Adults get Technique SwimFit
It has been my goal to get an Adult Technique SwimFit group off the ground, a place to train your technique, swim mindfully focussing on improvements, amongst a group of swimmers with the same improvement minded goals; to swim more effectively. Not just with effort and heart beats and wondering why your not seeing the improvements your efforts deserve.
After leaving Bancroft’s as Head of Swimming after 12 years in July 2023, I just needed a little breathing space and some renewed energy to get the group off the ground and we started at Bancroft’s School in January 2025
Lucy joined the group in the Spring and has kindly shared her experience. Lucy didn’t just give me one version of her experience of joining the group , but several rather funny anecdotes, they were all so good to read, I’ve cut, copied and pasted to give you a flavour of them all!
They include;
- The overly poetic ‘War and Peace Version’
- The sanitised version
- The slightly more personalised version
- The very succinct version
Here’s Lucy….
Joining a new group is always daunting and your first time is very similar to a first day at school or work. Despite checking repeatedly that you fit the ‘minimum swimming criteria’, it doesn’t matter how confident you think you are, there will always be that little voice in your head saying, “What if I’m the worst/slowest/have the crappest technique?”
Everyone remembers that one screeching swimming teacher at school who never smiled and focused on the club swimmers in the deep end while you were drowning in your pyjamas in the shallow end desperately trying to pick up that bastard brick from the bottom of the pool to get your first swimming badge.
Imagine my joy when, at the first session, I was met with a coach who couldn’t be more opposite. The pool was cold but the reception was incredibly warm. Susan coaches with enthusiasm, positivity, empathy and, most importantly, a smile.
I have had so much fun at the Thursday night’s swimming sessions, the whole group is so positive. It doesn’t matter if you’re fast, slow, have been swimming since you could walk or are fairly new to it all, Susan will break down new techniques so you can build on what you already have regardless of your starting point.
In 4 weeks my breathing technique is better, my arm technique is better and my leg technique is better.
Everyone gets the chance to improve at their own pace with lots of positive encouragement from Susan and the understanding that no one gets it right the first time
They say that people won’t remember what you said or did but how you make them feel and yes, I’ve forgotten half the coaching points Susan told me, but she’s made me feellike an Olympian in the water.
Nothing feels as good as that second when something you’ve been practising ‘clicks’ and you feel like you are gliding effortlessly through the water for a couple of strokes.
That feeling is worth the cost of the session alone. Even though, as soon as you realise you’re ’really doing it!’ you completely forget your breathing, take in a load of water and end up coughing your lungs up at the end of the pool.
Now all I’ve got to do is put it all together and they’ll be no stopping me!
I have had to accept that I don’t look like the Olympians I’ve been watching on YouTube who might have been practising for a little bit longer than me, but sometimes everything ‘clicks’, and it’s feels great so that’s enough!
Am I zooming along in the fast lane of the local pool leaving everyone in my wake? Not yet. But the other day I beat a bloke in the middle lane who was using fins and that made me feel really good.
Questions is…,Why are you reading this experience from someone you don’t actually know? Why aren’t you just signing up for one of Susan’s courses?
UPDATE FROM LUCY – ONE YEAR ON! (April 2026)
Susan asked me for an update to my ‘swimming journey’ that I started in May 2025 and wrote about last summer two months ago. She suggested I do a video update but, fortunately for you, dear reader, I chickened out when I realised how awkward talking to your phone like it’s a human being really is.
So why have I chosen today to write my update?
Because today….. (drumroll please)
I WAS THE FASTEST PERSON IN THE POOL!
And yes, there were other people in the pool too! And yes some of them were ‘recreational’ swimmers having a chat whilst doing ‘old lady breaststroke’ (Susan’s words, not mine) but there were a few people doing freestyle laps too!
I took the fact that I WAS THE FASTEST PERSON IN THE POOL (for 5 minutes until a lady with very good technique appeared and then I became the second fastest person in the pool) as a sign that I should finally write my update for Susan.
When Susan asked me to write this update my initial thought was, “Why? I haven’t really done much.” Then I remembered all the Personal Bests I kept getting back in December and January – that’s why Susan wanted an update! PBs are always nice to get but when I think about my technique ‘journey’ what I find most interesting is how I’ve managed to get faster by doing less: My swimming has become more efficient. Eureka! That is the goal after all.
I think the biggest learning curve and change to my swimming efficiency I have experienced is learning the two-beat kick. I say ‘learning’ in the loosest of terms because I am still very much at the ‘low amateur’ level. When Susan first introduced it, I spent an entire Thursday night session feeling as if my legs were doing nothing at all – I’d gone from kicking around six times for every two arm strokes to only kicking twice. As with all things though, we should ‘trust the process’ so off I went to practise on my own during the two week break between sessions and everything went swimmingly…
Of course it didn’t. My head couldn’t understand why my legs were barely doing anything and my legs felt like they were sinking because they weren’t doing anything. It was 4 or 5 practice sessions that were just a sheer slog of trying to get my legs to DO SOMETHING, and then suddenly things clicked a little. My brain and legs got the hang of things and now, 3/4 months later, I’m two-beat kicking all the time. I tried to revert to my old six-beat kicking this morning and the extra kicks used up so much energy with no change to my swim speed at all. Just after learning my amateur version of the two-beat kick I started getting a lot of personal bests by doing ‘less’. It’s so exciting when I realise I’m becoming more efficient.
As well as all the hard work and frustration with trying to get better we’ve had a lot of fun times too. We’ve had relay races, attempted tumble/flip turning and (my favourite) all took part in ‘The Shortest Individual Medley in the World’ one length where we attempted backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle – technique went out the window and most of the length was either laughter or coughing from getting the breathing completely wrong during the butterfly quarter but what fun!
As I come to my one year anniversary of starting Technique Swimfit, I’m looking forward to learning more and slowly getting more efficient. If I’m really honest with myself I know competing at the Olympics is out but sometimes I can be, if not the fastest person in the pool, then at least the most efficient and that’s good enough for me.