Learning/improving to swim lessons Arklow

Kurt Godel

I would have jumped on tunney's thread about swim lessons in Tallaght, but its too far for us to travel weekly, so Tinahely Tri club are organizing something similar in Arklow. It'll be a small group (10-12), but there might be one or two spaces available if anyone is interested from here.

What is it?
A ten-week block of coached swim lessons, every Thursday night at 8pm, starting Jan 24th at Arklow pool in county Wicklow.

Who is it for?
There will be two lanes, beginners (who can swim a few lengths), and improvers (who can do distance in water but need to learn correct stroke technique etc).

Who is the coach?
Mark Waters, aka "interested" of this parish. Mark is a qualified swim coach who has helped many triathletes improve their swimming. He also hosts the Sub60Swim sessions in central Dublin on Fridays, if that suits anyone.

Cost?
Should work out no more than a tenner per session. Cheaper if you're a member of Arklow pool (and they have a January special on right now, two people can join for a year for €180 each. Its a very good pool for getting a lane, and getting everyone in their right lane).

Any questions or inquiries or further details, just send me a PM or ask here. Available places will be determined on our club take-up, but there should be a few open for anyone here who might find this helpful. Thanks to interested for agreeing to do this!:)

Kurt Godel

These lessons will be starting tomorrow night for a 10 week block. We're keeping the numbers low, we have 11 in total, so there is one last space open if anyone fancies improving their swim skills before the summer. Cost is €90 for the ten weeks.

**Edit** Full house now.

BTH

Kurt Godel wrote: »

These lessons will be starting tomorrow night for a 10 week block. We're keeping the numbers low, we have 11 in total, so there is one last space open if anyone fancies improving their swim skills before the summer. Cost is €90 for the ten weeks.

**Edit** Full house now.

Enjoy the pain this eve...

tunney

BTH wrote: »

Enjoy the pain this eve...

This is why I think most "coached" swim sessions are a disaster. If you are "in the pain cave" for most of the session - whats the point?

interested

BTH wrote: »

Enjoy the pain this eve...

tunney wrote: »

This is why I think most "coached" swim sessions are a disaster. If you are "in the pain cave" for most of the session - whats the point?

... and these are why I think ... oh ... never mind ...


Looking forward to helping out down south. Optimism, enthusiasm, open minded people that enjoy a challenge and want a bit more from their 60 min swim - what could be wrong with that.

tunney

interested wrote: »

... and these are why I think ... oh ... never mind ...


Looking forward to helping out down south. Optimism, enthusiasm, open minded people that enjoy a challenge and want a bit more from their 60 min swim - what could be wrong with that.

We can agree to disagree on ideal coached sessions.

I do distinguish between Masters sessions and coached sessions mind.

Dory Dory

To all those folks participating in this awesome opportunity to swim/learn/improve - have fun!!!

@ Tunney - if I understand you accurately, you are absolutely correct by implying that a poorly coached session can be a disaster. No doubt. I don't necessarily agree with your statement that "most 'coached' swim sessions are a disaster" (my emphasis is on your "most"), but I do think it's wise to shop around for a coach and get a few recommendations to avoid a bad experience. (The size and format of the sessions are also important to consider.) As we all know, great swimmers don't necessarily make great coaches since there are specific qualities we look for in a coach that don't necessarily reside in an accomplished swimmer (but they are not mutually exclusive either) - such as the ability to communicate, execute, encourage, correct, and effect. The coach must also be able to coach to the level or levels of the swimmers, be willing to offer multiple options based on swimmer ability, and be willing make session adjustments as needed along the way. Perhaps you've had some bad experiences with coached sessions, but I'd like to think that's the exception and not the rule so I'd say do not give up hope yet. But the good news here is, I think these 12 lucky swimmers participating in these sessions will be getting significant bang for their buck as I have seen Interested in action and been the recipient of his instruction. Bravo to Kurt and Interested for setting this up!!! (P.S. - don't get hung up on BTH's tongue-in-cheek "pain cave" reference. )

shotgunmcos

Fair play, I've no doubt Kurtz swim prowess after this set of sessions will inspire me to seek out likewise coached sessions. Masters sessions are great to a point. You get fit. You learn a bit if you pay attention. However nothing can beat the combination of motivation and work under the eye of a good coach. #jealous again...

Best of luck with the half baked southerners interested!

Kurt Godel

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Fair play, I've no doubt Kurtz swim prowess after this set of sessions will inspire me to seek out likewise coached sessions. Masters sessions are great to a point. You get fit. You learn a bit if you pay attention. However nothing can beat the combination of motivation and work under the eye of a good coach. #jealous again...

Best of luck with the half baked southerners interested!

I cannot praise this lesson (or the coach) highly enough, shotgun. As I noted in my log, my 400mTT from two weeks back is 6:35, and I was beat after swimming it. Tonight, I got some stroke feedback after only 200m swimming, and applied it to a steady 400m, which just felt like cruising pace. Came in 6:43, nowhere near out of breath, it felt so easy. That's a tangible improvement after only one correction- and there's a lot to improve on still:D

The feedback from everyone else was just as positive.

Dory Dory

I'm way jealous too. :D

Kurt Godel

Kurt Godel wrote: »

These lessons will be starting tomorrow night for a 10 week block. We're keeping the numbers low, we have 11 in total, so there is one last space open if anyone fancies improving their swim skills before the summer. Cost is €90 for the ten weeks.

**Edit** Full house now.

We've done 6/10 in this block, and the consensus is they are going extremely well. Right at the moment we're thinking about doing another block (probably of 10) after this one ends in a few weeks. There's a possibility that we'll have 3 lanes for this one, so there would be room in (fastest) lane 3 if anyone wanted to join in (standard would be about <7mins for 400m). There might be a couple of spots in lane 2 as well.

Personally I've seen my stroke improve massively during these coached sessions, and anyone in the lane is taking chunks off their time- we'd highly recommend the coach and set-up. If anyone is interested, let me know, sessions will be Thurs nights in Arklow, cost around €90 for the 10 sessions.

Wile E. Coyote

Got room in your next session for a real beginner? I'm comfortable in the water but for doing lenghts I'm hopeless.

Kurt Godel

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

Got room in your next session for a real beginner? I'm comfortable in the water but for doing lenghts I'm hopeless.

That's the one lane that is most choc-a-block, so I don't think there will be any extra spaces available, but will let you know if that changes.

colinbmcbride

Hi Kurt, do you mind me asking what tri club you are in? There are a 5 of us in Arklow that train together but have no club. The ones in Wicklow and bray are too far away and deal with more South Dublin rather than South Wicklow. We are really interested in getting some Triathlon specific swim coaching (we are usually in the Arklow pool when you are getting your coaching on Thursdays). We are all ok swimmers as regards the distances but we are quite slow (18/20 mins for the 750m and 40/45mins for 1500m).

Interested, how much would you charge for another group (even if it was on another night in Arklow)?

Any information you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Colin.

Kurt Godel

colinbmcbride wrote: »

Hi Kurt, do you mind me asking what tri club you are in? There are a 5 of us in Arklow that train together but have no club. The ones in Wicklow and bray are too far away and deal with more South Dublin rather than South Wicklow. We are really interested in getting some Triathlon specific swim coaching (we are usually in the Arklow pool when you are getting your coaching on Thursdays). We are all ok swimmers as regards the distances but we are quite slow (18/20 mins for the 750m and 40/45mins for 1500m).

Interested, how much would you charge for another group (even if it was on another night in Arklow)?

Any information you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Colin.

Hi Colin,

We're Tinahely Tri Club. The plan is to do another block of 10 weeks after this one (we've 3 weeks left)- probably 6 sessions in the pool and then 4 sessions in the sea. We have two lanes rented at the moment- ideally it should be 3 lanes, to give a better spread of ability. If we were to get another lane, there would be room for the 5 of you. I'll PM you with details.

colinbmcbride

Hi Kurt,
Thats great thanks a million, appreciate it.

miller82

Hi lads,

any arklow tri training still on the go ? (asking for a mate)

Kurt Godel

miller82 wrote: »

Hi lads,

any arklow tri training still on the go ? (asking for a mate)

Their last session for this block is tonight.

We'll start up again in early January, two lanes divided between abilities. PM closer that time for details, I'll see if there is any places available.