PodLifeEfficiency
Distance is a technique problem before it's a fitness problem. A stroke that slips, sinks or crosses the centre line costs you metres on every length — and multiplies over 2.4 miles.
Goal-based swimming
Training for something, not just swimming.
Some swimmers come to us with a date already in the diary — an Ironman, an open-water triathlon, a relay leg, a charity distance, or simply a length they've never managed. When there's a goal, the lesson changes: it stops being about learning to swim and starts being about swimming efficiently enough to get there.
Triathlon & IronmanOpen-water eventsDistance goals1:1Endurance
What we work on
The swim leg is usually the one that gets neglected
Most people training for a triathlon spend their hours on the bike and the run, then arrive at the water hoping it'll be fine. It rarely is. Almost everything that goes wrong on a swim leg is a technique or pacing problem, and both are fixable in a pool.
Breathing and rhythm
Bilateral breathing, breathing on a fixed pattern, and staying relaxed when the pace lifts. Most swimmers who say they "can't do distance" are simply holding their breath.
Pacing
Setting off too hard is the classic open-water mistake. We build a pace you can hold from the first buoy to the last, and teach you what that pace feels like without a clock.
Sighting and straight-line swimming
Lifting your eyes without lifting your hips, and knowing how many strokes you take between looks. Swimming 10% further than everyone else because you zig-zagged is entirely avoidable.
Contact and crowds
Being bumped, boxed in or swum over is a shock if you've never practised it. We can rehearse it in a controlled way, so race day isn't the first time.
Cold water and wetsuits
Wetsuits change your body position, your stroke and your breathing, and cold water takes your breath away on entry. Both are worth preparing for rather than discovering on the day.
How it runs
Start from the event, work backwards
Tell us the event, the date and the distance. We'll look at your stroke, work out what's most likely to stop you finishing comfortably, and build the lessons around that.
The first session is a normal lesson — we watch you swim, tell you plainly what we'd change first, and show you the drill. After that the lessons follow whatever is closest to the event: technique early, then pacing and distance as the date approaches.
If your goal is a pool-based one — a first continuous 400m, a club time trial, a mile — the same approach applies without the open-water elements.
Tell us on the enquiry form
- The event and the date, if you've entered one
- The swim distance, and whether it's pool, lake, river or sea
- How far you can comfortably swim now, and in what stroke
- Whether you've raced in open water before
- Any shoulder, back or breathing history we should work around
- How many weeks you have, and how often you can train
Questions
What swimmers ask us about goal training
Do you coach open water, or only in the pool?
Our lessons run in our own pool. That's where the technique, pacing and breathing work happens, and it's where most of the gains are. For the open-water specifics — sighting, wetsuits, cold-water entry, contact — tell us what you're entered for and we'll be straight with you about what we can and can't replicate indoors. [Confirm whether any open-water sessions are offered.]
I can barely swim a length. Is an Ironman goal realistic?
Not on this year's date, and we'd tell you that rather than take the booking. What we can do is build the stroke and the endurance first, then aim you at a realistic first event. Plenty of our goal swimmers started as adults who couldn't put their face in.
Can you work to my training plan from a coach?
Yes, and we'd rather do that than invent a competing one. Send us the swim sessions your coach has set and we'll use the lesson to fix the technique that's stopping you complete them.
How far out should I start?
As early as you can. Technique changes take repetition, and repetition takes weeks — turning up a fortnight before an event leaves time to taper, not to change a stroke. If you're close to the date, we'll focus on pacing, breathing and confidence instead, because those can still move.
I have a shoulder problem. Can I still train?
Often yes, and a more efficient stroke usually loads the shoulder less than the one causing the problem. Tell us the history and any guidance you've been given, and if we think something needs a physiotherapist rather than a swim coach we'll say so. More on rehabilitation.
Is this different from a habit correction lesson?
It overlaps heavily. Correction lessons fix the stroke; goal lessons fix the stroke and point it at a date, adding pacing, distance and open-water preparation. If you have no event in mind, habit correction is the better starting point. More on habit correction.
Tell us the date, and we'll tell you if it's doable.
Thirty minutes, one-to-one. We'll watch you swim, tell you honestly what stands between you and the finish line, and show you the first thing to fix. Only pay if you want to stay.