The Poolside Pass

In E7 we had the chance to sit down with Adam Baker and Stuart McNarry and discuss how they work in tandem with each other at the Swim Wales HPC in Swansea. We also hear about their preparations with swimmers in the run up to the Tokyo Olympic Games.

In E6 we had the opportunity to sit down with Robin Armayan and hear from him on a range of topics around developing age group swimmers, his own journey as a coach as well as being intelligent racers. A really great discussion worth listening to for any coach.

In E5 we had the opportunity to sit down with Andi Manley, the director of swimming at Loughborough University to talk about his career in coaching. Andi reflects on his experiences working across age group swimming all the way up to working with senior international swimmers. An insightful discussion for coaches of all levels.

In E4 we had the opportunity to speak with Sean Balmer the Head Coach at Cockermouth SC. Over the years Sean has produced GB internationals on a regular basis, most recently Luke Greenbank. In this episode Sean discusses this process of creating international swimmers as well as the importance of great communication for coaches.

In E3 we sat down with Russ Barber to discuss creating performance environments base don behaviours rather than outcomes. Russ also runs The Swim Coach Network. You can find out more about this on twitter (@Russ_SCNetwork) or by emailing theswimcoachnetwork@outlook.com

In E2 we sit down with Rick Hall to discuss his projects on developing technical models for training and racing and how he plans to use these ins coaching going forward. If you want to hear more from Rick you can reach out to him at; Twitter - @coachrickhall Email - coachrickhall@outlook.com

In the first episode of series 4 we sat down with Kevin Pickard from The Rogue Monkey to discuss all things talent identification and developement including where he thinks the future of talent lies. An insightful discussion for coaches, athletes, parents and educators. For more information on The Rogue Monkey visit; www.theroguemonkey.org

In E10 we discussed the topic of injury prevention for swimmers with Chris Ritter the founder of Ritter Sports Performance and Surge Strength Dryland Certification. You can find some great free drylands resources @ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqrDM0qpo4fZr_Fw9XBPwIw If you are interested in enrolling on the Surge Strength Dryland Certification then click the link below; https://academy.surgestrength.com/?ref=781

In E9 we had the opportunity to collaborate with Chris DeSantis who hosts The Swim Brief podcast. Chris has a masters in positive psychology as well as having coached in the US and Denmark. To find out more about Chris and his podcast make sure to check out his website and social media pages; Web - http://chrisdcoach.com/blog Twitter - @cdswimcoach

In E8 we spoke with Sophie Dodd for Mental Health in Sport about the importance of coaches being trained in mental health first aid for their athletes but also how coaches can look after themselves better to protect against poor mental health. Find out more about the work Sophie does at; https://www.mentalhealthinsportcic.com Insta - mentalhealthinsportcic Facebook - @mentalhealthinsportcic Twitter - @MHISport

In E7 we sat down with Brent Rushall who has been an exponent of Ultra Short Race Pace Training (USRPT) for many years. In this episode Brent outlines why he thinks USRPT is the best training model around. We felt it was important to share this episode with our listeners to allow them to weigh up the pros and cons of any training model they are thinking of employing when they are planning their training. You can find the information Brent references at the below links - For the USRPT 7-disc DVD set http://brentrushall.com/DVD%20Sale/DVD%20Sale.htm The Swimming Science Journal is at https://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/index.htm More specifically, the table of USRPT articles is at https://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/usrpt/table.htm

In E6 we spoke with Teri McKeever - Head Coach of Cal Golden Bears Women's swimming and diving. It was great to find out about Teri's experiences in coaching and hear her reflections on what has been a fantastic career so far.

In E5 we sat down with Ben Higson the Head Coach for Swim Ireland to discuss his journey as a coach and his experiences of working with senior athletes at an elite level.

Graeme has coached swimmers from learn to swim when he first started helping out at his local club all the way up to the Olympics. He is now Head Coach for Swim Wales. In our discussion we spoke about his journey as a coach and reflect back on some of the key points in his development.  

In E3 we had the pleasure of speaking with renowned coach Eddie Reese. During our discussion we covered pretty much everything, getting Eddie's thoughts on the Physical, tactical, technical and psychological development of the swimmers he coaches.

@thepoolsidepass talk to Keri-anne Payne two time world champion and Gold medallist at the 10km open water at the World Championships in 2009 and 2011 and silver medallist at the Bejiing Olympics in 2008 about becoming world champion and her drive to develop and empower high quality open water coaching qualifications through Straight Line Swimming, a company created by Keri-anne and her husband David Carry, 2 time Gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

We spoke to Rob Robson about his experiences in swimming and how his knowledge now as a sport psychologist may have helped him. Find out more about Rob's work by following the links below; www.motivationalsports.coach Twitter - @Motsportscoach Facebook - The Motivational Sports Coach Community

In the final episode of series 2 we speak to Tom Rushton coach at Energy Standard Swim Team, winners of ISL 2019. We caught up with Tom about life inside the ISL bubble for ISL 2020 and spoke about how he is approaching the training camp with racing so often too. If you want to find out more about Tom you can find him talking about his life on the below podcast; https://open.spotify.com/show/7GmWrBCmJdmDY0PJJ99IW0?si=rfEA_SrhQCa0_XnrYmgqbA If you are interested in finding more out about the ISL catch it all here; http://island.isl.global/

In E9 of the podcast we speak to Jol Finck, national centre coach for British Swimming in Bath and former coach to Olympic medalist James Guy about his experiences coaching swimmers on the 200m and 400m freestyle.

In E8 we speak to Graham Wardell, Head Coach as The City of Cardiff Swimming Club and Head Coach of the 2014 Scottish Commonwealth Games team about; his experiences through his fantastic career as a coach, putting swimmers on international teams and ultimately preparing them for elite level competition.

In E7 we speak to Lou Matera from Youth Sport Nutrition about their mission to make sure that young athletes can access the correct nutrients within their diets to allow them to make the most out of their talent in sport. You can find out more information about Youth Sport Nutrition at - https://www.youthsportnutrition.co.uk/

In E6 we spoke with Chris Ritter about the SURGE Strength Dryland training certification he provides. SURGE Strength was founded with Chris Ritter's years of experience as both a swim coach and performance coach starting in 2004. This coaching blend has given him a unique perspective on both the wet and the dry side of training for swimmers. Chris has earned numerous strength and conditioning certifications, including: CSCS, NASM-PES, USAW and NASM-CPT. He also has a degree in Physical Education and Kinesiology, with an emphasis in Exercise Science. Chris’s passion for dryland drove him to craft and hone programs that launched swimmers to another level of performance. His background in strength training combined with his passion for both coaching and competing in the sport of swimming has generated a brand unlike any other in the world of swimming: SURGE Strength. Through continuous improvement in both methodology and delivery, SURGE Strength has delivered dryland and strength training programs, via app, to over 1,000 athletes worldwide, logging over 20,000 workouts. The goal of SURGE Strength is simple: Build Better Athletes to Generate Faster Swimmers. You can find out more at; Website - www.surge-strength.com Instagram - @surge.strength SURGE Strength Podcast - https://wavve.link/rittersp LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisrittersp/ Email - podcasts@rittersp.com

Research on swimming is broad and essential for the evolution of the sport. The level of swimming related scientific research is very advanced, as is the level of coaching. However, as both fields are very demanding, their connection, in terms of knowledge and experience diffusion, is difficult. In-depth reading of scientific papers is needed for a thorough interpretation of their results. However, this is usually time consuming and difficult for non-accustomed readers. The short display (shorter than their abstract) of interesting articles in a simple manner, without meddling, for someone to figure out if an article is helpful (and then go on with full-text reading), is our main intention. Additionally, useful notes from the coaching practice that are based on testing will be posted. The purpose is to assist swimming coaches and relevant sport scientists to keep up with the swimming research progress. So sswimt comes to accelerate the dissemination of information and updates on swimming testing and research with a focus on physiology, biochemistry, metabolism, nutrition and training! Our goal is to set off the abundant information provided by eminent sports scientists and swimming coaches, thanks to whom swimming is evolving constantly. Hope you will enjoy it! More interesting things are on the way… Visit the blog that houses all of the research: sswimt.wordpress.com Like them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sswimt-465715247150211/ Follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sswimt

Mark Bennett MBE has spent the last 30 years developing robust and scalable strategies and tools to help organisations, teams and individuals maximise the performance potential of themselves and the people they are influencing. Mark hasn’t just developed the ‘how to’ tools and strategies to increase engagement, learning and performance; he has designed powerful interventions that support the change required to embed the behaviours and cultures that maximise performance. He has named this holistic approach the Performance Development Systems (PDS). You can find out more about Mark's work at https://www.pdscoaching.com/

In E3 we speak to Glenn Smith, 2x British Swimming Coaches Para Coach of the Year and winner of UK coaching Mussabini Medal, about his experiences developing world class para swimmers such as; Sam Hynd, Ollie Hynd and Charlotte Henshaw. 

In E2 we speak to CEO of Working with Parents in sport, Gordon MacLelland about how coaches can develop effective lines of communication with parents in swimming and bust the myth that coaches and parents can't work together! 

In the 1st episode of our 2nd series Seán Kelly (National Performance Director for Spain) speaks to us about the importance of effectively managing relationships within coaching. Being able to be dynamic in the way you deal with people and the importance of tailoring your style to the individual.

In episode 20 we speak with David Marsh one of the greatest coaches of all time having worked with 49 Olympians from 19 different countries over his career to date. A coach with a real technique first approach to his work, I hope you all enjoy this final episode of series 1.

In episode 19 we spoke with James Gibson about his experiences coaching some of the fastest swimmers on the planet and his considerations for coaching sprinters. An insightful conversation with James who was very open about how he planned training for the ISL as well as how he is going to approach the return to training prior to the Olympics in 2021 following the COVID-19 lockdown across the world. N.B - At time of recording elite athletes in the UK had not returned to the water.

In E18 we spoke to Ian Wright from The City of Glasgow Swim Team about his experiences building club teams up and putting swimmers on international teams.

In E17 we spoke to Euan Dale, Director of Swimming at Millfield School. Euan spoke about the importance of knowing your athletes and being able to communicate effectively with them.

In episode 16 we went LIVE streaming the episode via youtube and our website. Jon Rudd, Ian Armiger and Dave Champion joined us for a Q+A style discussion with coaches from around the world. NB - This event was recorded live on June 3rd 2020.

In episode 15 of the poolside pass podcast we spoke to Rob Greenwood about his career in the sport and his experiences using the Jan Olbrecht model of training. A great listen for all coaches!

In episode 14, Ben Wiffen from The City of Belfast Swimming Club speaks to us about how he utilises a USRPT approach to training within his program addressing it's strengths and weaknesses. An insightful conversation with a young coach exploring a different way of working.

Dave Hemmings talks to us about his coaching process and why he is so passionate about ensuring he understands what makes the best in the world great at what they do.

Ash Morris from Hamilton Aquatics speaks to us about working with swimmers from diverse backgrounds out in Dubai.

In E11 of The Poolside Pass Podcast we spoke to Michael Glossop. Michael discussed reflective practice in coaching as well as coach burnout, an interesting listen for all coaches.

Mark Skimming, Head Coach at The University of Bath talks to us about how he is adapting to life without swimming during COVID-19 and what he is doing to ensure he makes the most of this time away from the pool.

Mel Marshall talks to us about her experiences in the sport, the barriers she faced crossing over from being an athlete to being a coach and her perspective on what it means to be a coach.

Tom Rushton from Energy Standard talks to us about his career so far, his work at Energy Standard, the ISL and also the importance of efficiency.

Jon Rudd, National Performance Director at Swim Ireland, talks about his career in the sport, coaching Ruta Meilutyte, Ben Proud and much more.

In this episode Dave Champion from Team Ipswich talks about his experiences in coaching and how he keeps his programme fresh every season.

We talk to Ian Armiger - former programme director at Loughborough University Swimming about how he managed to build a dominating programme that produced Olympians at every Olympic Games since Sydney 2000.

Russ Barber discusses his views on coaching philosophy and how he has developed his own by learning from experience throughout his career.

I sat down with Ryan Livingstone up in Newcastle to discuss considerations for coaching age group swimming. An insightful conversation with many take homes for coaches working with swimmers aged 9-14 years of age.

Kevin Brooks talks about his journey through coaching, and how he made it into a career.

Chris Littler shares his experience at the Japan National Development Camp with British Swimming