This 6 week course is aimed at swimmers who already swim front crawl, are training to get faster or swim further, either for fitness or for events, but are not sure what is holding them back, despite putting the mileage in. We all need to revisit the fundamental aspects of the stroke, but this is often overlooked and swimmers instead turn to increased mileage, online training plans that are not designed for them as individuals, or purely focusing on chasing speed. The latter tends to degrade the stroke, especially if  efficient movements are not in place, or other variables, such as stroke count and tempo are not being used.

 

We will video your swimming at the beginning of the first session to discover what you are currently doing well, and areas for improvement. ​There will be a maximum of 4 swimmers on this course, so lots of individual attention and feedback each week. Annotated video clips will be sent to you via a coaching app after each session.

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This course revisits the fundamentals of the stroke, giving you time to practice and imprint more efficient swim movements.  You will learn how to swim front crawl so your body works as a single connected unit, anchoring on the water to move forwards, rather than a disconnected sum of body parts pulling and kicking and using a lot of energy. Swim Mastery coaching draws on human biomechanics to ensure swimmers are only taught movements that keep their joints safe and keep your body in alignment to maximise forward movement in the water. You learn to work with the water rather than fight it. 

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As a functional breathing coach, I also incorporate an assessment of your functional (daily) breathing habits on land. How we breathe on a daily basis at rest determines how we breathe during physical exercise. Efficient breathing in swimming requires proper use of the diaphragm, but if we are not using this on land, how can we expect to do it in the water? A recent research study showed that 90% of nearly 2000 athletes from a range of sports and ages have some element of dysfunctional breathing biomechanics. It is also estimated that about 90% of the general population have some dysfunctional breathing patterns. 

 

Therefore, this course will give you some feedback on your own breathing patterns on land and how to improve them to help your swimming.​​ Your breath provides oxygen to your swimming muscles, so learning to optimise oxygen uptake and delivery during swimming is vital to improving endurance and speed. 

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If you specifically want to work on improving your breathing on land and in the water, I'm, running a day workshop in Sussex in September. Click HERE to see more details. This day workshop only focuses of breathing, and not general front crawl technique. 

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If you would like to learn more about the SwimMastery approach before booking, check out these recent podcast episodes:

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In 2024, Tracey Baumann, founder of SwimMastery, who trained me as a coach, has been interviewed four times by Brenton Ford on the Effortless Swimming podcast. These discussions give you a good insight into the principles of SwimMastery coaching and he is probably inviting her back for a fifth time in 2025!

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Effortless Swimming podcast #339: 

Freestyle Mastery - Practical Tips for Perfecting Your Stroke with Tracey Baumann  (27 June, 2024)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOc5ubnwwJU&t=18s

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Effortless Swimming podcast #344:

Finding Rhythm and Connection in Your Freestyle with Tracey Baumann (August 1, 2024)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVLnbvzxxKo&t=8s

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Effortless Swimming podcast #355:

How to Coordinate Your Freestyle Stroke with Tracey Baumann (October 22, 2024)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VorgrkYZcq0

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Effortless Swimming podcast #362:

The Speed Equation with Tracey Baumann (December 19, 2024)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHRAuwvzixo&t=89s

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