1-2-1 and Small Group Coaching
1-2-1 Coaching
1-2-1 coaching will usually start in the pool to analyse your technique and work on skills that need improving. The initial session is an hour and an half, so we have time to discuss your swimming experience, goals and any other relevant issues, as well as have an introduction to how Weightless swimming can help you learn and improve.
We start by asking you to swim a few lengths whilst being videoed from different angles. We then have a look at these videos and discuss what you are doing well and what improvement opportunities there are for your stroke. See Video Analysis page for more details.
The rest of the session is dedicated to working on the necessary elements of your stroke. We use a structured approach to improve technique, starting with foundational skills and getting these right before moving on to more advanced skills. There is no point working on propulsion (speed) if you have poor body position and alignment causing large amounts of drag. You will end up working harder for hardly any gain. This is particularly relevant to triathletes who have to conserve as much energy as possible for the bike and run.
We finish the session by discussing how you can go away and practice your new skills until the next session.
A fundamental skill that all swimmers should learn from the start is to sense what their body is doing in the water. This is harder for us land mammals as our proprioception (feel) is accustomed to movement in an upright position on land, rather than in a horizontal position in an unstable medium (water) that is thicker than air.
Small Group Coaching
Small groups can be up to four swimmers and are a great way to be coached with friends or fellow athletes. This can be particularly useful if you and some friends have entered a triathlon or open water race and want to improve your stroke efficiency.
As with the 1-2-1 sessions, each person will be asked to swim a few lengths whilst being videoed. We will then briefly review each person's stroke together as this is a great learning experience for everyone. We will then work on everyone's balance in the water and learn to relax unnecessarily tense muscles and progress from there.
Once your stroke is more efficient in the pool, you could continue your small group sessions in open water together, learning specific open water skills to further prepare for a race.
Equally, if a small group of you regularly go to the pool to swim together recreationally, but struggle to complete more than a few lengths of front crawl, these small group sessions are perfect to overcome certain technique issues and are also fun.
The added benefit of small group coaching is that it can be great fun. You also learn more about swimming by observing others during the lesson and assessing if they are doing certain skills correctly. If you can then go away and practice together between lessons, this often helps you progress faster.