Personal Blogs

There's a lot of this in my life these days. A case of a volunteer role 16 years ago gradually turning me into a qualified Swim England swimming teacher and coach with 1000s of hours of experience. Planning every session almost takes as long as running the session itself. These based on macrocycle planning for the months ahead.

Three weeks of 'streamlining' then three weeks of 'power/energy' work has been my intention. A good deal of technique improvement is required, and rather more discipline with attendance, arriving on time, and pre and post pool warm up and flexibility.  

I take 6 out of 8 sessions for a National Perforamce Squad. I also attend most of the Open Meets and Galas. At times paid hours are soon matched by additional hours yet again done as a volunteer - the nature of British swimming at a small club scale. 

Already 17 days behind, I want to add these to my Swimcoach Blog > https://wordpress.com/view/swimcoach.blog 

Three days, with a 7.15 am poolside start each day with some 20+ swimmers from our club Mid-Sussex Marlins. 'Working' poolside rather than just visiting as a tourist or even a spectator meant I experienced something of the buzz around competitive swimming.

8 Sessions, 7 to 20 swimmers in each. Every stroke and every distance, from 1500m Freestyle to 50m sprints. Quite a tasks to coral the swimmers onto a patch of the poolside which all the London clubs mark out with beach chairs. I had just the one. It was easy to get squeezed.

The 2 hours between warm up and a swim had many swimmers setting off for trips around the Olympic Park with their parents and then doing a poolside warm up before their race - not ideal.

Work on their underwater phase is paying off, with great distances. Often they are the last to surface and do so ahead of the pack.

All of this tied in with an Institute of Swimming 'Certification' which I have been completing on the ePortfolio 'Pebblepad' that I was first introduced to here in 2010 as part of the MAODE - it has changed considerably. It is a sophisticated, detailed Workbook with multiple test sheets and 'evidence' to be submitted - often via the App 'Pebblepocket' so that a video or audio clip, or photos can be uploaded easily. The downside is the volume of material that is easily generated and the need for both a mentor/supervisor rather than simply an assessor looking over my work.