A lot has happened since our last update where we covered Jia’s first ever competition. We are now entering month number 6 of the challenge and I’m not the only person that can see the big changes. Staff members and fellow swimmers have all commented on the difference between September and now. It’s amazing what... Continue Reading →
These are the next 7 sessions that Jia completed for the Rome Challenge. All of these sessions are from December. This round saw an increase in the distance per session and with that an increase in her aerobic training. This month was particularly busy with work and family so there are less sessions than in... Continue Reading →
How do I go faster? This is a question that I see posted online, and that I get asked by people in the local pool. The answer is “its complicated”. This is the second of two articles on what you can do and what you should consider if you want to swim faster. As with... Continue Reading →
How do I go faster? This is a question that I see posted regularly online, and that I get asked by people almost every week in the local pool. The answer is “its complicated”. The Rome Challenge on this website is an example of what it takes for the casual swimmer to improve their speed,... Continue Reading →
As a 200m swimmer I like this session, it has a nice mix of speed, aerobic work, and the switching keeps it from getting boring. The sprints have 30 seconds rest so they should be pure speed with no lactate production. The 100s should be hitting A2 (or 80% effort). The switching between the two... Continue Reading →
As far back as I can remember, swimming has been part of my life. From galas to swimming birthday parties, it has always been there. However, like every sport, it has had its ups and downs! In this article, I will be speaking about pressure in swimming from a swimmers point of view, but also... Continue Reading →
There is no disputing that the start is an important part of a race, of course it’s importance and effect on the race is directly proportional to the distance being raced. Your start in a 50m event will have a far greater impact on your race than your start for a 400m event. If you... Continue Reading →
These are the next 9 sessions that Jia completed for the Rome Challenge. All of these sessions are from November. As you will see there is still a heavy focus on the basics, but the distance per session is increasing. This month also saw Jia start to swim full stroke butterfly with fins. Towards the... Continue Reading →
This year, for the first time since I became aware of it, I qualified for and joined the Irish Masters Development squad. I hadn’t been doing as much training in the pool when I first heard about it. I was still coaching and competing in Martial Arts, so I was training in that for roughly... Continue Reading →
The Liquid Power Jammer falls under what I consider an entry level suit. It’s composed of 71% Polyamide, 29% Xtra life Lycra and apparently it has a Teflon coating to reduce resistance in the water. It also has stitched seams and is quite affordable, available from some retailers for around 40 pounds. I bought the... Continue Reading →
The ability to streamline is incredibly important, but while swimming and coaching I’ve often seen it over looked or ignored by swimmers. I’ve even been guilty of it myself, so in this article I’ll try to explain why its important and why people tend to forget or ignore it. First, the obvious, a good streamline... Continue Reading →
This is a nice tune-up session for IM, it has a nice mix of aerobic work with some drills and sprints. The variety should help to keep it interesting. Warm up 200m Fc 200m IM order kick, 6x50m broken IM (50m Bf-Bc, 50m Bc-Brs, 50m Brs-Fc) focusing on change-over turns -set total 700m Main... Continue Reading →
Saturday was a milestone for the Rome Challenge, it was Jia’s first ever masters swimming competition. She had never competed an any sports growing up in China, and had only ever done a few 5k fun runs and a handful of sea swims since coming to Ireland (because everyone should swim around Fenit lighthouse at... Continue Reading →
This is the second article where I will review training suits that I use or have used. You will notice a trend; my suits are all quite cheap and hopefully long lasting. Long lasting because I have chosen suits that fall under that category for their brands. This article will look at briefs from Zoggs... Continue Reading →
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