The Effortless Swimming Podcast

Here are the 9 things we have learned from Hell Week Camp that I thought it would be worth sharing. 1. Clear your mind 2. Regular feedback 3. Go crazy 4. Find your ideal stroke rate 5. 3 different ways to think about your 'Catch' 6. Patience 7. How a 3-minute active warm up can change your entire workout 8. Educate, try and test 9. Getting faster right away isn't always an indicator of a correct change in your stroke

00:58 Pre Swim Routine for Olympic Athletes 02:35 How Much Time Should Be Given To Pre-Swim Routine 06:33 Basic Movements in Yoga Routine 8:58 Q Swim/ Q Swim App 15:24 Time Commitment in Integrating Yoga into Training 18:52 Yoga And Recovery 20:54 Breathing 25:13 On Adults Wanting To Improve Their Swimming 26:36 Balancing Your Nervous System 27:50 3-Minute Yoga Routine

Our guest for today's episode is Carl Reader who is a Functional Movement Coach and a Biokineticist (Exercise Therapist). He's been helping athletes and clients move and exercise better or what is known as functionally. Join us as we discuss warm up, squats and functional movement.

Our guest today is Ben de Rivaz from Breca. Breca hosts swimrun events which take place on trail and open water; team races in pairs wearing wetsuit and trainers, transitioning between running and swimming stages. Join us as we discuss topics about the format swimrun compared to triathlon, why is it appealing to a lot of athletes, different courses and location and a possibility of a National Championship. 00:19 About Ben de Rivaz 03:12 The SwimRun Format 05:36 The Appeal of SwimRun Sport 14:37 Looking For More Courses 14:51 National Championship To know more about Breca events, please visit: https://www.brecaswimrun.com/ Transcript:

Getting beaten up by riot police. Setting his alarm 4 hours too early before the biggest race of his life. Not being able to walk for 4 days just weeks out from his last Olympic Games. These are just a few of the challenges 3x Olympian, Olympic bronze medallist and 100m Freestyle World Champion Brent Hayden shares on today's podcast. 00:47 Brent's achievements 05:22 Focus on the things you can control 06:54 Back spasms leading up to the 2012 Olympics 14:55 Sport is unscripted 16:11 Beaten up and arrested by riot police after 2004 Olympics 28:54 It doesn't need to look pretty 35:17 The best swimmers are the ones that are always open to change 37:19 Key pillars of sprinting 50:26 Astra Athletica

This week I'm joined by Rory Buck to discuss the intricacies of swimming and coaching. Rory Buck is an ex-competitive swimmer turned coach, who went from being a collegiate swimmer to representing South Africa at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Turning to coaching to learn more about swimming, Rory now coaches from Dubai. Join us as we discuss topics such as swim culture, the right age to start swimming, a feel for the water, mentality, sighting, effort in swimming and self-perception as well as much more. 01:10 – Rory's competitive background. 04:30 – Dubai and swim culture. 06:50 – The right age to start swimming. 11:30 – Putting effort into swimming. 20:00 – Confidence in the water. 27:30 – Developing and maintaining a feel for the water. 38:00 – Swimming in a triathlon. 42:00 – Sighting in open water. 52:50 – Watching triathletes and reflecting. 01:01:10 – The mindset and delusions.

This week's podcast features Jason Hamilton as our guest. An athlete and triathlete who I met during Hell Week last year in Thailand, Jason joins us to speak about his journey as a swimmer, and how he trained to qualify in the World Championships. We cover topics such as winter swimming locations, using structure to keep yourself focused while training and exactly what made Jason swim faster. Join us as we reflect on progress and setting goals as a swimmer. 02:20 – Jason Hamilton. 04:00 – Qualifying for World Championships. 06:00 – What makes you faster. 07:12 – Nathan Shearer 11:00 – Structure to keep focus. 13:14 – Ongoing goals. 15:00 – Winter training locations.

In today's episode, We are joined by Angela Naeth who is a professional triathlete. If you are someone who enjoys thinking and reflecting on your sport, your life and things around that, I think you will really enjoy this episode. Angela is a very genuine person and she is someone who has done a lot of thinking and reflecting on her own over the past eight years that she has been racing triathlon. We talked about some ways that she has overcome anxiety around racing and performing, something that she dealt with in the early days of her triathlon career. She also mentions a book that she has read five or six times that she has been able to use and get a lot from when it comes to becoming a fearless and competitive racer.

There are some beliefs that will help you and there are some beliefs that are keeping us from achieving our full potential. Ask yourself. What are the beliefs that are holding me back?

We are joined today by Vicky Tate who has recently swam the 40 kilometr crossing of Lake. Earlier this year she made a crossing and she is one of less than a hundred swimmers who have completed the crossing. She came along to Hell Week last year, our Hell Week camp in Thailand and this was something that prepared for the swim. Join us we talk about her experience. 00:30 From Not Being Able to Swim a "K" to a 40 km Straight Swim 02:01 The Only Thing That Is Going To Stop You Is You. 04:58 Techniques Taken From Hellweek. 07:57 How Was It Like Mentally? 09:09 Swim Pacing In Lake Taupo 10:30 Motivation During The Swim 12:33 "Don't Look Forward and Don't Look Back" 13:36 Singing Songs And Counting Your Strokes 19:50 Feed During The Swim 22:08 Lake Taupo 27:28 Our Mind Can Get Accustomed Quickly 34:37 The Help Of The Community

Our guest for today's Episode is Bevan Mckinnon who has been in the triathlon scene for over 15 years as a coach and as an athlete. Here are the topics discussed: 05:09 Intermittent Fasting 08:35 Ketogenic State 11:29 Training while Fasting 21:34 The Satisfaction in Coaching 38:10 Speed Reserve 39:59 Zero To Hero To know more about Bevan Mckinnon, please visit: https://www.fitter.co.nz/

My guest today is Andrew Ho-Peng who is from Dexa Melbourne. Dexa is a body composition scan that tells you about your bone density, visual fat levels, lean muscle mass and a number of other things. It is a really good way to check in with your health and well being. Listen as Andrew explains what Dexa does, who is it best for. 01:37 How Did Dexa Started? 04:07 Types of Clients that Avail Dexa. 05:33 Metabolic Health 08:11 The Focus of Dexa. 10:36 Dexa as a Motivation

If you ever wondered how you should fuel for a marathon swim, then this podcast is for you. My guest for today is Tara Diversi, who has experience in long-distance swimming. She swam the English Channel and the Rottnest Channel and a number of other long-distance swims. She works closely with a handful of people every year to help them leading to their marathon swim. She works with them to help them get their feeding and fueling right on the day but more than that is looking for the best approach that works for them. In this episode we talk about: 03:09 Tara Diversi background 05:01 Things to consider when deciding on the Feeding Plan. 07:39 Freestyle stroke affects food digestion. 09:29 Fat versus Muscle. 10:54 Keeping the core temperature up. 16:43 Trial and Error. 19:32 The concept of Multiple Transportable Carbohydrates. 22:28 Training your Gut. 28:32 How do you put on more fat without killing yourself

In this episode, we talked about the things I have learned from chatting up with the Rottnest Channel Swim 2018 winners, Solomon Wright and Heidi Gan. Leading up to the race, both of them encountered some obstacles, however, I believe they were able to rise above the situation because of these three things : -Going by Feel/Intuitiveness -Sustained Pace Work -Experience

Today's episode is the Rottnest Swim Recap. We've got the winners Solomon Wright and Heidi Gan who won the male and female section in both record times. Solomon just went under 4 hours and Heidi went 04:21. We've got them on the podcast today talking about their lead up to the race, how they fueled, their pacing, their strategy and you will also hear that both of them have a little bit of interrupted lead-up. We go into detail about what they did to combat that and how they managed to put 6-weeks of training in to still get a good result. We also have Lisandra de Carvalho on the podcast, my friend who has been in the earlier episodes, we talked about how we went to the race and how we found it. Here some points that we have talked about. Solomon Wright -Solomon's injury before the race. -Going for the "Rotto Feel" -Feeding on the Race. Heidi Gan -Rottnest swim compared to 10k marathon swims. -Having a slow pace at the start. - Feeding Strategy -Flu Before the race. Lisandra de Carvalho -The swimming community -Conditions during the race -The Swim Results -The Mental Battle

Our guest in today's podcast is James Fletcher who has a background in Physiology. He has recently moved into Breath Training for athletes. He has worked with elite level swimmers such as Cameron McEvoy and James Roberts who both have been in the Australian Olympic Team. We talked about his specialization which is a very scientific and measured approach to enhancing your ability to breath. On this episode we discuss: 02:01 James Fletcher's background and Cirque du Soleil. 05:00 Breath Training 7:05 Differences in Breath Training between a 50-meter sprinter and a 10k swimmer. 13:21 The Foundation of Fletcher Method. 19:41 Frequency of the Breath Training Programs 21:23 Difference from other Breath Holding Method. 24:54 Pre-Race warm up for Inspiratory Muscles.

We welcome back Wayne Goldsmith who has been our guest in the previous podcasts. He is one of the most passionate sports performance expert all over Australia, New Zeland, and the world. Join us as we discuss Change, Commitment, and Motivation in the world of coaching. 01:40 - There is no such thing. 03:58 The Role of Parents. 04:26 The Power of Commitment to Excellence 10:51 What we have to change from a Coaching Perspective to Sustain the Sport 17:20 What should Coaches do to help make that Change 25:56 The Difference Between Training and Great Coaching 34:40 Understanding Motivation To find out more about Wayne Goldsmith please visit: http://moregold.com.au/

I've known Grant through mutual friends for a quite a while. He is a Triathlon coach and to me, he is one of the best coaches that teaches and coaches a lot base on Mindset, Intuitiveness, and Beliefs. In the podcast, we talked about a lot of different topics from How to Change your Structured Beliefs, the methods and the questions that he asks his athletes in order to get them to change their beliefs. We also tackled overplanning races and how many people are too guarded and protective with the races that they do and following that plan to a tee can sometimes work against them as opposed for them. We talked about mindfulness and how you are better off focusing on the process in order to get in to flow.

Our guest today is Gary Hurring who has been featured on our Podcast episode # 90 which is one of our most listened to episode that we have ever done. Gary is a former Olympic swimmer and coach from New Zealand and I really like his approach to swimming and to coaching and the way he goes about it. I really learned a lot from the episode that we did together. If you haven't listened to it yet, go back to episode #90 and it is called "How to Change your Technique from an Olympic Coaches Perspective". In today's [odcast, we will be discussing how even the smallest changes that we do in training can provide big results.

Join us and let's welcome back Lisandra de Carvalho as we talk about how to train for 10km+ swims. Lisandra has been swimming the Rottnest channel on numerous occasions. She has been my training partner these past few months in preparing for the Rottnest Swim this month. Listen as we talk about the things that are essential in preparing for 10km+ swims. 02:59 Change of Perspective in Training 04:11 Voluntary Graduated Exposure 6:06 The Importance of having a Training Partner 16:23 The Benefits of Massage every after session 21:30 Smaller Races before the Big one 23:01 The Best Race and the Worst Race at the same time 24:47 The Up and Down Week 27:17 The Negative Head Space 30:59 Feeding While Swimming 34:17 Test Sets 43:55 Support Team 50:20 Don't Forget to Have Fun

There are times when we get confused on what to prioritize. In today's podcast, we talk about how it is beneficial to prioritize the bigger things first such as technique, focus, and mindset. Moreover, giving time also for smaller rocks such as strength training, diet, and mobility.

Swimming can be compared to driving a car. In today's podcast, we share with you about going from manual mode to automatic. When training, we like our swimmers to be in the manual mode where they really need to focus so that they can coordinate these little elements together.If you can practice that in training, you come to a point where it starts to become more automatic and you almost completely switch off from thinking about your stroke. You can just go in the race mode and any technical focus has been made automatic and it has become a habit because you have practiced that in training.

One of the analogies we like to use in swimming is the laser vs the lantern approach. Which approach should you use? Listen as we talk about the importance of having a laser approach in your training.

In this podcast we share to you why generalized coaching style doesn't work for most swimmers.

When you train, do you feel like you only have one speed? In this podcast, we share to you on how you vary your pace in training, on how to shock the system.

Most of the propulsion will come from the catch. We have worked with more than 1300 athletes and we have observed that most of them can improve their catch.

How long does it take you to warm up in training? We share our favourite pre-training routine to improve shoulder stability and reduce the chance of injury.

John Mullen grew up swimming his whole life. He studied Physical Therapy and received his Doctorate in Physcal Therapy at USC. He is a renowned expert in sports swimming and rehabilitation. Listen and learn as he and Brenton discuss about Needs Analysis, what to do if you don't have a sports psychologist and many more

This podcast episode is from the audio of our Facebook Live and we talk about my consolidated thoughts on what most triathletes and open water swimmers can do to swim faster this 2018.

We discuss how the concept of the domino effect can be helpful in the obstacles that you are facing. Listen and you will learn how identifying that initial or smaller dominoes can be beneficial in knocking over bigger dominoes.

In this podcast episode we talk about few important points from Angela Duckworth's book GRIT and why people love swimming despite being difficult and challenging.

In today's podcast, listen on how the principle of taking one step backward and taking two steps forward is applicable whenever you changing a habit or when you make changes in your stroke. We're also announcing the opening of bookings for Hell Week 2018 which is on Thursday, December 14, 2017, 9:00 am Melbourne time.

For this episode, we talk about how wearing a watch in training affects focus and technique in swimming. If you are using a watch when swimming, a little experiment that we would like you to try is that for 2 weeks leave your watch in your bag or at home and see how you get to track your swimming with your focus, feel and technique, and perception.

Today's podcast is entitled "The Best of 2017". We have compiled all of the best parts from all the podcasts across the year and put them on this episode. This special episode is a mix of everything--from ideas, skills, and techniques to becoming a lean athlete and swim fast to overcoming anxiety and uplifting your mental state. Thank you very much for a big year. Thanks again for listening. I will see you in 2018.

A quick update on why we haven't recorded many podcasts lately.

In this podcast, we will talk about when to be 'In the moment' and when to be 'Out of the moment' in swimming and how this balance can help you as an athlete. This is in addition to our previous topics about focus, technique and delivers practice in order to change your habits and improve your swimming. This episode is something you shouldn't miss.

Last year Elise Butler was swimming 20 mins for her 1km time trial. Over the past 18 months she's made big improvements, now swimming well under 17 minutes. Elise joined us last year for our Hell Week swim camp and has joined us again for this year's camp in Thailand. In this podcast she shares how she's knocked more than 15 secs per 100m off her 1km pace.

The 66 day and 18 month rule is a good rule to live by to replace old habits and become competent at a skill. Most people don't stick with something long enough to see results, especially when it comes to changing their swimming.

Lisandra de Carvalho has been a friend of mine for almost eight years. She comes from a competitive swimming background and now focuses primarily on open water events. In this episode, we discuss everything to do with long distance open water swimming. Lisandra has raced the 19.7km Rottnest channel swim solo on three occasions and as a duo on one occasion. If you are planning to do an open water race of 10 km or more, this podcast will teach you everything you need.

Gary Hurring is a former swimmer and a coach from Wellington, New Zealand. Gary won the gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in the men's 200 meters backstroke and silver medal in the same event at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships. He finished fourth in the 100m and fifth in the 200m at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He was also appointed as New Zealand's swim team coach at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In this podcast, we discuss the principle of the 'Pit of discomfort' and how to change your technique in swimming. We also talk about the mindset needed to overcome negative thinking.

This podcast episode is about having a breakthrough swim, whether it's in a triathlon or an open water swim. Our guest today is Paul Speed a coach a recently turned pro triathlete. With Paul, he changed his technique and training to make that second pack and come out with the water with the faster group so he can have a better chance of keeping up in the bike and setting himself up for a good race.

In this podcast, we welcome back Eney Jones who is a successful Master's swimmer, open water swimmer, and an accomplished triathlete. She lives and works in Boulder, Colorado and has worked with many of the top triathletes to help them improve their swimming. She is also the creator of the Eney Bouy. She was on the podcast many times before talking about technique, posture, tempo, catch and pull, open water racing tips and awareness in the open water. In this episode, we talked about her latest research On Swimming Fast in Open Water. This episode is one you shouldn't miss!

Tabitha Jones is a previous Hell Week camp attendee. Since coming to Thailand with us last year, she's take more than 20 seconds off per 100m pace over a half ironman distance swim. An impressive achievement in 8 months! Tabitha shares with us the things that have helped her do this from changes to technique, workouts, how she approaches races and the different attitude she takes towards her swimming.

Swimming Coach, Brian Ford is the Head Coach of the Traralgon Swimming Club since 1997. He was a National Age swimmer in the 1970s. He is a firm believer in discipline and strong communication. If you want to learn about the importance of discipline, enthusiasm and being a people person, listen in as my dad shares his life lessons and expertise as a seasoned swimming coach. 04:58 - Meet Brian Ford 07:50 - Why reputation is important. 08:55 - When to Draw The Line Between Being a Coach and Being a Parent 16:00 - Micromanaging vs Delegating 22:41 - Basic Principles in Dealing with People 30:45 - On Being Careful with Who You Hang Out With 33:30 - "Every opportunity is an opportunity to give as much as you can." 35:30 - This is the way I am as a coach... 38:17 - Why It's Okay to Coach with a Lot of Enthusiasm 40:20 - To Care or Not to Care?

Meighan Julbert is a Mental Skills Consultant for The MindSide - a sports and psychology center located in Alabama. She has worked with a number of athletes from different sports like softball, golf, swimming, soccer, and others. This podcast is perfect for those who has performance anxiety and to those who feels like their mental state has let them down during competition. 01:53 - What's going on in your head? 07:16 - How To Build The Mindset of Confidence 10:40 - The Importance of Not Looking for What's Missing 12:12 - The Strategies to Help You Focus on The Right Things 15:28 - Everyday you have a choice. 25:13 - Michael Phelps: Epitome of An Athlete with a Strong Mental Game 26:00 - Everybody has a panic moment. 30:13 - Why You Need to Identify Upfront Something That Went Well 33:19 - Truth: The Athlete is His Own Expert 39:14 - "I want to conquer the world." To learn more about Meighan and her work, visit http://www.themindside.com/meighan-julbert/

Ranell Hobson is the Coaching Director at The Academy of Sports Speed. She will share her experience in working with athletes at The Academy of Sports Speed and how their teachings cross over to all types of athletes. 01:00 - Skills, Functional Movement, Elasticity, Power and Mechanics of The Sports 02:15 - Athletes' Underdeveloped Skills 03:19 - The Bad Effects of Sedentary Lifestyle to Athletes 11:50 - Explosiveness of The Blocks 17:01 - The Shift to Being Leaner 18:50 - The Forward Propulsion in Running 19:53 - Restriction in The Hips = Decrease in Running Performance 27:20 - Survey Says... 33:00 - Drills? Some more drills? 36:01 - The Importance of Individual Training

Meredith Atwood is the creator of Swim Bike Mom a website dedicated to give motivation to women across the globe to women who are doing triathlon and those who are looking to get into triathlon. 01:00 - Take Us Back To 2010 03:28 - Today is the first day of your life. What are you going to do with it? 04:12 - Meeting An Alien 06:00 - Me Love Cookies! 11:22 - From off The Couch to Ironman 15:40 - The Purpose. The Plan. The Process. 16:45 - Why Sense of Humor is Important 20:21 - Swim. Bike. Run. 22:40 - Do What You Want in The Body You Have 28:36 - The Bliss of Feeding Your Body With Good Food To learn more about Meredith and her work, visit her website www.swimbikerun.com

Andre Obradovic has been our guest before where he talked about how you can adjust your sleeping routines and habits so you can perform better in the pool. In this podcast, Andre and I discuss how he went from overweight white collar worker to lean athlete, by challenging his own beliefs about nutrition. 02:00 – Andre's Journey to Weight Loss 03:00 – When Hunger Strikes 06:50 – The Food Diary Debunked 09:55 – 1 Minute Videos of What I'm Eating 15:05 – One of the guys lost 10 kilos! 19:05 – Why would we need chocolate drink? 19:34 – How To Create That Snowball of Feeling Better 20:09 – Eat this instead for breakfast. 21:19 – Have a salad for lunch. 27:01 – Shut up and take my money! To learn more about Andre and his work, visit his website www.loseyourbelly.com.au

Race Pace Training is about swimming at or quicker than your racing speed. It's often done in short intervals (eg 25m or 50m) with enough rest between intervals to recover and hit race speed on the next one. On this podcast Garrett McCaffrey, coach at the Phoenix Swim Club, joins me as we chat about how to best include this type of training in your workouts (and if it's relevant to you!). He's just released a 12 week Race Pace Training program ideal for age group or Master's swimmers and coaches. We're also joined by Chris Ritter, a strength and conditioning coach to Olympic swimmers and a guest on one of the most well-received podcasts we've done – listen to it here. 03:30 – What is race pace training? 09:05 – When a Swimming Technique Drops Off 09:20 – The Muscle Memory 10:11 – Finding a Way To Keep The Speed 13:19 – How do you deal with change? 17:28 – The Correlation of Age and Speed 18:00 – Why Race Pace Training Makes Physiological Sense 22:14 – Race Pace Training & Vegetables 28:13 – The Importance of Structure in Directing The Work 30:48 – The Race Pace Training 2.0