Swim Solutions currently runs one group coaching session per week, on a Wednesday evening from 2100-2200 at Faringdon Leisure Centre. For this session, the entire pool hall is hired out giving exclusive use of four lanes separated by anti-wave lane ropes and also backstroke flags marked out at 5m from each end. The session is primarily aimed at adults due to the time it is held but older children of a sufficient standard maybe able to attend by agreement with Karl.
The session is suitable for swimmers of an intermediate to advanced level who are looking for coaching in a group environment as opposed to individual stroke analysis and improvement. Having said that, every session is written with the needs of the swimmers attending in mind and most weeks consist of at least one segment of work aimed at stroke correction. Each session is based on a warm up, build set, main set, contrasting activity and warm down. Many people attending who previously spent each swimming session churning up and down for half an hour to an hour have commented on the immediate difference it has made to their swimming coming to Swim Solutions and also how much more interesting each session is compared to when swimming alone.
The four lanes are divided by ability ranging from 400m of times sub 6 minutes in Lane 1 to 10 minutes in Lane 4.
On your first session, you can expect to complete a timed 400m front crawl swim, enabling Karl to assess your stroke and allocate you to your squad and lane for future sessions. You will also be asked to swim 100m of another stroke. Depending on the strokes shown and previous ability and coaching if any, the remainder of the session will either be an introduction to various drills which will be used in future sessions or you will join in with your relevant lane for the remainder of the coached session.
Currently, a normal individual lane swim is £3.40 for the general public at Faringdon Leisure Centre. The cost for each Swim Solutions session is just £7.00. This means that you are essentially getting all this for only an extra £3.60!!!! That's an ASA Level 2 Coach, entire use of the pool, anti-wave lanes, backstroke flags, group camaraderie and a structured programme of swimming development all for £3.60!!!!!!!!!
It is recommended to contact Karl prior to attending your first session which you can by clicking the 'Contact Us' tab to the left. Otherwise, what are you waiting for??!! See you on poolside!!!!!!
RESULTS OF GROUP COACHING
9th June - Timed 400m Swims - With 15 swimmers attending there were a fantastic 11 personal best times. With improvements of between a second and 1.01 thre were some great performances. These ranged from a session record of 5.43 right through to some swimmers in Lane 4 creditably swimming 400m for the first time showing the improvements being made in their endurance and efficiency from attending coaching and managing respectable times o a well done to all.
2nd June - Timed 100m Swims - 100% PBS!!!!!!!!
Once again of the 10 swimmers attending, ALL 10 achieved PB times, most notably an improvement of 24 seconds over 5 weeks by one swimmer from 1.48 to 1.24. With times ranging from 1.10 to 1.43 the group is managing as a whole to show great improvements week to week and we look forward to seeing the knock on benefits with the 400m swims next week.
21st April - Timed 400m Swims - 100% PBs!!!!!!!!
Of the 12 swimmers who took part in the timed 400m swims, ALL 12 achieved personal best times!!!!! The times ranged from 5.54 to 9.25 with reductions in PB times by up to 1.12 over the course of two months!!! These results and the improvements shown are fantastic and well deserved by all concerned. The effort and commitment alongside attendance numbers over the past months has been outstanding so well done to all and keep up the good work!!!!!!
17th February - Frontcrawl Technique Session - Despite a poor turnout due to half term commitments and holidays the overall quality of the session was exceptional with all four swimmers showing tremendous improvements over the hour. After a brief warm up and build set, Karl took the swimmers though 'Minimum:Maximum' test over 50m recording both total strokes swum and time in seconds for the distance, these figures were added together to give a 'magic number' as a comparison for the end of the session to see if any improvements had been gained. Karl then spent around 40 minutes with the swimmers taking them through various stroke drills concentrating on body position, head position, breathing, leg action, arm action and timing and co-ordination for frontcrawl. During this time individual feedback was given to each of the swimmers on their individual stroke mechanics and alterations to be made. Once the session was complete the 'Minimum:Maximum' was repeated and recorded for comparison. Please note that the final recordings were taken at the end of an hour long session where the swimmers were fatigued so even better numbers would be recorded if fresh and rested as they were for the first results. These improvements can be seen below:
Numbers given are shown as time/strokes - total:
Before After
M.S. 59/54 - 113 57/56 - 113
M.L. 46/43 - 89 41/41 - 82
T.H. 48/48 - 96 44/44 - 88
A.P. 50/41 - 91 42/38 - 80
As you can see everyone either held their score or made a dramatic improvement despite fatigue setting in, the best improvement being a drop of 8 seconds and 3 strokes totalling an improvement of 11 on his magic number by A.P. A huge well done to all and keep up the good work. It must also be remembered that all this coaching and improvements were made in a one hour session for the tiny sum of £5.00. If you are a triathlete or fitness swimmer and wish to make similar improvements please contact Karl and come along to our next Wednesday evening session - 2100-2200 at Faringdon Leisure Centre.
10th February - Timed 200 IMs - Whilst the majority of the sessions are designed with triathletes in mind and with an emphasis on front crawl, all strokes are used where appropriate through the sessions to help reduce injury, assist recovery, improve a feel for the water, develop cardiovascular and core fitness and reduce boredom and as such occasionally 200IMs are recorded to show the improvement of the group in their all round swimming performance. On this occasion EVERYONE who attended produced a PERSONAL BEST time!!!!! A huge well done to all but of note for their 200 IM performances are M.C. - 3.14 (8 seconds PB), G.F. 3.31 (6 seconds PB), S.H. 3.51 (24 seconds PB) and A.P. 4.02 (31 seconds PB). A massive effort from everyone as you can see and once again a huge well done on the performances on the night and also the performances week in and week out to gain these improvements. Keep up the good work!!!!!!
3rd February - Timed 400m Swims - Of the 9 swimmers who completed the timed 400m swim, 7 managed personal best times in their time with Swim Solutions. Of most note were G.B. who previously had been unable to complete a 400m but with a combination of Swim Solutions and personal coaching from Karl managed a very creditable 9.53 and M.S. who having produced a personal best on her previous 400m in December returned to Karl for one to ones during January and reduced her time yet again, by 29 seconds to 10.21. Well done to all.
9th December - Timed 400m swims - Combined with a stroke videoing session, swimmers completed a timed 400m swim in our last session of 2009 as a comparison for our regular swimmers and a base marker for our more recent attendees. Most times showed a good improvement reflecting the stroke changes and fitness improvements from the coaching sessions taking effect and it was no surprise that the most significant improvements came from swimmers who had utilised separate private coaching sessions with Karl. The only swimmers who did not show dramatic improvement being those who had only recently attended so not having a comparable accurate figure or those who due to illness, injury or work and family commitments had been unable to attend regularly lately. For those of you interested in attending but unsure of where your ability would compare the range of times were from 6.00 to 10.50. A special mention must be made to three particular swimmers who dropped their times significantly - M.C. from 6.28 to 6.10 (4.6%), M.S. from 11.58 to 10.50 (9.5%) and A.P. from 8.20 to 7.31 (9.8%). Well done to all and let's continue the good work in the New Year!!!!!!
30th September - Timed 400m swims - Swimmers managed between 1.3% and 7% drop in times!!!!! After a hard session swimmers also completed a 100m flat out effort and amazingly one swimmer managed a 12% improvement after attending for only six weekly sessions - a drop from 1.47 to 1.34!!! A huge well done to all swimmers involved, keep up the good work and effort!!!!!!!!
