Prescott Swimming Club: End of Season Clinic

Prescot Swimming Club, another in the North-West, and another that several teammates at COMAST have swam at previously, invited me to come and lead a morning with them as an end of season treat. They had just won the Mersyside and District Junior Swimming League for the first time in a while, so team morale was high!

The morning started with me giving a general introduction about myself, and my journey through the sport. Beginning as a child in swimming lessons in Ripley, to representing England at the Commonwealth Games, and my current swimming improving and goals for the future. We then went on to talk about one of the focuses of the day, which was around streamlining and underwater fly kick. Streamline is something that we need to work on land, instead of purely in the water, because the limit is often overhead mobility, particularly in the lats, pecs and trap muscles. I demonstrated a few simple stretches for these muscles that would be easy for them to implement into their normal training routine.

The pool session was split into two groups. The first had the older swimmers where we worked some vertical kick (of course!) and then some drills to help think about the upbeat of the fly kick, which is often neglected. We then transferred that into some stroke count and time work, to put fast and strong fly kicks into practise. The second session was with the younger swimmers, so we spend the first part working on streamline through repeated jumps followed by push and glides. We then worked on flow and kicking from the chest and shoulders through vertical kicking before again transferring these skills into stroke count work.

We finished the day by answering some more questions from swimmers and parents and taking lots of photos. This was a great club visit for me, and I think the swimmers and coaches found my insights very useful. Hopefully I’ll see them continuing to improve when I see them at north-west open meets!