And is swimming like teaching?
We asked Renaissance Swimmer Club members to map out their swimming intentions for our October challenge. We also made the distinction between swimming intentions and goals.
And this really got me to pause and think.
I have Masters Nationals coming up, but the best thing I can do in preparation is rest, as I am recovering from illness and an intense spell at work. Beyond that, I have no fixed swimming challenges in the calendar. I don’t have a specific goal for next year. But, I know I want to enter pool galas and open water events, and I will want to enter them confident that I have the foundations in place. That’s where my intentions come into play. I don’t know exactly what I want to do, but I do know what skills I want to work on, as follows.
- Practice tumble turns at speed:
I tend to enter 50m and 100m FC as my ‘standard’ (and probably strongest) events in pool galas. I love unleashing my full sprint speed in the water; I often podium finish in regional events, and it is great when I still earn a place in relays, as competition in my club is hot. However, I don’t always nail a front crawl sprint in a race because I regularly fumble the turn. This is frustrating. It might feel inexplicable too, as I have spent my whole life doing tumble turns, but I do them at training pace. I need to swim them at speed, more often. So, my first intention is to do some turns at speed, every training session, even if I am mainly swimming at a slower pace.
- Gradually reintroduce breaststroke:
I started wearing fins in training last year, as I was struggling with a strain in a back muscle and still dealing with recurring nerve pain in my arm. Fins helped me continue swimming while managing these niggles. Sadly, my knee wasn’t so enthusiastic. I had to stop using the fins and stop swimming breaststroke. This was upsetting, as I love to swim and race individual medley (IM). Now, having ‘rested’ my knee for 9 months, I am hoping to reintroduce breaststroke. This will have to be done very gradually. Half lengths perhaps, building to whole lengths, narrowing my kick and reverting to fly kick instead if the pain starts to get worse again. A patient intention, as I know I want to be able to swim breaststroke again.
- Keep using my stretch mat and bands:
This one is almost self-explanatory. Regular stretching, mobility and injury prevention exercises can make a big difference to your swimming. However, you need to do this consistently if you want to enjoy the benefits and I find this hard in the winter. I’m a teacher, and the autumn term is so busy for me; it gets cold and dark and motivation dips. If I establish a routine, and if I declare my intention, it is more likely to happen.
- Join Simon’s ‘boot camp’ training sessions in my school holidays:
The demands of my teaching job, and the busy routine of family life mean I pare down my swimming in term time. I can only manage three club sessions, all in a rush on consecutive days (Fri, Sat & Sun), which is less than ideal. If I manage to squeeze a fourth swim into the mix on a Thursday, it tends to be a slow recovery swim, largely because my cycling commute makes my legs feel heavy. However, I can boost my swimming each half term by joining Simon’s regular ‘boot camp’ sessions. I swam these sessions with my son throughout the summer, and we both felt more ‘ready’ for our open water events because of this excellent training base. It is tried, tested, and something I can look forward to. It will mean I can enter open water events next summer (hopefully with my son) with confidence that I have a sufficient training base to take on longer swims in the open water.
These are my swimming intentions for the next month (and beyond). They were already loosely in my head, but writing them down will help me focus on the things that I want to hone or maintain.
Is swimming like teaching?
Simon said recently that my approach to swimming is similar to my approach to teaching. I happen to think he is right. In teaching, I don’t always have a precise end goal for my students. They won’t all choose History as a GCSE or A Level option, and luckily, I don’t have to test them each lesson, so my impact isn’t always quantifiable. I sometimes only teach students for one year, so my influence may be fleeting, but it is still vital at that moment for laying strong foundations.
As a teacher, I am trying to help my students build skills for challenges quite close on the horizon, but also far into the future. I am guiding them through tricky courses, introducing them to challenging concepts, helping them to hone their skills, think independently, and find out what they can do. To do these things, I need to plan my lessons well, create a positive learning atmosphere, provide timely and targeted feedback, harness enthusiasm, and instil some fire and self-belief. Lots of little things help to make this broader aspiration come together. They aren’t always easy to measure, they are intentions rather than explicit goals, but I know they have an enormous impact.
So, my teaching intentions at the start of every academic year are to keep laying strong foundations, to foster a positive working relationship with each of my students, and to keep working hard (for them and with them) as the challenges of each academic year unfold. I hope that when my students are tested, be that in their exams or in life, they have the tools at their disposal to meet these challenges with confidence and self-belief.
You can definitely do that with your swimming too. With a thoughtful selection of swimming intentions, a little bit of self-discipline and perhaps a little nudge from Renaissance Swimmer, you will lay the foundations you need to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
Lucy helps run the Renaissance Swimmer Club
