Coach Penny Wilkin recommends 10 good reads for swimmers this Christmas Leap in, A Woman, some waves and the will to swim, Alexandra Heminsley From the ignominy of getting into a wetsuit to the triumph of swimming from Kefallinia to Ithaca, in becoming a swimmer, Alexandra learns to appreciate her body and still her mind.     2. Swimming to Antarctica, Lynne Cox Here is the joyful, inspirational memoir of swimmer Lynne Cox. By age sixteen, she had broken all records for English. Channel swims, so she set her goals even higher: She became the first to swim the Strait of Magellan, narrowly escaped a shark attack off the Cape of Good Hope, and was cheered across the twenty-mile Cook Strait of New Zealand by dolphins. Her daring eventually led her to the thirty-eight-degree waters of the Bering Strait, which she crossed in her usual outfit — just a swimsuit, cap, and goggles   3. Blue Mind, Wallace Nichol s Why are we drawn to the ocean each summer? Why does being near water set our mind

By Sarah Hill with Kim Kemp As TI coaches my colleagues and I work with people from all swimming backgrounds including those with different degrees of water phobia or issues around water confidence. Most of us take our confidence in the water for granted but over 13.8 million adults in the UK - that’s about one in four of us - are afraid to take part in any form of swimming. For some, the fear can be so great that it interferes with daily life and has far-reaching effects on the quality of the person’s life, affecting confidence and self-esteem, personal and professional life-style choices and relationships with friends and family. There is no typical client with water confidence issues – it affects people of all ages and backgrounds and has myriad causes; often people have tried and failed many times to overcome their fear through self-help or well-intentioned but often misguided encouragement from family, friends or swimming teachers. Client stories show clearly that a lack of unde