By Penny Wilkin and Sarah Hill If you’ve had some Total Immersion swimming lessons or attended one of our workshops, you’ll know how important it is to practise your new skills. But when you get to your public pool you may discover that it’s tricky to find space to do the drills and six-stroke practices, particularly at the moment when pools are often limited to lane-only with stricter rules about overtaking etc. So here are some tips and strategies to help practise your swimming effectively in a public pool. ·         It may sound obvious but do your research first – find out when the pool is quiet, what type of swimmers tend to swim when are there sessions when the pool is set up without lane ropes out? It will be easier to find space to do your drill practise if you don’t need to stick to lanes ·         Have a look around at other pools - some may have a children’s pool available which could be i...

How long have you been swimming? How did you get into it, what you like about it, what motivates you? Well, difficult to say because it would probably be forever. I was born in California where everyone has a pool – yes really – so was in the water from a very early age. I began my triathlon career back in1996. I started to train with a local club, where it became very obvious very quickly that I stood out from the group, at least as a swimmer. Swimming was clearly my strongest discipline and I raced regularly until a skiing accident in 2003 ended it (or so I thought). It wasn’t until 2007 that I really felt strong enough to begin running again. I did the Great North Swim (2 miles) in 2013, at the time the longest outdoor swim I had completed. In 2016 I finally took the plunge and decided to re-dedicate myself to the sport and although I had (I thought) good swim technique I decide to approach a coach and get my swimming looked at properly. What made you go for technique lessons ...

By Penny Wilkin and Sarah Hill Last week I witnessed some disagreements about the etiquette of lane swimming that ended with two people in tears and disrupted swimming for all those involved. This is such a shame because swimming should be a fun and sociable activity (with the appropriate distancing of course) that we can all enjoy whatever our swimming ability or goals.   In the UK, many pools are still closed so people have far fewer places to swim. Managing the pool space can prove difficult at the best of times and is particularly tricky at the moment when swimmer numbers are so limited and regulations so strict. It’s even more important then that we find a way to negotiate the lanes in order to reduce the potential for the all too familiar incidents of ‘lane rage’ we have all experienced or witnessed at some point, here are some tips to help your swim session go smoothly:   Timetables and lane arrangements are particularly complicated at the moment, most pool...

Susan Cheshire Tell us a bit about your swimming background A competitive swimmer through to my late teens, I competed mainly over sprint distances and Individual Medley events.  I stopped swimming after university and got back in the pool after a ten-year break. What hit me the most when I started to swim again was how tiring I found swimming. My first experience of Total Immersion was at a weekend workshop 10 years ago and a light bulb went off.  I have both physically and mentally enjoyed re-learning how to swim; I only wish I knew then what I know now! Tell us about your coaching My main coaching role is as Head of Swimming at Bancroft’s School a co-educational school for 7 to 18-year-olds in Woodford, Essex.  Coaching a broad spectrum of swimmers from those learning to swim to County and National level competitors. My private coaching takes place at Bancroft’s and in central London. I love the variety of individuals I coach from competitive swimmers, triathletes,...

Tell us about your swimming background. I swam as a kid but nothing serious and I just loved anything to do with water sports. I started triathlon in about 2003 when I got fed up with getting slower at running and that’s when I started to do some more swimming again. As a triathlete I want to be faster! In the beginning, I was so bad at cycling and running I thought I needed all the help I could get. So that’s what initially prompted me to go for some Total Immersion swimming lessons. I made so much progress in 6 weeks just by focussing on improved movement that it sparked my passion for swimming!   Since then I’ve swum Round Jersey in a 3 person relay and completed 2 English Channel crossings with a 6 person relay team.   I’m still obsessed with triathlon   and have raced at all distances all over the world including 6 Ironmans with the most recent being Barcelona Ironman in 2019. Since the swimming pools are still closed in the post-co-vid restrictions I’m swimm...

In another in our series of open water swimming blogs, Manchester-based Total Immersion coach Sarah Hill uncovers the truth about the reported benefits of a post-swim Coke. More people have discovered the joys of open water swimming this year than ever before, partly because of the amazing sunny weather but mainly because of the fact that lockdown restrictions have meant that we haven't been able to access pools. Despite the variable water quality of our lakes and rivers, most swimmers will suffer no ill-effects but an unfortunate few will succumb to a post-swim upset stomach; a not uncommon problem for outdoor swimmers.  There are a number of strategies you can  use to reduce your chances of getting a bug: Always check as best you can for up to date water quality information - see our previous blog post for great information on how to do this Avoid getting the water in your mouth as much as possible - this sounds obvious but it's not always easy on a choppy day - rinse out y...

I've been learning swimming from Total Immersion Coach Susan Cheshire for a year and a half, had daily yoga practice for the past thirty-one years, taught and lectured yoga for fifteen years, with twelve years of tai chi practice.  For the last five years I have been developing a method to help us learn the fundamental connections which inspire and feed all movement. I could never move very well on land.   Please, indulge me and let me qualify that statement: as a child and all the way into early adulthood I had been pretty uncoordinated; catching objects, hitting balls with bats or racquets and kicking, yes especially kicking a ball was so comical that when it came to PE, when the curriculum dictated football or tennis, I would be sent on a run or to the gym.  Granted they were different times back then, but this is just an example of how, even though I truly love to be active and feel the joy of movement, I couldn't find a place to express the innate joy of being ...