i would have been a volleyball player…
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As most know i was a below average hockey player, actually I wasn’t a bad player, I was just a pretty pony skater which obviously was a little bit of a problem 
I ended up in the right place at right time, ie Streatham late 80’s when the team were broke and and had no real talent in the junior section left and I was over 6ft and weighed the same as a baby hippo and just fell into people
I got loads of support really despite it being a real journey, nightmare times, and not exactly a career option. Had a lot of fun though
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As @Hammerer says I wanted to be a jump jockey from log before I ever learnt to ride. I took to it like a duck to water though and me and horses get on well. As H has alluded to I was the right height (still am obvs) and weight (a bit more of me than back then). Parents insisted I went to college instead of going to Malton or maybe Lambourn. I wasn’t the sorted of kid that would have just done it anyway. Taking a thoroughbred over those 5ft fences with other horses around me was hard to describe but very much a flow state.
Edit to add: At the most successful yard I worked at the stable jump jockey was probably the 4th best rider at the yard and he ended up with over a 1000 winners. I would have put me 2nd best.
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It’s a hard line to walk between wanting to support and it feeling like a push. From my experience (as a child older than yours, eg 12 onwards) it was always strange when some parents watched sessions, and none of those kids had an ideal relationship with swimming.
That’s by no means me telling you you’re wrong or that mine were better. I’m not a parent and can’t imagine that feeling of constantly questioning whether you’re making “mistakes” at something there’s no actual right way.
I thought about saying this the other day and will open up now though. The reason I know my mum was spending £5-£7k per year on my swimming is that’s a huge thing to do as a single parent on ~£13k salary. I reflect on all the times, especially between age of 14-16, where I’d be in tears or angry at most meets feeling let down by my results against my expectations. I wonder how much she questioned why she should sacrifice so much of her personal life for something that was upsetting me so much, but all she did was give me a hug and let me make my own way. Never once woke me up at 5am, but likewise never once failed to take me if I wanted to go, even if she was coming off a night shift etc.
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Your mum sounds amazing mate. Lucky boy. Hope you still have a great relationship with her. 
(that lats bit I didn’t mean because of what she did when you were young, but because you sound so positive and it’d be lovely to know that you do! Reread and thought I could come across differently)
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That’s awesome from your mother, just the time sacrifice of taking you to the training and meets before the financial sacrifice.
A friend at work tells me about the time she spends supporting her son swimming and she’s on a better wage and has a husband to help.
I think she’ll be pleased with the way you’ve turned out though
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Ive been around kids sport for a long time now, in multiple sports, and what your mum did is in the minority sadly, and it’s exactly how it should be. I try to be the same, but do let myself down at times. It comes from a position of exactly how you describe, not because I want him to win everything, but I just want to see a smile after a race and too often hes angry because he only got a gold and a pb, but didnt break Leon’s world records 
. I should do better helping him identify realistic goals but thats hard also, kids spend too long looking at others rather than their own steady progress and the Internet doesnt help, they spend hours poring over ASA Rankings.
El nino genuinely loves swimming, last night case in point National League tonight and he fell asleep after school so I left him, woke up 25minutes before session 25 minutes away and wants to go, I essentially have 2 x 50min round trips on a Friday night to do but just said “be quick or you’ll be late”
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my mum would spend hours watching the olympics…but only came to see me race one when i nagged her to do so…
Just spent the last two evenings in the pub with Robbo drinking London Black…that’s how far i will go for my athletes…
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Unfortunately taking my squad of 12+ year olds to the pub is frowned upon, woke gone mad, but i admire and respect your dedication 
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Hi there.
Interesting and useful. Spends a lot of time on how, but brushes off the why - why twisting as you flip is “you might as well do an open turn”? Is it really that bad?
Another good video, but when he says “rotate shoulders, keep hips flat” the video appears to show hips rotating the same amount as the shoulders - does he mean you initiate rotation at the shoulders? And allow the hips to follow, rather than consciously move the hips?
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it probably means that like so many of this type of video, the narrater has caught on to a dogmatic statement and not even bothered to think it through in relation to the video…
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Its not well explained. The idea is to carry as much momentum from the approach, so you flip quickly, then use the “stored” elasticity to push off the wall. By roating within the turn, you are losing that momentum somewhat. His statement about touch turns is possibly correct as well perfomed you can use stored energy still, just not as much and take a breath.
The idea of shoulder driven rotation is to try and keep the hips more level, it causes less disturbance on the water when they remain steady. Its hampered somewhat by mobility in AoS hence more of the “rotation from the hips” . I say, as you extend the arm out front, it leads the shoulder which will pull the hips, but by reducing hip rotation you not only balance better and get less turbulence, but the kick direction follows the hips so if hips are at 60deg with shoulders then the kick will be close to 60deg and Newtons 3rd law suggests that will push the body in the opposite direction causing a “snake”.
BUT dont let perfect be the enemy of the good, most AoS dont rotate enough anyway in my experience as they lose balance, so I’d rather see good rotation and hips moving, than too little rotation.
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like fish do when they use their tail?
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but increased drag, perhaps?
With or without mobility, it results in twisting of the core and, in particular the lower back…ok for sprinters, not so hot for endurance swimmers…
extending the shoulder to gain distance for arm extension should not pull the hips…pull on the hips/ yes, but he hips are rotating perpendicular to the direction of travel, not shuffling up and down in relation to the opposite hip…that probably would lead to snaking…
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Ah some things don’t change.
The reminder to him (and Sheffs kid) is that I think only one of these names went on to swim well at senior level, and that’s Andy Donaldson in his crazy open water swims, and that was after a retirement and getting back into swimming in his 20s.
NB: I wasn’t anywhere near as good as that picture suggests, just fortuitous timing of a short course meet just before my 13th birthday.
Of those names that know, most had quite by the age of 16.
I remember when I was around 12-13 I was on a NE talent camp having lectures on psychology and goal setting, all asked to write our long term goals. Everyone wrote something along the lines of Olympics. I didn’t impress any of the coaches by writing my most ambitious 10-year goal was to still be enjoying swimming. Depending on what Aimee Wilmott wrote I might be the only one who achieved their goal though 
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Definitely. Appreciated it at the time, it’s a difficult thing to realise she’s remortgaging and wonder if you’re being selfish. Appreciate even more so now I understand more.
Essentially she was heart broken by divorce and wouldn’t fight for 50%, just made one request for having her kids and somewhere to raise us.
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this has been known for some years…however, the cycle of olympic team development with its associated funding almost demands the senseless waste of talent…
…that said, they may all be smarter than we think because without all the young champs who leave the sport before they mature, there wouldn’t be the young also rans who then go on to be champs…
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This is one of those science things beyond me, but Maglishco talks a lot about how there’s actually more drag when partially out of water than either fully submerged or obvs just air. Im likely off the mark but think it’s to do with the Benoulli principle, but way above my level of knowledge.
Might have mentioned before but I heard her do a talk at work maybe 10 years ago when she was aiming for an Olympic squad. She was doing more a week than I was in a couple of months when I actually did a little bit.
Strange though that she had so much drive and dedication but came across very fearful of failing, almost polar opposite.
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correct…but the hips shouldn’t break the surface…although that really depends on how wide your hips are…
you mean the Berlusconi principle…the more money that passes hands, the more fluidly the hips move…
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