Training

Recovering from shoulder pain can feel like being benched from the thing you love most. I’ve coached swimmers through tendonitis, impingement, and post-surgical rehab, and one lesson keeps coming back: you don’t have to stop training — you just need to be smarter about how you train. This article shares practical cross‑training sessions and progressions that protect the shoulder while maintaining cardio fitness, leg strength, and...

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When I’m planning a season budget for Bishopsworth Swimming Club, one of the most practical — and surprisingly emotional — tasks is the equipment audit. Kickboards get chewed, pull buoys disappear into changing rooms, and Tempo Trainers seem to stop beeping on the morning of a gala. Over the years I’ve learned which models survive club life and which are false economies. In this piece I share what I look for when I’m buying for youth...

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Balancing a full-time job, family life, and evening swim training is a reality for so many of us at Bishopsworth Swimming Club. I’ve been there: squeezing laps into the gaps between work emails and bedtime stories, trying to get enough sleep while logging yards and family time. Over the years I’ve learned that recovery isn’t a luxury reserved for elite athletes — it’s the foundation that lets busy swimmers stay consistent, avoid...

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I’m often asked how to taper for a local meet without arriving rusty or flat. Two weeks is a common length for club swimmers and masters who can’t afford long tapers — and when done right, it’s perfectly possible to be both rested and sharp. Below I share my practical, experience-based two-week taper plan, variations for sprinters and distance swimmers, and the non-pool details that make the difference: warm-ups, dryland, sleep,...

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Hitting a backstroke plateau is one of those small-but-persistent frustrations that I see again and again with swimmers I coach — and with my own training. You feel fitter, you tweak technique, you trust the process... and then the times stall. Over the years I’ve put together a pragmatic 12-week plan that blends focused in-pool work with dryland strength and mobility to nudge that needle forward. Below I share the framework I use with club...

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I’ve always believed that races are won and lost in tiny margins — the split-second decisions, the angle of a push, the timing of a breakout. Over the years coaching youth squads and masters swimmers at Bishopsworth, I’ve seen the 100m freestyle start transformed by targeted land work and reaction training. Plyometrics and reaction drills don’t just make you jump higher; they make you move faster from the block and convert that force...

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