Although I hope to inspire others to get in the water via this blog, I have to mention that one of the organisations that have inspired me is Swim Smooth, based in Perth, Western Australia.
When the chance came this year to attend one of their courses for coaches in Ireland, I jumped at it, despite having no money and no time – these chances don’t come around too often!
I have been introducing some of their ideas to my swimmers over the last year or so so it was fantastic to be able to go and learn how the system had developed, and how best to apply it. The opportunity to have my own stroke analysed & critiqued was also incredibly useful (if not a little embarassing – I blame having had 6 months off to recover from injury!). Still some excellent pointers for things to work on and move forward with.
Having had a shoulder problem myself I am fanatical about encouraging swimmers into good techniques to avoid future problems and it was great to see how much emphasis Paul and the coaching team at Swim Smooth place on this.
It was impressive that some top marathon swimmers such as Carol Cashel and Donal Buckley were in the pool – and Olympic 10k bronze medallist Cassie Patten was there to learn about the coaching side.
Isle of Man swimmers I am looking forward to developing some of the themes – first target some extra speed for the first of the summers triathlons!
For more information on one swimmers experience on the ‘other side’ of the course, have a look at Donal Buckley’s blog on Loneswimmer.com.
Dr Jill's swim blog 