To access the full contents listed below, you need to be a Renaissance Swimmer Club member or buy the Renaissance Swimmer System, which costs £39.95 (single payment, no recurring fees).
Renaissance Swimmer System – Contents
What is a Renaissance Swimmer, and why should you aspire to be one (free)
- The Renaissance Swimmer mindset
- Attributes of a Renaissance Swimmer
- Learning for life
- Historical context
- Relevance to today’s Renaissance Swimmer
What swimming means to me (free)
1. How to start your Renaissance Swimmer journey (free)
- Start small
- Attitude over ability
- Barriers to swimming
- How to make the most of the Renaissance Swimmer System
- What if I can’t swim?
2. The Renaissance Swimmer’s core skills and competencies
- Where are you now?
- The Renaissance Swimmer Wheel
- Your 14 core skills and competencies
- Progress Tracker
- Summary
- How and why to improve your skills in all four competitive swimming strokes
- Swimming technique and the rules
- Butterfly
- Backstroke
- Breaststroke
- Front crawl
- Why improving your swimming is a never-ending project
- Lessons for life
- Strokes Mastery – Challenges
- Summary
- Experience the exhilaration of swimming fast
- Six reasons to practise sprinting
- The pool racing environment
- Developing pool racing skills
- Turns and finishes
- The other strokes
- Relay takeovers
- Lessons for life
- Pool racing skills – Challenges
- Summary
- Swim outdoors with confidence
- How to become open water competent
- Entering the water
- Navigation and sighting
- Sighting tips
- Swimming in rough conditions
- Know how to use your kit
- Open water events and challenges
- Lessons for life
- Open water competence – Challenges
- Summary
- Upgrade your winter
- But why?
- How cold is cold?
- What exactly is cold water shock?
- How do you acclimatise to cold water?
- Do you need a wetsuit or neoprene accessories?
- Lessons for life
- Cold water immersion – Challenges
- Summary
- Why you get cold, and what to do about it
- Increasing your cold water tolerance
- So what should the Renaissance Swimmer do?
- What about long swims in icy cold water?
- What does extended exposure to cold water do to you?
- Afterdrop
- Lessons for life
- Cold water tolerance – Challenges
- Summary
- Improve your pacing to swim faster
- Understanding pacing
- How to hear or see your pace
- Feel your speed
- How do we measure pace?
- The benefits of swimming extra slowly
- Lessons for life
- Pacing and pace control – Challenges
- Summary
- How to swim for miles
- Becoming a long-distance swimmer
- Lessons for life
- Long distance swimming – Challenges
- Summary
- Skills and tactics beat raw speed in open water
- Navigation
- The start
- Swimming in a crowd
- Drafting
- Turns
- Nutrition and hydration
- Pacing and race tactics
- The finish
- Visualisation
- Sign up
- Lessons for life
- Open water racing – Challenges
11. Technical swimming knowledge
- Summary
- Take control of your swimming journey
- How to build your technical swimming knowledge
- Be curious and experiment
- Know the rules
- Swimming etiquette
- Lessons for life
- Technical swimming knowledge – Challenges
12. General swimming knowledge
- Summary
- Enrich your experience of swimming
- Swimming as a spectator sport
- Historical context
- Public swimming
- Lessons for life
- General swimming knowledge – Challenges
- Summary
- Why can’t I “just swim”?
- Goal-orientated training
- Values-based training – understanding why you swim
- Take ownership of your swimming journey
- What makes a great swimming training session?
- Lessons for life
- How to practise and train – Challenges
14. Swim for health
- Summary
- Whatever you want from swimming, look after your health
- Swim for health first
- Swimming with a long-term condition or a disability
- Embrace nature – and the cold
- Dealing with risks to your health from swimming
- Protect yourself
- Lessons for life
- Swimming for health – Challenges
15. Giving back
- Summary
- Get even more out of swimming by giving back
- Start small
- Taking part is giving back
- Who can you inspire?
- Teaching and coaching
- Become a cheerleader for swimming
- Lessons for life
- Giving back – Challenges
16. The Renaissance Swimmer Lifestyle
- Summary
- How to get what you want from swimming
- How to move forward
- Making the Renaissance Swimmer Lifestyle part of your everyday life
- The Renaissance Swimmer lifestyle – Challenges
Appendix 1 – Front crawl refresher
- Part 1 – Breathing
- Part 2 – Body position, action and reaction
- Part 3 – Using your arms in front crawl
- Part 4 – Unleash the Power of your legs
- Part 5 – Putting it all together
Appendix 2 – Event and challenge preparation
Appendix 3 – Open water safety (free)
- Top tips for staying safe when you swim outdoors
- Water Temperature
- Weather
- Tides and currents
- Other hazards