the whole cultural thing is is huge I think the thing that then stems from that is the actual coaching because in clubs and any club or any crew or any athlete that's doing well is inevitably going to have a coach there that's working hard and producing those results and when the coach leaves that club for whatever reason quite often the club will drop a few levels until you have another inspiring coach come along so I think the culture and the coaching sort of go together because the coach is there so every day and you know your attitude and the energy you bring to coaching is part of the culture of the club you know if you were a good coach in a club with weak culture it's like pushing a broken down car it's hard to get things to happen so culture coaching and then the third thing I think is that is the training and technique so I think you know they follow from each other and so those are the three main ingredients and they're pretty obvious I suppose when you think about it but in reality for all sorts of reasons it does vary quite a bit when you when you go around different regions and different different parts and usually because
people just you know they're working hard in their own situation because they have done for many many years but they don't always have the perspective that says an outside person like me you can bring in and say like I had one the other week where they were it was a really simple thing actually this is sort of slightly cultural so that it was seven in the morning they all turned up for training the coach did the briefing and and then my assumption was okay we've done the briefing now we go rowing but half of the half of the group went back in the changing because they weren't changed so half were changed and half weren't
and I said to them is that isn't you know why is that and he said well you never thought about it you know we just turn up and brief and so it brought in an extra 15 20 minutes of dead time or sort of faff you know and I said well if you just got everybody changed do the briefing go rowing you're going to gain 15 minutes towards your training if you want it and that accumulates over time these little sort of efficiency things mount up you know and at club level where people have got jobs and they're fitting their sport in and around life and other things you know it becomes quite important so they're often quite obvious things but they don't yeah will we see them yeah but when you're when you're when they're in it you they don't they don't see it right it's just the way that's been done and then not not aware to it and just take someone like yourself to open their eyes to something super obvious that that might be cool because of NTRs actually no talent required that you've probably seen those but there are sort of slides and I like that you know things like turning up on time being prepared bringing energy you know helping out etc you know these are things that
should be embedded in the culture of a sports club before you even start your training session because they don't require talent they just require attitude and full thought really so I think that kind of stuff goes a long way and I one of one of my mentors was was talking about like what you know what is what's culture it's well it's it's basically about like it's how people almost feel or how they associate with with the club and that's just all these little things that all these little things that happen it's like saying hi saying goodbye when you when you turn up it's having a smile on your face it's it's getting there on time it's encouraging your teammates it's like it's all these little actions that that build the culture and it's nothing that's that's difficult it's just it's all these little little things that that add up that everyone can do just these small actions so when it and when it when it gets shown or when you get told that like that's that's how you do it it becomes really tangible and it's not this thing it's like all right we need a good culture it's like well it's just all these little actions like you know we can do this doesn't matter how how bad your rowing team is or how bad your swimmers are they can all contribute to this this good culture so and my dad was my coach growing up and so from when I was about 11 I think he started coaching me and he he was adamant that everyone says hello to him on the way in goodbye on the way out we use each other's names just little things like that and it was just such a like I was 11 I was 12
I was like god why is he making such a big deal of it but I can see now that it was a really important part to building the the club up and having people enjoy it and having people look back at that when they're 30 and going well wasn't that such a great time that we spent together so yeah all those little things are really really add up yeah yeah definitely Robin thank you so much for your time I appreciate you jumping on here and particularly being in the UK it's always hard to organize a a time but I appreciate you getting on nice and early for the podcast and I'm looking forward to showing this without our listeners because I love getting fighting lessons from other sports because there's obviously a lot of crossover but there's things that we can take from it from other sports that will help us in swimming so thank you very much for sharing all that you did on the podcast and it's been a pleasure Brenton nice to meet you and not that early for me but it's a little bit later for you in Melbourne there so thanks for making this happen it's been enjoyable my pleasure thank you thanks then bye bye thanks for listening to the effortless swimming podcast if you'd like us to help you become a faster more efficient swimmer go to www.effortlesswimming.com
The post Translating Raw Power into Relaxed Efficiency with Rowing Legend Robin Williams appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
How Actually ‘Engage Your Core’ When You Swim with Carl Reader
In this episode, Carl, our go-to strength and conditioning guru joins us again to finally demystify core engagement for swimmers.
We’re unpacking the Pilates inspired Halloween technique. Versus Stuart McGill’s bracing method and revealing simple land drills. Think step ups, carries and hip rotations that make your core switch on automatically. Once you hit the water, Carl will share why loosening your hips could be the missing link in your freestyle.
How to balance front, back and side core work. And one posture tweak that instantly transforms your catch. If you’ve ever felt your hips sink, or your kicks play, or your back start to ache mid set, this episode is for you. Grab your goggles and maybe a chair, because by the end of this, you’ll know exactly how to build a swimming core that’s strong, supple, and effortless.
Let’s get into the podcast.
Timestamps:
In this episode* 01:51 — Introduction to Core Strength * 04:32 — Understanding Core Engagement Techniques * 07:20 — Common Mistakes in Core Control * 10:27 — Exercises for Core Strength in Swimming * 15:30 — Bracing vs. Automatic Core Engagement * 18:19 — Posture and Its Impact on Core Function * 21:22 — Strengthening the Back for Core Stability * 24:22 — Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Links from this episode Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership * More About Carl Reader — email: carlwellness@gmail.com * https://www.effortlessswimming.coach/functional-movement/?fbclid=IwAR0Jt1IDU3WrGOzGj–0dLKtSsVFBePWlmzNedMuCzRiSlznge7x3bcemSc&_conv_s=si%3A62sh%3A1717497771657-0.8449012982672981pv%3A19&_conv_v=vi%3A1sc%3A62cs%3A1717497772fs%3A1707833051pv%3A275ps%3A1717138513exp%3A%7B100464762.%7Bv.1004159231-g.%7B100438527.1-100438528.1-100440436.1%7D%7D-100465052.%7Bv.1004159887-g.%7B100438527.1-100438528.1-100440436.1%7D%7D%7D&_gl=11sm7olj_gcl_auNDQ5Njg0ODgyLjE3MTU2NzY1MjE. * Related Content: * https://effortlessswimming.com/swimming-and-moving-pain-free-with-carl-reader/? * https://effortlessswimming.com/the-one-exercise-that-solves-most-aches-and-pains-with-carl-reader/? * https://effortlessswimming.com/stop-hauling-yourself-through-the-water-swim-with-ease-with-carl-reader/? * https://effortlessswimming.com/how-to-strengthen-and-stretch-your-hip-flexors-for-a-better-kick-with-carl-reader/?
The post How Actually ‘Engage Your Core’ When You Swim with Carl Reader appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What if the secret to crushing your next open water swim isn’t just logging more miles, but learning to embrace the chaos, drafting like a pro, taking the occasional hit, and then surging ahead with confidence. Today on the Effortless Swimming Podcast, I’m joined by Damien from Flow State Swimming it’s premier open water coaching squad.
Damien didn’t learn to swim in a pool. He learned to survive and thrive in choppy conditions. Mastering tactics from course recon to aggressive positioning so that you never have to feel like a victim out there. In this episode, we’ll dive into the mental shift from passive paddler to assertive racer.
While your catch and glide sweet spot might unlock explosive speed, exactly how to build the suffer tolerance that makes hard efforts feel effortless. Hands-on coaching hacks for feeling the water and finding flow. And whether you are gearing up for your first triathlon or hunting a personal best in an open water race, stick around.
By the time we’re done, you’ll know how to swim hard, swim smart, and swim free. Know what’s required. Let’s jump in.
In this episode* 02:07 — Introduction to Flow State Swimming * 04:08 — The Tactical Side of Open Water Swimming * 06:22 — Coaching Strategies: Propulsion vs. Glide * 12:46 — Finding the Sweet Spot * 17:19 — The Importance of Feel Over Pace * 23:39 — The Hell Set: Pushing Limits in Training * 34:04 — Success Stories: Progress in Swimming * 41:38 — Conclusion and Contact Information
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership * Get in touch with Damien * https://youtu.be/oRoYMUswKNI
The post How To Be Assertive And Kick A$$ In Open Water with Damien Wildes appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I’m joined by Andrew Sheaff—coach, educator, and the author of A Constraints-Led Approach to Swim Coaching. We dive into one of the most important skills for adult swimmers and triathletes: learning how to self-coach.
Whether you’re swimming solo, training without feedback, or stuck on a plateau, Andrew shares a practical roadmap to finally break through. You’ll learn why progress isn’t about doing more drills—but choosing the right ones. We talk about how to create built-in feedback loops, what to do if you feel like nothing’s changing, and why slowing down and being intentional could be your fastest path forward.
Andrew also shares one of his favorite drills—“power pulls”—and how it reveals exactly what’s working (and what’s not) in your stroke. If you’re someone who trains alone, or you’ve been working hard without seeing results, this episode could be the turning point.
If you enjoy this conversation and want to dive deeper, Andrew’s Stroke Fundamentals course is a fantastic next step. It breaks down the key elements of freestyle technique in a simple, actionable way—and as a listener of the podcast, you can get 50% off. Click this link to get Stroke Fundamentals for 50% off
—> www.coachandrewsheaff.com/effortless
In this episode* 01:58 — Self-Coaching In Swimming * 04:06 — Setting Clear Goals For Improvement * 06:22 — Effective Drills For Feedback * 10:35 — Understanding Pressure and Technique * 14:30 — Improving Rotation in Freestyle * 21:00 — Identifying and Solving Problems in Training * 23:43 — Mastering Breath Timing in Swimming * 26:03 — Identifying and Addressing Common Mistakes * 28:30 — Challenging Drills for Skill Improvement * 31:01 — Integrating Skills and Training Effectively * 36:16 — Creating Engaging and Purposeful Workouts * 38:57 — The Importance of Consistency in Skill Development * 41:24 — Fundamentals of Effective Swimming Techniques
Links from this episode* http://pillarperformance.shop * Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
The post Unusual Strategies For Developing Your Swimming with Andrew Sheaff appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Struggling to keep your legs from sinking in the water—no matter how hard you kick or how low you keep your head? You’re not alone. But why do some swimmers maintain a perfect body position even when they’re looking forward and barely kicking?
In this episode, after coaching over 6,000 swimmers, I break down the real reason your legs are sinking, what you can do to fix it (even if you feel like a natural sinker), and share one powerful tip that can help you float more easily—something most coaches never talk about.
We’ll look at how your body’s weight distribution affects your position in the water, and the key adjustments that can transform your technique.
In this episode* 01:40 — Extend Arms Out Infront Of Head * 02:33 — Breathing * 04:47 — Be Tall And Proud * 06:09 — The Way Your Kicking Can Make A Big Difference * 10:48 — High Elbow Recovery * 12:17 — Catch * 13:55 — Head Position: Like an Iceberg * 15:20 — Tension
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership * https://youtu.be/I87qmYe1Dg0
The post What You’re Not Being Told Told About Sinking Legs with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What happens when a veteran swim coach, who’s spent years refining adult swimmers and triathletes, returns to coaching high school kids? In this episode, Frank Sole—coach, educator, and lifelong student of the sport—shares how “water is water” no matter your age, and why the principles of balance, buoyancy, and body awareness remain timeless. Frank dives into the biggest crossover lessons he’s bringing from Masters swimmers to juniors, the importance of teaching athletes to “own their technique,” and why he tells even his fastest swimmers to slow down and swim well, not fast. We also explore how Frank’s coaching philosophy has evolved over decades, the power of habit over outcome, and the surprising results his athletes are getting—not just in the pool, but in their lives. Whether you’re a coach, a swimmer, or someone who’s passionate about getting better, this episode is packed with wisdom, stories, and the kind of gold you can take straight to your next session.
In this episode* 05:16 — Focus on Process Not On Outcome * 19:17 — Mastering Breathing: A Coach’s Perspective * 21:01 — Mastering Breathing Technique * 21:59 — Coach Check In Routine * 37:03 — Evolvong Coaching Philosophy * 39:16 — 18 Minute Rule * 40:36 — Embrace Ignorance Seek Growth * 41:15 — Evolving Mindset: From Close To Collaborative
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. https://shop.effortlessswimming.com/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership * Get in touch with Frank
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
The post Fast Comes Last: Mastering the Process Before the Performance with Frank Sole appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we sit down with Sharon Van Rouwendaal, Olympic gold medalist in the 10 km open water marathon at Rio 2016 and Paris 2024, to talk all things freestyle—especially how adults can improve their technique in and out of the water. Whether you’re getting back into swimming or looking to sharpen your technique, this episode is packed with actionable tips and deep insights from one of the best in the world.
In this episode* 01:16 — Transitioning From Competitive Swimmer To Coach * 04:27 — Learning From Previous Coaches * 08:20 — Slow Stroke, Take A Step Back * 12:38 — Warm Up Is Important * 13:36 — If You Can’t Do It In Dry Land, You Can’t Do It In The Water * 20:07 — Sets * 22:55 — If You Lose The Kick, You Lose The Rest Of Your Stroke * 26:56 — Using Stronger Muscles * 31:35 — The Back End Of The Stroke * 33:34 — Hip, Ribs, Shoulder Connection
Links from this episode* Maldives Long Distance Camp * Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership * https://www.instagram.com/svrouwendaal/
Get in touch with Sharon:
The post How to Improve Your Freestyle as an Adult – Olympian’s Advice with Sharon Van Rouwendaal appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, we have a powerhouse guest—Greg Harper, the fastest swimmer in Ironman 70.3!
Greg shares his key lessons from the pool to open water, how to develop speed and endurance, and the mental strategies that set top swimmers apart. From the snowball effect of smart training to the secrets of holding a faster stroke rate, this episode is packed with actionable insights for triathletes and swimmers alike.
01:53 Transition From Pool To Open water
05:05 Getting More Comfortable In Open water
09:27 Snowball Effect In The Right Way
11:50 Open water Is So Much About Awareness
17:25 Don’t Stop When It Gets Difficult
20:40 Short Intervals And Speed Focus
23:50 Paddles Size
29:59 Favourite Set
36:53 Change Of Belief
42:07 Developing The Ability To Hold Faster Stroke Rate
56:12 Working On My Stroke
1:00:18 Be A Student Of The Sport
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15.
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Get in touch with Greg:
https://www.instagram.com/gharpzorz/
The post Lessons From The Fastest Swimmer In 70.3 with Greg Harper appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to analyze the strokes of over 8,000 swimmers and triathletes, ranging from beginners to elite professionals. Throughout this experience, I’ve discovered the key factors that set fast, efficient swimmers apart from those who struggle to improve.
In this video, I’ll be sharing the most valuable lessons I’ve learned from analyzing swimmers of all backgrounds worldwide. I’ll debunk common myths and misconceptions often heard around the pool deck and reveal what truly makes the difference between a smooth, efficient swimmer and someone battling their way through the water.
In this episode* 1:07 — Strava Is A Lie * 02:47 — Ignore Most Advice * 04:01 — Most Adults Overthink * 05:28 — Swimming Is Not Running Or Biking * 06:27 — The Harder You Try To Force Speed, The Further Away It’s Going To Get * 07:01 — Confidence Comes From Seeing Small Improvements * 08:24 — Your Catch Is The Same In All Your Strokes * 09:04 — Look At The Things That Will Actually Move The Needle * 12:36 — We Are Own Harshest Critic-Nobody Cares * 14:08 — Swimming Is As Much Mental As It Is Physical * 15:37 — Swimming Is Like Watering Seeds * 16:49 — From Aerobic To Muscular To Aerobic * 17:43 — You Just Need To Do The Work * 18:21 — We Need Reminding Of Things More Than We Need To Learn New Things * 20:31 — Focus On Fundamentals * 21:16 — It Will Take Longer Than You Think
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwVK51ofDYM
The post I Analyzed 8,000 Swimmers—Here’s What Actually Makes You Faster with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What if you could go from struggling at 2:20 per hundred to cruising at 1:55? Today’s guest, Fraser Hill, did exactly that, and he’s sharing exactly how he did it. Fraser started swimming as an adult, dabbled in triathlons, and eventually found himself diving deep into the world of technique, training, and open water swimming.
From joining an effortless swimming camp in the Maldives, to refining his stroke using simple but powerful cues, Fraser has transformed not only his speed, but his entire approach to swimming. In this episode, we talk about the key changes that made the biggest impact on his speed. The mental battles of open water swimming and how small tweaks like fixing body position and connecting the stroke led to massive breakthroughs.
If you’ve ever felt stuck in your swimming progress, Fraser’s story will give you some practical takeaways to help you break through your own barriers.
In this episode* 01:48 — Swimming Background * 04:25 — From 2:20 to 1:55 * 06:42 — You Need Someone Else Giving You Feedback * 09:48 — Small Changes, Big Differences * 13:19 — Openwater Swimming * 18:29 — Next Big Improvement * 27:06 — Drills * 31:48 — Advise For Swimmers Who Are Struggling To Break The 2-Minute Mark
Links from this episode* http://pillarperformance.shop * Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
The post How To Easily Break 2:00/100m And Make It Feel Easy with Fraser Hill appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Imagine standing behind the blocks knowing that everything, years of training, sacrifice, and your Olympic dream, comes down to this one race. That was the reality for Brianna Throssell at the 2016 Olympic Trials, where she had just one shot to make the team. In this episode, Brianna takes us behind the scenes of her Olympic journey, what it felt like to step onto the world’s biggest stage for the first time, the nerves, the lessons, and the moments that shaped her career.
From grueling training camps in Thailand To the mindset shifts that helped her break through. She says an honest and inspiring look at the highs and lows of elite swimming. Plus we dive into what’s next for her as she steps away from the pool for now and explores life beyond full time training. If you’re looking for insights into what it takes to compete at the highest level and the mental resilience that fuels champions, you won’t want to miss this one.
Let’s get into the podcast.
In this episode* 01:59 — Most Nerve Wracking Race * 3:58 — Rio, Tokyo and Paris * 05:46 — Pivotal Moments * 09:03 — Change In Environment * 12:28 — Hardest Training Sets * 20:57 — Training Camp Schedules * 22:23 — Social Media During Training * 24:16 — Visualization/ Mental Rehearsal * 27:14 — Developing Technique * 28:59 — Increasing The Power of Kick * 30:18 — Character Traits and Skills * 33:36 — Being Able To Say Yes To Opportunities * 35:45 — Future Plans * 36:45 — Core Lessons: Resilience
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership * https://youtu.be/qYyqzkMu01g
The post You’ll Never Improve If You Ignore This – An Olympic Swimmer’s Advice with Brianna Throssell appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Imagine teaching yourself how to swim, never having a coach, never training in a pool, just figuring it out by watching others. That was Alex Roman’s reality for most of his life. He swam to survive, but certainly not to thrive. But one day, a swimmer effortlessly glided past him in the open water. And it sparked something, curiosity, what made them so fast, and what was happening beneath the surface that he had never considered.
That moment sent Alex on a journey of discovery. One that transformed him from a struggling swimmer with inefficient technique, Doing slower than two minutes per hundred into someone now who competes at national meets and swims a 50 meter sprint in under 30 seconds. His improvement wasn’t just about training harder.
It was about training smarter. And in this episode, Alex shares the pivotal moments that fueled his rapid progression. The techniques and the drills that made the biggest impact and why understanding the science behind swimming changed everything for him. If you’ve ever felt stuck in your swimming or wondered if it’s possible to make huge gains as an adult, this episode is packed with insights that could change the way you approach your own training.
So let’s dive into it.
In this episode* 10:58 — What Are The Big Things That Should Be Improved? * 13:38 — Tuning On How Your Body Feels * 25:35 — Controlled Chaos * 30:55 — The Importance of Warm Up * 36:28 — Building Strength * 37:42 — Getting Feedback * 39:53 — Drills
Links from this episode* Get your NanoClear goggles here and get 15% off your first purchase with code PODCAST15. * https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/ * Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership
The post From 2:00/100m to A 29 Second 50m Freestyle with Alex Roman appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Welcome to the podcast. This is a rebroadcast of another podcast called the Human Endurance Podcast with two friends of mine, Bruna and Fabi. I was a guest on there recently, and I wanted to share this episode with you because I feel like a lot of key things were covered that if you’re a swimmer or a triathlete, this is going to help you improve.
Whether you want to get better at open water swimming, making sure you fuel correctly, how you should train, what are some common mistakes and foundational skills
01:28 Meet Brenton Ford: Founder of Effortless Swimming
11:24 Common Mistakes and Foundational Skills for Swimmers
18:56 Improving Swimming Technique and Training Tips
29:16 The Importance of Drills and Effective Training
39:45 Skills in Open Water Swimming vs. Pool Swimming
44:02 Increasing Stroke Rate vs. Distance Per Stroke
47:47 Choosing the Right Wetsuit
58:15 Fueling for Long Swim Sessions
01:03:14 The Journey of Effortless Swimming
01:15:12 The Future of Swimming
01:20:38 Fire Questions
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
The post How Anyone Can Become A Great Swimmer with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Have you ever felt like you know what to do, but you’re just not sure how to make it happen? Whether you’re an athlete looking to unlock better performance or a coach wanting to make lasting impact. Today’s episode is for you. Our guest is Nick Winkelman, author of The Language of Coaching, a groundbreaking book on how the right words can transform how you move.
Train and perform. Nick has worked with elite athletes and coaches around the world. And today he’s sharing the secrets of using cues, analogies, and storytelling to spark real lasting change. In this episode, we’ll cover how the words you hear or tell yourself can supercharge your improvement. Why using the right cues can make your stroke smoother, your technique sharper, and your training more effective, and the power of storytelling to break down barriers, shift mindsets, and help find your edge.
And it’s not just for coaches. This is about understanding your own journey. Nick’s insights will help you spot what’s holding you back and how to focus your energy where it really counts. Whether you’re looking to shave seconds off your swim, find more confidence in the way that you’re moving or performing, or learn to enjoy the process of getting better.
This episode is packed with a heap of takeaways that you can use in the pool and beyond.
02:16 The Start Of Language of Coaching
06:02How My Role As A Coach Is Making An Impact
09:49 Internal And External Cues
22:12 How Often Do You Repeat The Analogy?
29:54 Nothing Seems To Stick
35:55 Storytelling Technique
41:07 Writing The Book
Get in touch with Nick
https://www.thelanguageofcoaching.com/
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
The post The Art & Science Of Coaching Swimming with Nick Winkleman appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’m thrilled to bring back Bobby McGee, a legendary endurance coach with a knack for unlocking an athlete’s full potential. But before we dive in, let me tell you a story about one of Bobby’s transformative experiences.
Imagine this, a room filled with some of the world’s top Olympic coaches from sports as diverse as gymnastics, field hockey, and bobsledding. Bobby found himself immersed in conversations that challenged his perspective and sharpened his skills. And it wasn’t just about technique or training plans. It was about understanding people on a deeper level.
And this experience opened Bobby’s eyes to the power of emotional intelligence in coaching and performance. It’s something he’s applied ever since. And in today’s episode, Bobby shares some of the lessons he learned in that room. How understanding yourself and your coach can unlock new levels of performance and trust, and why mastering pacing strategies is crucial for success, and how fine tuning your mechanics can help you move more efficiently.
It’s a fascinating conversation filled with a lot of actionable advice, and whether you’re a swimmer, a runner, a triathlete, I’ve got no doubt you’ll take away a lot from this episode with Olympic run coach, Bobby McGee. Let’s get into it.
03:39 Coaching Concepts
06:55 Athlete Profiling: Understanding Each Individual Athlete
09:02 Emotional Analysis
12:20 Building Trust
15:21 Coaching Philosophies
20:04 Coaching Olympic Level Athletes and Mid-Range Athletes
24:49 Hardness Factor
34:43 Thrive Mentality
36:41 You’ve Got To Have That Killer Mentality
39:36 Identifying Inefficiency
50:24 Looking More Into Conditioning in Swimming
57:56 Breathing Technique In Running
1:04:06 Stroke Length and Stroke Rate
1:12:35 Pacing and Energy Conservation
1:21:41 Visualization
Get in touch with Bobby:
https://www.pendolaproject.com/runform
https://www.bobbymcgee.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bobbymcgeerunning/
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
The post Lessons From An Olympic Coach with Bobby McGee appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I’m speaking with Dudley Duncan, a seasoned coach and author of The Art of Swimming and The Game of Racing. Dudley has spent years refining his approach to swimming and he’s sharing some incredible insights that will help you improve both your mindset and your technique in the water.
We cover stroke mechanics, the power of visualization to boost your performance, and strategies to build confidence so that you feel stronger and more capable every time you swim. Dudley also talks about how to balance hard work with mental toughness, giving you practical tips to stay motivated and achieve your goals.
Whether you’re training for a big race, or just looking to swim smoother and faster, this episode is packed with ideas to help you take your swimming to the next level. Let’s dive in.
02:22 How Did You Get Into the World Of Swimming
05:40 Philosophy in Developing Personal Growth of Swimmers
08:02 Setting Standards
09:00 Pulling People Back In The Line
11:28 Pushing Athletes To Their Limit
14:20 Philosophy in Developing Good Technique
19:59 Kayak Analogy
21:43 Drills
26:42 Visualization
35:22 Developing Confidence
38:13 Dealing with Failure
40:48 Advise to New Coaches
Purchase the book: https://www.dudleyduncan.com/
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/qm3WoESs0SI
The post The Game Of Racing with Dudley Duncan appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Effortless Swimming podcast. My guest today is four time guest, Tracey Baumann. On this episode, we’re talking about the speed equation, your combination of stroke length and stroke rate, and how to find that sweet spot for whatever distance or whatever effort you’re doing.
This is really the art of it. This is the art of swimming where we want to develop good technique, but then in order to swim faster, we need to make sure that we maintain that technique. but we consider the stroke rate side of the equation. So on this episode, Tracy and I talk about how to find that sweet spot, some sets and some ways that you can practice this and find this in training and some ways that you can develop gears in your swimming.
If you find that you’re stuck and you can’t get faster and you’ve only got this one speed that you’re always stuck in, how can you actually go about developing those different gears? So let’s jump into the episode with Tracey Baumann.
02:58 Everybody Can Learn Something
04:48 Direction of Energy
06:44 Purposeful Exaggeration
08:42 Remembering Knowing Where To Look
09:50 Fingernails Forward
12:21 Flattening Out A Tablecloth (Breast Stroke)
13:31 Speed Equation
17:18 What is the Magic Number?
19:53 Sets
21:25 Fast and Slow Tempos
26:42 Having Different Gears
34:54 For Intermediate Swimmers
36:18 What People Should Know
38:31 Intention Setting
SwimMastery Set books:
Code: EFFORTLESS10
https://swimmasteryinternational.com/order-intro
SwimMastery:
www.swimmastery.online
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swimmastery/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialswimmastery
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Need a premium wetsuit without the price tag?
Use code ‘EFFORT20’ for 20% off Great Ocean Wetsuits. FREE Shipping Worldwide:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
Watch on Youtube:
The post The Speed Equation with Tracey Baumann appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
This week, we are featuring some of the best bits from 2024. We had dozens of different guests on, and we’ve picked out what we think are some of the highlights, some of the best bits from some of those episodes. So it’s like a highlights reel for 2024.
And if you have listened to this show once or a hundred times, If you haven’t left us a review in the Apple app store or on Spotify, it would mean a lot to me. If you could do that, it helps us out and helps us get in front of more people. I’m looking forward to 2025. We’ve got some big plans for the podcast, our YouTube channel, and then also the clinics and the camps that we run.
So if you haven’t joined us on any of those things and you’d like to, you can head to effortlessswimming.com. If you’re in Sydney, we’ve added a bunch of more clinic dates for freestyle and fly back and breast. Through late December and early January. So if you are in Sydney at that time, come and check us out there.
And you can find that on our website as well at effortlessswimming.com. Let’s get into this week’s episode highlights from 2024.
01:18 James Lawrence
02:44 Sharon Van Rouwendaal
05:11 Hollie Buerckner
06:49 Jarrod Briffa
08:55 Dan Eisenhardt
10:07 Dean Summers
13:18 Tracey Baumann
14:44 Nick Jankovskis
17:04 Jaimie Fuller
18:17 Craig Lewin
20:02 Sharon Van Rouwendall and Moesha Johnson
22:32 Bek Keat
23:56 Sandra Harrell
26:09 Laura Quilter
28:18 Kat Matthews
30:39 Ryan Evernden
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post The Best Bits from 2024 appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Are you struggling with the unpredictability of open water swimming? I used to hate every second of it, until I learned these tips, which completely changed the way that I thought and went about open water swimming. In this episode, you’ll learn how to transform your swimming from feeling anxious and uncomfortable in the open water, To feeling confident and at ease.
00:00 Introduction
00:52 Don’t be a victim
01:42 Sighting
04:01 Course Recon
04:50 Goggles
05:25 Stroke Changes
09:19 Stroke rate
10:21 Why am I Slower in open water?
11:57 Drafting
14:41 Pack swimming
17:41 Wetsuits
20:24 Bi-Lateral Breathing
21:20 Dealing with cold water
22:28 Tides and currents
24:00 Entry and exit
25:33 Dealing with panic
27:20 Practice in the pool
29:39 Race Day Strategy
31:35 Swim camps
Transform your swimming at a camp: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Need a premium wetsuit without the price tag?
Use code ‘EFFORT20’ for 20% off Great Ocean Wetsuits. FREE Shipping Worldwide:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
The post Everything I Know About Becoming A Strong Open Water Swimmer with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Ryan Evernden is the founder of Formidable Strength and Conditioning, a coaching service that’s reshaping how swimmers integrate strength training into their routines. Ryan isn’t just any strength coach; he specializes in tailoring strength and conditioning programs specifically for swimmers, helping them power through the water with more speed and resilience while safeguarding against injuries.
Today, Ryan will share his insights on the essential strength exercises for swimmers, how to prevent common swimming injuries, and some truly inspiring success stories from the athletes he’s worked with. Whether you’re a competitive swimmer looking to enhance your performance or a recreational swimmer aiming to swim smarter and stronger, Ryan’s expertise is sure to provide valuable guidance.
02:19 Veering towards Strength Training for Swimmers
03:11 Trying to Create Swimmers For Life
04:14 Preventing Injuries
04:32 Coming Right Back Around The Basics
06:14 Assessing Mobility and Range of Motions
07:20 Improving Overhead Range of Motions
11:18 Starting Inside Out
12:13 Finding The Balance
14:51 Strength Required For Long Distance Swimmers
21:38 How Do I Fit My Strength Sessions
29:00 Common Misconceptions
35:33 Age Group Strength and Conditioning
Follow Ryan on Instagram
https://www.formidablestrength.com.au/
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
The post Strength Training So You Never Get Tired with Ryan Evernden appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What does it take to finish second at the Ironman World Championships? In this episode, I’m joined by professional triathlete, Kat Matthews, who’s not only a fierce competitor, but also a source of inspiration for anyone looking to elevate their performance. Kat opens up about the strategies and habits that helped her climb to the top, from staying consistent with her swim training, even while traveling, to making small technique tweaks that delivered massive results.
We talk about her mental approach to open water swimming, How she tackles the swim to bike transition, and the mindset required to thrive in tough race conditions. Kat also shares her journey of recovering from injury, and how it transformed her mental resilience. We discuss why creating a stable training environment, and dialing in proper nutrition, and learning to fuel correctly during workouts can make all the difference.
Not just in racing, but in life. Whether you’re a triathlete, a swimmer, or someone looking to gain a competitive edge, This episode is packed with actionable tips and powerful insights to help you achieve your best. So dive in and let Kat’s story motivate you to push past your limits.
03:02 Leading up to the World Championship. Keeping the consistency and structure.
06:59 Vo2 Sets.
09:13 Travel and Training Calendar.
10:44 No Pressure Swims.
12:48 Change of Pace, Feeling of Control.
17:02 Swimming From Inside Out.
19:14 Race Conditions.
24:52 Don’t Be A Victim
26:50 Openwater Stroke.
28:04 Bike Transition
33:00 Creating a Stable Training Environment
39:54 Fueling Correctly.
Follow Kat on Instagram
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Get 20% off wetsuits at Great Ocean Wetsuits with code ‘EFFORT20’:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How Pro Triathlete Kat Matthews Became A Front Pack Swimmer appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Mitch Kibby is a professional triathlete who’s placed 16th in the 70.3 World Championship. He began his triathlon career without a swimming background, and has gone on to compete with some of the strongest swimmers in the pro field. This is how he did it.
00:22 Introduction
00:57 Favourite cue
01:56 Kick
03:03 Breathing both sides
05:11 Catch and pull
08:38 Developing speed
09:57 Long-term approach to improvement
10:33 Finding the right company and support
Improve your technique with the 8 Week Faster Freestyle Course: https://effortlessswimming.com/8wffc/
Join a freestyle clinic in Australia: https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
Get your stroke analysed and join our online swim squad for workouts: https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
The post Try This Pro Triathletes Top 5 Swim Tips with Mitch Kibby appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
With experience coaching over 8,000 swimmers, I’m sharing what really works to improve your freestyle—from finding a relaxed, efficient stroke to mastering the catch and pull. Tune in now!
00:34 Introduction
00:59 The Importance of Relaxation and Breathing
02:54 Reducing Drag for Better Swimming
04:41 Achieving the Perfect Body Position
06:04 Effective Leg Movement and Core Engagement
09:56 Mastering Rotation
13:21 Breathing Techniques
17:01 Recovery and Entry Position
23:40 Perfecting the Catch and Pull
30:55 Finish of Stroke
32:43 Rhythm and the Timing of the Stroke (the dance)
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Get 20% off wetsuits at Great Ocean Wetsuits with code ‘EFFORT20’:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Everything I know About Freestyle appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we sit down with Tracey Baumann to explore swim stroke synchronization and body connection for a more efficient swim. We discuss six key synchronization points, the importance of feeling the water, and the role of joint mechanics in creating a powerful stroke. Tracey shares her coaching evolution toward focusing on technique and sensory cues, emphasizing the benefits of short-interval training. Tune in now!
00:08 Introduction
01:12 Upcoming Swimming Camps
01:34 Meet Tracey Baumann
2:23 Starting with Stroke Synchronization
3:17 Building the Stroke from the Inside Out
6:45 Avoiding Dead Spots in the Stroke
10:12 Six Key Synchronization Points
17:37 Transferring Pressure and Connecting with the Water
22:52 Softening the Hands for Better Connection
27:00 Effective Coaching Language
29:40 Grounding and Body Awareness
36:00 Short Interval Training
38:40 The Impact of Bones and Joint Mechanics
42:37 Get in touch with Tracey!
Website: https://www.swimmastery.online/tracey-baumann
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swimmastery/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialswimmastery
Buy the book (The Swim Mastery Way) and save 10% using the discount code SWIM10:
https://inhousebookstore.com.au/products/the-swim-mastery-way?_pos=1&_sid=f59356e26&_ss=r
Get SwimMastery’s Minimising Shoulder Injury in Freestyle course for 10% off with the code EFFORTLESS10:
https://members.swimmastery.online/product/minimising-shoulder-injury/
Want to really transform your swimming? Join us on a swim camp in 2025 in the Maldives, Galapagos Islands, Whitsundays or Thailand: https://effortlessswimming.com/camps/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How To Coordinate Your Freestyle Stroke with Tracey Baumann appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Kiah Melverton, an Olympian, former world record holder, and World Championship silver medalist, joins us in this episode. Kiah offers advice on improving freestyle technique, highlighting key areas swimmers should focus on to achieve a faster, more efficient stroke. Tune in now!
00:30 Meet Kia Malverton
00:5 Head and Body Position
01:26 Kicking
04:01 Recovery and Catch
05:24 Breathing Techniques and Rhythm
07:17 Racing Cues and Technique Focus
09:15 Reflecting on Career Highlights
10:12 Advice and Training Insights
11:56 Challenging and Favorite Sets
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 20% off wetsuits at Great Ocean Wetsuits with code ‘EFFORT20’:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Olympian Reveals Her Freestyle Technique with Kiah Melverton appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’ve spent 25 years helping adults become better swimmers, from beginners to pro triathletes. In this podcast, I’ll share what really works to go from feeling slow and frustrated to swimming fast, efficiently, and effortlessly.
00:00 Introduction
00:54 Balancing Tension and Relaxation
01:34 Reality vs Perception
02:24 Finding Your Unique Swimming Style
03:34 The Importance of Technique Over Effort
04:48 Kick Supports NOT Propels
05:57 Overthinking vs Feeling the Water
07:35 Swim Softer to go FASTER
08:42 Consistency is KING
11:14 Don’t train like a runner!
13:26 Using Swimming Aids
15:09 Developing Your Stroke Step-by-Step
16:37 Long-Term vs Short-Term Goals
18:34 Strength and Mobility
20:08 Slow to Fast
21:14 Stroke Length vs Stroke Rate
23:26 Training for Specific Events
24:39 Open Water Swimming Tips
25:45 Turn off distraction!
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Every Adult Swimmer Should Know These This appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, we’re joined by Craig Lewin, founder of Endurance Swimming, who discovered his passion in the open water. Though he started as an average swimmer in the pool, Craig found his stride in marathon swimming, where endurance and mindset matter more than speed. In this episode, he shares his journey and insights on tackling challenging open water swims.
01:24 Journey into Marathon Swimming
06:01 Building a Support Network and Mentors
13:05 Training and Recovery Strategies
15:25 Patience in Progress: The Long-Term Training Mindset
18:15 Embracing the Flow: Letting Go of Pace in Long Swims
20:45 Tempo vs. Stroke Length
22:30 Mental Preparation and Long Swims
27:35 Building Confidence Through Repetition
28:36 Finding the Right Coach for Long Swims
31:05 Get in touch with Craig!
Conference Name: Beyond The Breakers
Conference Website: Swimbeyondthebreakers.com
Conference Instagram: @swim_beyond_the_breakers
Conference Date & Location: November 9th & 10th at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts
Check out Endurance Swimming at Liquidtri.com and follow their Instagram @enduranceswim!
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How To Get Started In Marathon Swimming with Craig Lewin appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we sit down with Ash Delaney, coach of Olympic Gold Medalist and 100m freestyle world-record holder Kyle Chalmers. Ash shares his approach to coaching freestyle and offers valuable insights into how swimmers can improve their speed and technique in the water.00:13 Introduction
00:37 Body Position and Kick Mechanics
01:58 Coaching Kyle Chalmers
03:01 Recovery and Entry
04:41 The Importance of Video Feedback
04:47 Setting Up Your Catch
5:46 Favorite Drills
7:56 Breathing Techniques
10:05 Coaching Philosophy and Common Mistakes
12:25 Challenging Training Sets
13:50 Memorable Races: Best and Worst
15:27 The Best Advice
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 20% off wetsuits at Great Ocean Wetsuits with code ‘EFFORT20’:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How to Generate Speed in Freestyle with Ash Delaney appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Jaimie Fuller is the founder of EO, the creators of the SwimBetter device, which measure the force and direction of a swimmer’s hand movements. These devices were used by gold and silver medalists in the 100m freestyle, Pan Zhang Lee and Kyle Chalmers, in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction
02:08 Top Swimmers Using eo SwimBETTER
05:55 Downward Force in Swimmers: What the Data Reveals
9:34 Measuring Force and Direction for Stroke Improvement
16:31 Remote Coaching and Real-Time Feedback
20:29 Analyzing Brenton’s Swim
25:40 Finding Your Unique Handpath
28:04 Understanding Force vs. Time
39:04 The Role of Hand Size in Performance
40:27 Launching a New Program
Grab your own eo SwimBetter device today:
https://www.eolab.com/swimbetter
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESSSWIM‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post The Technology Behind The Men’s 100m Freestyle World Record with Jaimie Fuller appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
The women’s 10km open water race at the Paris Olympics was a thrilling and grueling event that saw Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands and Moesha Johnson of Australia showcase extraordinary endurance and strategy. Taking out the gold and silver medals, Sharon and Moesha put together a race for the ages. In this episode, we dive into the details of the race and how it played out.
00:00 Introduction
01:45 Race Strategy
07:24 Preparation and Training
10:43 Adapting to Different Race Conditions
18:24 Navigating the Final Laps
24:06 Crossing the Finish Line
25:30 Moesha’s Makes History for Australia in Open Water
27:50 Finding Strength in Loss
34:59 The Mindset of Champions
36:09 Post-Race Experiences: Media Attention and Future Plans
41:37 Get in touch with Sharon and Moesha!
Open water swimming masterclass with Sharon:
https://my.weezevent.com/open-water-swimming-masterclass-by-sharon-van-rouwendaal-2
Email: sharonvanrouwendaal@gmail.com
Follow Sharon on Instagram
Follow Moesha on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESSSWIM‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post The Real Story Behind The Women’s 10km Open Water At Paris with Sharon van Rouwendaal and Moesha Johnson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join former 6x Ironman Distance Champion and high-performance triathlon coach, Bek Keat, as she shares her insights on adapting your swimming stroke from the pool to the open water. Discover the changes triathletes must make to swim effectively in challenging conditions such as chops, waves, and crowded environments. Beck also reflects on her journey as a professional triathlete, discussing the lessons she learned and the transition into coaching. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction
02:43 The Differences Between Open Water and Pool Swimming
05:48 The Importance of an Open Arm Recovery
11:40 Back to Basics: The Fundamentals of Breathing
17:52 The Impact of Changing Stroke Techniques
25:21 Bilateral Breathing and Breathing Patterns
29:58 Mobility, Flexibility, and Triathlon Training
35:09 The Pitfalls of Following Fitfluencers
39:21 The Accuracy of Metrics and Electronic Devices
41:51 Using Perceived Effort and Tuning into the Body
44:59 Getting Out of a Rut in Swimming: Ditch the Tech and Just Swim
49:07 Wetsuits and Buoyancy Shorts
51:30 Getting in Touch with Bek!
Follow Bek on Instagram and Facebook
Siri and Bek Squad:
https://siriandbeksquad.com/
Horses in Our Hands:
http://www.horsesinourhands.org
Believe Ranch Rescue:
http://www.believeranchandrescue.org
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How To Adapt Your Stroke For Triathlon Swimming with Bek Keat appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, Dr. Sandra Harrell, a former 5-time NCAA All-American swimmer and physical therapy expert, shares her insights on injury prevention, strength training, and performance optimization. With over 25 years of experience, Dr. Harrell covers the importance of consistent strength training, nutrition, and recovery. Her tips are valuable for athletes and those looking to stay fit as they age. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction
02:05 The Importance of Proper Treatment and Care for Injuries
06:06 Lessons Learned: How I Would Approach Swimming Injuries Differently
08:58 Common Mistakes in Nutrition for Athletes
12:02 When and How to Start Strength Training
16:46 The Importance of Progressive Loading
20:32 The Timeframe for Seeing Results in Strength Training
22:33 The Role of Nutrition in Muscle Building and Recovery
26:50 How to Make Nutrition and Training Effortless
29:14 Customized Programs: Tailoring Training for Athletes’ Goals
33:28 Finding the Right Balance: Training vs. Recovery
38:19 Success Stories: Overcoming Injuries and Improving Performance
42:46 Lifting Weights for Longevity: The Key to Enjoying Activities as We Age
48:33 How to Get in Touch with Sandra!
Website: https://www.theswimmersdoc.com/
Follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESSSWIM‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Building Swim-Specific Strength The Smart Way with Sandra Harrell appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
We’re thrilled to have Chipper and Chris, the powerhouse duo behind the Löw Tide Böyz, join us. Based in Northern California, this dynamic SwimRun team is on a mission to grow the sport of SwimRun and bring it to the forefront of endurance athletics. In this episode, we’ll explore why many endurance athletes are making the transition to this sport. We discuss the reasons behind its rapid growth and provide valuable insights for those interested in getting started with SwimRun. Tune in now!
00:54 Introduction to Chipper and Chris, the Löw Tide Böyz
6:27 What is SwimRun? The Basics and Origins
8:29 The Evolution of Equipment and Gear in SwimRun
13:55 Training and Strength Requirements for SwimRun
16:55 The aha moment: falling in love with SwimRun
20:36 Unexpected Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles in SwimRun
26:35 The Success of the Löw Tide Böyz Podcast: Building a Global Community
29:41 The Future of SwimRun: Innovations and Changes
35:04 Your Guide to Starting SwimRun: Resources and Tips
36:38 Get in touch with the Löw Tide Böyz!
Website: https://lowtideboyz.com/
Follow The Löw Tide Böyz on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post The Ins And Outs Of SwimRun (& Why It’s One Of The Fastest Growing Endurance Sports) with The Löw Tide Böyz appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
James Anderson is an Australian-based international speaker, author, and educator passionate about helping people become better learners. In today’s episode, we cover how to fast-track our improvement as swimmers, when and how to use feedback on our technique, as well how to develop the skill of learning for better results in our swimming, work and family lives.
02:53 Introduction to Learning and Learnership
04:27 Understanding the Difference: Being Taught vs. Learning
26:41 Different Levels of Learners
08:57 Differentiating Between Acceptable and Unacceptable Mistakes
12:05 Active Learning and Intentional Practice
14:56 Developing a Growth Mindset and Embracing Feedback
18:42 Transforming Feedback into Actionable Advice
24:32 Changing How You See Feedback
34:32 Comfort Zone vs. Learning Zone
38:25 Frustration as a Sign of Growth
45:43 Why Some Swimmers Get Faster Immediately, While Others Get Slower
47:20 Cultivating Habits of Mind
50:28 Get in touch with James!
Website: https://www.jamesanderson.com.au/
Get James Anderson’s book Learnership here:
https://www.jamesanderson.com.au/books
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESSSWIM‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How To Cut Your Learning Time In Half with James Anderson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, we’re excited to welcome Tracey Bauman back to the podcast! She was a hit on episode 338, where we discussed making swimming more comfortable and efficient. In this episode, we’ll dive deeper into building a strong connection between your torso, legs, and arms, and the importance of good posture and alignment. We’ll also explore the benefits of experimenting with different kicking techniques, how body rotation affects propulsion, and finding the right balance between stroke rate and stroke count. Tune in now!
01:33 Building the Body from the Inside Out: The Key to Connection and Timing
5:35 Breaking Down the Catch
11:00 Visualizing the Ideal Arm Position for Faster, Safer Swimming
14:38 Understanding the Role of the Kick
19:56 Choosing the Right Kick Type and How to Execute It
30:00 Finding Balance and Power through Body Rotation
37:23 Stroke Rate and Cadence
43:32 Why Chasing Times Isn’t Always the Answer
46:45 Get in touch with Tracy!
Website: https://www.swimmastery.online/tracey-baumann
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swimmastery/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialswimmastery
Buy the book (The Swim Mastery Way) and save 10% using the discount code SWIM10:
https://inhousebookstore.com.au/products/the-swim-mastery-way?_pos=1&_sid=f59356e26&_ss=r
Get SwimMastery’s Minimising Shoulder Injury in Freestyle course for 10% off with the code EFFORTLESS10:
https://members.swimmastery.online/product/minimising-shoulder-injury/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Finding Rhythm And Connection In Your Freestyle with Tracey Bauman appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we’re diving into a Q&A session where I will answer your questions submitted on Instagram! Tune in for helpful tips and insights on how to improve your swimming.
00:48 I tried adjusting my head position, but my legs still sit too low. Do you have any recommendations?
02:42 How do you keep your hand up and gliding during the reach phase?
05:26 How do I ensure I feel my lats during a workout rather than my traps and upper back?
06:47 I went from a 1:45 to a 1:32 pace in four months, thanks to you. Now I’m hitting a wall. Any advice?
09:04 Can you explain the timing for rotation in catch phase?
13:18 How long does it take to go from being a leisurely swimmer to a highly competent swimmer?
15:48 How do you improve the skill of feeling the water?
19:20 When I push hard on the pull, it speeds up my entire process. How do I keep the cadence regular?
22:20 First focus priority, kick or catch?
23:25 Why is swimming focused on rep time cycles instead of work-to-rest ratios?
24:38 My stomach drops but my head and legs are up, resulting in this weird U-shaped form. How do I fix it?
26:31 Send your questions!
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESSSWIM‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post How To Stop Your Arm From Dropping Like A Rock appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we have Laura Quilter, a New Zealand swimmer and coach who has previously been the national champion in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle. Laura has achieved a lifetime PB at the age of 31, with only a third of the training she was doing in her earlier years. She’s also ventured into the sport of ice swimming (water under 5 degrees celsius) and is coaching through her platform at Aura Move. Tune in now!
02:14 Introduction and Background
04:33 Training Changes and Mindset Shift
06:55 Understanding the Sprint Stroke: Differences and Techniques
10:03 Coaching Middle to Long Distance Swimmers: More Time to Work Through
14:56 Paralysis by Analysis: The Pitfalls of Overthinking in Swimming
16:39 The Importance of Fun and Play in Swimming and Racing
20:42 Shifting Competitive Focus to Skill Execution
23:37 Curiosity as a Key Element in Consistency
29:27 Ice Swimming: Challenges and Experiences
34:24 The Recovery Process: Stripping off wet clothes and getting warm
35:47 Adapting Coaching Techniques for Individual Swimmers
40:22 Get in touch with Laura!
Follow Laura on Instagram
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Get Faster As You Get Older with Laura Quilter appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we welcome back Nick Jankovskis, a sports scientist and endurance performance coach at METS Performance Consulting. Nick is an expert in improving endurance performance through accurate analysis of physiological testing. We dive into fueling and how to test physiology for endurance sports, particularly focusing on Ironman events and long-distance races. Nick shares insights on the new equipment at METS Performance that allows for more detailed testing and provides better numbers for fueling requirements. Tune in now!
00:49 Introduction and Upgrade in Equipment
03:37 Understanding the Breakdown of Fuel Utilization
08:35 Common Issues with Fueling
14:01 Timing and Frequency of Fuel Intake in Training Sessions
18:38 The Importance of Flexibility in Fueling
25:40 How Proper Fueling Can Improve Performance in Long Swimming Sessions
29:30 Challenges of Testing for Swimmers
39:41 Understanding Individual Differences in Fueling
52:12 The Power of Implementing Basic Fundamentals
53:18 Get in touch: Testing and Consultation Services
Website: https://metsperformance.com/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESSSWIM‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Content: Don’t Let The Numbers Rule Your Swimming with Nick Jankovskis
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post The Science Behind Swimming Faster For Longer with Nick Jankovskis appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’ll share some helpful tips from the clinics and sessions we run that will improve your swimming speed and efficiency on today’s podcast. I’ll also discuss some new equipment I’ve purchased that has improved my strength, made swimming more enjoyable, and boosted my overall performance.
00:18 Introduction
00:47 Avoiding Early Breathing in Freestyle: Head vs. Shoulder Rotation
02:37 Exploring Different Kick Techniques
06:09 Addressing Fatigue and Comfort in the Water
09:07 Improving Balance and Efficiency in the Water
13:37 The Game-Changing Custom Earplugs for Swimming
15:32 How a Chin Up Bar Helped Improve My Upper Body Strength
18:07 The Benefits of Anti Fog Goggles
20:10 How This Magnesium Powder Transformed My Sleep
21:25 ES Squad: Level Up Your Swim Workouts
24:25 Exciting Camps Planned for Next Year
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Use code SQUAD when joining the Effortless Swimming membership to get 50% off your first month:
https://www.effortlessswimming.coach/video-membership-checkout-monthly/?promo=squad
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Try PILLAR today, head to pillarperformance.shop and enter code EFFORTLESS for 15% off, or for any North American listeners, enter the same code at TheFeed.com.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post 4 Freestyle Mistakes That Are Costing You Time And Energy appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join us on this episode as we sit down with Tracey Baumann, the co-founder of SwimMastery and author of ‘The Swim Mastery Way’. With over 20 years of teaching and coaching experience, Tracy has worked with swimmers of all levels, from beginners to English Channel swimmers. In this podcast, Tracey shares her expert insights and cues from her book, offering valuable tips to help you become a faster and more efficient swimmer.
00:15 Introduction and Background
04:01 Breath Management and Overcoming Fear
exchange and calmness
09:18 Teaching Swimmers to Breathe Using Their Diaphragm: Challenges and Solutions
12:18 How Often Should You Breathe?
18:20 The Role of Bones and Joints in Achieving Proper Body Position
21:58 Exploring the Relationship Between Hip Flexors and Body Position in Water
26:04 Teaching Effective Kicking Techniques
28:00 Over-Rotation and Losing Position: Common 33:35 The Trident Analogy
35:16 Shoulders and Scapula Mechanics in Swimming: Debunking Common Misconceptions
38:33 Tapping into Natural Joint Mechanics for a Better Catch
42:44 Developing a Sensory Connection to the Water
47:11 The Power of Tactile Feedback in Swim Coaching
48:56 The Physics Behind a Correct Arm Recovery
55:00 Get in touch with Tracey!
Website: https://www.swimmastery.online/tracey-baumann
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swimmastery/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialswimmastery
Buy the book here and save 10% using the discount code SWIM10:
https://inhousebookstore.com.au/products/the-swim-mastery-way?_pos=1&_sid=f59356e26&_ss=r
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless10‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Freestyle Mastery: Practical Tips for Perfecting Your Stroke with Tracey Baumann appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Felipe Telles broke the magical 60-minute barrier in his first ever Ironman swim, coming in at 56 minutes with an average of 1:28/100m. When he first started swimming a few years ago, Felipe struggled to go faster than 2:00/100m. So how did he manage to increase his speed by that much? Find out in today’s podcast episode.
00:56 Swimming Background
03:34 The Impact of Learning the Right Technique
07:09 How Relaxation Transforms Your Swim
09:50 The Benefits of Incorporating Drills in Swim Workouts
13:18 Structured Sessions: Warm-ups, Technique, and Intense Training
16:46 Finding the Balance: Consistency vs. Pushing Too Hard in Training
20:35 How to Get the Most Out of Your Swim Training
24:23 How Observing Others Can Improve Your Technique
31:20 Catch and Pull: Finding the Right Amount of Power
37:23 Swimming Tips for Triathletes: Small Changes, Big Results
41:24 Follow Felipe on Instagram for Inspiring Content
Follow Felipe on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 20% off wetsuits at Great Ocean Wetsuits with code ‘EFFORTLESS20’:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
5 Day Catch Challenge:
https://effortlessswimming.com/5-day-catch-challenge/
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Related Content:[Case Study] 2:05 to 1:40/100m in 4 months with Felipe Telles
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How This Non-Swimmer Broke The 60-Minute Barrier In His First Ironman Swim with Felipe Telles appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, Quest Meeks shares his inspiring journey of transforming from a non-swimmer to comfortably swimming over 1000 yards without stopping. He opens up about the mental and physical obstacles he had to overcome along the way. Join us as we dive into this episode!
01:02 Swimming Background
9:00 Doing Half Ironman
09:30 I Gotta Start With Something
16:52 But Swimming
25:53 Signing Up For The Stroke Analysis
35:53 Kicking Hard
44:18 Climbing Up A Mountain
47:10 It’s Not Comfortable But I Am Not Dying
Follow Quest on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-clinics
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless10‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post From Gassed Out At 50 Yards To Swimming 1000 Without Stopping with Quest Meeks appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we have Carl Reader, a functional movement coach with a background in exercise physiology and Pilates. We will discuss the connection between hamstring strength, mobility, and how it can improve swimming performance. Carl has extensive experience working with swimmers to improve their movement and strength training. Join us as we delve into his research and practices in today’s episode.
00:00 Introduction
00:59 Techniques and Tips from a Functional Movement Coach
01:59 The Role of Hamstrings in Maintaining Speed and Efficiency in Swimming
05:21 Exploring the Relationship Between Hamstrings and Calf Muscles
08:14 Factors Affecting Hamstring Strength
11:20 Strengthening Techniques for Better Posture and Muscle Activation
13:39 Squats: One of the Best Ways to Strengthen the Hamstring
17:43 Signs to Look Out for: Indicators of Hamstring Issues
21:08 Core Engagement in Squats: Finding Balance
More About Carl Reader:
website: https://carlreadercoaching.com/
email: carlwellness@gmail.com
Get the Functional Movement Course here
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 20% off wetsuits at Great Ocean Wetsuits with code ‘EFFORTLESS20’:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Related Content:
Functional Movement For Swimmers With Carl Reader
Swimming (And Moving) Pain Free with Carl Reader
The One Exercise That Solves Most Aches And Pains with Carl Reader
Stop ‘Hauling’ Yourself Through The Water & Swim With Ease with Carl Reader
How To Strengthen And Stretch Your Hip Flexors For A Better Kick with Carl Reader
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Why Your Neglecting Your Hamstring Strength Is Making You Slower with Carl Reader appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Prescott Balch is an ironman triathlete who started at 2:10/100m, and is now able to consistently swim under 1:30/100m. He recently broke through a plateau in his swim times by focusing on one change to his swim technique. In this podcast, we delve into what changes Prescott made and some unique approaches he took to fixing these areas of his stroke.
00:00 Introduction
01:09 Overcoming Plateaus and Finding Speed
05:27 Weak Core, Weak Performance
12:02 Body Awareness Challenges for Adult Onset Swimmers
16:35 How Dead Hangs and Handstands Improve Upper Body Strength
21:14 Executing a Well-Planned Race: Negative Splits and Smooth Pacing
30:45 How a Good Swim Sets the Tone for the Rest of the Race
34:57 What’s next for Prescott?
38:27 Exploring the Concept of “Swimming Downhill”
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless10‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Content: [Case Study] What To Do When Your Open Water Times Are Slower Than Your Pool Times with Prescott Balch
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How This Triathlete Cracked The Code To Swim Under 1:30/100m with Prescott Balch appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we discuss three ways to generate more propulsion without getting tired, along with a drill that will help you practice each of these methods.
00:16 Generating propulsion
01:31 The Size of the Paddle
03:44 The Power Phase of the Stroke
08:31 Accelerate Through the Stroke.
11:01 Keyhole Drill
12:58 Building Power and Speed in Your Stroke
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless10‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post Three Ways To Generate More Propulsion (Without Getting Tired) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we have a special guest, marathon swimmer Andy Donaldson, who is a three-time world record holder. Andy shares his insights on freestyle technique and how he is able to maintain an impressive pace of 1:12 per 100m for 4 hours. This episode focuses solely on technique, as we delve into Andy’s thought process and approach to his stroke. Tune in now!
00:00 Andy’s Background
2:31 Where is your head position?
2:58 How often are you breathing?
4:30 How do you use your kick?
5:23 What does your recovery look like?
8:09 What is the end of your stroke like?
9:07 What is your rotation like?
9:47 How did you develop your catch?
11:13 How much power are you putting into each stroke?
11:54 What do you do to increase your swim speed?
13:11 How do you like to train?
14:20 What pace are you aiming for?
14:49 What stroke rate are you aiming for?
Follow Andy on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 20% off wetsuits at Great Ocean Wetsuits with code ‘EFFORTLESS20’:
https://greatoceanwetsuits.com/
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Related Content:
On A Mission To Complete The Oceans Seven in One Year with Andy Donaldson
Completing The Oceans 7 In One Year with Andy Donaldson
Watch the video on YouTube:
The post The Technique Behind Holding 1:12/100m For 4 hours with Andy Donaldson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In March of 2024, Dean Summers set out to break the record for Australia’s longest ever unassisted swim. Leaving from Newcastle’s Nobbys beach and planning to land at Palm Beach, Sydney for a total of 95.6km. Battling blue bottle jellyfish, hallucinations and less than perfect conditions, Dean had a challenge ahead of him. The swim had been unsuccessfully attempted by two other swimmers in the 1980’s and 90’s, including well known Australian swimmer Des Renford whose shark cage sunk off the coast after treacherous conditions. In this episode, you’ll hear the story of an expedition into waters that have never been swam in.
00:00 Introduction
03:52 The Origin of the Newcastle to Sydney Swim
08:44 Building the Dream Team: Finding the Right Support
11:59 The Commitment and Preparation for a Long Swim
14:08 Navigating 07Whirlpools and Tides
16:45 Feeding Strategy : Carbohydrates and Protein
20:11 The Constant Sting: Battling Bluebottles in the Ocean
23:15 Bioluminescence and the Milky Way
29:44 The Final Stretch: Locking in on the Goal and Reaching the Beach
34:35 Post-Swim Reflections: Burnt and Hungry
38:44 Lessons Learned from a Grueling Swim
44:15 The Connection Between Family and the Love of Water
50:30 What’s next?
Follow Dean on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless10‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post The Expedition: Australia’s Longest Ever Swim with Dean Summers appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Dan Eisenhardt, CEO and Founder of FORM Swim, shares his journey of creating the world’s first augmented reality swim goggles. Discover how real-time data can enhance your training sessions, the most useful features of the goggles, and the challenges faced during development. If you’re looking to forge your own path in your professional life, Dan also provides valuable insights on getting started and three essential considerations for starting a business. Tune in to this episode for all this and more.
02:05 The Light Bulb Moment
04:49 The Evolution of Technology in Swimming Goggles
06:23 Testing the Prototype
07:52 The Complications of Delivering Low Latency Heart Rate Sensing in Water
12:47 The Indispensable Tool for Swimmers
13:56 Taking Areas of Interest and Experience to Create Something Different
16:13 Serendipity and the Right Place, Right Time
20:17 The Importance of Learning from Competitors
24:13 Acting with Conviction: Getting Things Done
29:00 Favourite Features in Form goggles
32:44 The Value of Premium Offerings
38:36 The Three Key Factors in Business Success
43:02 Form Goggles: A Game-Changer for Low-Tech Swimmers
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Join the FORM giveaway here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6F52A8SrAd/?hl=en
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless10‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Trust Your Gut Instinct (And Tread Your Own Path) with Dan Eisenhardt appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing some of the mistakes I made in coaching and the valuable lessons I learned along the way. I believe these lessons can help you avoid similar pitfalls and succeed in your coaching journey. Additionally, I’m excited to announce the launch of our new course, the Freestyle Coaching Masterclass. Be sure to tune in!
00:30 Coaching Masterclass
04:02 Be Firm And Not Their Friend
06:52 Setting Minimum Standards
10:37 Energy is Transferred
13:28 Being Memorable
15:53 4 Hours Workweek : Mexican Fisherman and the Banker
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless10‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post The 4 Biggest Mistakes I Made In Coaching (And How To Get More From Your Coach) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we sit down with Jarrod Briffa, an Australian freediving athlete, instructor, and online coach trained in the Oxygen Advantage. Jarrod’s expertise lies in the power of breath and how it can enhance performance, reduce stress, and aid in recovery. As the founder of Drifters Freediving, he offers courses and private coaching to help individuals improve their breathing techniques. He has been the Australian Men’s Champion at The Pool Freediving National Championships and has represented Australia in pool freediving at international competitions. Join us as we explore the importance of proper breathing in sports and everyday life.
00:00 Introduction
02:37 The Importance of CO2 Tolerance in Breathing
04:57 Understanding CO2 Tolerance and Breathing Patterns
08:12 Assessments and Exercises for CO2 Tolerance
9:52 Diaphragmatic Awareness for Swimmers: Techniques and Benefits
16:57 Building CO2 Tolerance
20:28 Benefits of Nasal Breathing for Swimmers
23:00 The Science of Breath Holding: Understanding Your Body’s Responses and Limits
30:15 Breathing Easy in the Water: Effective Exercises and Techniques for Swimmers
38:40 Mental Strategies for Increasing Breath Length
39:43 Race Day Breathing Strategies for Swimmers
42:29 The Relationship Between CO2 Tolerance and Lactic Tolerance
47:37 The Impact of Proper Breathing on Recovery and Performance
51:09 Get In Touch with Jarod for Coaching!
Visit Drifters Freediving on their Website and Instagram
Follow Jarrod on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Why We Get Breathless (And What To Do About It) with Jarrod Briffa appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Hollie Buerckner, an osteopath and swimmer, shares tips on preventing and rehabilitating shoulder injuries in a podcast episode. She suggests specific exercises to address shoulder issues and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balance between strength and mobility. Tune in to learn more.
00:00 Introduction
02:38 Understanding Shoulder Injuries in Swimmers
03:25 Four Causes of Shoulder Pain in Swimmers
05:13 Relationship Between Shoulder Pain and Range of Motion
09:51 Effective Shoulder Exercises for Swimmers
14:36 Common Mistakes Leading to Shoulder Pain in Swimmers
18:02 YTA Exercise for Scapular Strength
20:06 High Intensity vs. High Volume Training
22;34 Importance of Addressing Shoulder Pain Early
24:32 Balancing Mobility and Strength Training for Busy Athletes
27:42 The Stubbornness of Swimmers in Dealing with Pain
29:44 Motivation to Take Care of the Body
35:11 Get in touch with Hollie!
Follow Hollie on Instagram
Osteos on Sunshine
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Why Swimmers Get Shoulder Injuries (And What To Do About It) with Hollie Buerckner appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this podcast episode, we hear from Jay Mueller, an emergency doctor who started swimming 16 months ago after injuries led him to take up the sport, as he could no longer run or ride. When Jay first started, he was averaging 2:15-2:30/100m and finding he was exhausted after a few hundred meters. Fast forward to today, where he is consistently swimming between 1:20-1:30 in training, with a personal best of 1:06 in the 100m freestyle. Tune in to learn about his transformation and the lessons he has learned along the way.
00:00 Introduction and Background
4:21 Initial Pace and Improvement
7:21 From Fast Swims to Sustainable Laps
9:38 The Science Behind Shoulder Pain Relief through Static Hangs
15:27 Improving Rotation and Reach
18:22 Strategies for Maintaining Buoyancy and Momentum in the Water
23:15 The Challenges of Learning a New Skill
28:28 Importance of Body Awareness in Swimming Technique
34:09 Drills for Technique Improvement
37:47 Impressive Swimming Progress in a Short Time
38:34 Being Patient and Kind to Yourself
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How I Slashed My 100m Freestyle Time to 1:06 with Jay Mueller appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we dive into a conversation with Frank Sole, the author of ‘The Five “B” Method to a Successful Triathlon Swim.’ We discuss Frank’s evolution as a coach since writing the book, his key lessons for new athletes, and the importance of terminology in training and team dynamics. Frank also shares insights on leveraging breathing techniques for improved performance in the water, drawing from his training with a world-renowned expert. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction
02:01 Challenges and Rewards of Coaching Retired Athletes
05:47 Elevating Your Swimming Sessions
09:59 Empowering Athletes Through Coaching: Building Trust and Value
16:04 The Science and Art of Mental Strength in Sports
20:21 Overcoming Setbacks and Staying Committed to Swim Training
22:21 The Power of Developing Good Habits
25:42 Breath Control and Body Position
30:33 Breath Work for Athletes: Building Lung Capacity and Endurance
36:47 Back to Basics: The Fundamental Role of Breathing in Coaching
43:09 Enhancing Swimming Skills through Play and Exploration
46:46 Swimming Without a Watch: Embracing the Feel of the Water
51:12 Embracing the Suck and Enjoying the Journey
55:40 Finding Creative Ways to Convey Instructions to Athletes
57:47 Celebrating Progress: Recognizing Improvements in Swimming
1: 01:11 Lessons Learned from Coaching Older Athletes
1:02:47 Get in touch with Frank Sole!
Get the book The Five “B” Method to a Successful Triathlon Swim on Amazon.
Visit Frank’s website for coaching:
https://soleswimsolutions.com/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related content: The Five ‘B’ Method To A Succesful Triathlon Swim with Frank Sole
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Breathing, Body Position & Balance with Frank Sole appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join us in today’s episode as we interview one of the best open water swimmers in the world, Sharon van Rouwendaal. We will delve into her recent double win at the world championships, her intense training regimen, and the mental fortitude that drives her success. She will be sharing insights on her transition from pool to open water swimming, managing injuries, and the importance of technique and kick in her training. Uncover Sharon’s unwavering commitment to greatness, and her relentless pursuit of improvement. Tune in now!
01:41 The Double Win
05:56 The 110 Kilometer Week
08:23 Building Mental Toughness and Confidence
11:16 Training Environment and Culture
14:10 Understanding Open Water Racing
16:35 Transitioning from Pool to Open Water
18:35 Overcoming Shoulder Injury
22:11 Mastering the 6-beat kick
24:54 Learning from a New Coach
26:04 Coaching Others and Sharing Knowledge
30:46 Effective Communication in Coaching: Simplifying Techniques
32:56 5 Different Levels of Speed and Heart Rate Zones
37:34 Challenging Sets and Progression in Swim Training
41:10 Analyzing Training Sets and Building Confidence
44:05 Managing Training Load and Sleep
49:07 Challenges of Transitioning from Running to Swimming
50:34 Exploring Hobbies Beyond Sports
52:52 What’s next for Sharon?
Follow Sharon on Instagram
Open water swimming and clinic with Sharon:
https://bestcentresports.com/sports/open-water/sharon-van-rouwendaal-openwater-swimming-pool-clinic/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Olympic Gold, 110km In A Week & Why You Should Never Stop Learning with Sharon Van Rouwendaal appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
James ‘Iron Cowboy’ Lawrence is best known for his world record attempts at completing multiple Ironman events over consecutive days. Firstly, in 2015, he successfully completed 50 Ironmans in 50 days in 50 US states. Then in 2021, he decided to double this and complete 100 Ironmans in 100 days, going on to do this and one more to finish 101. The documentary on this challenge is coming out in March 2024. James is also a public speaker who was given the gift to ‘suffer’ and now helps provide hope to others and teach mental toughness through voluntary suffering. This episode is not to be missed.
00:00 Introduction
03:21 The Good, the Bad, and the Funny Moments
10:19 Lessons Learned in 50 Ironmans and Conquer 100
14:20 Pushing Limits and Ignoring Pain
15:52 Building Mental Toughness and Resilience
19:13 Mindfulness: Cultivating Inner Peace Amidst Distractions
21:15 How Disconnecting Can Improve Your Mental Health
23:22 Finding Mental Clarity Through Physical Activity
26:25 The Impact of Community and Shared Experiences
34:43 Embracing Difficulties: The Path to Growth and Wisdom
38:22 The Power of Physical Activity and Discomfort
39:48 The Motivation Behind the 50 and 100 Challenges
44:25 The Importance of Hope and Giving Back
47:07 Living Unapologetically and Without Fear of Judgment
50:16 Prioritizing Family Over Others’ Opinions
51:55 What’s next for James?
Follow James on Instagram
Check out his website:
https://www.ironcowboy.com/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Choosing Your Suffering: How Anyone Can Become Mentally Tough with James ‘Iron Cowboy’ Lawrence appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s podcast episode, professional triathlete and coach Mitch Kibby shares his journey from having little swimming background as a child to becoming a front pack swimmer in the pro field. He is the head coach and founder of i4 Coaching and has worked with Effortless Swimming at our clinics and camps. Mitch discusses his strategies for improving swimming performance and offers valuable insights and tips for swimmers and triathletes looking to improve their skills. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction
02:39 Swimming Background
07:51 Long Journey to Success
11:01 Lessons Learned from Early Days of Training
16:55 Refining Coaching Cues
17:51 Tips from Elite Triathletes
23:36 Front End Speed Training
27:55 The Power of Training in Challenging Environments
29:22 Shorter Sets, Greater Gains
34:12 Improving Performance through Specific Training
36:15 The Value of Training Partners and Squad Training
39:12 The Hardest and Best Things About Being a Pro Triathlete
42:23 The Benefits of a Flexible Lifestyle
44:00 Transforming Negative Self-Talk into Positive Motivation
49:04 Maintaining Emotional Stability and Setting Realistic Goals
52:06 What’s next for Mitch Kibby?
Follow Mitch on Instagram
Check out i4 Coaching here:
https://www.i4coaching.com.au/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Strategies To Become A ‘Front Pack’ Swimmer with Mitch Kibby appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, triathlon coach and author Joe Friel returns to discuss swimming and open water techniques, as well as his latest edition of The Triathlete’s Training Bible. Joe addresses common challenges triathletes face when transitioning from pool to open water. He emphasizes the importance of patience in making lasting improvements and offers tips for pool training to enhance open water swimming skills. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction and Previous Episode Recap
2:56 Updates in the Book
4:42 Different Methods for Establishing Intensity Zones
8:49 The Role of Rest and Recovery in Athletic Performance
12:54 Debunking Swimming Myths: The Death Move That Kills Your Progress
16:05 The First Step to a Strong Catch
17:51 Reaching Over the Water in Open Water Swimming
22:50 How Open Water Swimmers Adapt to Rough Conditions
25:10 Teaching Open Water Swimming: The Three Key Words
26:40 Why Intervals Might Not Be Effective for Triathletes in the Pool
32:27 Importance of Focusing on Technique and Patience
36:18 Hardest Swim Workout Prescribed
40:34 Empowering Triathletes to Stick to Effective Swimming Methods
42:28 Most Memorable Triathlon Race
45:04 Golf as a Hobby and Lessons Learned
48:12 Problem-solving and Coaching Methodology
50:15 Triathletes Training Bible: A Must-Have Resource for Athletes
The Triathlete’s Training Bible (5th Edition)
Training Plans:
https://joefrieltraining.com/
The Craft of Coaching is by Joe Friel:
https://www.fasttalklabs.com/category/the-craft-of-coaching/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Podcast: Unlocking Speed: Mastering the PDLC Method for Triathlon Swimming with Joe Friel
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Proven Strategies For Fast And ‘Effortless’ Swimming with Joe Friel appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Matthew McElroy is a professional triathlete with 9 World Cup podiums and 1 World Triathlon podium. He was selected as an alternate for the Tokyo Olympics. With a background in cross country and track and field, Matthew had to work hard to develop his swim to get it to an elite level to compete with the best on the world stage. In this podcast, we’ll dive into how he radically transformed his swimming stroke over the last 10 years.
00:00 Introduction
01:56 Swimming Background
05:45 Transitioning from Running to Swimming
11:25 Building Upper Body Strength and Progressing in Triathlon
17:32 Working on Speed and Underwater Techniques
23:49 Balancing Distance per Stroke and Cadence
28:04 Training Strategies for Improving Stroke Rate and Speed
32:33 Explaining Stroke Technique and Focus Areas
34:02 The Importance of Consistency in Swim Training
36:54 Why Video Analysis and Having a Coach Are a Must
41:18 The Power of Mindset: How it Impacts Your Performance
42:52 Overcoming Doubt: Harnessing the Power of Positive Thoughts in Racing
46:16 Superhero Posture: Boosting Confidence in Races
47:42 Situational Awareness in Open Water Swimming:
49:32 Handling Frustration in Open Water Races
51:19 Qualifying for the Paris Olympics
Follow Matt on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How This Runner Transformed Into A Swimmer (And Pro Triathlete) with Matthew McElroy appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
We have an extraordinary guest, Gerrard Gosens, who is a three-time Paralympian and has an impressive list of accomplishments. From competing in running to representing Australia in triathlon at the Commonwealth Games, Gerrard has proven himself as an exceptional athlete. But his achievements don’t stop there. He has climbed Mount Everest, completed a 2000km run from Cairns to Brisbane multiple times, and even appeared on Dancing with the Stars.
However, what makes Gerrard’s story truly remarkable is his current endeavor to become the first blind person to swim across the English Channel. In this episode, Gerrard shares his journey, the training involved, and the importance of teamwork in achieving such a groundbreaking goal. Tune in now!
02:01 Training to be the First Blind Person to Cross the English Channel
05:21 Overcoming Limitations in Different Training Environments
06:57 Swimming Long Distances with Guide Swimmers
08:48 Swimming with a Tether: The Experience and Benefits
12:15 Listening to the Depth of the Water
13:23 Meet the Guides Taking on the UK Swim
14:55 From Running to Swimming: Embracing Solitude in Training
18:44 Focusing on the Journey, Not the Time
19:56 Overcoming the Quandaries of Swim Technique
24:07 Finding the Balance: Training and Time Management
25:36 Using Emotional Carbohydrates
31:52 Jellyfish, Sea Lice, and Stingrays: Unexpected Encounters in the Water
36:52 Lessons Learned Through Sport
39:52 198 Days to Gerrard’s English Channel Swim
Follow Gerrard on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post Life at Full Throttle: Why Extreme Challenges Ignite and Satisfy Your Life’s Journey with Gerrard Gosens appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we have a fascinating story of transformation. Our guest, pro triathlete Will Draper, started his swimming journey with poor technique and average performance. However, through dedication and hard work, he has completely transformed his swimming abilities. From being unrecognizable in his stroke analysis video in 2019 to becoming a pro triathlete in 2021, Will’s progress is truly remarkable. Join us as we dive into Will’s journey, exploring the strategies and mindset that fueled his transformation. Discover how Will bridged the gap from a non-swimming background to now swimming strongly, only seconds away from the front pack. Tune in now!
02:04 Introduction and Background
03:46 The Key Moment: Choosing Triathlon Over Cycling
05:52 Training Regime and Approach to Swimming
08:29 Benefits of Training in a Squad vs. Training Alone
10:43 Viewing Swimming as an Infinite Game
12:48 Overcoming Mental Barrier
15:52 Diversifying Workouts: Incorporating Longer Intervals for Speed Work
20:44 Lessons Learned from a Challenging Race
24:35 Transformation from Poor Swimmer to Competitive Triathlete
28:02 Swimming Confidence and Appearance
31:27 Advice for Non-Swimmers in Triathlon
37:25 Triathlon Goals: Aiming for the Front Pack
40:50 Importance of Video Analysis and Making Small Changes
42:47 Follow Will Draper on Instagram
Outsweep First, Insweep Second:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRc-F8tLe4Y&t=7s
Triathlete’s CRAZY Technique Transformation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrlkZjvyewY&t=54s
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Get 15% off our 8-week Faster Freestyle course by using the code 8week15
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post From Non-Swimmer To Pro Triathlete with Will Draper appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we catch up with professional triathlete Amelia Watkinson, who has achieved remarkable success in her career. With over 17 wins and numerous podium finishes, Amelia shares her secrets to consistency and staying at the top of her game. We dive into her favorite swim training sessions, and the best advice she’s received from her coach, and explore various topics related to training, racing, and the mental aspect of being an athlete. Amelia also opens up about overcoming challenges, managing pressure, and finding perspective in the sport. Whether you’re a swimmer or a triathlete, this episode is packed with valuable insights that can elevate your training, regardless of your skill level. So join us as we uncover what it takes to compete at the top level and apply those lessons to your own athletic journey.
00:00 Introduction
01:36 Limited Spots Left! Don’t Miss Out on Our 2024 Swim Camps
02:37 Taking Control of Your Time: How Blocking Out Dates Led to Personal Growth
04:10 Taking Regular Training Breaks Can Help Prevent Burnout and Improve Performance
05:55 Swimming Background and Improvement
08:22 The Benefits of Training in a Squad Environment
11:29 Finishing Strong and Overcoming Challenges
15:08 Words of Wisdom from Coaches and Mentors
16:03 Tips for Managing Time Differences and Stress while Traveling for Racing
17:27 Helping Age Groupers and Amateur Triathletes Feel More Comfortable
19:17 Lessons Learned and Evolving as an Athlete
20:43 Prioritizing Training Over Screen Time
24:15 Training Solo vs. Training with Others
24:46 Standout Races and Moments in the Last 10 Years
27:24 Managing Pressure: A Privilege and a Challenge
30:47 Upcoming Races and Goals
Amelia’s Video
Follow Amelia on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless15‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How To Perform When It Matters with Amelia Watkinson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Get ready to dive into the world of triathlon with our guest, Clayton Fettell, a former professional triathlete turned full-time coach. With 15 years of racing experience under his belt, Clayton has a wealth of knowledge to share. Join us as we explore the key lessons he learned at the pro level and how he passes them on to his athletes. Discover the traits and habits that lead to improved speed and technique, and gain insights into Clayton’s favorite training sets that he uses to help his athletes excel. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction and Background
01:09 Highlights from Pro Racing Career
07:07 The Impact of Parenthood on Perspective
09:04 Transitioning from Athlete to Coach
13:28 Challenging the Fastest: A 1K Race in Noosa
14:31 Importance of Technical Focus in Swimming
19:07 Recognizing and Addressing Your Own Swimming Weaknesses
22:48 The Impact of Wetsuits on Swimming Performance
25:40 The Need for Technical Emphasis in Triathlon Swimming
30:14 Why is Video Analysis Important For Swim Improvement?
36:21 Tips for Swimming in Choppy Conditions
42:58 Setting Paces and Gauging Effort
48:18 The Calming Effect of Disconnecting: How Technology-Free Swimming Can Improve Results
54:31 The Unconventional Technique of Olympic Champion Runners
58:51 Get in touch with Clayton!
Follow Clayton on Instagram
Visit his website
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
Use the code ‘8week10‘ for a 10% discount on our 8-week Faster Freestyle course:
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘Effortless10‘ at checkout to receive 10% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related content:
First Out Of The Water with Clayton Fettell
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post The Traits Of Successful Triathlon And Open Water Swimmers with Clayton Fettell appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Ready to level up your swimming game this year? In this episode, we’re letting loose a treasure trove of ideas that will make your swimming better than ever before. Whether you’ve been swimming for a long time or are just starting out. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction
00:25 Infinite Games in Swimming: Finding Joy in the Process
03:09 The Concept of Play: Incorporating Fun into Swimming
05:06 Investing in Experiences: Rethinking Financial Planning for a Fulfilling Life
10:35 How to Be Honest About Your Strengths and Weaknesses in Training
12:09 The Power of Habits: Transforming Your Life as an Athlete
14:09 Training Solo? Effortless Swimming Membership Has You Covered
16:13 More Exclusive Interviews with Pro Triathletes: Insights and Inspiration
Die with Zero:
https://www.amazon.com/Die-Zero-Getting-Your-Money/dp/0358099765
Atomic Habits:
https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
Galapagos Swim Trip 2024:
https://effortlessswimming.com/galapagos/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post 5 Ideas That Will Make 2024 Your Best Year Yet appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, Carl Reader, an expert in exercise physiology and Pilates, discusses exercises that can improve movement patterns for swimmers. He focuses on the modified squat, which enhances mobility and activates the hip flexors, and the sumo squat, which targets inner thigh muscles and aids in knee stabilization. Carl emphasizes the importance of addressing imbalances and discusses the electrical system of the body. Tune in to learn how to enhance your swimming performance through improved movement patterns.
00:00 Introduction and Background
2:11 Modified Squat
4:53 Using Slant Boards and Rolled Mats for Better Squatting and Hip Flexor Activation
6:29 Sumo Squat
8:15 Understanding the Depth of Squats: Finding Comfort and Avoiding Back Strain
12:55 Common Movement Patterns in Swimmers
16:29 The Importance of Addressing Shoulder Imbalances in Swimming
19:49 Barefoot: Exploring the Connection Between Movement and Grounding
23:03 Muscle Warm-Up and Understanding the Body’s Electrical System
24:48 Why patience and dedication are important for building strength and mobility
26:01 Get in touch with Carl!
More About Carl Reader:
website: https://carlreadercoaching.com/
email: carlwellness@gmail.com
Functional Movement Course
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How To Strengthen And Stretch Your Hip Flexors For A Better Kick with Carl Reader appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join me today as we sit down with Andrew Sheaff, a highly accomplished coach and author of the book “A Constraints-Led Approach to Swim Coaching.” In this episode, Andrew shares his expertise on various aspects of swimming, including breathing techniques and innovative methods for improving catch and pull development. Whether you’re a competitive swimmer or simply looking to enhance your swimming skills, this podcast is a must-listen for anyone seeking valuable insights and practical tips from a true expert in the field.
00:00 Introduction
01:22 Improving Breath Awareness and Technique for Swimmers of All Levels
04:45 Mixing Up Breathing Patterns in Swim Training
07:25 Breaking Comfort Zones: Exploring the Benefits of Breathing to the Non-Preferred Side
09:03 A Drill to Improve Breathing on Both Sides
12:15 Common Mistakes in Breathing
18:00 Visual Tricks for Improving Breathing
20:20 Developing a Strong and Effective Catch and Pull
26:39 Knowing When to Push and When to Stop in Training
30:36 Don’t Skip the Basics: The Significance of Body Position
34:31 Addressing Low Hips and Legs in Swimmers: Key Factors to Consider
36:44 Learn more about Andrew Shaeff and his work
Get the book HERE
Get in touch with Andrew:
https://www.coachandrewsheaff.com/
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Put An End To Sinking Legs And Being Exhausted Quickly with Andrew Shaeff appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Have you ever wondered what makes certain podcast episodes stand out, becoming favorites among listeners? Join us as we explore the most impactful episodes from this year on the Effortless Swimming Podcast. From overcoming mental barriers to training secrets of Olympic athletes, each episode has left a lasting impression on our listeners. Reflecting on these conversations, we’ll uncover the wisdom and experiences shared by our guests and the valuable life lessons they offer. Gain insights into what made these episodes popular and discover the secrets that set them apart from the rest!
00:32 EP #267: How To Adapt Your Stroke For Triathlons with 70.3 World Champion Tim Reed
05:55 EP #272: Swim Softer To Go Faster with Brant Best
10:37 EP #279: How Swimming Instills Lifelong Discipline with Pro Triathlete Joshua Lewis
17:14 EP #286: What It Takes To Win Olympic Gold And Break Worlds Records with Ryan Murph
25:19 EP #278: Using Stroke Rate, DPS and Consistency To Transform Your Swimming with Brian Johns
30:19 EP #263: A Simple Guide To Finding The Cause Of Your Technique Errors (Not Just The Symptom)
32:52 EP #275: Mental Hack for Marginal Mental Gains with Dr Jim Taylor
37:05 EP #288: How Olympians Use Underwater Filming And Analysis with Kyle Chalmers
41:35 EP #276: On A Mission To Complete The Oceans Seven in One Year with Andy Donaldson
44:48 EP #293: Swimming Secrets With 4x Olympian Brent Hayden
50:22 EP #298: Maintaining Your Competitive Edge For Life with 5x World Champion Craig Alexander
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Do you want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
The post This is the Best Bits From 2023 appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, professional speaker and author Glenn Capelli shares his expertise on learning better and making better decisions. He focuses specifically on how to improve swimming skills and mindset. Glenn discusses various topics he has studied throughout his life that can be applied to swimming, including getting into flow, maximizing the fun factor in training, using magic words to change approach, and developing small habits that lead to significant results. Tune in to this episode to gain valuable insights and tips for becoming a better swimmer.
01:45 Swimming for Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Health
04:08 The Essence of Flow: Finding Mental and Metabolic Flexibility
07:14 Finding Flow in Swimming: When Time Becomes a Blur
09:51 Discovering Flow in Other Aspects of Life
12:54 Flow and the Power of Whole Brain, Whole Body Engagement
15:01 What is Autotelic?
20:13The Power of Shifting Language: Instead of ‘Have to’, Say ‘Get to'”
24:09 The Endless Journey of Learning: Upping the Challenge, Upping the Skills
27:50 Finding Beauty and Challenge in Swimming and Life
29:12 How Small Changes Can Lead to Success
31:09 Improvement of Life and Training: More, Less, Get Rid of, Throw In, Instead Of
34:45 Swimming is More Than Just a Sport, It’s a Path to Friendship and Social Circles
35:57 Connecting with Glenn!
Get in touch with Glenn on LinkedIn.
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Learn Faster, Change Quicker with Glenn Capelli appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join us in this inspiring episode as we talk to professional triathlete Kat Matthews. Despite a major setback in 2022 when she was hit by a car before the Kona Ironman World Championships, Kat found inspiration and made a triumphant comeback the following year. We discuss her journey of overcoming adversity and her impressive second-place finish at the Ironman World Championships. Whether you’re a seasoned swimmer or just starting out, this episode offers valuable insights. Tune in now!
01:59 Swimming Background
05:12 The Battle of Overthinking
08:20 Recognizing the Difference Between a Good and Bad Swim
11:48 How Head Position Can Impact Swimming
14:53 The Connection Between Kick and Body Position
18:16 Choosing the Right Fins: DMC Elite vs. Arena Powerfins
21:06 Ballerina in a Bucket Cue
22:39 Navigating Loss and Grief: Kat’s Journey After the Accident
29:27 The Clues Trauma Leaves: Understanding the Psychological and Physical Effects
31:38 The Double-Edged Sword: Putting Emphasis on Race Results
34:43 Setting Achievable Goals and How Breaking Down Objectives Can Boost Motivation
39:12 The Importance of Translating Training Performance to Race Results
41:42 The Trap of Overdoing Training for Numbers
45:34 The Rewards of Following a Structured Training Routine
51:45 Swimming Advice for Beginners
Follow Kat on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Transforming Life’s Challenges into Catalysts for Growth with Kat Matthews appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we welcome back Dr Jim Taylor, a renowned psychologist specializing in sports and performance. Dr Taylor shares his insights and strategies from his recent experience at the World Championships in Spain. We discuss topics such as adjusting intensity based on race distance, effective focus and mindset for training and racing, and the importance of being brutally honest with oneself for improvement. Tune in for an enlightening conversation with Dr Jim Taylor.
03:34 Balancing Athletic and Professional Life
04:50 The Range of Physical Intensity in Swimming and its Impact on Performance
08:27 Finding the Balance Between Relaxation and Intensity
15:13 How to Clear Your Mind for Better Performance and What Happens When You Overthink in Races
18:14 Focusing on Higher Cadence and Intensity in Training
20:17 Progressing through Different Levels of Swimming
22:11 Developing a Mindset Plan for Racing
25:49 Tapping into Physical Fuel with the Mind
27:45 Practicing Mental Imagery for Race Preparation
29:20 Applying a Reality Check to Race Results and Performance Evaluation
31:46 The Value of Testing and Assessing Performance
36:44Having a Coach Analyze Data and Provide Insights
38:23 How to Get in Contact with Dr Jim Taylor
Get in touch with Dr. Jim Taylor
https://www.drjimtaylor.com/4.0/
Book Link:
Train Your Mind for Athletic Success
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Related Content:EPISODE #275: Mental Hack for Marginal Mental Gains with Dr Jim Taylor
EPISODE #266: Enjoy Pain And Uncovering What Really Motivates You with Dr Jim Taylor
EPISODE #247: Mental Strategies To Race Strong From Start to Finish with Dr. Jim Taylor
EPISODE #242: Train Your Mind For Success In The Water with Dr. Jim Taylor
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post 3 Under The Radar Mindset Techniques That Transform Your Race Day Performance with Dr Jim Taylor appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join us on today’s episode as we interview Flynn Southam, a talented young Australian swimmer who has already achieved remarkable success at the age of 18. He’s been in the Commonwealth Games team and won numerous gold medals at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships. We delve into Flynn’s unique perspective on technique, exploring the key aspects he focuses on and the mindset he maintains during training and races. Discover the one phrase his coach told him that completely transformed his training approach, turning him into a dedicated and determined athlete. Tune in now!
02:12 Representing Team Australia at a young age
03:13 Australian Team Wins Gold in 4x100m Freestyle Relay at World Champs
07:05 Breakfast with Michael Phelps at the hotel
08:27 Chasing Olympic Dreams: Why Not?
10:22 The Moment Flynn Realized He Could Compete with the Best
11:53 Overcoming Self-Doubt and Making a Comeback
14:46 The Role of Mindset in Achieving Flow State in Competitive Swimming
16:10 Creating Art on Race Day: The Power of Rituals
17:27 Mastering Body Position and Front Catch
22:14 Core and Functional Movement Workouts
24:32 Flynn’s Favorite Training Set
27:29 The Power of Anaerobic Conditioning
30:00: The Use of Swim Parachutes for Drag and Resistance Training
34:19 Training with a Great Group of Mates
35:20 Mentoring Young Swimmers: Common Struggles and Advice
41:13 What’s Coming Next for Flynn?
Follow Flynn on Instagram
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How One Mental Shift Can Change The Trajectory Of Your Life with Flynn Southam appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this podcast episode, we have the privilege of sitting down with Leigh Nugent, one of the world’s top technical coaches. With his extensive experience as the National Youth Coach for Swimming Australia and former Head Coach, Lee shares valuable insights on improving freestyle technique. He also discusses the champion mindset and shares stories of swimmers who have overcome injuries and achieved great success. Whether you’re a swimmer, coach, or simply interested in the sport, this episode is packed with tips and stories that will engage and motivate you.
02:10 Achieving Success in the Olympics: Lee Nugent’s Coaching Journey
08:21 Coaching Beyond Performance and Creating a Welcoming Environment
10:58 The Challenges of Coaching Talented but Uncommitted Swimmers
12:44 The Impact of Swimming on Personal Growth
14:13 Leigh’s insight from the 2012 Olympics
16:24 The Best Olympics for Coaches and Athletes: Tokyo 2020
19:24 The Unbreakable Mindset of Elite Swimmers
22:31 Stories of Swimmers Pushing Their Limits
23:34 Key Elements of Great Freestyle Technique
34:32 Maintaining Front Quadrant in Increasing Stroke Rate
39:10 Lessons and Realizations from 10-20 Years of Swimming
42:03 Developing the Next Generation of Athletes
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Unlocking the Champion Code: 20 Years Of Elite Swim Coaching with Leigh Nugent appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join us on this podcast episode as we sit down with Brian Johns from Form Goggles. Brian discusses the exciting new features of Form Goggles and how they can help swimmers improve their technique. From measuring efficiency to providing real-time feedback on head and breathing position, these goggles are a game-changer for swimmers of all levels. Tune in now!
01:03 Exploring Form Score: A Universal Measure of Swimming Efficiency
09:10 Head Coach Skills: 5 Key Areas to Help Improve Efficiency
09:35 #1 Peak Head Roll
16:59 #2 Head Pitch
18:45 Finding the Sweet Spot: Head and Breathing Position
20:14 The Similarities in Technique Cues for Swimmers of Different Ages and Levels
23:21 #3 Interval Pacing
24:30 #4 Set Pacing
27:45 #5 Breathing Time To Neutral
31:39 Exciting Future Developments for Form Goggles
34:11 Downloading Workouts to Form Goggles for Easy Access
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle with the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ at checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Discover Your Real Swim Efficiency Score with Brian Johns appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Welcome to the podcast with our special guest, RJ Boergers, the author of ‘Finish Strong: Resistance Training for Endurance Athletes.’ RJ is a certified athletic trainer with a doctorate degree in Movement Science. In this episode, we will discuss the positive impact of strength training on performance and well-being, misconceptions regarding strength training, and the importance of mobility. Tune in now, as this episode offers valuable insights and practical tips for athletes looking to enhance their swimming and triathlon performance.
01:22 Passion for Resistance Training and its Benefits
05:41 Common Mistakes and Misconceptions in Strength Training
9:17 The Importance of Strength Training for Endurance Athletes: Maintaining Form and Improving Performance
20:18 Strength Training Success Stories: Injury Reduction
26:34 Effective Exercises to Strengthen Obliques
28:54 Must-Do Exercises for Swimmers: Targeting Core, Glutes, and Scapular Stabilizers
31:28 Why Mobility Training Is Crucial for Athletes
39:38 Key Takeaways for Effective Strength Training
44:16 Get in Contact with RJ
Get the book here
Follow him on Instagram
Reach out to RJ via email richard.boergers@shu.edu
Change your technique and swim a smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Today’s podcast episode is also sponsored by Skillest. Exclusively for our Effortless Swimming podcast listeners, you can receive a free course, ‘The Art of Triathlon Swimming,’ and an online analysis through the Skillest app.
https://effortlessswimming.com/skillestoffer
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How To Finish Strong And Slow Down Less with RJ Boergers appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, I will share the story of a pro triathlete who achieved a remarkable breakthrough in his swimming performance, transitioning from a second pack swimmer in triathlons to consistently making it to the front pack. How did he accomplish this feat? By making an important change in his training routine. Tune in now!
00:20 Triathlete Transforms Swim Performance
02:26 Going Hard and Recovering Quickly
06:23 Recognizing Elite Athletes as Normal People
07:49 Importance of Pacing and Specific Training
09:14 Targeting Weaknesses in Training
11:06 New Swim Camps Coming Up!
Maldives Swim Camp 2024:
https://effortlessswimming.com/maldives/
Galapagos Swim Trip 2024:
https://effortlessswimming.com/galapagos/
Hell Week Swim Camp 2024 (Coming soon!):
https://effortlessswimming.com/hell-week/
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post Why You’re One change Away From A Breakthrough appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join us for a podcast episode with Taryn Richardson, where we explore the world of diet and nutrition for athletes. Discover the key principles to fueling your body for optimal performance and recovery. Get ready for eye-opening insights and practical tips that will revolutionize your training approach. Don’t miss out on unlocking your full potential as an athlete.
01:18 The Importance of Protein in Exercise and Recovery
05:10 Timing Protein Intake for Optimal Recovery
06:35 Sources of Protein: Exploring Options and Recommendations
09:04 Kangaroo Meat and Red Meat Consumption
14:41 Meal Prep: Saving Time and Eating Well
20:10 Common Mistakes and Misconceptions in Triathlete Nutrition
27:14 Carb Phobia: Understanding the Importance of Carbohydrate Intake for Endurance Athletes
31:07 The Shift in Body Composition and Nutrition for Triathletes
32:42 Triathlon Nutrition and Bike Fuel Masterclass with Taryn
Get in touch with Taryn:
https://www.dietitianapproved.com/
Follow her on Instagram
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Content:Episode #260: Fuelling For Performance (And How To Avoid Late Night Sugar Binges) with Taryn Richardson
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Why Carb-Phobia Could Be Ruining Your Performance with Taryn Richardson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join me on a wild journey where I accidentally became the subject of a search party while swimming with friends in Melbourne. From helicopters to firetrucks, this rescue operation had it all. But it’s not just a cold-water mishap; it’s a story about finding answers right in front of us. Learn the lessons from this unforgettable experience and how they apply to our everyday struggles.
00:21 Swimming in the Cold Water
02:04 Lost Swimmer in Red Cap
06:39 Miscommunication in the Cold Water
11:40 Improving Back Strength for Better Performance
13:40 EO SwimBETTER
14:30 Swimming Insights: Finding Obvious Solutions
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post Hidden In Plain Sight: Why The Solution To Our Problems Are Right In Front Of Us appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join us on this podcast episode with Andrew Sheaf, author of “A Constraints-Led Approach to Swim Coaching.” Andrew shares valuable insights and strategies for swim coaches and swimmers. His systematic training and skill development approach helps swimmers achieve tangible results by avoiding the pitfall of abandoning techniques too quickly. This podcast is a must-listen for coaches and swimmers looking to enhance their methods and training.
01:24 The inspiration behind the book “A Constraints-Led Approach to Swim Coaching”
04:16 How to Be the Most Effective Coach When You Manage a Big Swim Team
06:39 Techniques for Teaching Swimmers That Are Both Fun and Effective: Contrast Drills and Feedback Exchange
09:02 Simplifying Swim Technique Analysis for Effective Coaching
11:26 . Improving Body Alignment and Kick Effectiveness in Adult Swimmers
14:57 Reversing Swimming Misconceptions
16:39 The Nuances and Challenges of Providing Individualized Swimming Instruction
18:05 Effective Coaching Language and Analogies for Swimmers
22:48 The Power of Questioning in Coaching and Training
28:08 Efficient Skill Development for Swimmers with Limited Time: Making the Most of Short Workouts to Improve Technique
34:48 Common Mistakes and Challenges in Increasing Speed while Maintaining Stroke Rate
39:28 Measuring Progress in Remote Coaching: The Importance of Testing and Consistency
42:01 How to Get a Copy of Andrew’s Book and Contact Him
Get the book HERE
Get in touch with Andrew:
https://www.coachandrewsheaff.com/
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Level Up Every Day: The Art of Consistent Progress with Andrew Sheaff appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join us today with Tom Barton, fresh from the US with Australia’s A team! Tom is the founder of the Q Swim app and works as a physiotherapist at The Health Collab. He’s your go-to expert for keeping swimmers and triathletes moving smoothly and injury-free. Today, we’re focusing on how triathletes can step up their […]
The post Better Flexibility In 3 Minutes with Tom Barton appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’m excited to introduce our guest today, the legendary triathlete Craig Alexander. He’s a three-time world Ironman champion and a two-time Ironman 70.3 world champion. Craig shares insights on resilience, perseverance, and the importance of a supportive community. He also talks about how visualization helps in triathlon training and racing, along with a personal mantra […]
The post Maintaining Your Competitive Edge For Life with 5x World Champion Craig Alexander appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Get ready for an amazing Andy Donaldson episode! He’s done something amazing: finished the Ocean 7 challenge faster than anyone ever has before. In just one year, he completed all seven swims in a total of 63 hours. And the best part? Andy’s doing all of this to bring attention to mental health. We’ll chat about the tough parts of those swims, how he tackled the tricky currents, and what lessons he took away from the whole experience.
02:24 Navigating Challenges In The Molokai Channel Swim
05:51 The Team’s Vital Role in Distance Updates And Support During The Swim
11:02 Mindset Shift: From Competition To Channel Swims
13:19 The Controversy Surrounding The Tsugaru Strait Swim
20:40 Andy’s Difficult Swim Through The Tsugaru Strait
27:33 Overcoming Obstacles, The Team Succeeds in Breaking the Ocean 7 World Record
33:11 Promoting The Ocean 7 Sport, Mental Health Awareness, And Message Of Hope And Teamwork
36:50 Moving Over Disappointment And Finding Greater Purpose
40:00 Lessons From The Open Water Swims: Perseverance, Self-Determination, And Lasting Connections
41:58 Life After Reaching The Goal And Embracing New Opportunities
46:00 Media Attention And Impact Of Open Water Swimming
48:23 What’s Next For Andy Donaldson?
Follow Andy on:
Instagram
Facebook
Support Andy at Black Dog Institute:
https://www.teamblackdog.org.au/fundraisers/oceansseven
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Completing The Oceans 7 In One Year with Andy Donaldson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Join me in this engaging episode as I chat with Sandra Schenkel, an elite duathlete from Spain who overcame swimming frustrations during the pandemic. We’ll dive into her journey of making incredible progress through focused training and coaching. Discover how Sandra regained her swimming skills and achieved her best level ever. We’ll also explore the significance of relaxation, breathing exercises, and technique in swimming. Get ready for valuable tips on mobility work, rest intervals, and maintaining a healthy diet.
01:56 Overcoming swim frustrations and developing skills
03:32 The Impact of breathing exercises on stroke improvement
04:18 Breathing exercises can help improve relaxation and body position in the water
08:05 Focusing more on the process than the result
11:49 Improving technique through the catch, breathing, leg posture, and head position
13:19 The importance of mobility and flexibility in swimming and how to improve them
19:07 Advice for those who are frustrated by their swimming
21:45 What’s the next goal?
22:58 Interval Rest is Vital for Athletes
30:20 Work on technique, breathing, and the things you can control, and do not always train at maximum intensity
8-Week Faster Freestyle Course:
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
5-Day Catch Challenge Course:
https://effortlessswimming.com/5-day-catch-challenge/
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How 10 Seconds Faster A 100m Changed The Triathlon Game for Sandra Schenkel appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Joining me today is Gerard Donnelly from Trivelo Coaching, an Australian champion and podcast host. His podcast is a go-to for triathletes seeking insights from his seasoned journey in the sport. We’ll dive into life lessons from triathlon, smart training with technology, race focus, and the balance between short intense sessions and longer technique-focused ones. […]
The post Wisdom Beyond the Race: Life Lessons Through A Lifetime Of Triathlon with Trivelo’s Gerard Donnelly appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, we’re thrilled to have triathlete Josh Salley sharing exciting updates on his technique and swimming breakthroughs. You can learn from his journey and find out the secret to his success. Get ready for an inspiring conversation! 02:33 Josh’s Swansea Half Ironman Experience: Calmer and Faster! 07:21 Open Water vs. Pool Impact On Awareness? 10:32 […]
The post The Four Steps To Triathlon Swimming Success with Josh Salley appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’m excited to welcome Brent Hayden, a true legend, back to the podcast after nearly five years since our last conversation in 2018. A lot has changed since then, including his return to swimming and competing in the Tokyo Olympics. We’ll also explore how he stays in shape during retirement, his coaching approach, and his […]
The post Swimming Secrets With 4x Olympian Brent Hayden appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, I’m excited to have Tom Hofnadel as my guest. Tom is a committed triathlete who is focused on improving his swimming in Ironman races. In this episode, we’ll explore the benefits of video analysis and receiving feedback, as well as the technique changes he has made in the past few years to enhance his […]
The post [Case Study] 53-minute Ironman Swim with Tom Hohenadl appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, I’ll discuss CSS training to enhance your swimming’s aerobic capacity, enabling you to maintain faster times over longer distances. We’ll explore its definition, and application, and suggest effective sets to boost your aerobic capacity and overall performance. Tune in now! 01:32 Aerobic Capacity And Technique 04:02 What Is CSS Training? 05:36 How […]
The post How To Use CSS Training To Swim Faster For Longer Distances appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we delve into the concept of challenges and how they transform over time. Using my own experiences as a surfer and swimmer, I look back on the challenges I’ve encountered and how they’ve influenced my journey. Tune in now! 00:17 Triumph and Mishap in the Waves 02:18 Ups and Downs: Progress and […]
The post Riding the Waves of Success and Stumbles In Your Swimming appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, I have the pleasure of chatting with Joe Friel, an exceptional endurance sports coach, renowned for his expertise in triathlon and cycling. Not only is Joe a highly respected coach, but he’s also an accomplished author, having written multiple books, including his most popular work, the Triathlete’s Training Bible. In this episode, we will […]
The post Unlocking Speed: Mastering the PDLC Method for Triathlon Swimming with Joe Friel appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Kyle Chalmers, an Olympic gold medalist and one of the world’s top swimmers. I’ve featured him in some of my YouTube videos, highlighting his excellent freestyle technique. I’m excited to discuss his training and technique in depth. Tune in now! 01:47 After clinching the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, how […]
The post How Olympians Use Underwater Filming And Analysis with Kyle Chalmers appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Seb Wichmann, who attended one of our clinics in 2022. He was averaging around a 2:05 to 2:10 per hundred and said he was happy to survive a 1K swim at the pool and has now got himself down to around a 1:45. Tune in to the episode now! 01:02 What […]
The post [Case Study] 3 Minutes Off A Half Ironman Swim with Seb Wichmann appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is American swimmer Ryan Murphy, who has achieved incredible success in the Olympics Games, winning multiple gold, silver, and bronze medals. Ryan discusses how his motivation and training have evolved over the past decade, enabling him to stay competitive. We explore his unconventional beliefs, the obstacles he has overcome, including an injury before the Olympic trials, and the rituals that have aided his success in major events.
01:29 Do any of those experiences stand out as your most memorable achievement?
04:20 What do you attribute your sustained success and longevity in swimming to?
06:15 Have you ever had a season where you didn’t perform well and struggled to pinpoint why that is?
12:02 How has your motivation evolved in the past decade as you’ve continued to compete in swimming?
14:19 Can you explain more about the success-focused lifestyle you mentioned earlier, especially regarding areas outside of swimming?
16:48 As you get older and there’s up and comers nipping heels, how do you maintain your confidence and mindset when you’re one of the older guys in the field?
19:20 Which up-and-coming swimmer has caught your attention and impressed you the most recently?
21:50 Did you encounter any unexpected surprises in your professional swimming career that were different from what you expected or imagined as a teenager?
24:24 What are the key fundamentals you would focus on while coaching backstroke technique to a 15-year-old swimmer?
27:27 What are the main differences between your swimming technique or style and that of Mitch Larkins?
29:05 Did you get a lot of feedback on your swimming technique as a teenager, or did you develop your stroke naturally?
36:34 Can you share a memorable or transformative experience from your swimming career that has had a lasting impact on you?
42:01 What things beyond swimming motivate and excite you the most at the moment?
Follow Ryan on Instagram
For those interested in receiving coaching from Ryan:
https://skillest.com/app/profile/Ryan-murphy
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post What It Takes To Win Olympic Gold And Break Worlds Records with Ryan Murph appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’m excited to introduce my guest, Ben Geard, from Element Swimming. Ben and I go way back as great friends, and he was one of the coaches during the Maldives Camp last year. At Element Swimming, Ben offers lessons for beginners and helps swimmers progress from beginners to an intermediate level. That’s what we will talk about today—strategies and techniques for individuals who are complete beginners or relatively new to swimming, aiming to reach that intermediate level.
01:41 Swimming And Coaching Experience
03:35 Programs For Beginners Are Hard To Find
05:39 Level I: Building Water Confidence
08:49 Different Styles Of Coaching
11:20 Beginner’s Swim Camp On September
14:15 Level II: Feel For The Water
16:02 “aha” Moments During The Process
19:56 Biggest Mistakes With Skull
23:51 Training Sessions Per Week
25:20 Consistency Is Key
27:44 Level III: Putting Together And Achieving The Goal
31:73 Causes of Exhaustion In Swimmers
34:29 Vertical Kick
36:31 Visit The Element Swimming Website
Element Swimming Maldives Camp:
https://www.elementswimming.com.au/maldives-camp
Check out Element Swimming’s website:
https://www.elementswimming.com.au/
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Moving From Beginner To Intermediate with Ben Geard appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Our guest today is Marc Evans, a former National USA Triathlon team coach. In this episode, we will introduce the M25 Lift Paddle. We will discuss the paddle’s purpose and why it differs from others in the market. Specifically, we will focus on how it helps improve the catch, which is an essential part of the swimming technique.
00:49 Kickboard Is A Great Tool
04:02 Skinny S
4:42 Pass or Fail Coaching
5:59 Learning Engages Additional Muscle Groups
8:19 Learning New Things Takes Time
11:17 The Invention Of The M25 Lift Paddle
17:55 The Is Purpose Of The Paddle?
20:18 Seeking Help To Launch M25
23:47 Product Design Is Based On The Fundamental Of Movement
28:28 Persistence Is The Key
Check out the M25 Lift Paddle:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/m25-lift-paddle/m25-swim-lift-paddle?ref=chb347
Triathletes in Motion: a Book By Marc Evans
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Content:High Elbow Catch Masterclass with Marc Evans Part 1
What To Do If Your Pool Has Closed with Marc Evans
Triathletes In Motion with Marc Evans
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post High Elbow Catch Masterclass with Marc Evans Part 2 appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Mark Evans, who is returning to the podcast after eight years. He is a former coach for the National USA Triathlon team and is widely recognized as one of the most knowledgeable and extensively researched individuals in this field. In today’s episode, we will explore the catch and techniques for continuous improvement. (Listen to the PART 1).
03:54 Triathlon and Swimming Background
07:32 Triathletes in Motion
08:38 Turning Vision into Reality
12:48 High Elbow Catch Is Essential For Improved Swimming
16:18 Correcting Straight Arm Pull
19:08n Combining Good Technique With Volume And Consistency
20:42 Backstroke Is An Amazing Way To Learn Freestyle
21:14 Vertical Kicking Is An Amazing Tool For Swimmers
24:22 Magic Bullets Are In Fundamentals
27:25 Applying Less Force And Holding Less Water
29:15 Ladder Cue
Check out the M25 Lift Paddle:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/m25-lift-paddle/m25-swim-lift-paddle?ref=chb347
Triathletes in Motion: a Book By Marc Evans
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Content:What To Do If Your Pool Has Closed with Marc Evans
Triathletes In Motion with Marc Evans
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post High Elbow Catch Masterclass with Marc Evans Part 1 appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Mr. Sam Ashby, a coach who has trained swimmers to national medals. In this episode, we will talk about the benefits of practicing different swimming strokes. It helps the body move differently and can aid in recovery and developing swimming skills. We will also discuss common mistakes that occur during clinics for butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke.
03:58 Swimming Background
10:00 Refining Your Knowledge
13:18 Visual Learning in Swim Clinics: An Advantage for Kids
15:04 What is The Key to Good Butterfly Stroke?
21:02 Improving Rhythm in Butterfly Stroke
26:26 Common Mistakes in Backstroke: Lifting the Head Too Much
33;53 Common Mistakes in Breaststroke: Maximizing Drag Reduction
38:19 How Simplicity Leads to Better Results
43:01 Simple Cues/tips for Mastering Breaststroke
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Content:The Transition From Athlete to Coach with Sam Ashby
The One About Preparation (with Australian team swimmer Sam Ashby)
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How To Swim Effortless Fly, Back and Breast with Sam Ashby appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Scott Dickens, a two-time Olympian. And now director of Business Development at Form, who is one of our sponsors of the podcast. We will talk about the 8-Week Faster Freestyle course, how you can ensure you’re making progress and the improvement you would want to see. Tune in now!
01:02 Technique Change
09:51 Change Doesn’t Feel Good
12:18 Long Dog Paddle Drill
16:15 The Kick
21:05 8-Week Course Is now in Form Goggles
22:02 Week: 2 Posture, Head Position, And Kick
25:10 The Base Position In Freestyle
27:12 Using A Kickboard?
30:16 Wearing Fins
32:57 Week 8 – Stroke Rate
35:03 Hold Your Rating
41:24 What’s The Biggest Benefit of Using Form
46:10 Small Incremental Change In Pool Can Be Very Impactful
47:18 What Happens When You’re Learning A New Skill
48.34 The Optimum Goal Is To Be Able To Relax
49:58 What’s Coming Out Next?
8-Week Faster Freestyle Course:
https://effortlessswimming.com/8-week-faster-freestyle-course/
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘8Week’ on checkout to receive 20% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Using Swim Data To Measure Technique Changes with Olympian Scott Dickens appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Baden Schaff. We will talk about one of the best analysis tools that I’ve come across called Skillest and how athletes and coaches can use video analysis to improve.
00:30 The Greatest Analysis Tool
02:32 Why Was The Skillest Created?
06:48 A Marketplace That Allows You To Be Discoverable By Students
12:18 How Do You Film Yourself?
15:02 Student-coach Relationship
16:39 24-hour Access
19:05 There’s No Pressure To Perform On The Spot
23:27 The Best Tools In Skillest
24:51 The Visual Is Everything
27:17 Analyzing The Stroke
33:14 Join the Skillest Now!
Get online stroke analysis with Brenton:
https://skillest.com/app/profile/brenton-ford
Coaches: Get 2 weeks free access to Skillest:
https://try.skillest.com/coach-signup/?utm_source=skillest&utm_campaign=become-coach-button&utm_medium=v8
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post The Secret Tool I Use To Analyse Technique (That Almost No Coaches Know About) with Baden Schaff appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I got professional triathlete Joshua Lewis to talk about swimming, training sessions, and most importantly, opening yourself up to opportunities and experiences.
01:10 Swimming background
06:21 You’ve got to be able to prioritize correctly
10:34 Switching to Pro Triathlon
15:18 Coaching role
16:40 Putting yourself out there
18:49 Getting into a sport like swimming can be a big decision for people
21:07 Taking the first step is important
22:56 If you’re self-conscious, remember people don’t care
23:42 Efficiency in the water for the best speed
25:57 Have you found yourself going too hard in the swim?
28:33 Learn how to race
30:20 Training session
32:55 Start small, make it doable
34″42 Consistency is king
37:25 Get in touch with Josh!
Coaching with Joshua, visit his website.
Follow him on YouTube!
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post How Swimming Instills Lifelong Discipline with Pro Triathlete Joshua Lewis appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Brian Johns who is a three-time Olympian former world record holder in the 400 IM and, the head of coaching science at FORM. In this episode, we will talk about improving your technique using FORM goggles and how important reliability and consistency are to transform your swimming.
00:47 Best achievement: Coming back from injuries
03:52 Focus on the process and getting better every day
07:18 Get yourself in a squad environment
11:55 Understanding how DPS and SR lead to increase speed
17:34 How can you find the sweet spot with stroke rate and stroke length?
22:24 Applying progressive overload principles to Workouts
30:53 Applying race results to training and improvement
33:56 Changes to stroke rate and effort are very incremental
40:58 Has anything been interesting regarding the swim data that the FORM collected?
43:10 Knowing the fundamentals and the basics goes a very long way
44:06 Reliability/consistency are the key
45:25 Be mentally switched on
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Using Stroke Rate, DPS and Consistency To Transform Your Swimming with Brian Johns appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we talk about magic words and how you can use the power of language to become a faster swimmer.
00:23 Swim Camp
01:41 Identify Yourself As A Swimmer
04:50 Cues
06:41 Replace Can’t With Don’t
08:10 Replace Should With Could
Magic Words by Jonah Berger
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/?el=blog
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/?el=blog
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Affiliate link: form-affiliates.pxf.io/c/3667487/1337646/16166?trafsrc=affiliate
The post Magic Words appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Andy Donaldson who recently came back from breaking the Cook Strait World Record. In this episode, we will talk about his experience before and during the swim and his goal to complete the Ocean Seven in a year to raise money and awareness for mental health.
02:40 What’s your headspace going into this swim?
04:58 How long into the swim did you realize things are going well?
09:30 Completion Is Key
10:22 The goal is to do the ocean seven within 365 days
14:19 How are you keeping yourself mentally ready for the swim?
17:19 Swimming Background
20:12 What is it about the sport that you think drew you back?
26:10 What’s your training?
36:30 What’s your routine like?
38:31 What sort of stuff are you doing to keep your shoulders strong?
41:16 How long would your strength and conditioning sessions go for?
41:53 What do you love to do outside of swimming?
43:28 What’s surprised you about your quest to do the ocean seven in a year?
44:54 Follow Andy on Social media to follow his journey
Follow Andy on
Instagram
Facebook
Support Andy at Black Dog Institute:
https://www.teamblackdog.org.au/fundraisers/oceansseven
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Affiliate link: form-affiliates.pxf.io/c/3667487/1337646/16166?trafsrc=affiliate
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post On A Mission To Complete The Oceans Seven in One Year with Andy Donaldson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Joining us today is Dr Jim Taylor, who specializes in Sports psychology and is the author of Train Your Mind for Athletic Success. In this episode, we will talk about useful mind hacks that you can implement into your training.
01:51 The Concept Of Marginal Gains
07:47 Words Impact How We Perceive The World
11:16 “I Choose To Push My Limits”
16:07 Unfamiliarity, Unpredictability, And Lack Of Control
19:43 Smiling Is A Powerful Mental Tool
25:45 Fun Is A Powerful Mind Hack
28:39 Flow Not Force
31:46 Take Control Of Your Breathing
35:38 Celebrating The Daily Victories
40:14 Get In Touch with Dr Jim Taylor
Get in touch with Dr. Jim Taylor
https://www.drjimtaylor.com/4.0/
Book Link:
Train Your Mind for Athletic Success
This podcast episode is brought to you by FORM Goggles. Use code ‘EFFORTLESS‘ on checkout to receive 15% off your FORM GOGGLES today.
http://formswim.com/effortless
Affiliate link: form-affiliates.pxf.io/c/3667487/1337646/16166?trafsrc=affiliate
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Mental Hack for Marginal Mental Gains with Dr Jim Taylor appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Welcome to the third and final part of this three-part podcast with Brant Best. We worked together on a product called SwimBETTER by EO, which helps athletes swim faster. Tune in now!
02:50 More isn’t BETTER
05:27 Elbow is too high for too long
10:43 Extreme high elbow catch
13:17 “Ladder” cue
16:28 More episode with Brant coming soon!
Pre-order your SwimBETTER now!
Head to EO’s website and use the code Effortless at checkout, to get your first 12 months free on a single gold license with any handset purchased.
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Podcast:
What Amateurs Can Learn From The Mistakes Of Elite Swimmers with Brant Best
Swim Softer To Go Faster with Brant Best (Part 1 of 3)
Swim Softer To Go Faster with Brant Best (Part 2 of 3)
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Swim Softer To Go Faster with Brant Best (Part 3 of 3) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Brant Best will be joining us for a three-part podcast. We worked together on a product called SwimBETTER by EO, which helps athletes swim faster. This episode will discuss how it’s valuable to be able to quantify data and drills that he loves and doesn’t like.
00:33 Do you have a standard process when looking at the data?
08:38 Force Field
12:14 Should you have more power on one arm if you’re just breathing every two?
13:20 I’m not a big fan of breathing three
14:12 I’ts super valuable to be able to quantify data
17:01 Drill that I love and hate!
20:31 Thumb Drag Drill
SwimBETTER:
https://www.eolab.com/swimbetter
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Podcast:
What Amateurs Can Learn From The Mistakes Of Elite Swimmers with Brant Best
Swim Softer To Go Faster with Brant Best (Part 1 of 3)
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Swim Softer To Go Faster with Brant Best (Part 2 of 3) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Brant Best will be joining us for a three-part podcast. We worked together on a product called SwimBETTER by EO, which helps athletes swim faster. This episode will discuss what he learned from working with elite athletes. Watch out for the next episodes!!
00:58 Canberra Camp
02:27 How To Swim A Good 100 Freestyle At The Elite Level?
05:40 Kyle Chalmers Is A Beast
06:12 Tension Needs To Be Optimal Rather Than Maximal
10:59 EO Swim Better
13:01 Soften Up, To Go Quicker.
16:00 Putting Too Much Force On The Water
19:14 What Is It That We Should Be Focusing On?
SwimBETTER:
https://www.eolab.com/swimbetter
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Related Podcast: What Amateurs Can Learn From The Mistakes Of Elite Swimmers with Brant Best
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Swim Softer To Go Faster with Brant Best (Part 1 of 3) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What is stopping you from getting any faster? Tune in to this episode now!
1:52 How You Hold Your Body
3:12 Head Position
3:45 Kick
4:40 Breathing In The Right Position
7:08 Building A House
7:21 Tension
8:41 Not Sighting In The Right Way
10:32 The 5 Core Principles Of Fast Freestyle
Get the 5 Core Principles Of Fast Freestyle course as a member:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post The ‘Single Point Of Failure’ In Your Stroke appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’ve got John Hancock to join me again on the podcast. He recently returned from having a successful crossing of the Cook Straight and is here today to share his experience and some of the preparations he did for the swim.
00:57 Where did this goal come from?
04:28 What are the preparation that you did?
09:33 17 hours of swimming in one week
12:46 How many Ks a week were you doing?
12:33 It’s a very tidal crossing
17:59 Grateful to have a team of people supporting you
19:51 Covering yourself with grease
21:40 “If the swells on your side then surf across”
26:24 Was there anything that surprised you about the swim?
28:35 All about preparation and execution.
29:10 Surround yourself with people who want you to be successful
29:54 Do you feel like your achievement changed you as a person?
34:14 What’s next for John?
Cook Strait Swim:
https://cookstraitswim.org.nz/
Related Content:40km Across Lake Taupo with John Hancock
English Channel and Cook Strait Legend Philip Rush
What It Takes To Be Successful In Marathon Swimming with Phil Rush
Simple Changes, Big Results with Gary Hurring
What To Do If You Can’t Get Under 1:45/100m with Gary Hurring
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Taking On The Cook Strait with John Hancock appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Carl joins us again on the podcast. He has a background in Exercise Physiology and Pilates but primarily in Functional Movement. In this episode, we will talk about how Carl has helped many swimmers with their pain and injury and understand the root cause of some of the injuries that they’re having.
01:26 What Injuries Do You Usually See Among Swimmers
05:16 Working On The Posture
07:55 Getting Blood Flow To The Injured Part Of Your Body
10:41 “Voltage Is Healing”
12:27 From Hauling To Floating
14:39 Trying Too Hard Puts Tension In The Body
16:17 Swim From Inside Out
18:20 Learn How To Hold Your Body Correctly
18:42 Squatting
20:36 Don’t Brace Too Much In The Pool
24:00 Connection Improves The Whole Mobility
26:29 Get In Touch With Carl Read
More About Carl Reader:
website: https://carlreadercoaching.com/
email: carlwellness@gmail.com
Functional Movement Course
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Stop ‘Hauling’ Yourself Through The Water & Swim With Ease with Carl Reader appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I will talk about the equipment and pool toys that I recommend to the athletes that I coach.
00:41 Have A Good Pair Of Fins
03:38 Paddles
05:51 Pull Bouy
06:45 Kickboard
07:20 Snorkel
08:15 Noseclip
08:38 Goggles
10:56 Heart Rate Monitor
11:50 Powermeter/Analysis
DMC Fins HERE
Front Swim Snorkel HERE
EneyBuoy2 HERE
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
The post Pool Toys – The Good, Bad and Ugly appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Tim Reed, an Australian coach, and triathlete, who has had multiple Ironman and IM70.3 wins. I wanted to get Tim’s perspective regarding swimming and coaching and discuss the struggles of transitioning from a professional athlete to a full-time coach.
01:15 Biggest Success In Racing
03:30 There Was No Overnight Success
04:51 Connecting With Athletes
06:38 A Powerful Combination
11:02 Pulling Back From Squad
14:13 Having The Evidence/Data
16:50 You Don’t Need To Look Pretty
20:14 Stop Swimming Like Ian Thorpe
27:07 Correct One Thing At A Time
28:00 Swim Like No One Is Watching
29:17 Differences In Technique For People Getting Into A Wetsuit
32:02 Open Water Skills
35:13 Surrounded By Other Swimmers
37:27 Transitioning To A Full-time Coach
43:48 Training Sessions
47:55 What’s Next?
50:02 Get In Touch With Tim Reed!
Contact Tim here:
Instagram
Website
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the video on YouTube:
The post How To Adapt Your Stroke For Triathlons with 70.3 World Champion Tim Reed appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we have Dr. Jim Taylor, a sports psychologist and author of Train Your Mind for Athletic Success. We will talk about the strategies for dealing with pain and figuring out what your motivations are. Tune in to this episode now.
00:58 Competed In The Super Sprint And Olympic Distance Triathlon
03:03 Strategies For Dealing With Pain
06:02 Exertion Pain And Injury Pain
08:51 Identity Plays A Role In How You Manage Pain
14:32 Discomfort VS Pain And Suffering
17:13 Associating Negative Emotions With Pain
18:51 Pride And Inspiration
21:51 What’s Real Suffering?
23:38 Key Phrase: Long And Loose
26:11 Do A Long Warm-up
28:27 Distractions
30:28 Motivation: Less Ra Ra, More Insight
36:36 Constantly Remind Yourself Of What Your Goals Are
37:11 90% Of Success Is Just Showing Up
39:59 Don’t Look At The End Of The Workout
41:57 Get In Touch with Dr. Jim Taylor
Get in touch with Dr. Jim Taylor
https://www.drjimtaylor.com/4.0/
Want to work with me personally to improve your technique? Join my swim technique coaching here:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post Enjoy Pain And Uncovering What Really Motivates You with Dr Jim Taylor appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I want to have this episode to direct and help people determine what course will help them get better as a swimmer going forwards.
01:13 5-Day Catch Challenge
02:53 The Beginner Freestyle Course
04:25 8-Week Faster Freestyle Cours
8:15 Video Membership
09:08 Monthly Live Call(Inside the membership)
10:17 Stroke Analysis Membership
13:02 The Swim Camp
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post Which Coaching Program Is Right For Me? appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest in today’s episode is Melissa Hughes from Tasmania. We will talk about her remarkable journey into the world of triathlon.
01:19 I swim like a runner
02:30 Arms are a bit wide
04:17 How many swim sessions a week?
06:08 What is YMCA Drill?
08:43 Building Confidence in the race
11:44 I’ve got to overtake all the heroes!
13:08 Diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis
17:30 Thinking about doing the triathlon
19:19 Do you think you can continue training without doing any long-term damage?
20:29 What are you working towards or focusing on with your swimming?
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the episode on YouTube:
The post [Case Study] 5-mins Faster In An Olympic Distance Triathlon Swim with Melissa Hughes appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we are looking at why you should look for the cause, not look at the symptom.
00:22 Itchy eyes?
02:30 We Need To Find The Cause
03:05 Leigh Nugent-Coming soon?
04:02 First Thing To Look At Is the Body Position
05:44 Head Position
05:53 Making Sure The Kick Is Effective
06:04 Rotation
06:13 Great Way To Analyze The Stroke
08:05 We Don’t Often See The Cause
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post A Simple Guide To Finding The Cause Of Your Technique Errors (Not Just The Symptom) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I wanted to talk about a different approach to achieving your goals in today’s episode. It might be something you haven’t heard before, but it can be a helpful way to achieve what you want. Tune in to the episode now!
00:43 Think of your perfect day and write that down
2:56 What does your ideal day look like?
5:39 Atomic Habits: A must read book
Atomic Habits ( Effortless Swimming Podcast #230):
https://effortlessswimming.com/atomic-habits-with-brenton-ford
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post A Different Approach To Achieving Everything You Want In Swimming (And Life) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we sat down with Brigetta Hamilton to talk about her impressive improvement over the last 6 months. Brigetta attended one of our clinics in May starting at 2:20 pace per 100. She got her time down to 1:48 and now she is at 1:39. Find out what she did to improve!
00:51 Swimming background
01:17 Were you able to swim comfortably without stopping when you started swimming?
03:02 Does your cycling background help with your swimming?
05:10 When you are working on going faster, what do you usually think?
11:15 Developing Intuition
14:34 Your feel for the water looks so much better
15:59 Rocking side to side and recovery
18:35 What’s your next goal?
20:35 Try the sight and breathe method
21:23 When you relax, you swim better and quicker
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/
Stroke Analysis Membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/stroke-analysis-membership/
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
Form Goggles:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the full video on YouTube:
The post [Case Study] 2:20 to 1:39/100m In 6 Months with Brigetta Hamilton appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Taryn Richardson, an advanced sports dietitian, and a triathlon nutrition specialist. In this episode, we will talk about triathlon and swimming nutrition and what you can do to make better choices to get fitter and healthier.
1:08 What are the common mistakes working with age group triathletes/swimmers
3:58 Coming back to the fundamental things
6:12 Eating before swimming
12:11 Why does swimming make you hungry
14:05 Dietary periodization and why it’s so important
17:39 How individualized are the nutrition plans that you provide for people?
19:27 How to lean up and still maintain energy for training
23:19 Improving Your Eating Habits
29::55 Recovery nutrition
34:35 Lighter is not necessarily better
37:14 Get in touch with Taryn
Contact Taryn here:
Instagram
Website
HOLIDAY SALE:20% off Form Goggles from December 8th to the 20th:
http://formswim.com/effortless
Watch the video on YouTube:
The post Fuelling For Performance (And How To Avoid Late Night Sugar Binges) with Taryn Richardson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we will discuss the best ways to go about improving how you look when you swim.
02:00 The Base Position
03:35 Have The Right Amount Of Rotation
04:48 Keep The Kick Fairly Narrow
05:53 Good Recovery
09:05 Soft Hands
10:20 Good Looking Freestyle Is Never Hurried Or Rushed
11:41 Slow To Fast
12:06 Skinny S Shape
12:31 The Breathing
14:00 The Kick
14:41 Style Is Important
15:36 Visualize Yourself Swimming Like A Pro
Change your technique and swim smoother, easier freestyle in the Effortless Swimming membership:
https://effortlessswimming.com/training-and-membership-plans/
View our freestyle clinic schedule around Australia:
https://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle-stroke-correction-clinics/
20% off Form Goggles from December 8th to the 20th:
http://formswim.com/effortless
The post How To Look Good When You Swim appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I wanted to get Victoria Smith, who recently joined the Maldives Camp, to share her swimming improvements over the 12 months. Tune in now! 01:11 What got you into swimming? 9:23 Have there been any frustrations that you’ve experienced with your swimming since you began? 10:48 What helped to make your coordination […]
The post [Case Study] 1:28/100m In 12 Months with Victoria Smith appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
So thrilled to have Ironman World Champion Gustav Iden in today’s podcast episode. Tune in now as he shares his inspiring journey toward success! 02:02 What’s changed for you after winning Kona? 03:06 What is about the sport you love? 04:17 How did you manage the front-pack swim after not as well in some races […]
The post Gustav Iden appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Dan Atkins who is the Queensland National Performance Center Head Coach in Australia and has been working with top-end athletes. We will talk about some of Dan’s coaching philosophies and strategies and how they can help everyday swimmers and triathletes. 01:01 Swimming To Triathlon Coaching 03:09 Using Cues, Trigger Words, Or […]
The post Inside High Performance Triathlon with Dan Atkins appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Josh Salley who is based in Wales and has recently completed his first half Ironman. Josh and I have been working for the last couple of months doing some stroke analysis and technique coaching. Tune in to this episode now! 00:49 Swimming Background 02:46 Improving Quickly 03:45 Focused More On Technique […]
The post [Case study] 1:45 to 1:35/100m in a Half Ironman Swim with Josh Salley appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Frank Huisman. He’s a swim coach based in the Netherlands. Tune in to this episode to learn more about becoming a faster and more efficient swimmer. 01:08 Working With Kristian Blummenfelt 01:52 Developed A Wetsuit For Kristian 03:27 What Is Impulse Time? 06:17 Speed Is Determined By Two Major Things 08:49 […]
The post How To Figure Out Your Ideal Cadence And Stroke Length with Frank Huisman appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, I will talk about stroke count and how to use it to your advantage to become a faster swimmer. 01:29 What Is A Stroke Count? 04:18 How Can You Use Your Stroke Count To Become A Faster Swimmer? 06:20 How To Reduce Drag And Increase Propulsion 09:43 Best Average Time Across The […]
The post How Stroke Count Can Be Your Secret Weapon To Faster Swimming with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Gerry Rodrigues is coming back as a guest in today’s episode. He is one of the world’s leading open-water swimming coaches and the founder of Tower 26. We will talk about swimming techniques and tips for triathletes. Tune in now! 01:33 Ironman Kona 03:54 The Game Has Changed 05:06 The Four Key Things 07:56 Blend […]
The post Swim Technique For Triathletes (That Don’t Apply To Pool Swimmers) with Gerry Rodrigues from Tower 26 appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I wanted to talk about some of the key things I got from the other coaches and swimmers at the Maldives Camp. 01:13 Rotation 03:04 Front Kick Rotation Drill 04:45 S-Shaped Pull 08:39 Front Scull Drill 09:36 Kick Timing And Connection 12:29 Are You Swimming Enough? 14:02 Long-Term Goals 16:01 The Next […]
The post 5 Lessons From The Maldives with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Oke Büll. He’s a triathlete located in Germany and recently had some great success in Ironman Copenhagen. We will talk about how he was able to improve his swimming. Tune in to this episode now! 01:00 Getting Started In Triathlon 02:39 Swimming Background 05:15 Ironman Swim Distance 06:43 Breaking Down The […]
The post Breaking The 60-minute Ironman Swim Barrier with Oke Büll appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, my guest is Suzanne Nottage. We will talk about the progress in her swimming over the last couple of years. Tune in now! 00:57 Swimming Background 02:10 Joining Ironman 03:28 When Did You Start To Enjoy Swimming? 04:01 Hang Around With The Right People 07:22 5-Day Catch Challenge 10:19 Go Slow Before […]
The post [Case Study] “I Thought My Watch Was Playing Up” with Suzanne Nottage appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I wanted to talk about the five common mistakes I’ve seen from around 6,500 analysis videos I did over the years. Tune in now! 01:34 Breath Timing 02:56 Having The Cue Of Pulling To The Breath 04:30 Over Rotation 05:34 Rocking Side To Side 08:13 Recovery 10:37 Deep Catch 12:40 Head Position […]
The post Lessons From Analysing 6,500 Swimmers with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Excited to have Dr. Jim Taylor back to talk about the mental aspect of the race and some excellent practices for approaching races in a healthy way. 02:43 How To Get Mentally Prepared Before The Race 05:03 Three Key Goals To Follow 06:48 Embrace The Suck 10:56 Physical Intensity 13:05 Music Is A Powerful Mental […]
The post Mental Strategies To Race Strong From Start to Finish with Dr. Jim Taylor appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s podcast episode, I want to talk about a book I recently listened to on Audible, The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. I wanted to share some learnings from this book that I thought were really good. I hope you enjoy this episode! 00:23 The Comfort Crisis 00:48 Problem Creep 02:44 Remind Ourselves To […]
The post The Comfort Crisis with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Carl Reader is joining us again in today’s podcast episode. He is a Functional Movement Coach with a background in Exercise Physiology and Pilates. We will talk about the importance of upper and lower body connections and an exercise that can help you achieve better posture and mobility. 03:56 One Of The Best Ways To […]
The post The One Exercise That Solves Most Aches And Pains with Carl Reader appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Dave Halantas. He came to our clinic in 2019 and went through our 5- Day Catch Challenge course. We will talk about what he’s changed over the last 12 months to see a big improvement in his swim times in the Ironman swim distance. 01:29 Swimming Background 02:58 Shoulder Rotation 04:45 […]
The post 7 Mins Off An Ironman Swim with Dave Halantas appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Kate Galliett, who has a degree in Exercise Science and has been a strength and fitness coach for 21 years. In this episode, we will talk about ways to achieve an unbreakable body. Tune in now! 01:13 Got A Degree In Exercise Science 02:47 What Does An Unbreakable Body Mean? 03:20 […]
The post Becoming Unbreakable with Kate Galliett appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, my guest is Dr. Jim Taylor, who specializes in the psychology of sport and is the author of Train Your Mind for Athletic Success. We will talk about the mental side of sport, swimming, and triathlon. Tune in now! 01:38 Helping Athletes To Be Mentally Prepared 03:18 Is Mental Training Similar To […]
The post Train Your Mind For Success In The Water with Dr. Jim Taylor appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Gary Wheeler from New South Wales. He has gone through our online courses and seen great results! We will talk about his progress over the last couple of months. 00:48 Joining The 8-Week Faster Freestyle Course 01:51 Swimming Background 04:41 Going Through The Course For The Second Time! 06:15 Finding The […]
The post Can You Really Get Faster As You Get Older? with Garry Wheeler appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Bronwen Stacey who attended one of our freestyle clinics a few years ago. We will talk about the progress she has made since doing the clinic. Tune in to the episode now! 00:55 Three Sessions A Week 01:54 What Is A Towel Session? 03:30 Bronze Medallion Course 05:23 Noosa Triathlon 07:34 […]
The post [Case Study] The Power Of Consistency And Being Technique-Focused with Bronwen Stacey appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s podcast episode, we are talking about five ways that you can get into a flow state while you swim. 00:24 Why It’s Important 02:06 Eliminate Distractions 02:32 Take Off Your Watch 03:42 Get Into It With A Clear Mind 04:09 Box Breathing 05:00 Meditation 05:17 Journaling 06:57 Listening To Music 08:28 Single-Task Focused […]
The post 5 Ways To Get Into Flow State When You Swim with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
This episode is a repost from a podcast that I recorded on the Get Fast Podcast with Jordy and Gerard Donnelly from TriVelo Coaching. Check out this episode now! 01:02 Who Is Brenton Ford? – Effortless Swimming 02:47 The Most Common Mistake Triathletes Need To Fix 04:30 Why You Should Aim To Be “front quadrant” […]
The post How To Fix Your Swim Stroke appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Kenneth Graham. We’ve been working together on a product called SwimBETTER by EO, which helps swimmers swim faster. Check out this episode now! 00:42 Working As A Sports Scientist 02:19 MAD System 03:24 What Is Exciting About The SwimBETTER? 04:36 Producing Force At The Right Time And Direction 07:09 Refine Your […]
The post The Science Of Swimming Better with Kenneth Graham appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’ve got Ioannis Aliazis on today’s podcast episode. He has recently been through the 8 Week Faster Freestyle course and is here to share his improvements over the last couple of months. Ioannis is also a freediving instructor, and we will talk a little bit about some of the crossovers from freediving to swimming. 01:01 […]
The post [Case Study] How A Freediver Went From 2:00 to 1:30/100m with Ioannis Aliazis appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, my guest is Anthony McDonald, who has been going through some of our online courses and made such incredible improvements over the last couple of months. Tune in to this episode now! 01:01 There’s Always Room For Improvement 01:34 Swimming Background 04:45 Focusing On One Or Two Things At A Time 07:38 Going Through […]
The post [Case Study] 8:25 to 7:13 for a 400m Time Trial with Anthony McDonald appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Brant Best. We’ve been working together on a product called SwimBETTER by EO, which helps swimmers swim faster. Check out this episode now! 00:22 The SwimBETTER 02:10 Working With Elite Athletes 04:34 Too Much Length Is Not Good 07:45 Overreaching 13:04 Why Your Hips Need To Be In The Right Position […]
The post What Amateurs Can Learn From The Mistakes Of Elite Swimmers with Brant Best appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Glad to have Dan Smith back in today’s podcast episode! Dan is a former Olympic swimmer and now the founder of Worldwide Speaking. Join us as he shares his journey in helping parents and athletes all over the world. 00:29 It’s A Fantastic Video 01:46 Retiring From Swimming Sport 05:59 Helping Parents And Athletes 09:06 […]
The post The Easiest 1:10/100m Ever with Dan Smith appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I wanted to get Scott Harpham from New Zealand to share his swimming improvements over the last couple of years. We talked about going back to fundamentals, consistency, and more. 00:53 Swimming Background 03:08 Starting Training 06:04 Finding Effortless Swimming 08:05 8 Week Faster Freestyle Course 09;23 Seeing A Big Difference 13:11 […]
The post [Case Study] 2:00/100m to 1:20/100m with Scott Harpham appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
So excited to have Eney Jones back again as our guest in today’s podcast episode. Eney is an open-water swim champion and a former triathlete. In this episode, we’ll talk about coaching, drills, split tempo, and ways to swim faster. 01:22 Online Analysis 05:43 Power Phase – Power Diamond 07:18 Your Catch Is Dependent On […]
The post Unusual Ways To Swim Faster with Eney Jones appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I will dive into a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. I wanted to explain some of the concepts that I found incredibly helpful for achieving the goals that I set myself. 00:46 Maldives Swim Camp 02:31 Understanding How Habits Are Formed 03:54 Favorite Quotes From The Book 05:19 Habits Need […]
The post Atomic Habits with Brenton Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, my guest is Paul Mackinnon, a professional running technique coach who helped many runners and triathletes worldwide. We discussed running cues, how to improve your running skill, and more about coaching. I hope you enjoy this episode! 01:16 Coaching Athletes 03:07 Nike’s latest shoes 05:54 Running Cues 11:13 Common Mistakes For The Average Runner […]
The post The Effortless Swimming Of Running with Paul McKinnon (The Balanced Runner) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I’ve got another guest on today’s podcast. He is someone who I started working with recently to help improve his swimming, and he’s gone from around 205 pace per 100 and down to the low 140s. I hope you enjoy it! 01:31 Swimming Background 04:14 Started Triathlon 05:25 I Found Effortless Swimming 06:38 5 Day […]
The post [Case Study] 2:05 to 1:40/100m in 4 months with Felipe Telles appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, my guest is Katherine Starr, a former Olympian, and Commonwealth Games athlete. Katherine advocates for a safe and abused-free environment for athletes. Join us as she shares her incredible and inspiring story. 00:55 Becoming an Olympic Athlete 9:00 Not Speaking Up 14:54 I Started Missing Practice 16:47 Athlete Integrity Coaching 20:54 Conflict Delayed Is […]
The post Making Good From Bad with Katherine Starr appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Carl Reader is coming back as our guest in today’s podcast episode. We will talk about case studies of swimmers dealing with body pain and the best way to help them. 01:30 Neck and Shoulder Pain 04:56 Building That Core Strength 06:54 Body Awareness 09:27 Hamstring Injury 12:47 Rock And Roll Movement 14:33 Knee Injury […]
The post Swimming (And Moving) Pain Free with Carl Reader appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I wanted to get Matthew Tones on the podcast to talk about how the 5-day catch challenge and 8-week faster freestyle course helped him get from 2:20 to 1:22 for 100 yards. 00:55 Swimming Background 03:10 Training Sessions 06:30 Started The 5 Day Catch Challenge 08:16 Immediate Results 10:15 Better Entry 11:02 […]
The post [Case Study] From 2:20 to 1:22 For 100 Yards with Matthew Tones appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I have a swimmer whom I worked with over the last few months. I have done some stroke analysis and coaching together for a while and he has been getting some good results I thought that’s a good thing to talk about in the podcast. 01:18 Swimming Background 05:41 I Was Getting […]
The post Learning To Skate In The Water” with Scott Roth appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, my guest is Abbie Fish, who is the founder and technique coach at Swim like A. Fish. In this episode, we talked about coaching kids, adults, and some things that will help them become more successful and better swimmers later on. 01:20 Swimming Background 04:05 What I learned When I Began Coaching 06:27 Coaching […]
The post Start In The Middle with Abbie Fish appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I was recently a guest on Kieser’s Healthy to 100 podcasts to talk about exciting topics regarding training, swimming equipment, and much more. I hope you enjoy it! 01:59 Swimming Equipment Must-Haves 04:48 Get Yourself A Good Wetsuit 07:20 Buoyancy Shorts 10:37 Training Sessions: What You Need To Know! 19:43 Training Mistakes For Swimmers 23:20 […]
The post Back to Basics with Brenton Ford (Kieser Podcast: Healthy to 100) PART 2 appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, I want to talk about five things that helped me break out of the swimming rut. For the last three months or so, since coming to the pool from our recent lockdowns, it’s taking me ages to get back, much longer than what it had in the past. I want to share […]
The post 5 Things That Helped Me Break Out Of A Rut In My Swimming appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Craig Bryan. A year ago, he attended our clinic, and recently, I had the chance to do another swim analysis with his swimming and saw a huge improvement. I got him on the podcast to talk about the improvement that he made and what he did to 18 seconds off his […]
The post Case Study: What’s Possible In 12 Months with Craig Bryan appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is the Queen Of English Channel, Chloe McCardel who has successfully swam across the English Channel for a record-breaking 44th time. Join us as Chloe talk about her experience in achieving this record-breaking feat. 01:47 Keeping Eye On The Price02:45 Has It Got Any Easier?04:28 Unsuccessful Crossing06:15 More Channel Crossings?08:04 Last Swim13:43 […]
The post The Queen Of English Channel with Chloe McCardel appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
On this episode, I was recently a guest on Kieser’s Healthy to 100 podcasts. I was a guest there for two episodes. I thought it would be great to publish it in our own podcast because I think you will thoroughly enjoy the things we talked about in this podcast. It’s pretty much going to […]
The post Back to Basics with Brenton Ford (Kieser Podcast: Healthy to 100) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Chris Natterer from Ultraworking. He is a Lead Product Manager at Ultraworking.com. In this episode, Chris will talk about what we can do to be more productive to make sure we stick to habits and also to talk about nutrition as well. All of these things tie in really well in […]
The post How To Create Sticky Habits And Avoid Wasting Your Time with Chris Natterer appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Aidan Booth who is over at New Zealand. Aidan mentioned in one of his emails that he hit a PB on his hundred freestyle after going through the 8-week Faster Freestyle Course. Listen as Aidan shares his experience and how he broke the 1:15 Barrier. 00:51 Goal3:11 Power Diamond4:33 Stroke Rate6:38 […]
The post Case Study: Breaking The 1:15 Barrier in A 100m Freestyle with Aidan Booth appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Michael Riber. I contacted him a couple of weeks ago because I would love to have him on the podcast to talk about his improvement after finishing the 5-Day Catch Challenge. Enjoy 00:54 Swimming Background09:37 Swimming Injuries10:56 Accept What You Are And Do Something About It16:17 Sky Diving And Swimming18:09 Improvement […]
The post Case Study: Wiping 1-min Off A 100m Time Trial with Michael Riber appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My Guest today is Zac Turner, he is a physio at Kieser Australia. I have met Zac through a clinic that I was running in Melbourne, he invited me to try Kieser Gym that he worked at. I have been going there for a couple of months now, I have really enjoyed it, got a […]
The post A Different Approach To Strength Training with Zac Turner appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Marquest joins us in this podcast episode to talk about his early struggles when he started swimming. From barely finishing 50 yards to completing 1000 yards without stopping. Marquest shares his experiences, what he’s been through to achieve this. Enjoy 01:02 Swimming Background9:00 Doing Half Ironman09:30 I Gotta Start With Something16:52 But Swimming25:53 Signing Up […]
The post From Gassed Out At 50 Yards To Swimming 1000 Without Stopping with Marquest Meeks appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Ari Klau and he is a professional triathlete who started only at the beginning of this year. He essentially came from no swimming background at all and he is gotten to a point now where he swimming very well for someone who doesn’t have a background in swimming. His background is […]
The post Starting From Scratch with Ari Klau appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is David Tilbury-Davis. You might know him, you might not. He is the former coach of Lionel Sanders, he coaches a number of professional triathletes, he is one of the most highly successful, highly experienced triathlon coaches out there at the moment. He has been coaching for the last 26 years, he […]
The post Lessons From The Top with David Tilbury-Davis appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Phil Clayton. Phil was a professional Ironman, Surf Ironman Competitor from 1992 to 2004. In 2000, he won the World Ironman Championships. He has a lot of experience as a Surf Ironman Coach and as a swim coach. His main thing is helping people get comfortable, get experience to become open […]
The post Uncovering The Magic Of Ocean Swimming with Phil Clayton appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is a fellow coach, a competitor, a triasthlete who has done a huge amount of racing. He has done one of the longer distance triathlon that there is, the Ultraman. 01:50 Competition/ Coaching Background03:58 Training From Ironman To Ultraman06:37 Not Too Much Running07:28 Swim Training08:33Swim Techniques09:59 Open Water Swimming Skills15:07 Coaching Triathletes17:45 […]
The post Preparing For An Ultraman Event with John McCann appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is an elite athlete who won an incredible 5 World Championships is paddle boarding and holds the course record for the Molokai to Ohau race in Hawaii. Won his first full Ironman series in 2018 and the Coolangatta Gold Ironman in 2019. Join us as Matt talks about his training sessions, visions […]
The post Keeping Your Cool In 10ft Surf with Matt Bevilacqua appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Alex from AB Physiology. Take a listen as Alex talks about the importance of breathing, share some breathing exercises and how we should prioritize exhale. 04:32 Strategies Used To Help People Stay Calm06:44 Level OF Awareness Towards Breathing09:39 Breathing Exercise14:28 Breathing In A Highly Stressed Situation16:16 Prioritize Your Exhale19:40 CO2 Tolerance29:59 […]
The post It’s All About The Exhale with Alex Butchies appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest is Olympian Tristan Hollard. I wanted to get him into the podcast to talk about his experience in qualifying, his training and racing at the Olympics. 01:42 Holy Hollard!!05:36 Reaching The Potential04:01 Developing Discipline And Routine07:56 It’s Not Easy09:43 It Changed My Life Completely11:51 Is This What’s Best For Me?14:14 Changing The Attitude […]
The post What It Really Takes To Be An Olympian with Tristan Hollard appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Irene Cats from Swimfitforlife based up in far north Queensland. I find a lot of similarities between me and Irene as a coach, we normally coach adults, and a lot of adults that haven’t got any swimming backgrounds or adults who just learned how to swim. In this podcast, I want […]
The post The Beginner’s Guide To Freestyle with Irene Cats appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Seeing some incredible improvement with his swimming time, I want to get Chris into the podcast to get his take on what’s made the difference for him and with experiences like this, a lot of listeners will surely have a lot of takeaways that could help them in their swimming journey. 01:36 Swimming Background04:14 Training […]
The post Cracking The 30-minute Half Ironman Swim with Chris Naimoli appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I have been working with Chris for a little bit over a year and recently had a good result in his Ironman swim. I thought it would really good to get him into the podcast to talk about what he has done to improve his swimming. 01:09 Swimming Background02:40 Swimming In The Dark04:18 Reluctant To […]
The post Getting Beyond 1:45 per 100 with Chris Georgeson appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Prescot Balch. Prescot was recently featured in one of our YouTube videos where we are looking at how can someone can go from 2:10 minutes per hundred down to 1:30. I want to get him into the podcast to talk about his experience and frustrations when it comes to open water […]
The post [Case Study] What To Do When Your Open Water Times Are Slower Than Your Pool Times with Prescott Balch appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Our guest today is Ben Kent who had recently made some big improvements with his swimming time. I like to get people who has gone through some of our programs and mage improvements just to show that it is possible and with the right focus and know how you can really make changes to your […]
The post How One Stroke Change Lead To A 16 Seconds PB with Ben Kent appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Our guest today is Neil Agius who recently broke the World Record for the Longest Non-Stop Swim in the Ocean which is 125km over 52 hours. Join me as Neil talks about his incredible swim. 01:53 After The Swim02:47 How Much Time To Train And Prepare For The Big Swim03:33 Week Structure/Scheduling04:16 Managing Emotions And […]
The post 52 hours and 125km (Breaking The World Record For The Longest Non-Stop Ocean Swim) with Neil Agius appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, we are talking about the 5th and final Core Principle of Fast Freestyle: find your rhythm and timing. 00:36 The Dancing Part Of Freestyle01:13 Kick Timing04:35 Use Different Types Of Kick10:33 Serape Effect13:35 Hand Speed14:07 Split Tempo17:54 Drills19:22 8 Week Faster Freestyle Course Join the 5 Day Catch ChallengeJoin the Effortless Swimming MembershipEffortless Swimming […]
The post The 5 Core Principles Of Fast Freestyle (#5 – Find Your Rhythm And Timing) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode, we will be discussing the core principle number four of Fast Freestyle, which is developing an effective catch and pull. 01:40 No Need To Overpower The Catch03:07 Teaching The Four Key Positions04:00 Start Of The Catch06:00 High Elbow Catch07:35 Power Diamond Position10:20 Exit Of The Stroke11:36 YMCA Drill Progression14:38 More Drills To […]
The post The 5 Core Principles Of Fast Freestyle (#4 – Develop An Effective Catch And Pull) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today, we are talking about the third core principle of Fast freestyle which is Rock, Return And Align. 00:36 Rock v.s. Rolling02:15 Return03:24 Correct Entry06:08 Align Join the 5 Day Catch Challenge:Join the Effortless Swimming membership:Effortless Swimming Freestyle Clinic
The post The 5 Core Principles Of Fast Freestyle (#3-Rock, Return And Align) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In today’s episode we’re looking at Core Principle Number 2. This principle is all about minimizing drag. Here are the three things that we covered on this principle. 01:46 Proud Posture05:06 Taut Core9:00 Effective Kick The 5 Core Principles Of Fast Freestyle:https://effortlessswimming.com/5-core-principles-of-fast-freestyle/ Join the 5 Day Catch Challenge:Join the Effortless Swimming membership:Effortless Swimming Freestyle Clinic
The post The 5 Core Principles Of Fast Freestyle (#2 Find Your Balance) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
01:45 Use Your Diaphragm02:29 Breathing Exercises Out Of The Water03:42 Box Breathing04:04 Relax Your Chest And Upper Back05:38 Having The Right Posture06:52 Letting Go When You Exhale The 5 Core Principle Of Fast Freestyle:Join the 5 Day Catch Challenge:Join the Effortless Swimming membership:Effortless Swimming Freestyle Clinic
The post The 5 Core Principle Of Fast Freestyle (#1 Breathe Deep And Relax) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Frank Sole who is a fellow coach from Arizona and the author of “The Five ‘B’ To A Succesful Triathlon Swim. Reading through his book, I found so many similarities about how we coach. I want to get him to the podcast because I think there will some good discussion about […]
The post The Five ‘B’ Method To A Succesful Triathlon Swim with Frank Sole appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Simon Hearn, who is a professional triathlete whom I’ve known for a couple of years now. He turned pro in the last two years and I want to get him in the podcast to talk about that journey and a little bit about his journey in swimming. 01:49 Start Of Triathlon […]
The post Patience And The Power Of Long Term Thinking with Simon Hearn appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Nic Owens who is based in Sydney. Nic mentioned that he has been stuck with his time for over a year and now recently has made a significant improvement with his time. I want to get him into the podcast so that he can share what he did to achieve this […]
The post CASE STUDY: Stuck At The Same Speed For 4 Years Then Wiping 10 Seconds Off In One Month with Nic Owens appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Brett Hawke. Brett is a former Australian swimmer, two-time Olympian and Commonwealth Games medalist. He has competed and coached at the elite level and has a number of athletes who did very well at the recent Olympics. In this episode, Brett talks about his coaching, as well as some of the […]
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My guest today is Kiah Melverton who has just returned from Tokyo. She recently placed 6th in the 800m and the 1500m Freestyle. Join us as she talks about her experience during the trial and leading up to the Olympics. 1:33 Racing With No Crowd4:31 Leading To Trials5:40 5 Weeks Between Trials And Olympics6:59 Is […]
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Joining us again is Carl Reader. He has a background in Exercise Physiology and Pilatesbut primarily working in Functional Movement. We recently created a course together which is Functional Movement for swimmers. In this course, Carl teaches you how to do some of the primary movements correctly that is going to help you as a […]
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Joining us in this podcast is Brad Beer who is an APA Sports and Exercise Physiotherapist, Founder of POGO Physio, best-selling author of ‘You CAN Run Pain-Free!’, podcast host of The Physical Performance Show, and also an experienced runner and triathlete. 1:08 Working with Elite Athletes2:28 Common Trend in Injuries Among Athletes5:05 Avoiding Injuries When […]
The post What Is Causing Your Persistent Shoulder Pain (And How To Fix It) with Brad Beer appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
rAmy recently did the Cairns Ironman. She had a pretty big PB. She went from 1:18 down to 1:09. I invited her to the podcast to chat about what she did to make such a big improvement on her swimming speed. 01:05 What Inspired You To Work On Your Swimming02:26 Take Away From The Effortless […]
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Julie McDonald is one of Australia’s most celebrated Swimmers. She’s competed in 2 Commonwealth Games and 2 Olympics. Julie held the Commonwealth Record for the 800m freestyle for 21 years, the longest standing record for any Australian. Join me as Julie talks about her experience competing in the Olympics. 00:46 Exciting Swimming Events Going On06:00 […]
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Abe Goldberg has recently been through the 5-Day Catch Challenge. He knocked 7 seconds per hundred of his 1000 yeard time trial. I thought it would be great to get him on so that he can share what he changed about his stroke and about his swimming because I think it’s going to be relevant […]
The post How A Few Small Changes To His Technique Wiped 70 Seconds From His 1000TT with Abe Goldberg appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Sam Laidlow who is considered one of the best triathletes in France today. He is born in the UK and was raised in French Pyrénées. Join us as Sam talks about his training, beliefs, and goals. 00:46 Working Hard And Working Smart01:59 Dad As A Coach03:39 Swimming 3X A Week05:22 Big […]
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In this episode, I am chatting with Phil Rush, who has the fastest double and triple crossing of the English Channel. In this episode, we chat about a number of things including how can you get better at adapting to the cold, the type of training that you need to be doing if you are […]
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My guest today is Peter Bloor from Vietnam. I invited him on the podcast to talk about the impressive results he has observed after day two of the ‘5 Day Catch Challenge’. He shared about what he had changed and did to make such an improvement. 1:00 Swimming Background3:35 Did the ‘5 Day Catch Challenge’ […]
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My guest today is Jeff Grace from Swimming Specific Yoga. Jeff has been in the podcast before. Now he is coming back to talk more about body awareness, mobility. preparation and many more. 02:26 Moving Better With Yoga04:55 Body Awareness in Overhead Movements06:55 Thoracic Mobility08:18 Increasing Thoracic Spine Mobility12:36 Rock Not Roll 13:21 Cross-Body Connections15:05 […]
The post How To Move Better On Land (For Better Technique In The Water) with Jeff Grace appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
My guest today is Bevan Mckinnon. He is a coach at Fitter Coaching and he hosts a podcast called Fitter Radio. Bevan coaches multiple pro triathletes who have won several Ironman and 70.3 Distance Events. He has also won the Age Group World Championships in Kona and other long course events. In this episode, we […]
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In today’s episode, I want to go over an article that I was sent recently by Bevan Mckinnon who hosts the podcast Fitter Radio. I thought it is going to be worthwhile going over this article that he sent because when I first read the title and when I read the first couple of paragraphs, […]
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Joining us in this episode is Kris Martenstyn from Singapore, who had some great results from the 5 Day Catch Challenge that we recently run. He will talk about the improvements he has seen and what he may have changed about his stroke to get these results.1:02 Swimming Background2:56 Bringing In The 5 Day Catch […]
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My guest today is Quang Pham who recently had a significant improvement with his swim time. I thought it would be useful to have him share what he has done to improve. Listen to this episode, you might pick a couple of things that you might implement on your own. 1:40 Benchmarks 04:29 What Made […]
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Joining us in this episode is Trey St. John whom I have been working with for a couple of months. Trey recently joined a triathlon and couldn’t believe that he clocked in a sub-24 minute time. Join us as Trey talks about what he thinks contributed to this significant change. 00:47 Swimming Background1:55 I Needed […]
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My guest today is Hollie Buerckner who just completed a 100km around the bay, starting from Port Melbourne finishing in Sorrento. Join us in this podcast as Hollie shares her experience during that 5 day swim. 4:52 Having a great support system is important 7:27 Unlucky Weather 8:28 First To Last Day Experience 13:47 Struggles […]
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My guest today is Chung-Haun Li who has been on our Stroke Analysis Membership for 12 months. I have asked Chung-Haun to guest in our podcast to share his story and improvement for the last 12 months because he’s had a pretty significant improvement with his time and technique. 01:14 12 Months Ago02:29 I Didn’t […]
The post 1:45 to 1:30/100m in 12 Months with Chung-Haun Li appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Rebecca Hollingsworth recently swam across the Cook Straight. In this episode, she talks about how her preparation, training, and experience on that swim. 00:40 It’s Supposed to be 23km2:23 Training While Waiting For Another Window5:00 Doing A Tandem Swim8:42 Not Slowing Down9:28 Cold Adaptation11:08 Fuelling14:35 After The Swim (Mental Toll) Rebecca’s Write up Effortless Swimming […]
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John’s Swim Report Become a Member Freestyle Clinics Around Australia
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In this episode, I want to talk about making your swimming effortless. I have been watching about Lionel Sanders, a professional triathlete has put up in his swimming recently which he has titled “Stop Sucking At Swimming” and he is basically trying to improve his swimming to be a front pack swimmer in his swim […]
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Do you only have one speed?In this episode, we are talking about developing your gears as a swimmer. If you want to develop your ability and your skills as a swimmer or as a triathlete, then it is going to really pay off to be able to adjust the effort you put in and the […]
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I thought it might be useful through some of the things that I am tweaking, adjusting and changing with my own swimming that you may find useful in your own swimming. 00:36 Changing Habits and Having a Good Routine02:55 Starting The Day The Right Way05:50 Training Harder and Longer Sessions06:17 Expanding Skillset and Boundaries10:03 Listening […]
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In this episode, Chuck, who joined the Effortless Swimming Membership a couple of years ago, shares about his swimming experience, his hesitation in joining the membership, and how he has significantly improved over the years. 01:06 Joining Effortless Swimming Membership 04:23 Putting Attention To More Important Things 08:52 It’s all about “Reduce Drag, Increase Propulsion” […]
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Karsten Weber is one of our members in our Effortless Swimming Membership program. His experience in swimming mostly involved breaststroke and diving and never did freestyle swimming. Join us as he talks about his journey from barely making 25 meters to swimming at 1:47/ 100m. 00:58 Swimming Background01:53 Joining Ironman After A Heart Attack04:57 “Never […]
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Here’s the third installment of our podcast episode with Sam Fenton. In this episode, Sam discussed what is Deep Core, the muscles that are involved in strengthening the deep core, and some exercises to improve it. 1:11 What Is Deep Core?3:17 Stability Of Pelvis4:11 Inter-Abdominal Pressure6:40 Cross fitters Destroying Their Joints and Back08:48 Serape Effect11:34 […]
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Welcome to Part 2 of our podcast episode with Sam Fenton. In this episode, Sam talked about the importance of having ankle strength and flexibility; and how can you improve your stiff ankles. 05:15 Why Underwater Dolphin Kick?06:15 Ankle Strength And Flexibility07:43 Range And Strength10:00 How Do You Improve Range And Strength?13:18 Need To Have […]
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Sam Fenton is the High-Performance Manager of Control High Performance, he has been involved with sports for close to 20 years now and is in charge of Strength and Conditioning/ Performance programs. Sam will be joining us for a three-part podcast, for the next episodes, Sam and I will be talking about: Part 2:Transforming Your […]
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In this episode, I want to give you my take about Total Body Force swimming by Brett Sutton. He is a coach of multiple Olympians and Kona Champions, he has a huge history of success in having and developing good swimmers as triathlete. He wrote this three-part article on Total Bodu Force Swimming which is […]
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My guest in this episode is Ryan Twist, a Podiatrist from Bayswater Foot and Ankle Clinic. Anyone who is listening who wants to get into running or they have been running and they have found themselves injured, this episode is for you. 01:13 People Are Starting to Pick Up Running And Walking 02:49 What Are […]
The post Fish Out Of Water: Making Yourself Bulletproof From Running Injuries with Ryan Twist. appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Shawn is an Ironman triathlete based in Nova Scotia, Canada. A year ago, he started some changes in his stroke, and in the course over the last year, he has effectively gone from a 2:25 per hundred paces down to 1:31 per hundred. Shawn will share how he has done that, what changes he’s made […]
The post 2:25 to 1:31/100m In 12 Months With Shawn Muise appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Melissa Urie is the first woman to complete 895km Uberman Ultra-Triathlon. In this podcast episode, she shares her experience during the race, doing training, and getting through the race with the use of mental strategies to survive the tough times. 5:22 Training For Uberman 10:23 The Power of A Positive Mindset 12:43 Proving Yourself That […]
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Welcome back to another podcast episode! Today, I’ll be sharing my top tips for making your open water swimming enjoyable and more challenging. Listen on in! 00:27 What Are the Drills You Can Do?1:47 How to Break Down Or Structure An Open Water Swim3:37 Don’t Overthink It!3:56 Overcome Open Water Swim Anxiety5:55 Progressively Make Your […]
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Welcome Back! Here in Australia, there are a couple of pools that have started to open, you can book individual lanes for a certain amount of time. So I thought of doing a podcast talking about the best ways to get back to training once your pool has opened. 00:55 Time Frame01:54 How Many Sessions?02:52 […]
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In today’s episode, we sat down with the author of the book Your New Prime, and promoter of men’s health and wellness, Craig Cooper! We talked about the active approach to maintaining your physical and mental health as you age, how to get out of complacency, and how to start thriving and making steady forward […]
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In today’s episode, we are joined by a lifelong trainer and athlete Andrew Read as he talks about his program 28-day Challenge. Andrew talks through how important going back to the basics is and some of the necessary skills to influence your success at living a healthy lifestyle. 4:19 Creating A Mindset Component5:32 Going Back […]
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We are joined by Dr. Greg Wells who is the author of the book Rest, Refocus, Recharge. In this episode, we talked about some of the things that are discussed in his book. He shares some strategies on why doing less will actually achieve more, how to stop reacting to things and be more deliberate, […]
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Marc Evans joins us in this episode to talk about the possible things you can do at your home during these times. In this episode, Marc discussed maintaining the feel of the water, the importance of mobility, stability, and flexibility. 00:38 Triathletes In Motion02:40 It’s Not The Strongest Athlete That Wins The Gold Medals06:19 Functional […]
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Tim Ballintine is a full-time endurance coach and the owner of Koa Sports. In this episode, he shares about being a coach, finding your passion, not having all the answers and intensity in training. 02:56 Coaching Philosophy05:30 “You’ve Got To Find What Works For You”06:17 You Can’t Be All Things To All People07:01 “It’s Not […]
The post Are You Swimming With Enough Intensity To Get Better? With Tim Ballintine appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Dan Smith joins us in this episode as he talks about his swimming, drug addiction,building character and his road to redemption. 01:28 Swimming Life As A Youngster03:41 Burnt Out At The Age Of 1404:46 It Was More Of An Escape For Me05:44 What Would I Pass On To My Kids08:38 I Am Not Defined What […]
The post From Drug Addiction To Olympian (And Why Your Character Means More Than Your Results) With Dan Smith appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Joining us in this episode is Jason Cram who is a Commonwealth Gold Medalist, diving instructor, and superyacht crew member. 00:43 Jason’s Background03:51 Dealing With Missing Out On Olympics07:15 Being Comfortable With The New You09:04 Without Swimming, I Wouldn’t Be Able To Grow Into The Person That I Am Now”09:49 Planting A Seed10:48 Performing Best […]
The post How To Develop Your Character Through Swimming (And What It’s Like Being Ian Thorpe’s Training Partner) with Jason Cram appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
We sit down with Wayne Goldsmith as he talks about putting emphasis on soft skills when coaching. 01:50 Working On Soft Skills02:44 It Comes Down To The Way They Do What They Do03:58 Vibe And Connection Among People05:23 Building A Team Culture07:10 What Does Your Values Look Like?09:00 Identifying The Actual Behaviors That Will Say […]
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My guest on today’s podcast is Stephen Jackson who first attended a clinic in 2017. At the time he was a 2:20/100m swimmer, and over the course of the last few yearshe’s been able to move into the 1:40/100m range. In this episode, you’ll learn what to expect as you progress in your swimming journey […]
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Eney Jones is coming back for the third time to share what she has been working with recently and about trying a different approach for triathletes who needs help with their swimming. 01:31 Origin Of Phrases That Swim Coaches Have Used 08:26 Core Connection 10:18 Working With Triathletes 12:43 The Mental Aspect 13:41 Aloha! 15:54 […]
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Our guest today is Harriet Brown who is a World Ironwoman Champion, Nutri-Grain Ironwoman Series Champion, Australian Team Captain, and Molokai to Oahu Paddle Board Champion. 01:26 Underwater Filming03:10 Injury During Championship05:14 Being Out For The Whole Season07:18 Exercise Makes You Happy07:51 Injury As A Positive Experience08:54 Having Some Time Off10:45 Considering A Career After […]
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As we end a wonderful year, here’s a collection of the best podcast snippets for 2019. Enjoy! 00:19 Do Not Overthink 02:04 Flexibility 05:02 Stroke Changes In Open Water 08:12 “I Can’t Do That, I Am Spontaneous” 12:26 Breathing Exercises During Downtime 15:17 Locking Changes as a Habit 18:19 Serape Effect on Freestyle 20:43 Don’t […]
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Coming back as a guest is Garry Hurring who is a former Olympic swimmer and Olympic coach. Gary has coached with as in our Hell Week Camp in Thanyapura, Thailand.Here are the things we talked about: 01:15 Hell Week Camp At Thanyapura03:26 Common Things Observed From Swimmers At Hell Week07:05 There’s No Advice That’s Going […]
The post What To Do If You Can’t Get Under 1:45/100m with Gary Hurring appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Our guest for todays episode is Sam Penny who is the first person who attempted to swim the English in winter. In this episode, we talked about Sam’s training, strategy and his journey in crossing the English Channel. 00:52 The Swim08:40 We Had No Idea What Was Going To Come10:07 Shutting Your Mind Down11:19 Hypothermia […]
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Our guest today is Baden Schaff, who is a PGA pro in golf, and he is also the co-creator of Skillest. Now you might’ve heard me talk about Skillest, this is the app that we use at our clinics and at our camps, to help analyze swimmers strokes and also just to really show them […]
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We sit down with Josh Minogue as we talk about how patience pays off, his Coolangatta Gold triumph and his triathlon journey. 04:09 Swimming Background 07:16 How Can Disappointment Be Good For Me? 09:08 If You Stop Learning, Stop Coaching 10:08 Being An Athlete and Being A Coach 13:12 Coaching And Training For Triathlon 14:43 […]
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Our guest in today’s episode is Darren Stojanovic from Dynamic Stability. He is a physiotherapist but he is also doing a lot of work in breathwork. In this episode, Darren and I will be talking about different breathing techniques which can help you control your emotion and help you improve your performance. 3:01 Learning About […]
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Ryan Hodierne is the Biomechanist for NSWIS (New South Wales Institute of Sport). He has worked with a lot of high-level swimmers including Cate and Bronte Campbell, and we talk about how everyday swimmers can use high-level biomechanics to improve their swimming. 01:06 Thoughts about Sensarii 02:31 Simplifying Data To Make It Useful 05:02 Communicating […]
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My guest is Tim Ford, who is someone I’ve known for the last few years, and a number of years ago, he started his triathlon journey and over that time he’s lost more than 50 kilos. He’s completely changed his life with respect to his health, his fitness, and his work, and I think it’s […]
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My guest today is Nick Jankovskis from METS Performance. METS Performance is a Melbourne based company that help athletes with a whole range of tests that you can use to then use some data to incorporate that into how you’re training, particularly for endurance athletes. Nick and I will be talking about how we easily […]
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Our guest today is Michael Andrew, he is a competitive swimmer and has been the gold medalist for the 100-meter individual medley at the 2016 FINA Short Course World Championships. He is training in a non-traditional way and has pioneered the Ultra Short Course Race Pace Training. 02:32 Ultra Short Race Pace Training07:04 Team Environment08:01 […]
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Carl joins us again on the podcast. His background is in Functional Movement and in this episode, he shares some interesting aspects of the Serape Effect. 01:34 Carl’s experience with Serape Effect03:13 Brenton’s Interpretation of Serape Effect04:24 Carl’s Take on Serape Effect06:04 Exercises08:58 Understanding and Starting Serape10:29 Building the Coordination11:24 Serape Effect on Freestyle13:50 Going […]
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My guest today is Ryan Roselli. He attended one of our freestyle clinics in Brisbane last March. During the Cairns Half Ironman, he managed to swim 5 minutes quicker than last year. In this episode we, talked about the things he focused on in his stroke, making the changes permanent and some advice to swimmers […]
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Trever Gray is an HRV based coach who works with Olympians and amateurs, ensuring athletes are adapting to training stimuli optimally. He is also a professor of anatomy & physiology and nutrition at Tacoma Community College. Join us as we talk about Heart Rate Variability, Respiratory Muscle Training and Blood Flow Restriction Training. 00:59 Trever […]
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Andre Obradovic joins us again in this episode as we talk about how to stop wasting your time and being more effective in your training. 00:53 Background on Being Productive03:14 Structural Schedule04:52 Today’s Plan Scheduling App09:37 Factoring The Appointments16:08 Sticking To It17:08 Getting Back On Track18:37 “I Can’t Do That, I Am Spontaneous”19:02 Spontaneity26:18 Being […]
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Why It Pays Off To Follow The Process With Taren Gesell Our guest today is Taren Gesell of the YouTube Channel Triathlon Taren whom we had two analysis videos. The video analysis was six months apart and over that time he really made some impressive improvements and continues to get better. 01:07 How Taren started […]
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Jason Key is an age group triathlete based out of Texas. Jason joined our membership last year and has since gone from 1:50/100m pace in his triathlon swims to an incredible 1:30/100m pace. Click here to join the video membership 00:56 How Jason started with Effortless Swimming. 02:01 Jason’s focus as an athlete. 04:54 Time […]
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We welcome back Solomon Wright who recently won the New Zealand 10km Open Water Championship. In this episode, Solomon talks about his training leading up to the National Championship and how he recovered from shoulder injury. We also added a before and after video of Solomon comparing his stroke now and 12 months ago. 02:53 […]
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As we end a wonderful year, here’s a collection of the best podcast snippets for 2018. Enjoy! 00:47 How to Work on the Right Things with John Mullen 03:01 Laser vs the Lantern 05:12 Train in Manual, Race in Automatic 07:23 Move your Big Rock First 09:01 How to Train for 10km plus Swims with […]
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We are joined today by Els Visser who is a professional triathlete from the Netherlands Els had a TEDX talk about how a shipwreck experience changed her life. In this podcast, Els shares to us that experience with the hope of inspiring others. 00:37 Sinking Ship Experience 2:57 Stay or Swim 9:42 Surviving the Island […]
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We’ve just returned from our annual Hell Week camps in Thailand. Here are nine things I learned from the camp that I thought it would be worth sharing on a podcast. 1. Clear your mind 2. Regular feedback 3. Go crazy 4. Find your ideal stroke rate 5. 3 different ways to think about your […]
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00:58 Pre Swim Routine for Olympic Athletes 02:35 How Much Time Should Be Given To Pre-Swim Routine 06:33 Basic Movements in Yoga Routine 8:58 Q Swim/ Q Swim App 15:24 Time Commitment in Integrating Yoga into Training 18:52 Yoga And Recovery 20:54 Breathing 25:13 On Adults Wanting To Improve Their Swimming 26:36 Balancing Your Nervous […]
The post How Australian Olympic Swimmers Improve Mobility with Tom Barton And Jeff Grace appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Our guest for today’s episode is Carl Reader who is a Functional Movement Coach and a Biokineticist (Exercise Therapist). He’s been helping athletes and clients move and exercise better through functional movements. Join us as we discuss warm up, squats and functional movement. 00:28 Carl Reader’s Background 2:29 What Can Swimmers Do As Warm Up. […]
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Our guest today is Ben de Rivaz from Breca. Breca hosts swimrun events which take place on trail and open water; team races in pairs wearing wetsuit and trainers, transitioning between running and swimming stages. Join us as we discuss topics about the format swimrun compared to triathlon, why it is appealing to a lot […]
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Getting beaten up by riot police. Setting his alarm 4 hours too early before the biggest race of his life. Not being able to walk for 4 days just weeks out from his last Olympic Games. These are just a few of the challenges 3x Olympian, Olympic bronze medallist and 100m Freestyle World Champion Brent […]
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This week I’m joined by Rory Buck to discuss the intricacies of swimming and coaching. Rory Buck is an ex-competitive swimmer turned coach, who went from being a collegiate swimmer to representing South Africa at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Turning to coaching to learn more about swimming, Rory now coaches from Dubai. Join […]
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This week’s podcast features Jason Hamilton as our guest. An athlete and triathlete who I met during Hell Week last year in Thailand, Jason joins us to speak about his journey as a swimmer, and how he trained to qualify in the World Championships. We cover topics such as winter swimming locations, using structure to […]
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The Fearless Mind with Professional Triathlete Angela Naeth Welcome to this week’s podcast, where I sit down with professional triathlete Angela Naeth to talk about thinking and reflecting on your personal and sporting life. Angela hails from Canada and is a multiple Ironman Champion who holds a Masters degree in Physical Therapy and a Bachelor’s […]
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This week’s podcast is an informal one; I talk to you about the importance of your beliefs in relation to your mindset. Over time, it has come to my attention that there is something holding back a majority of swimmers, and that is their beliefs. Whether it be something they see another swimmer do and […]
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This week Vicky Tate, who has recently become one of less than a hundred swimmers to complete the 40-kilometer crossing of Lake Taupo, joins us in the podcast. I met Vicky last year when she joined us for Hell Week in Thailand and we talk about everything from how Hell Week helped her, to the […]
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In this week’s podcast, we discuss everything related to coaching, swimming, and fasting. Our guest for this episode is Bevan McKinnon. An Ironman University certified coach, McKinnon is accredited by Triathlon NZ and Bike NZ and is a NETFIT Stretch and Conditioning Coach as well as being an elite level triathlete who has been in […]
The post The Ultimate Way to Reset Your Body with Bevan Mckinnon appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
How Body Composition Affects Your Swimming with Andre Ho-Peng. In this week’s podcast, we discuss everything relating to Body Composition and how it alters your swimming. Joining us is Andrew Ho-Peng, who is from DEXA Melbourne. A company that partners with the St. Kilda Football Club and the Collingwood Magpies Football Club to bring them […]
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Fuelling for a marathon swim has never been made so simple. Joining me in this weeks podcast is Tara Diversi, a swimmer who has invaluable experience when it comes to long-distance swimming. She has previously swum the English Channel and the Rottnest Channel to name a few. Tara works closely with a handful of swimmers […]
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In this episode, we talked about the things I have learned from chatting up with the Rottnest Channel Swim 2018 winners, Solomon Wright and Heidi Gan. Leading up to the race, both of them encountered some obstacles, however, I believe they were able to rise above the situation because of these three things : -Going […]
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In today’s podcast, we discuss the Rottnest Swim and recap everything that happened during the channel swim. Joining us on the podcast are the winners Solomon Wright and Heidi Gan, who won the male and female sections, both in record times. We discuss how 6- weeks of intensive training in the lead up to the […]
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Uncovering The Breath Training Secrets Used By Olympic Swimmers with James Fletcher James Fletcher joins us in today’s podcast to discuss breath training techniques for athletes. With a Physiology background to his name and previous time spent working with members of the Australian Olympic Swimming team such as James Roberts and Cameron McEvoy, James Fletcher’s […]
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With over 25 years of experience working with the highest level of athletes and sporting clubs all over the world, we welcome back Wayne Goldsmith, to discuss working with children and the role of parents in swim training.One of the most passionate sports performance experts throughout Australia, New Zealand, and the world, Wayne has been […]
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I’ve known Grant through mutual friends for a quite a while. He is a Triathlon coach and to me, he is one of the best coaches that teaches and coaches a lot base on Mindset, Intuitiveness, and Beliefs. In the podcast, we talked about a lot of different topics from How to Change your Structured […]
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Gary Hurring is a former Olympic swimmer and coach from New Zealand who has been featured on our podcast previously in episode #90called “How to Change your Technique from an Olympic Coaches Perspective”. Gary and I are running a swim camp in Hawaii in March for swimmers, triathletes and open water swimmers to improve their technique, […]
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Let’s welcome back Lisandra de Carvalho as we talk about how to train for 10km+ swims. Lisandra has swum the Rottnest channel on numerous occasions and she has been my training partner these past few months in preparing for the Rottnest Swim this year. Join us as we talk about the things that are essential […]
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There are times when we get confused on what to prioritize. In today’s podcast, we talk about how it is beneficial to prioritize the bigger things first such as technique, focus, and mindset. Moreover, giving time also for smaller rocks such as strength training, diet, and mobility.
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Swimming can be compared to driving a car. In today’s podcast, we share with you about going from manual mode to automatic. When training, we like our swimmers to be in the manual mode where they really need to focus so that they can coordinate these little elements together.If you can practice that in training, […]
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One of the analogies we like to use in swimming is the laser vs the lantern approach. Which approach should you use? Listen as we talk about the importance of having a laser approach in your training.
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In this podcast we share to you why generalized coaching style doesn’t work for most swimmers.
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When you train, do you feel like you only have one speed? In this podcast, we share with you on how you vary your pace in training, on how to shock the system.
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Most of the propulsion will come from the catch. We have worked with more than 1300 athletes and we have observed that most of them can impove on their catch.
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How long does it take you to warm up in training? We share our favourite pre-training routine to improve shoulder stability and reduce the chance of injury.
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Flexibility. Technique. Fitness. The list goes on… How do you know if you’re working on the ‘right’ things in your swimming? Join John Mullen from SwimmingScience.net and I on the latest podcast where we explore: – John’s ‘needs analysis’ process and how he determines what to focus on with each swimmer – Strategies for enhancing your […]
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This podcast episode is from the audio of our Facebook live and we talk about my consolidated thoughts on what most triathletes and open water swimmers can do to swim faster this 2018. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/effortlessswimming/
The post My Top 8 Things to Swim Faster in 2018 appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
We discuss how the concept of domino effect can be helpful in the obstacles that you are facing. Listen and you will learn how identifying that initial or smaller dominoes can be beneficial in knocking over bigger dominoes.
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In this podcast episode, we talk about few important points from Angela Duckworth’s book GRIT and why people love swimming despite being difficult and challenging.
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In today’s podcast, listen on how the principle of taking one step backward and taking two steps forward is applicable whenever you changing a habit or when you make changes in your stroke. We’re also announcing the opening of bookings for Hell Week 2018 which is on December 14, 2017, 9:00 am Melbourne time.
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For this episode, we talk about how wearing a watch in training affects focus and technique in swimming. If you are using a watch when swimming, a little experiment that we would like you to try is that for 2 weeks leave your watch in your bag or at home and see how you get to […]
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Today’s podcast is entitled “The Best of 2017”. We have compiled all of the best parts from all the podcasts across the year and put them on this episode. This special episode is a mix of everything–from ideas, skills, and techniques to becoming a lean athlete and swim fast to overcoming anxiety and uplifting […]
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A quick update on why we haven’t recorded many podcasts lately.
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Last year Elise Butler (center) was swimming 20 mins for her 1km time trial. Over the past 18 months she’s made big improvements, now swimming well under 17 minutes. Elise joined us last year for our Hell Week swim camp and has joined us again for this year’s camp in Thailand. In this podcast, she […]
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In this podcast, we will talk about when to be ‘In the moment’ and when to be ‘Out of the moment’ in swimming and how this balance can help you as an athlete. This is in addition to our previous topics about focus, technique and delivers practice in order to change your habits and improve […]
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The 66 day and 18-month rule is a good rule to live by to replace old habits and become competent at a skill. Most people don’t stick with something long enough to see results, especially when it comes to changing their swimming. To know more about our membership click here
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Lisandra de Carvalho has been a friend of mine for almost eight years. She comes from a competitive swimming background and now focuses primarily on open water events. In this episode, we discuss everything to do with long distance open water swimming. Lisandra has raced the 19.7km Rottnest channel swim solo on three occasions and […]
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Gary Hurring is a former swimmer and a coach from Wellington, New Zealand. Gary won the gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in the men’s 200 meters backstroke and silver medal in the same event at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships. He finished fourth in the 100m and fifth in the 200m at the […]
The post How To Change Your Technique From An Olympic Coaches’ Perspective appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Jeff Grace is a yoga instructor and therapist from Vancouver, Canada. His specialty is swimming-specific yoga having worked with and studied under a number of Olympic coaches and swimmers. He’s also developed a program to help swimmers improve their swimming mobility and strength through yoga. In this podcast, we discussed the benefits of yoga, improvements […]
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This podcast episode is about having a breakthrough swim, whether it’s in a triathlon or an open water swim. Our guest today is Paul Speed a coach and a recently turned pro triathlete. With Paul, he changed his technique and training to make that second pack and come out with the water with the faster […]
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In this podcast, we welcome back Eney Jones who is a successful Master’s swimmer, open water swimmer and accomplished triathlete. She lives and works in Boulder, Colorado and has worked with many of the top triathletes to help them improve their swimming. She is also the creator of the Eney Bouy She was on the […]
The post The Latest Research On Swimming Fast In Open Water with Eney Jones appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, we have Pete Robinson aka “Robbo”. He is a 3-time world champion in Triathlon, qualified for the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, and a bronze medalist in the Commonwealth Games. Pete has transition to a coach through his business – Elite Performing Minds.In this podcast, we’ll talk […]
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Tabitha Jones is a previous Hell Week camp attendee. Since coming to Thailand with us last year, she’s take more than 20 seconds off per 100m over a half ironman distance swim. An impressive achievement in 8 months! Tabitha shares with us the things that have helped her do this from changes to technique, workouts, […]
The post 20 Seconds Faster With Tabitha Jones appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Swimming coach Brian Ford has been Head Coach of the Traralgon Swimming Club since 1997. More importantly, he is my dad! Not only is he an accomplished swimmer and coach who has had athletes go on to make Olympic and National teams, he is one of the best developers of people, culture and discipline. If […]
The post The Importance Of High Standards In Coaching And Life with Brian Ford appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Meighan Julbert is a Mental Skills Consultant for The MindSide – a sports and psychology center located in Alabama. She has worked with a number of athletes from different sports like softball, golf, swimming, soccer, and others. This podcast is perfect for those who has performance anxiety and to those who feels like their mental […]
The post Mastering Your Mind Games with Meighan Julbert appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Ranell Hobson is the Coaching Director at The Academy of Sports Speed. She will share her experience in working with athletes at The Academy of Sports Speed and how their teachings cross over to swimmers and triathletes. 01:00 – Skills, Functional Movement, Elasticity, Power and Mechanics of The Sports 02:15 – Athletes’ Underdeveloped Skills […]
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Andre Obradovic has been our guest before where he talked about how you can adjust your sleeping routines and habits so you can perform better in the pool. In this podcast, Andre and I discuss how he went from overweight white collar worker to lean athlete, by challenging his own beliefs about nutrition. 02:00 – Andre’s […]
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Simon Griffiths is the founder and publisher of H2Open Magazine. H2Open Magazine is a magazine about open water swimming and everything that incorporates races and swims around the world. Simon will be sharing: his experience about open water swimming his recommendations about the best places to swim around the world to do open water swimming […]
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Nam Baldwin is the owner and Director of Performance at the Equalize Training Company. Nam is an emotional and stress control & management specialist, the co-developer of internationally recognised B.E.T Training, mentor and motivational health coach. He has worked with a number of Olympic Gold medalists and several world champions including professional surfer, Mick Fanning. […]
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Race Pace Training is about swimming at or quicker than your racing speed. It’s often done in short intervals (eg 25m or 50m) with enough rest between intervals to recover and hit race speed on the next one. On this podcast Garrett McCaffrey, coach at the Phoenix Swim Club, joins me as we chat […]
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I’m a big believer in aiming for the minimum effective dose (MED) when training. This means doing the least amount of training for best possible result, where anything extra is wasteful. Think of it like water boiling once it reaches 100 celsius – it doesn’t get more boiled over this temperature. The reason we aim for […]
The post How To Train Less And Swim Faster with Luke McIlroy appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
David Samuelsohn is coach and founder of Westchester Masters Club in Larchmont, New York. David wrote a great article called Lose the Limp for a More Powerful Freestyle and in this podcast we’ll talk about that and: how to make adjustments in your breathing and rotation to get more power from your stroke the key principle he includes […]
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Eric Neilsen is a multisport coach and consultant who works with athletes of all abilities from novice to professional, by providing personalised services that empower clients to achieve their full athletic potential. Eric shares how he quit his corporate career to become a full-time coach and how he uses the ABC’s of optimal health and training to change […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, we have Katee Pedicini. Katee is the author of “Healing The Grumpy Athlete”. We will talk about her background, health and wellness and her inspiration for writing her book. 00:33 – Holistic Endurance 01:19 – How Women Can Embrace Their Hormones to Achieve Better Performance 04:40 – “You should be […]
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Karlyn Pipes is one of the Top 10 Masters Swimmers of all time, a multiple record holder in all four strokes and author of ‘The Do Over’. A book about how she used swimming to overcome alcohol addiction. We chat about how addiction can play a part in the lives of many elite athletes and how Karlyn changed […]
The post From Addiction To Record Breaker with Karlyn Pipes appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, I have two special guests: Chloe McCardel and Michael (Murph) Renford (son of legendary marathon swimmer, Des Renford). Chloe is aiming to break Des’ record of 19 English Channel crossings this season. In this podcast we talk about the need for adventure and connection with the ocean that drives […]
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In this podcast episode, we talk to Kevin Koskella of TriSwimCoach about the key takeaways he’s had from interviewing guests on his own podcast and how it can help triathletes and swimmers improve their performance. 01:05 – Mix of Pros and Amateurs 03:25 – Developing That High Elbow Catch 12:19 – Get as much rest […]
The post What I’ve Learnt From One Hundred Podcasts with Kevin Koskella from TriSwimCoach appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode of the Effortless Swimming Podcast we have former Australian swimmer turned coach, Sam Ashby. Sam made the Australian swim team in 2011 and competed at the World Championships. Today he coaches at MLC Aquatic in Melbourne. We explore the challenges of transitioning from racing to coaching, how your motivations change and why all athletes should […]
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This is the 3rd episode in this 3-part series of interviews with swim coach Eney Jones. In this episode we’ll talk all about racing and rhythm in your freestyle. Let’s get into it! 00:45 – The Final Piece of The Puzzle 01:10 – On what Eney considers when looking for someone’s rhythm… 02:39 – Do […]
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This is part 2 of the 3-part podcast series that I’m doing with Eney Jones. In this episode, we’ll talk about gear and toys we can use to improve technique, rhythm and feel for the water. 01:00 – What’s inside Eney’s swimming bag? 03:00 – The Best Accessory You Can Have 03:40 – The Real […]
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In this 3-part series of The Effortless Swimming Podcast we have one our favourite swim coaches returning to join us, Eney Jones. In Part One, we talk about cues and analogies for faster swimming. In the second podcast, we’ll talk about gear and toys for faster swimming and the third podcast of this series is […]
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In this episode, we have Level 3 triathlon coach and coach to many pros, Grant Giles. He works with a range of triathletes from Tim Van Berkel to Clayton Fettell. Grant specializes in the psychology of sports performance and how you can use mindfulness and other techniques to break through mental barriers. If you enjoy the mental […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, we have Kim Schwabenbauer. We recently had her as a guest and since the last podcast we had with her, she is now pregnant! We talk about how it is to be a professional triathlete, to now being pregnant and what the future looks like for her. We […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, we have Craig Percival. He and his wife run the AquaShop here in Melbourne. That’s how I got to know him. He previously shared with us a short video with his tips in choosing the right wet suit. Click here to watch that video. Craig is an […]
The post Pushing The Limit With Craig Percival appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
This episode’s guest is Andre Obradovic. Andre is a mindset, health and well-being coach. Andre specializes in sleep coaching. He works with executives and athletes in helping them get more control of their sleeping habits. In this podcast, Andre and I discuss: the importance of sleep how it can affect your performance in the pool […]
The post Escaping Sleep Deprivation with Andre Obradovic appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Our guest for this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast is fun, inspiring and motivating. Kim Schwabenbauer is a professional triathlete from the U.S. and a nutritionist. Kim and I talk about: her experience when she broke a collarbone, thinking she would never be able to swim again and turning pro just three years later nutrition […]
The post From Broken Collarbone To Pro Triathlete In 3 Years with Kim Schwabenbauer appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What can you focus on in your next triathlon swim or open water swim to hold a faster pace? I did my first 70.3 distance event recently in Ballarat, Australia. I swum 22:44 for the 1.9km and was the fastest age grouper and 5th overall out of the water. There are a few things I was […]
The post How To Hold A Faster Pace In Open Water appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode, we have Gerry Rodrigues of Tower 26. Tower 26 is a well-known swimming group in Santa Monica, United States where Gerry coaches a number of athletes (mostly triathletes). Listen in as Gerry discusses: the difference between training a swimmer versus training a triathlete his philosophy in swimming his approach in workouts how […]
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In this podcast, we have Steph Saullo. Steph empowers people to learn how to make the best nutrition-based choices for themselves and their goals. Her professional and academic credentials include a master’s degree in food and nutrition and Registered Dietitian. In this episode, Steph will share with us how you can get better performance in your […]
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Andy Anderson is the co-founder of Ultimate You Change Centres. He is famous for the ‘9 in 6’ program. A program that aims to help people lose 9 kilos in 6 weeks. This program has a 90-95% success rate with his clients that do the program. Andy and Brenton discuss how swimmers and triathletes can use the same shifts […]
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In this episode of the Effortless Swimming Podcast, our guest is Performance Coach Chris Ritter. He has worked with a wide range of athletes from youth, masters to Olympic gold medalists. He has worked closely with Cullen Jones – 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist and American World Record Holder. In this podcast we talk about: specific […]
The post Strength Training For Masters Athletes with Chris Ritter appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, we have Travis Mahoney, he is an Australian Swim Team member. He started specialising in swimming at a later age of 16. He qualified for the 2014 Commonwealth Games where he placed 6th in the 400 IM. Now, he is training towards the 2016 Olympic Team. In […]
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Our guest in this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast is James O’Connor. He is a success and leadership coach at Elite Team Leadership where he works with a wide range of sports and athletes to help them improve their results in their chosen field. He is also host of the JocX podcast. In this […]
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Today’s guest is ultra-marathon swimmer, Chloe McCardel. She has successfully completed a triple crossing of the English Channel. This is something that hasn’t been done for the last 25 years. She’s the fourth person in history to do it. In this episode: 01:23 – When Chloe Fell In Love With The English Channel 02:40 – […]
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These are some of the things I’ve learned over the last few years when it comes to being a successful swimmer. It doesn’t mean being a world championship swimmer or breaking world records – it’s whatever success in swimming means to you. Invest in knowledge and experiences rather than things Having the latest gear can […]
The post Truths About Swimming – Part Three appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today’s guest is professional triathlete, Josh Amberger. In the last 12 months, he’s won a range of 70.3 distance events including Port Macquarie, Challenge Half Shepparton and Western Sydney 70.3. He’s first out of the water in most triathlons. We talk to Josh about how he became such a good swimmer and triathlete. 02:40 – Suffering pays off… 05:17 […]
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What’s the difference between athletes that succeed in swimming and those that don’t reach their goals? This podcast explores the differences. If you haven’t listened to part 1 of Truths About Swimming, click here… A group or squad can fast track your success. If you are doing your training all by yourself, there is a good chance […]
The post Truths About Swimming – Part Two appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
What’s the difference between the athletes that ‘make it’ in swimming, and those that don’t? In this three part series I cover some of the truths about swimming that I’ve come to learn in the last 20 years of coaching and swimming. Truth #1: It will take time. There are athletes that start swimming […]
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In this episode of the Effortless Swimming Podcast, we have Sara McLarty. She is a professional triathlete and a swimming coach based in Clermont, Florida. We’ll talk about how to become a better swimmer by making adjustments to your strokes and technique coming from the pool into the open water. In December, I’ll be with […]
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Bevan McKinnon is an elite level triathlete, a triathlon coach and co-host at Fitter Radio – a podcast that features professional triathletes and triathlon coaches. I had a chance to be featured on his July 13 podcast episode alongside Mirinda Carfrae’s coach Siri Lindley. 03:16 – Why coaches are always ‘switched on’ 05:07 – About being […]
The post How To Swim Fast With No Swimming Background (featuring Bevan Mckinnon) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
In this podcast, we’ll be looking at mistakes to avoid when doing your workout. When we have an athlete join the Effortless Swimming Membership Program, we ask them what they are doing in their swim sessions. If that athlete doesn’t come from the swim squad background, there is probably a few mistakes they are making in […]
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You can run forever… Your bike fitness is exceptional… But each lap of the pool leaves you gasping for air like Houdini after a breath hold. Have you ever wondered why this happens even though you’re a fit person? There’s three main reasons this happens: if you hold your breath if your body position and balance is incorrect […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming podcast, our guest is open water swimming legend, Philip Rush. Philip Rush has completed ten crossings of the English Channel as well as triple crossing. He has the fastest record of two-way and three-way crossings of the English Channel. He has also done the Cook Strait eight times. […]
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Our guest in this Effortless Swimming podcast episode is Greg Dea. He is a Performance Consultant and Sports Physiotherapist. He is currently serving at the Northern Territory Institute of Sport as a Sports Medicine Coordinator. Greg has over 15 years of clinical practice in various international and national sporting teams. He recently just came back […]
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Our guest in this episode is Christian Schwaerzler, a triathlete who attended our Melbourne Freestyle clinic. He is an author, corporate coach and a speaker. Christian weighed 135 kgs five years ago and he is now down to around 75 kgs. He lost 60 kgs as a result of changing his lifestyle, diet and exercise. […]
The post How Triathlon Can Change Your Life with Christian Schwaerzler appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Speed, strength and power is crucial to high performance swimming. Wayne Goldsmith has worked with Swimming Australia and Triathlon Australia and shares his top strategies to generating more speed in your swimming. We also talk about different types of training methods, different tools you can use in your workouts. 01:20 – Who is Wayne Goldsmith? […]
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Clayton Fettell has one of the best techniques in all of triathlon swimming. He finished in the front group at the last Ironman World Championships in the 70.3 distance. He has won multiple 70.3 races and he is a professional triathlete. In this podcast, we talk about technique, strength training, some of his favorite workouts […]
The post First Out Of The Water with Clayton Fettell appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Andrew Read owns Read Performance Training. His specialty is helping triathletes improve their results, overcome and avoid injury and be healthy for life through a different approach to strength and conditioning than most trainers. Discover how strength and conditioning play a part in endurance sports, the difference between goals versus systems, the process to building strength, which habits that […]
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Marc Evans is an experienced triathlon coach who’s with some of the greats including Dave Scott. He’s recently finished a book, “Triathletes in Motion” which goes into great detail about how to develop better movement patterns, core stability and posture for triathlon. Traditionally, the focus of swimming and triathlon is volume, intensity, training periodisation and doing a particular work out […]
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In this episode of the Effortless Swimming podcast, we have a good friend of mine – Master Swimmer Paul Bailey. He will talk about how consistent training and continual focus on technique has helped him improve his times. 01:30 – Back in the 80’s 02:10 – Out of the pool 03:00 – Fast track to […]
The post How To Take 15 seconds off Your 100m Pace with Paul Bailey appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Eney Jones is a successful Master’s swimmer, open water swimmer and accomplished triathlete. She lives and works in Boulder, Colorado and has worked with many of the top triathletes to help them improve their swimming. We talk with Eney about technique, posture, tempo, catch and pull, open water racing tips and awareness in the open water. This episode is […]
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Our guest for this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast is someone we’ve had twice before – Chloe McCardel. She’s now opened relay and individual Channel slots for 2016. You can find her details at the bottom of this article to apply to a 2016 position. 00:48 – England to Melbourne 02:04 – 4 Buoys & A […]
The post How You Can Swim The English Channel – Podcast with Chloe McCardel appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Today’s guest is Rait Ratasepp. Rait is a member of Effortless Swimming Membership Program – our online swim coaching community. He just completed the Double Ultra World Cup in Hungary and won in convincing style. It’s a double ironman distance triathlon. In this podcast, we cover his training, the things he focused on for his swim and […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, I interview a friend of mine, Jon Muller. Jon is an author from Wellington, New Zealand and been following some of our swimming workouts and technique programs. In the last couple of weeks, he finished writing a book about swimming which describes swimming in a way that […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, we have Chloe McCardel. She is a 6x solo English Channel swimmer. We talk about how to get started in channel swimming and how you can be part of a relay team in 2015. 01:25 – How do you help people with channel swimming? 02:00 – It […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming Podcast, I am talking to Julie Robinson. She was an elite level swimmer and today we will talk about mind training for swimming and how it fits into the swimming puzzle. Julie is a clinical hypnotherapist and a neuro-linguistic programmer. She has worked with a number of swimmers […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming podcast, my guest for the third time is Steph Lowe – The Natural Nutritionist. We talk about: 00:40 – The Start of My Baking Career 00:52 – What is Gluten-free? 01:06 – The Real Food Movement 02:20 – It’s a lifestyle. Not a fad. 02:53 – Nutrition is […]
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In this episode of The Effortless Swimming podcast, our guest is Mark Breadner. Mark has done a lot of work with the Australian team in relation to some strength and conditioning work, some mindset training. Mark is going to talk about that and how you can implement it into your own swimming and triathlon training […]
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As we lead in the competitions, one of the things we focus on is stroke count and distance per stroke. How We Use It Training We’ll typically swim an easy and relaxed 50m, counting how many strokes we take for the lap. Then we’ll go a set of 10-20 100’s with 20 seconds rest in between. What […]
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A smooth transition from your entry into your extension forward is critical in freestyle. Creating minimal drag so you’ve got that smooth transition that will get you in the correct catch position nice and early. One of the mistakes that we quite often see here is swimmers will either enter too early or too late. […]
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When I’m coaching swimmers, it doesn’t matter what their level, whether they are National level swimmers and triathletes or beginners, one of the most important things is maintaining your speed in freestyle. What your fingertips do as you’re extending forward affects your speed. How It Works What we are looking for here is keeping your […]
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Have you ever wondered wetsuit is fastest – a sleeved or sleeveless? Is there a difference? You might be surprised by the results of a 400 meter time trial I did recently. I was lucky enough to borrow a sleeved and sleeveless Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit from Craig Percival from Aquashop in South Melbourne. I went to the […]
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Wayne Goldsmith is a thought leader in the swimming coaching community. We talk about Ultra Short Race Pace Training (developed by Brent Rushall) which is starting to become a more widely used training method. I came across an article about a young swimmer in the US called Michael Andrew who is breaking age group records […]
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In this podcast, my guest is Aaron Davis from Venture. Aaron runs an adventure travel company . He is the one running the behind the scenes logistics for The Great Ocean Road Trip in February 2014. The reason why I am running this trip with Aaron is because I want to be able to focus […]
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John and Bevan are the legendary and very entertaining Kiwi’s from the IM Talk podcast. Listen in as the boys share the things they’ve learned from 7 years of being deep in the trenches of ironman and triathlon. 01:10 – The Ugly Duckling 01:33 – 7 Years of Solid IMTalk podcast 03:49 – Consistency is […]
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Renee Trost is a Naturopath in Melbourne. Renee has a background in field hockey. She was an Australian team member for a number of years. She played in World Cups, World Championships, the Champions Trophy and was also in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. In this podcast we discuss strategies on how to feel better […]
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“He runs like a swimmer”. Yep, we swimmers have a look about us when we’re running that makes us look like ‘fish out of water’. This podcast is all about how a legendary run coach is changing that. Bobby McGee, 5x Olympic run coach joins me on this episode of the Effortless Swimming podcast. This […]
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Helen Walker is a physiotherapist at Physio4Athletes and has worked on Australian Swim Teams. Helen has been doing musculoskeletal screenings with a number of my swimmers. It tests flexibility and strength in the parts of the body which are important for swimming. I recommend all swimmers have this done to help prevent injury and improve your […]
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This week I’ve got a challenge for you. I want to challenge you to try what I’m about to talk about. To see if you can get an increase in speed by trying this one thing. In the next few weeks we’re releasing the Effortless Freestyle DVD which we’ve been working on for the last couple of […]
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Welcome to another episode of The Effortless Swimming podcast. In this episode I chat with a good friend of mine, Andy Anderson. Andy Anderson is the CEO of Ultimate You which is a gym here in Southbank, Melbourne. He is also the editor of Ultimate You Magazine. He is a strength and conditioning coach and […]
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On the weekend one of the swimmers that I coach, Stuart Moffat, broke the world record for the 50 breaststroke short course in the 50-54 years age group. The world record was 30.61. Stu went 30.48 with a great swim. (Update Due to a technicality at the meet itself it can’t be counted as a […]
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The Good Thing About Being Slower If you are a swimmer who is may not be as fast as you’d like to be then the good thing is that you have a lot more room for improvement. Swimmers at the pointy end of the field find it harder to improve because the improvement is much […]
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If you look at what the top swimmers do in their training, they focus their training for one event in particular. They won’t use the shotgun approach where they target the 1500 freestyle, the 100 butterfly and the 400 medley all at once. They target their training towards one event. If you’re racing a number […]
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This week I want to show you one of the things that makes for a fast tumble turn. If you’re a triathlete or a Master’s swimmer who is having trouble tumble turning, this might be why. Good Tumble Turns Have… If you look at a good tumble turn here, as the swimmer goes in, they […]
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- Sponge Tie a piece of elastic around the sponge and then around your waist and use the sponge as resistance. 2. Rubbish bin Make sure the bin is clean and empty and do butterfly kick under the water with fins on, holding the bin out in front of you. It will catch all of […]
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Have you ever been in the situation where you’re in a race and you’re next to someone who you feel you shouldn’t be beating, so you pull yourself back and you don’t allow yourself to pass that person? I have lost races before because I didn’t have the confidence in order to swim faster than […]
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If you need a towel that dries quickly, then I’ve got a good towel for you. I got sent 2 towels from a company in Canada called Discovery Trekking Outdoors. Now I met these ultra fast drying towels. They’re similar material to what you might see in some of your race competition shirts, if you do […]
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I want to talk a little bit about breaststroke and what you can do to bring your times down, and be more relaxed, more comfortable and swim faster breaststroke. I got a email out from one of our Effortless Breaststroke customers this week and he’s been taking his son through some of the drills over […]
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If you’re looking to improve your butterfly, then it makes sense to improve your rhythm because butterfly is all about rhythm. Here’s two drills from our Effortless Butterfly program which you can find at EffortlessButterfly.com and that’s a training program where we go through a series of drills which will take you step-by-step through the […]
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This week is hell week. And like I promised you last week I was going to give you one of our workouts from hell week. So that’s coming up very shortly. The rest of the workouts I’m adding in to Effortless Swimming Membership Program which is our online swim coaching program. So head on over to […]
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Next week I’m taking my squad through a “hell week”. Which is one week of very, very challenging training where we increase the intensity and we increase the duration of our main sets. We also add an extra session in there. The reason that we do this is because with one week of solid training […]
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John Konrads holds 26 individual world records and won the 1500 m freestyle in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. He now coaches up in the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland. One of his mantras is “swim easy”. In this podcast episode I will talk to John and see how we can prove how swimming […]
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Now, if you’re like me and you’re not a very good dancer because you lack rhythm on the dance floor, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a good swimmer. In swimming, you need to have a good rhythm because it reduces the amount of dead spots in your stroke and it means that you can […]
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If you’re on any sort of underwater filming, whether that’s in one on one sessions with your squad or with your group then I’ve been using a really good little set up. It doesn’t cost too much money but allows you to get high quality video and get every single angle that you need to […]
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I’ve been doing a lot of one-on-one stroke correction sessions where we do underwater filming, where we get great footage of the swimmer. We then do analysis on the computer and then we jump back in the water and we go through some drills and exercises to help the swimmer improve their stroke. One of […]
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If you swim in open water whether you’re a triathlete, an open water swimmer or you just enjoy swimming out in the sea or in the lake then, you’ll need to be sighting because it’s very easy to go off track and off course if you’re not sighting. There are two main ways to sight. […]
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We’re back for round two for the second podcast with my favourite nutritionist, Steph Lowe of TheNaturalNutritionist.com Today we’re talking about the two big misconceptions about food. I’ve made some changes to what I eat lately based on misinformation I learnt when I was in school. Let’s get into it. Brenton Ford: Welcome to […]
The post #21 Why I Swapped Weet Bix for Bacon & Eggs (with The Natural Nutritionist Steph Lowe) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
If you’ve worn a band in your freestyle before, some of those rubber bands or those synthetic bands that you can tie around your feet so that you don’t kick…then you’ll know just how important it is to kick to balance and time your stroke. When you’ve got a band on, it keeps your feet […]
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Last month I did a one-on-one stroke correction session with a swimmer and she was entering too early in her freestyle. So she was entering her hand before she needed to which meant that she was creating a drag as she extended forward. So we needed to move her hand entry out a little bit. […]
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This week I’m in Fiji and topic of today’s video is “What do you like to do in holidays to stay fit?”. Here in Fiji most of the islands are surrounded by coral, you can’t swim around a lot of them. So, I have do some different things to stay fit because when you stop […]
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If you’re like me and you’re a swimmer and an athlete. If you eat a lot of food and you go to cupboard more than once to see what is there to eat then what I found to work really well to not only help me eat less but to make sure that I eat […]
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When you are looking to breath to your other side in freestyle, sometimes it can be challenging because most of the time you’re used to breathing in to one side and the other side, you haven’t got that practiced and sometimes isn’t as comfortable as it is breathing to the opposite side. So if you […]
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This week I drove from Melbourne to Sydney on our way to the Master’s National Championships. And on our way there, I listened to a really good book called Born to Run. And I listened to it through Audible which is a really cool service if you haven’t used it before. But the premise behind […]
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I know that when I haven’t set a goal for the next couple of months to train towards it is very difficult to get myself off to the pool to get training. If there is nothing to look forward to then there is really no reason to get yourself out of bed early in the […]
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This week you will notice the video is a little bit different to what we normally do. The reason is I am going to show you a video that I have just posted in our online coaching program. We are looking at increasing stroke rate; a lot of swimmers can struggle with because they are not […]
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I went down to watch the Ironman Melbourne this weekend which was absolutely awesome. There were over 2000 competitors starting at once in the age group category. It was pretty choppy conditions and it was really rough particularly out the back. Quite a few swimmers I saw started the race and then said no I […]
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What could I mean by the fake catch? I have spoken a little bit about this in our online coahing program this week as well. Quite a few swimmers enter at an angle like that rather than keeping their hand flat there. The reason why some swimmers do it is because entering like that means that […]
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Bobby McGee has 31 years of coaching experience. He started intensely coaching triathletes in 2002. He has coached the Olympic champion in Atlanta in a marathon. He also coached some age group race walkers, some amateur race walkers to world titles and then the last decade has been full on with the triathletes. Watch some […]
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If we look at the freestyle catch one of the biggest mistakes swimmers often make is that they will enter and extend forward and lock their elbow out for longer than they need to. What that often causes them to do is push down on the water and then pull through. They are only catching […]
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Jeff Booher is a triathlon coach who specialises in custom designed training programs. He works with all levels of triathletes from age groupers to professionals. He also leads a coaching team of 15 Tridot certified coaches who work with hundreds of athletes all over the world. —- Free offer for Effortless Swimming listeners —- In […]
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If you look at the top swimmers, Olympians or the swimmers of really good ability – they look like fish in the water. It looks like the water is their second home. Compare that to someone who is brand new, they’ll usually be tense, nervous and they’re fighting the water. So, how do you get […]
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If you followed our videos in the last few weeks you will know there is more than one way to swim freestyle. If you look at Ian Thorpe versus Michael Phelps they both have very different techniques but they are both very fast swimmers. If you look at swimmers in a certain race they will […]
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Gary Barclay of TheSwimmingExpert.com is the author of Swimming for Parents – a book about how to best support your child in swimming. In this episode of The Effortless Swimming podcast Gary will talk about how to raise a champion swimmer. Brenton Ford: Welcome to another episode of the Effortless Swimming podcast. Today’s guest is […]
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Do you need to wear a wetsuit? I have been doing a number of triathlons lately and what I have noticed is that in the shorter events, the sprint triathlons where you are doing 400m – 500m swim the majority of swimmers are wearing wetsuits when the water is not to cold. I believe based […]
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In Effortless Swimming’s Membership Program, one of the things that we talk about a lot is getting your stroke rate up in open water swimming. A lot of our athletes are triathletes and open water swimmers and in order to go faster in open water swims you might need to get your stroke rate up. I […]
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A few changes that we made lately with my squad’s sprint freestyle is making sure that we get the energy transfer from our recovery into the water. Quite often you will see swimmers in their recovery they will extend and then enter; then they have lost their momentum they have got from the recovery coming […]
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One of the things that I am constantly asked is do you need a coach or can you go about this thing on your own? My answer is always the same whether you are a triathlete or a swimmer. My answer is you don’t necessarily need a coach; if you know enough about training plans, […]
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In Effortless Swimming’s Membership Program, one of the things that we offer is video analysis. You can upload a video to YouTube and post it in the forum and I will take a look at your stroke and give you some personal suggestions as to what changes you should make with your stroke, if you want […]
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I got emailed by someone last week who suggested that my accent was a little too strong and I mispronounce words like ‘lever’ and ‘water’. I know when I say water sometimes it sounds like I am saying it with a ‘D’ but that is just how I talk. What I want to know is […]
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A lot of triathletes are very fit cardiovascular-wise; they have built up their engine so they can run for a long time and bike for a long time. If you find that your swimming is not up to scratch to where you would like it to be then it might be because you haven’t developed […]
The post Why Being Fit Doesn’t Equal Being Fast appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
On the weekend I had to put up some shelving in our house which was a new experience for me. I had never done it before so I had to learn it from scratch. To be honest I got pretty frustrated when I got something’s wrong, I had to re-do some things and it took […]
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It is one of the most common mistakes in freestyle where a swimmer pulls across their body and is crossing over their midline with their hand and arm. There are two main causes of crossing over the body; the first one is keeping your arm straight in your pull through rather than bending your elbow […]
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USA Swimming’s “Pull” Presentation I posted a link to a presentation in online coaching program, I have posted that link and I have to say it’s one of the best presentations I’ve seen so check that out if you are a member. 00:05 – USA Swimming’s “Pull” Presentation 00:32 – Are You Training Too Hard? […]
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When you’re swimming in open water and it’s choppy, you might need to adjust your strokes so you’re swimming with more punch and flow. So what does that mean exactly? Swimming with more punch and flow means that you’re entering the water a little bit more forcefully. So you’re entering with a bit more force […]
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Steph Lowe is a Nutritionist, a tri-athlete training for the Hawaiian Half Ironman, she is about to complete her master’s degree in nutrition and she specialises in sports nutrition using natural food and ingredients. In this episode of The Effortless Swimming podcast, Steph will talk about high performance nutrition for swimmers. Brenton Ford: Welcome to […]
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On the weekend I was part of a team that did an Olympic distance triathlon. One of the main things that I got from this is that people will generally work harder for other people than they will themselves. For example in this team I did the swim leg and I worked my arse off […]
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One of the biggest differences between swimmers in the fast lane and swimmers in the slow lane is the initial catch. Swimmers in the fast lane; in their freestyle they will enter and be going forward, then they will allow their hand to drop down while they keep their elbow high. Getting that initial catch […]
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One of the most important components of a training program is slow aerobic work. One of the mistakes that I have made before and I see a lot of athletes commonly making this mistake; is that they do their slow aerobic work at a pace which is a little too quick to work the right […]
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If you have ever been told by a coach to get your hips up what you might have done is bent at the hips and stuck your bum up higher in the water; therefore your bum is higher but your legs are dragging. What that does it creates more resistance and more drag than what […]
The post How to Swim Higher in Freestyle appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
I have been getting a lot of questions lately about losing weight and swimming and do the two go together. The thing about losing weight is the majority of it comes down to what you eat and how much you eat. Swimming can play a good part in losing weight and maintaining weight but the […]
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In this video I am going to share with you some smart training hacks for you to improve your triathlon swim training. In the recent triathlon world championships held in New Zealand, one of our swimmers who uses the Effortless Swimming Workouts won his age group in the 45-49 years age group for Olympic distance […]
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The strategy we are going to talk about today is Find Feet and Hang On. You see, if you are not the fastest swimmer but you know there are swimmers out there that are slightly quicker than you then, you can swim pretty much the same pace as them for the race if you find […]
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If you want to swim a faster 50m or 100m freestyle there are a few changes you can make to your stroke in order to swim faster. 0:11 – How To Change Your Technique For Sprinting 0:27 – Shoulder Driven Freestyle 0:36 – Start The Catch Deeper 0:54 – Keep Momentum From Your Entry 1:12 […]
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Russell Smith is the current age group triathlon world champion in Olympic distance & Asia Pacific age group champion in Ironman. He has been using the Effortless Swimming Workouts as part of his training program. In this podcast, he will talk about how he is using the Effortless Swimming Workouts to succeed in triathlon. Download […]
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What changes should you make to your technique if you’re wearing a wetsuit compared to swimming without a wetsuit? Well if you’ve got a good wetsuit then the chances are you’ll be swimming higher in the water than you normally are. 0:14 – Good Wetsuit = Swim Higher 0:25 – Create less Drag With a […]
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Over the holidays, I gave a friend of mine The Mastering Freestyle Program for him to try. Now in 4 sessions he dropped his time from a 1:40 down to 1:36 for his 100 meter pace. And dropped his stroke count from 42 down to a 34. 00:11 – 1:40 down to 1:36/100m pace 00:15 […]
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Welcome to swimming news this week; this week we talk about the importance of consistency, why you should get flexibility tested and I have a back stroke and a breast stroke tip for you. 00:21 – Is Your Training Consistent? 01:22 – Flexibility Testing 02:25 – ‘World’s Best Swimmer’ Now Free 02:58 – Supercharging Your […]
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Welcome to swimming news this week. This week we look at how to pull through with a high elbow, where to enter your hand in freestyle and also we’ll talk about my favorite mindset training that I find most effective for better performance in racing. 0:45 – How To Pull With A High Elbow 0:57 […]
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On this episode of Effortless Swimming podcast, I have Koe Davidson who is a swimmer with me at PowerPoints and he is also a chiropractor. I have been seeing Koe for the last couple of weeks about a sore back, but going in to get that treated I have had a lot more come out […]
The post #15 Why Usain Bolt Travels With a Chiropractor (featuring Koe Davidson) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
This week’s triathlon news we are going to talk about how you can simulate a race in training so that you improve your performance and improve your results in your triathlon swimming races. 00:24 – Initial Speed and Fine Rhythm 01:30 – Fartlek 02:15 – Broken Swim at Race Pace All these types of workouts […]
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Trent Grimsey is an open water swimmer, he is an Australian team member and most notably he has recently broken the English Channel world record. He went 6 hours 55 minutes, breaking the old record by 2 minutes and 50 seconds. We chat to Trent about the Channel swim but also his training, technique and how he avoids injury doing so many km’s in the pool.
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This week we look at the 80:20 rule, why you should always aim to lead the lane, when to wear fins in training and we also have details about our Melbourne Workshop which is being finalised for Saturday 8th December. We also chatted to Trent Grimsey who is the English Channel world record holder so […]
The post The 80:20 Rule, When to Use Fins, Lead the Lane appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
How it works is the more you spend, the more floatation you get and the more flexibility you get. The Helix has a 1mm arm and then lots of cuts and different shapes. Whereas with Sprint, it’s just a very basic suit. 00:10 – How to Choose a Wetsuit 00:39 – Does the Distance of the […]
The post How to Choose a Wetsuit With Craig Percival from Aquashop (Melbourne) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
This week we will look at – “Is there a secret sauce to become a better swimmer”. We’ve also got a technique workshop coming up in Melbourne which we’ve got the dates to watch out for at the end of this video. 00:17 – Is There A “Secret Sauce”? 00:51 – Why The Fundamentals Don’t […]
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https://svpford.wistia.com/medias/gs61y7pahh?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640 We are in Trinity Beach up at North Queensland on a training camp; hence the nice background. This week we are looking at a common mistake that slows swimmers down in freestyle. We are looking at which GPS is best to use if you are doing open water swimming and we also look at […]
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Welcome Effortless Swimmers to another week of Swimming News. This week we look at what to do if you are getting gassed quickly in your races. How to have more energy for the second half of your race. We also give you some sprinting tips that will help bring down your 50m and your 100m […]
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Welcome to the first triathlon news video. Today we’re going to cover a couple of things including what you can do to maintain the same pace in a triathlon, how you can best warm up for a triathlon so you don’t take a few hundred meters to get into it and we’re also going to […]
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This week we look at your head position when you breathe in freestyle and how you change it to make it make your stroke more efficient and faster. We also give you a diving tip which will help you get off the blocks quicker. And we also look at exercises that you can do in […]
The post Do You Breathe Like This In Freestyle? appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
We look at how to improve your kick, we’ve got a sprinting tip if you’re a 50 or 100m swimmer, and we’ll look at getting back to basics and what that can do for you. Now with kick, there’s two main mistakes that I see made. 00:16 – The Two Biggest Kicking Mistakes 00:47 – […]
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In swimming news this week we look at 3 ways to improve as a swimmer, how to cut seconds from your times with a better streamline, what to do if you’ve got sore shoulders from swimming. We also ask – do you need the perfect conditions in training to improve? And we also show you […]
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Swimmers clock up 1,000’s of laps in the pool every year. Our shoulders cop a lot of the brunt of this. Luke Van Every is known as ‘The Shoulder Guy’. He’s a physio from Queensland, Australia. In this podcast I ask Luke about: Common swimming shoulder injuries How to avoid and treat shoulder injuries Do’s […]
The post #13 Fixing Injured Shoulders (with Luke Van Every) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Forget about stroke count. Now why would I say that when I talk a lot about stroke count and so do most other coaches? Well, the fact of the matter is that very few swimmers, only about 1 in 20 actually do stroke count. Now stroke count is when you are counting your strokes for […]
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There’s usually three reasons why your training times are off if you’re not swimming well in training. And that is either you are sick, fatigued or inflexible. And I just want to focus on the third one for the moment: the inflexibility. Now it’s usually one of the main reasons why swimmers’ times are off […]
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Don’t get caught in the distance trap where you’re more focused on how far you do in a training session than what you do in a training session. Unless you are training for the English Channel, an ironman or a long distance event, then you are better off focusing on what you do in a training session […]
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When it comes down it, sport is more than just a physical battle. Five minutes of speaking with performance consultant Wayne Goldsmith and you get a sense of just how important the mental side of it is. Wayne's worked with dozen sports bodies and clubs from all over world. In this interview you'll discover
The post #12 The One About Improving Performance (with Wayne Goldsmith) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Paul Newsome is a knowledgeable swim coach who has: won the British University championship in triathlon; swam the English Channel and coached and worked with Olympic swimmers and triathletes
The post #11 The One About Smooth Swimming (with Paul Newsome from SwimSmooth) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Sam Sheppard is one of Australia's best open water competitors. Whether it's 1km or 10km, Sam is a fierce racer and a smart swimmer. In this interview we cover
The post #10 How To Win In Open Water (with Australian Open Water swimmer Sam Sheppard) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Months of hard work go towards one big race. Long hours in the pool, thousands of kilometers and tens of thousands of arm strokes...all for a few minutes of racing.
In this episode we talk with Sam Ashby (who features in the Mastering Freestyle program) about what do 3 weeks out from a big meet. He talks about the stages of tapering (tapering is where you reduce the intensity of your training leading up to competition). We talk about warming up on the day of your race and what a good routine consists of
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Being the second female and second Australian to complete a double crossing of the English Channel, Chloe McCardel is one of Australia's best marathon swimmers. She's won the prestigious 46km Manhattan Island race and is now gearing up for a triple-crossing of the English Channel
The post #8 The English Channel Episode (with Chloe McCardel) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Download the transcript As you train more often you realise that injuries are common if you don’t do something to prevent them. Sports physio Justin McEvoy has been away with the Australian swim team treating elite swimmers such as Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Michael Phelps, Roland Schoeman plus dozens of other high profile athletes. In this […]
The post #7 The One About Injuries (With Australian Swim Team Physio Justin McEvoy) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Wowza, what an episode! We managed to pry former world record holder and Olympic champion Michael Klim away from his busy schedule for an insight into his comeback. After a number of years out of the pool Michael decided to pull on the speedo's for another crack at the Olympics, training for the 2012 London Olympic Games
The post #6 The Comeback Episode (with Olympic gold medallist Michael Klim) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Our first US guest is a current world record holder and backstroke champion. Peter Marshall reveals how he broke three world records in backstroke. Like a lot of age group swimmers, Peter started out doing lots of miles in the pool. He was a distance swimmer in his early years but converted to a sprinter after making some changes to his training. In the podcast he chats about what changed in his program and how his gym workouts shifted focus. We cover race routines, psychology and developing power in the water
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Download the transcript In this episode we look inside the mindset and training regime of top level sprinters. Our guest, Olympic butterflyer and freestyler Andrew Lauterstein talks about: The feeling of being in an Olympic final, the pressure and nerves before a race and he breaks down his 100m butterfly final in the 2008 Beijing […]
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We take a look into the world of marathon swimming. What motivates distance swimmers to do the huge miles week in week out? How do they prepare for big races? We talk with the 45km Manhattan Island swim world record holder, Oliver Wilkinson about:
Training for distance events and the number of kilometers he does weekly leading up to a big race
What he eats the night before to 'carb load' and how he refuels during a race
Finding the right stroke rhythm quickly
Which aspects of his technique he focuses on in training
How hard he works his kick in long distance swims
Dealing with the mental challenges in cold water and endurance races
Ollie has trained with my squad in Melbourne for over 12 months and has recently moved backed to England. He has completed the English Channel and has placed in numerous long distance open water races such as the Rottnest Island swim in Western Australia. You can keep up to date with what Ollie is up to at his blog.
Tell us the hardest training set you've in the comments section below!
The post #3 – Open Water Domination (with Oliver Wilkinson) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Download the transcript We chat with Terry Laughlin from Total Immersion. Terry has developed a method of improving your swimming that has helped hundreds of thousands of swimmers and triathletes worldwide to swim smoother. He’s an expert at helping people fix the weaknesses in their stroke so they can move naturally through the water with […]
The post #2 Improving Your Technique (with Terry Laughlin from Total Immersion) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.
Download the transcript of this podcast Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast! In the first episode we chat with Olympic backstroker Ashley Delaney. He reveals: How he got started in swimming by accident The one thing he changed in his diet to drop two kilos in weight and start swimming faster times in training Small […]
The post #1 How to have more energy at the end of a race (featuring Olympian Ash Delaney) appeared first on Effortless Swimming.