James Hewitt – Performance Scientist Many of us try to dissolve the worries of the day in a pool of sweat on the treadmill or spin-bike, but growing evidence supports the idea that exercise can have a more long-lasting impact on our capacity to cope with stress. Stress can be emotional, physical or psychological, but...

By Ashlie Lopez Acting on the basis of government advisories, international protocols and mane ESA doctors review reports, millions of people around the world are living in a state of lockdown. This is necessary for us to be safe, but at the same time, it creates challenges for our health—mental as well as physical. This is because...

“More haste, less speed” is a proverb that has been around for years, meaning if you try to do things too quickly, it will take you longer in the end. As we all know, this is very true in life, but also in physical activity. How many times have you sought to complete a project...

By Dan Bullock Well this opened a whole can of opinions…..! do you need to learn them to do an OW swim of course not. Like Tri Bars or a disc wheel on a bike, they could make you faster but they are not essential and any old wheel will do. Just like any old turn...

Building Endurance  Swimming is almost dull in that to swim faster you need to repeat with great accuracy the same movements repeatedly. The pathways, the same degrees, the same movements at the joints. Timing, breathing patterns, the number of leg kicks. If anything ‘fades’ in terms of no longer holding the same distance traveled with...

By Dan Bullock Technique swim tips for beginners, some Q&As How important is technique when you are learning to swim? Swim technique is harder to change later in life so the fewer mistakes made earlier when learning the more effective you will be later in your swim career. If you’ve never had swimming lessons/coaching, does...

By Dan Bullock The Others… There are many reasons for learning and developing your ability to swim the 3 other competitive strokes within your swim training. If you are well versed with the FC technique and looking for new ways to spice up your training this might help. Just like the Flip Turn article from last...

A common shortcoming we find among the ultra marathon population is the lack of focus on appropriate recovery and rest. To succeed during a multi-stage race, being able to go again is one of the most important factors for success, and to do well in your training it is exactly the same. Being able to...

By Dan Bullock During the current fortnight you might have been asked to swim as far as possible in 10mins and record the distance. If not this week then certainly next week at the SFT fitness sessions. This is so that the coaches can nip off and refill coffee cups from next door. Along with this...

Sleep is one of the most important factors in maintaining our health. It’s just as important as exercise and sticking to a healthy diet. Never have we been more aware of how important sleep is, yet people are getting far less than they did in the past. This is primarily down to an increase in...

By Dan Bullock Single arm variations– At our Mile End & WF fitness sessions this week we played with the differences between the following variations on one of my favourite drills. A – breathing away from the pulling arm, as we have traditionally taught – + Easter to perform slower, keep the head still, watch the pulling ar

By Dan Bullock I had the good fortune to work with Susie Rogers last week. She often drops into the occasional London Disability Swim Club session that Michelle and I host. Post Gold in Rio Susie has announced her retirement but is still keeping fit and we have discussed wetsuits for maybe some OW swimming. It...

Yoga has been practiced in some cultures for hundreds of years, but more recently it’s become increasingly popular all over the world, with all kinds of people. Yes, whilst many like to dismiss yoga lovers as ‘those bloody hippies’, it’s no longer just the preachers of peace and love who swear by it, now so...

Written by Chris Taylor Sporting events the world over have ground to a halt. Six Nations fixtures were the first to fall, then mass participation marathons and indoor competitions, swiftly followed by international athletics, domestic team games, anything with ‘world tour’ in the title and, eventually, begrudgingly, apologetically, the Olympic

Marathon running is no mean feat. On average, it’s around 3-5 hours-worth of pure grit (if you’re running faster than that then you’re a bit of a big shot…). During these 3-5 hours, your body goes through some serious challenges whilst hauling itself around the 42km course, and if you don’t pay particular attention to...

By Dan Bullock How they started. If you do too much of something it is well known its benefits can diminish. With swimming the accuracy of a certain movement will fade and its effect limited as we fatigue. Not just physically tire of performing the movement but also the psychological fatigue as when we engage...

Humans are interesting creatures; we’ve become the dominant species on our planet, explored all seven continents, and now, turned our endless curiosity to technological developments. Despite all of this impressive exploration, we tend to stick to what we know in everyday life. Most of us will run the same route most days, or do the...

By Dan Bullock Making timekeeping and length counting easy The big round thing at the end of the pool? Maybe to the side of the pool? Do you see it? Usually decorated with a blue/red bar across the middle? The bar usually moves in circles, through 360 degrees. Maybe now? Divided up into 5-sec increments around...

If you’re looking for an all in one power smoothie to fuel your mind and body for the day to come, you can do little better than the below recipe. It’s packed with goodness and can be made in under 3 minutes in a blender. It tastes delicious so get it in you and feel...

Training through pain. Is it a good idea? Training is not something professionals see as an everyday activity. It is a habit and a way of living and breathing. That is why whenever an injury kicks in, most people ignore it and keep training toward their goals. This often results in worse issues than only...

By Dan Bullock I was at the London Marathon Medical Seminar ahead of the big race and it was quite fascinating. A big revelation for me but it kind of makes sense if you think about it… there was research on how people while training improved performance if they smiled & frowned less. The lecturer...

Over the last few weeks we have been writing about hydration and nutrition strategies for a multi-stage race. Today we look at how to tailor your nutrition to encourage recovery. Multi stage racing requires someone to push hard for a day and then do it again and again. The focus needs to be providing your...

Resistance bands have somewhat of a bad reputation amongst gym keen beans; their garish colours are most often associated with ‘boxercise’ classes, or something along the same lines, and it’s questioned how much they can really help you to add muscle mass… Well, whilst Chris Hemsworth probably didn’t build arms the size of tree-trunks for

By Dan Bullock  “Float like a canoe, Breathe like a dolphin,…Swim better in 10steps. What your swim coach, who means well, is not telling you or can’t tell you.” Is your  FB timeline getting clogged with the likes of these gems? mine is and some are quite enticing. My favourite comes not from a swim coach,...

By Dan Bullock I have been fortunate enough to conduct a concentrated block of submerged filming recently of nearly 40 swimmers. When this happens patterns are easier to spot and it was easy to see how few managed to set a good arm position to assist propulsion when breathing. It really is a tough one to...

WRITTEN BY CHRIS TAYLOR Chris is our Operations Manager. His interests include, and are limited to; ultra running, plant-based foods to eat whilst ultra running, and ultra running with dogs. In the last ten years, participation in ultramarathon events has grown by 345% worldwide (according to RunRepeat). In the same period of time, veganism has...

Have you ever wondered, “what should I drink when I exercise at the gym?”. The more we learn about nutrition, the more we are able to feed our bodies the right fuel to remain fit and healthy. There are so many products out there these days, and so many multi-coloured concoctions we see people inhaling...

By Dan Bullock Had a client get a little upset during his lesson as we revisited an earlier part of the FC swim stroke. ‘But we did the catch a few months ago.’ Don’t be frustrated by the seemingly endless circle of swim drills! It might well seem they are never-ending but that is how it should be....

Fancy doing an ultra triathlon race? here we have some practical tips from nuppu hepo-oja, the first female siberman in the world.  Siberman 515 Ultra Triathlon race passes along unique Siberian locations, The Sayan Mountains, The Steppes of Khakassia, and Real Siberian Taiga. The distances are Day 1: 10 km swim + 145 km bike Day 2:&

Have you ever noticed at the pool the fastest kickers tend to also be the fastest swimmers? not an exact science but next time if/when you are at the pool have a look at the people in the faster lanes. For us who coach, with multiple lanes to observe ie our London Bridge session it...

Race day is coming up, you’ve put the hard work in, covered the miles, ticked off the equipment list and now you have been told it is a good idea to taper. But what does this mean? How do you approach it? And is it essential? What is a taper? A “taper” is a block incorporated into...

When you’re putting in the hours with your swimming lessons, you really want to make sure that you’re doing the things in and out of the water that is going to make the biggest impact on your technique. Learning the secrets to stroke development and upping your swim fitness in our swim coaching classes is...

By Kelly McLay With races and events being canceled or postponed, gyms closed, and all exercise moving to virtual or solo practices, it’s incredibly hard to set goals. This virus has had a global effect on athletes. These are tough times; on so many levels. But these losses pale in comparison to the greater losses...

We have a theme for our fitness sessions this week as race season is getting closer. Especially for those who have booked the early season 70.3s in Mallorca etc. ‘An increase in volume of metres swum while still swimming with an effective distance per stroke will be challenging but ultimately help your speed.’ Think about...

Do you have a non-wetsuit swim this Autumn/Winter, Kona even? should you factor in a swimskin from the likes of…. https://huubdesign.com/collections/swimskins http://www.wiggle.co.uk/zone3-swim-skin-suit/ https://www.blueseventy.com/products/pz4tx ?? When I went to watch Kona in 2015 everyone was in the Roka suit but they were loaning them o

As a 10-year-old, Tom Daley watched Leon Taylor win a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games and knew he wanted to emulate his success. Almost 16 years on, the pair have reflected on their long-standing friendship which has now seen mentoring between them go full circle. Taylor says winning silver in the 10m synchro...

Some of us like to go to the beach, lie down and relax, others like to shop, or go to the movies, and then there’s are the select few amongst us that like to inflict pain upon themselves for ‘fun’, by attempting tortuous bike rides that might even have satisfied Genghis Kahn’s lust for brutality....

You know those days when you just don’t get around to drinking three glasses of water, let alone eight! On the average sitting-around kind of day, that wouldn’t be such a problem, but add more activity – especially intense and prolonged activity – and dehydration can become an issue. Dehydration strikes when your body doesn’t ha

By Ricci McGreevey – Parkrun Australia Within the world of parkrun, there are many different types of parkrunners. From the millions of people who turn up at a parkrun around Australia, you are bound to spot one of the following types of parkrunners. But, the big question is, what kind of parkrunner are you? The...

By Pippa Luakka – Medical Director Health takes different colours at various stages of human life. A child laughing and playing in the yard with his dungarees on, a person in his working age performing his long road cycling route and a senior citizen climbing the stairs to his apartment without any aids are all...

Catch up is a drill. A good basic all round drill that gets utilised a lot in warm ups and general swimming since we all know about it. Sometimes when learning to swim some go too far and it becomes their swim technique. Think about it – alternating single arms. One arm at a time,...

You’ve been training hard all year for the big event – it could be a marathon, a cycling race, or any long and hard fitness challenge – and the glycogen-loading plan is in place. But let’s not forget about hydration because it’s an equally important part of race day preparation and you’ll need to create...

One of our groups swam a T10 test set recently. This is where the athletes swim as far as they can in 10 mins. After the session I had some inquiries along the lines of, “why haven’t I improved?” and “how do I get faster?’ My response was, are you sure you aren’t faster? “Well,...

We hope you and your families are going well during the current COVID-19 virus situation. Even the most recent coronavirus situations globally continue to cause a great deal of uncertainty. Each country is at varying stages of action, response, and recovery. As a travel and experience company, we have been affected, but these issues are...

With so much to see and so many ways to travel, picking the best day trip from Melbourne can be overwhelming. We’ve gathered our top tips to help you figure out which Melbourne day tour is right for you. How to pick the best day tour from Melbourne There is such a diversity of experiences...

Grab your kayak and your paddle – we’re heading out to some of the best places in Australia and NZ. The Kimberleys – Western Australia Looking for an adventure like no other? In the Kimberleys, you’ll be in the heart of the Aussie outback, paddling through clear green waters, experiencing the breathtaking majesty of th

Written by Brad Welch– Guest Article Brad Welch is a former Royal Marines Commando turned strength and conditioning coach. He specialises in strength training for endurance athletes and is a keen ultra runner himself. 15 May 2020 Brad Welch is a strength and conditioning coach specialising in training for endurance athletes. Alongside T

Sweating; ‘eww’, ‘gross’, ‘smelly’, ‘embarrassing’, ‘unfit’. Here are just a few of the phrases you may hear if you’re dripping with sweat after a workout or on a hot day. Sweating has mostly negative connotations, however, very few people realise just quite how important sweating is for our body’s daily functioning and for

A short term low-FODMAP diet can be beneficial for athletes who suffer from stomach issues during training and racing.  There are certain “rules” to follow when it comes to avoiding gastrointestinal issues during training and racing. How important it is to adhere to these rules is highly individual, but athletes who are prone to GI

Fraser Island is the perfect family holiday destination for many reasons. Approximately 6 hours north of Brisbane, it’s a great place to take the kids for a car camping adventure. Fraser Island is part of Great Sandy National Park and is famous for its expansive sand dunes and cliffs, as well as its beautiful lakes. Well-known for&n