SWIMMING GOLD

Wayne Goldsmith

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SWIMMING
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Straight talk on swimming coaching from Wayne Goldsmith — 30+ years working with Olympic programs and national federations worldwide. Cutting through the noise on technique, training, race skills and building swimmers who love the sport. swimminggold.substack.com

4 DAYS AGO

Whoever Wins the Start Wins the Race

Three Key Learning Points: * First movement matters - what part of the swimmer’s body moves first usually determines the success of their first 15 metres. * The “little hole” - hands together, feet together, body in streamline before entry. * The “three kicks” - kick fast underwater, kick fast to the surface, kick INTO the stroke. There’s a lot of talk on the internet about swimming speed - what pure speed is, how to develop it, how to coach it. Feel free to go internet-deep-diving for what it’s worth. But here’s an old saying that still holds up: He or she who wins the start wins the race. In a 50, whoever wins the start usually wins the race. Sure, sometimes a swimmer’s start might be a bit ordinary and they have to pick it up over the back end of the race, finish strong and come through the field to win - but in most cases the first 15 metres decides who’s on the podium - and often who’s on top of it. So how do you actually coach a better first 15? First movement counts!! When I’m teaching coaches how to coach starts I stand on the side of the pool and we watch the swimmer closely. The question I ask coaches is: “what part of the body moved first?” If their first movement is up, chances are it’s going to be a slow first 15. They’re going up before they’re going out. But if their first movement is to push back - hands driving through the front of the blocks, feet driving through the back of the blocks - everything launches them forward in a straight line. Hands through the front, feet through the back and the body explodes forward. Chances are you’ll see a much better first 15. Make a tiny little hole. Once they’re in the air, the body has to be streamlined before it hits the water. Hands together. Feet together. Whole body in line. Try to enter through one tiny little hole rather than landing flat or wide. Less drag in = more speed out. It sounds basic but watch your age groupers in training. How many consistently enter the water through the “little hole?”. The three kicks!!! When they hit the water I talk about three kicks. Not one, two, three - three different TYPES of kicks: * Kick one: fast underwater. Fast, purposeful kicks driving them forward. * Kick two: fast towards the surface. Deliberate kicks that propel their body towards the surface, i.e. not a lazy pop-up and stop! * Kick three: kick INTO the stroke. Their kick has to launch them into the whole stroke and from there - into the whole race. I can’t tell you how many age groupers I’ve seen go kick, kick, kick - STOP - then try to start their race again from that dead stop. They slow down. They get swamped. Their first 15 falls apart. Their kick has to flow straight into their stroke as a smooth, continous, flowing action without a break or pause. Why this matters: In 50s the first 15 metres usually determines the outcome. If it doesn’t decide the winner it often decides who medals. Most coaches spend hours on the back end - fitness, power training, sprint work, “racing tired” etc. That stuff matters. But for sprinters and sprinting, the first 15 is where races are won. Summary If you want to improve your swimmers’ 50s start at the start. Watch their first movement. Improve their streamline. Practice and master the three kicks. The first 15 metres is very coachable - and it’s where you’ll find the greatest opportunities for improvement and success. Three Practical Applications For Your Coaching: * First Movement Audit: This week stand side-on for every dive and ask one question - what moved first? Track it for each swimmer. You’ll be amazed at the patterns. * Little Hole Practice: Set a streamline standard. Hands together, feet together, body locked in. Make it a non-negotiable on every push and every dive. * Three Kicks Set: Build a short set where they explicitly practise all three kicks - underwater, to the surface and INTO the stroke. No dead time between kick and stroke. This is Wayne Goldsmith for Swimming Gold. If you liked this post check out my Sports Thoughts Substack with new weekly content on coaching, sports parenting, athlete development and youth sport: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe

4 min
13 APR

The 5 Hs: Biomechanics Made Simple

Forget Bernoulli. Forget precise hand pitch angles. Forget complex angular analysis. Let’s make swimming biomechanics practical for every coach. The Problem With Traditional Biomechanics Education Coaching courses love to throw physics at new coaches. Bernoulli’s principle. Lift versus drag propulsion. Optimal elbow angles of 127 degrees. Angular velocity calculations. Meanwhile, in the REAL world, the coach is standing alone on deck with a whistle, 20 kids in the water and no idea how any of that “hand pitch angle” stuff helps them fix little Timmy’s freestyle. We’ve made biomechanics ridiculously intimidating. It doesn’t need to be. The 5 Hs of Swimming Biomechanics Here’s what you actually need to know. Five things. All start with H. Easy to remember on deck. 1. Head Where the head goes, the body follows. Head position controls body position. Neutral head, level body. Lifted head, sinking legs. Start every technique conversation here. 2. Hands Entry, catch, pull, exit. Newton’s Third Law: push water this way, body goes that way. Where the hands go - the water flows! Watch where they’re pushing water. Keep your hands SOFT so you can catch and feel and keep pressure on the water throughout your stroke. That’s 90% of propulsion sorted. Forget all that rubbish about albatross wings and how human arms are like the wings of an eagle. (Ask me one day about several conversations with Fluid Dynamics experts who laughed when I told them about Bernoulli and swimming). Keep it simple! 3. Hips The engine room. Hip rotation drives freestyle and backstroke. Hip position determines body line in breaststroke and butterfly. If the hips are wrong, everything else has to compensate. The relationship between the head and the hips is critical in all strokes. 4. Heels (Feet) Kick from the hips, not the knees. Ankles relaxed. Toes pointed but soft, loose and relaxed. Heels should just break the surface in freestyle. If you can see knees breaking the water, the kick is wrong. 5. Huff (Breathing) You’re thinking - why include breathing in a post about biomechanics? Breath control affects everything. Holding your breath creates tension and tightness. Poor breathing disrupts stroke rhythm and flow. Poor breathing often means swimmers have to lift their heads too high and for too long resulting in a breakdown of their technique and skills. Breathing is a skill; train it like one. Your Best Biomechanics Tool You don’t need a $50,000 underwater camera system. Your phone and / or your tablet are all you need. Slow motion video and importantly…. immediate playback on deck to facilitate better learning. Record. Replay. Show the swimmer right here and right now: “See that? That’s what your head is doing.” Or even better, ASK the swimmer a question about their technique. “What’s happening when you do that?” “What does it feel like?” “What do you think would happen if you lifted your head a little?” Real-time feedback. Best coaching tool you’ll ever own. That’s biomechanics made simple. Which of the 5 Hs do your swimmers struggle with most? Coming Next Week: Part 3 of the Simple Science Series; Test Sets for Age Group Swimmers If you’re finding value in this series, share it with a colleague. And if you’re not yet a paid subscriber, join us; click subscribe below. Simple science, practical coaching, every week. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe

8 min
9 APR

The PACE Model: Training Zones Made Simple

We’ve overcomplicated training zones for beginner coaches and it’s time to fix it. The Problem With Current Models Most coaching education programs throw 6 or 7 different training zones at first year coaches. Threshold, VO2 max, lactate tolerance, aerobic endurance, race pace, recovery, anaerobic power; the list goes on and on. Here’s the reality: you’ve got 25 kids in the pool, three lanes, two hours, and you’re trying to remember the difference between Zone 4a and Zone 4b. It doesn’t work. It’s not practical. And it’s not necessary; especially for coaches working with age group swimmers. The PACE Model I’ve developed a simpler approach. Four zones. Easy to remember. Easy to apply. Easy to teach. P: Preparation Pace This is warm-up, cool-down and recovery swimming. Low intensity. Technical focus. Getting the body ready or bringing it back down. No stress. No pressure. Easy, relaxed, rhythm and flow. A: Aerobic Pace The foundation work. Building the engine. Conversational intensity; they could talk if they needed to. This is where most of your yardage lives. Sustainable, repeatable, technique-focused. And…Easy, relaxed, rhythm and flow. C: Competition Speed Pace This is where we connect skills to race conditions. Not quite flat out, but close. Focus is on maintaining great stroke mechanics and race quality skills at higher speeds. Think of it as “controlled fast.” E: Electric Pace Maximum speed (i.e. not effort - because we should aim for effortless speed). Race pace or faster. Short reps. Full recovery. This is genuine speed work; not sort-of fast, actually fast. It is important that we coach swimmers to marry the concept of speed and relaxation, i.e. maximum speed but relaxed and smooth. Why PACE Works Four zones. One word. Every coach can remember it. As coaches grow and develop, they can add complexity. For example, PACES adds a fifth zone: S for Sub-Race Pace or Threshold. But start simple. Master PACE first. The practicalities of coaching age group swimmers; multiple kids, limited lanes, varying abilities; demand simplicity. Save the complex periodisation models for later. Right now, teach them PACE. What training zone model do you use? Is it working for you? Coming Next: Part 2 of the Simple Science Series; Biomechanics Made Simple If you’re enjoying this series and you’re not yet a paid subscriber, why not join us? Click the subscribe button below. And if you know another coach looking for simpler, smarter ways to integrate sports science into their program, share this with them. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe

9 min
7 APR

Skills IN the Set, Not Before It

By Wayne Goldsmith Introduction: Every swimming coach does drills and skills work at the same time in their practices. We can do it differently and better! Three Critical Learning Points: * The typical structure — drills and skills first, main set second — means technique is generally practised when swimmers are fresh. * Skills that only work when rested aren’t race-ready skills. * The fix: integrate drills and technique work DURING your main sets, not before them. Time to Change! Here’s what I see at pools all over the world. Warm-up. Then drill work — catch-up, fingertip drag, six-kick switch, whatever your favourites are. Nice and controlled. Good feedback. Technical focus. Then the main set. Now it’s about fitness. Physiology. Pushing through. Technique? That was earlier. Here’s the problem. When your swimmers are doing their drills, they’re fresh. Rested. Focused. Heart rate is low. Breathing is easy. Everything is controlled. Then they get into the main set and all of that technique work goes out the window. Why? Because they’ve (we’ve) never connected those skills to fatigue. Skills that only work when rested aren’t race-ready skills. In a race, when does technique matter most? The last 25 of a 200. The third lap of a 200 fly. The back half of a distance event. That’s when technique falls apart — because we never trained it to hold together under fatigue. So here’s what I want you to try. Stop separating drills from main sets. Integrate them. Example: 10 x 100 — but every 4th one is a technique-focused 100 at controlled pace. Swimmers reset their form, refocus on one technical cue, then carry that into the next hard reps. Example: mid-set 50m drill to reset focus and form. Right in the middle of the hard work. Not before it. During it. Connect skills to fatigue. Connect technique to pressure. That’s where race-ready skills are built. Final Thoughts: We’ve been doing it backwards. Drills first, then fitness — as if they’re separate worlds. They’re not. The pool doesn’t care when you learned the skill. It only cares if you can execute it when you’re dying. Train accordingly. Two Practical Application Tips: * Insert a “technique 100” every 4th rep in your main sets. Swimmers drop the pace, focus on one technical element, then return to race pace. Keeps the skill connection alive under fatigue. * Add a mid-set drill reset. Halfway through your main set, stop and do 50m of your most important drill. Then continue. This teaches swimmers to find their technique when they’ve lost it — which is exactly what racing demands. Thanks. Wayne This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe

7 min
1 APR

Split Your Main Set

Introduction: The non-stop main set is a relic of 1980s thinking — and it’s producing mediocre swimming disguised as hard work. Three Critical Learning Points: * Pushing straight through a 20 x 100 set often means technique collapses, bad habits are reinforced and swimmers just swim to survive. * Splitting the main set into two parts — with a purposeful break in the middle — restores quality skills execution and protects technique. * We should be chasing consistency of great technique under fatigue, not just pushing kids to mediocrity in the interest of hitting goal times and heart rates. Why Do We Accept Mediocre Skills and Technique Just to Hit Times and Heart Rates? Here’s the old school approach. 20 x 100 on 1:30. Straight through. No breaks. Push through the pain. Physiology first. Sounds tough. Sounds like proper training. But watch what actually happens. * First 8 reps — technique is good. Splits are consistent. Swimmers are engaged. * Reps 9 to 14 — technique starts to slip. Stroke count goes up. Efficiency goes down. Swimmers are just getting through. * Reps 15 to 20 — technique has collapsed. Bad habits are being reinforced with every stroke. Swimmers are breathing on their first stroke off the wall, not kicking efficiently underwater, “circling” the lanes and breathing inside the flags on their finishes. Swimmers are surviving, not training. And we call this a great main set? We’re not building fitness. We’re building mediocrity. Here’s what I’m seeing from smart coaches around the world. They’re splitting their main sets. Example: 12 x 100 — then a 10-minute break — then 8 x 100. During that 10-minute break: * Snack to refuel — keep the fuel tank topped up * Drink to hydrate — don’t let dehydration compromise the second half * Pressure point or acupressure work — reduce injury risk, release tension * Mental refocus — reset the technical cues, clear the mind * Reconnect with the coach!!! Then return for part two with quality restored. The total volume is the same. But the quality is transformed. We’re not just chasing physiological adaptation. We’re chasing consistency of great technique under fatigue. Physiology matters — but not at the expense of everything else. The swimmers who win aren’t the ones who can survive a 20 x 100. They don’t win races because they can hold their heart rates at 185 bpm for 40 minutes. They’re the ones who can hold their technique together when it matters. Isn’t it time we looked at main sets differently? Final Thoughts: The non-stop main set was designed in an era when we thought more suffering meant more adaptation. We know better now. Quality matters. Technique matters. It’s about accuracy and precision under pressure and fatigue. And a strategic break in the middle of your main set might be the smartest thing you do all week. Two Practical Application Tips: * Split your next main set in two. Whatever you were planning to do straight through — break it at the 60% mark. Give swimmers 8-10 minutes. Fuel, hydrate, refocus. Then complete the set. Compare the quality of the second half to what you usually see. * Use the break for mental reset, not just physical recovery. Have swimmers identify ONE technical focus for part two. Write it on the whiteboard. Make the break purposeful — not just rest, but preparation. Thanks - let me know how it goes. Wayne This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe

7 min
25 MAR

The Four Steps to Making Sure Your Swimmer's Skills Are Race Ready

By Wayne Goldsmith Every swimming coach does some form of skills practice in their training sessions every day. For the most part, coaches focus on learning and practicing skills — but rarely test whether those skills are actually race-ready. The challenge is that there’s a big gap between doing a skill well in training and executing it under race conditions. Here are four steps to bridge that gap: 1. Learn the skill — Understand the movement. Get the basics right. 2. Practice the skill — Repeat it. Refine it. Build consistency. 3. Test the skill — Add speed. Add fatigue. Add pressure. Can they still do it? 4. Race the skill — Execute it in competition conditions - both simulated racing in training and actual races in Meets. That’s the real test. Most coaches live in steps 1 and 2. The best coaches make sure their swimmers get to steps 3 and 4. I’d be interested to know — how do you make sure your swimmers’ skills are race-ready? Wayne This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe

8 min
19 MAR

Dryland Training's 3 Biggest Questions

By Wayne Goldsmith One of the hottest topics in swimming is always Dryland Training. When I speak at conferences, it’s inevitably a question from the audience. Swimming coaches have more opinions about dryland than just about anything else. Here are the three most commonly asked questions: * What are the best dryland exercises and programs? * When should we do dryland — before or after pool workouts? * At what age should young swimmers start strength training? My answers: 1. Best exercises / best programs It doesn’t matter as much as you think. Free weights, machines, body weight, pilates, yoga, a hybrid of everything — the method is less important than the outcome. The key is to vary your dryland program so that: * The swimmers enjoy it * They complete it with the same focus and commitment as pool training A program they hate is a program they won’t do properly. 2. Timing — before or after pool? Simple answer: it depends on your focus. If you’re doing a precise, accurate, speed or technique-focused pool session — it makes no sense to fatigue swimmers with heavy dryland beforehand. Match the dryland timing to the pool session goals. 3. Age to start dryland It doesn’t matter what age. It matters what they do. Seven year olds can start a dryland program — IF it’s age and stage appropriate. Running. Jumping. Throwing a light medicine ball. Body weight exercises like lunges and step-ups. Seeing how high they can jump. Not heavy weights. Movement. Fun. Foundation. Watch the video and let me know — what are YOUR answers to dryland training’s three hottest topics? Wayne Goldsmith This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe

10 min
16 MAR

This Year's Backstroker is Next Year's Butterflyer.

By Wayne Goldsmith Let’s get this right from the start: There are NO 7 year old backstrokers. There are NO 9 year old freestylers. There are NO 10 year old IMers. There are just kids who swim — who, at that point in their development, swim one specific stroke a little better than the other strokes. Now I know coaches and parents everywhere are reading this and thinking “He’s wrong. Johnny the 8 year old just broke the club record for 50 backstroke. He’s a backstroker.” WRONG x A MILLION. Little Johnny is just an eight year old kid who, for whatever reason, happens to swim backstroke faster than the other eight year old kids. Coaches — we need to stop referring to young kids as stroke specialists. Why? Because parents and swimmers develop the expectation that: a. My child / I am a “champion” backstroker or freestyler or breaststroker — and there are NO 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 year old champions. b. My child / I don’t need to do the other strokes or learn the other events because I’m a “backstroker” or “freestyler.” The truth is this. A young swimmer could be brilliant at freestyle this year. Then they grow, their limb lengths change, and POW — they can’t swim freestyle very well anymore. Happens over and over all around the world. We know this. As coaches we’ve seen it a million times. Yet it keeps happening. My friends — here are five practical tips: * Do not refer to any swimmer under about 14 as “the butterflyer” or any single stroke specialisation. * Take a balanced approach to development — all strokes, all events, speed training, aerobic work, great skills, underwater kicking, dives, starts, turns, finishes. Balanced. * Discourage parents from entering their kids only in specialist stroke events at meets. “My 8 year old is a breaststroker so we’re only entering 50 and 100 breaststroke” — no. * Build an overall stroke development philosophy in your team. Focus on events like: * 50 metres all strokes (develops real speed) * 200 IM (develops all strokes, turning skills, endurance) * 400 freestyle (develops endurance, sustained speed, discipline) * Relays (fun, team spirit, speed development) * Educate parents and swimmers. Prepare them for the reality that bodies and minds change year by year — and it’s perfectly normal to change stroke focus right up until mid-teens. The bottom line? Don’t build a 9 year old backstroker. Build a 9 year old who loves swimming, learns everything, and becomes whatever they’re meant to become — when they’re ready. That’s how you develop swimmers for the long game. Swimming coaches — if you want to develop swimmers this way but need help making it work in your program, that’s exactly what I do in CoachTED. One-on-one mentoring for swimming coaches who want to coach for the long game — not just the next meet. Contact me through Swimming Gold or email wayne@moregold.com.au Wayne Goldsmith This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe

6 min

Straight talk on swimming coaching from Wayne Goldsmith — 30+ years working with Olympic programs and national federations worldwide. Cutting through the noise on technique, training, race skills and building swimmers who love the sport. swimminggold.substack.com

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Wayne Goldsmith
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