SWIMMING GOLD

Introduction:

The non-stop main set is a relic of 1980s thinking — and it’s producing mediocre swimming disguised as hard work.

Three Critical Learning Points:

* Pushing straight through a 20 x 100 set often means technique collapses, bad habits are reinforced and swimmers just swim to survive.

* Splitting the main set into two parts — with a purposeful break in the middle — restores quality skills execution and protects technique.

* We should be chasing consistency of great technique under fatigue, not just pushing kids to mediocrity in the interest of hitting goal times and hear...

By Wayne Goldsmith

Every swimming coach does some form of skills practice in their training sessions every day.

For the most part, coaches focus on learning and practicing skills — but rarely test whether those skills are actually race-ready.

The challenge is that there’s a big gap between doing a skill well in training and executing it under race conditions.

Here are four steps to bridge that gap:

1. Learn the skill — Understand the movement. Get the basics right.

2. Practice the skill — Repeat it. Refine it. Build consistency.

3...

By Wayne Goldsmith

One of the hottest topics in swimming is always Dryland Training.

When I speak at conferences, it’s inevitably a question from the audience. Swimming coaches have more opinions about dryland than just about anything else.

Here are the three most commonly asked questions:

* What are the best dryland exercises and programs?

* When should we do dryland — before or after pool workouts?

* At what age should young swimmers start strength training?

My answers:

1. Best exercises / best programs

It does...

By Wayne Goldsmith

Let’s get this right from the start:

There are NO 7 year old backstrokers.

There are NO 9 year old freestylers.

There are NO 10 year old IMers.

There are just kids who swim — who, at that point in their development, swim one specific stroke a little better than the other strokes.

Now I know coaches and parents everywhere are reading this and thinking “He’s wrong. Johnny the 8 year old just broke the club record for 50 backstroke. He’s a backstroker.”

WRONG x A MILLION.<...

By popular demand — let’s talk about speed.

There’s a lot written about it. A lot talked about it. And a lot of confusion about how to actually develop it.

Here are my five fundamentals of going fast, fast, fast:

1. Forget “throw your arms”

I’m not a fan of that old drill where kids get on their back and just throw their arms as fast as possible. Some call it overspeed training.

I don’t buy it — physiologically, biomechanically or from a skill learning perspective.

It doesn’t teach...

By Wayne Goldsmith

A lot of coaches, when they start out, focus on one thing: physiology. The body. The physical elements of swimming.

They spend years looking for drills, workouts, training programs, session plans. They go to conferences. An elite coach stands up and talks about their sets and reps, their periodisation. Everyone writes it down or takes a photo of the PowerPoint. Everyone’s looking for the secret formula, the magic pill, the quick fix that’s going to turn their program into a high-performance machine.

Colleagues, that’s not where your advant...

By Wayne Goldsmith

Coaches and parents often ask me: “How do I help my swimmer develop confidence?”

Here’s the equation I use:

Confidence = Belief × Evidence

Think of confidence as a can — the Confidence Can.

Our job as coaches — and as swimmers — is to fill that can with experiences. Evidence that proves “I CAN do this.”

Every quality training session. Every race where they held their technique under pressure. Every time they got back on the blocks after a disappointing swim. Every early morning they showed up when they didn’t...

By Wayne Goldsmith

I often get asked to do pool deck sessions with swim teams when I travel.

Most of the time it’s drills and skills practices or “motivation” talks, attitude talks etc.

But there’s one session I love to do because it’s so important: Straight Line Swimming.

Swimming is a straight line sport.

We start in a straight line: it’s called Streamlining.

We swim in a straight line and avoid the lane ropes if we can.

We turn straight! We...

By Wayne Goldsmith

No matter what stroke.

No matter the age of the squad swimmer.

From “Minis to Masters” - there’s 7 Technique Tips that I guarantee will improve the swimming technique of every swimmer you coach.

* Soft hands;

* Loose feet;

* Head and hips relationship;

* Breathing;

* Slow to fast;

* Relax Relax Relax;

* Feel - Connect - Pull.

I promise you - these Magnificent 7 work every time!

Wayne Goldsmith

P.S. Paid subscribers will get a...

Write a training session for yourself, coach!

We all write workouts for our athletes. We know the repeats, the drills, the distances, the times. We prepare everything in advance for our swimmers.

But what about YOUR plan?

Add a column to your workout that says: “How I Will Coach.”

So when the swimmers’ workout says “10 x ABC Drill” — yours says “Be energetic. Give individual feedback. Change the speed three times.”

When their workout says “Cool-down and stretch” — yours says “Connect 1:1 with two swimmers. Ask how they’re feeling.”

Plan their workout. Plan Y...

What would you do if you had ONE session with a team you don’t know, in a place you’ve never been, sometimes in a language you don’t speak, in a culture you don’t understand?

I have the best job in the world.

I get to travel around the globe spending time with swimming coaches, swimmers and swimming families everywhere.

When I travel, coaches will often ask me to come and visit their pool and spend some time with their swim team. Sometimes they ask me to take a session. Other ti...

By Wayne Goldsmith

This is without doubt my favorite story to tell when I do Club visits, swimming parents workshops and coaching clinics: The 5 a.m. In A Swimming Household story.

Please share this with every swimming parent you know.

It is a funny story - but in my experience - having done hundreds of swimming club visits all over the world - it’s also very very true.

The bottom line - the key message to all swimming parents is this: STOP HELPING YOUR KIDS.

What I mean by...

By Wayne Goldsmith

I’ve been to over 1000 swimming pools.

Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Fiji Islands, USA, South Korea, Zimbabwe, South Africa, England, The Isle of Man, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Greece and Italy - and a few more places I’ve probably forgotten.

And the “default” version of coaching swimming is the same in 90% of the places I visit: Coaches standing at the end of the pool yelling numbers and orders at kids!

“1:20, 1:23, 1:21”….

“Take your marks GO, Take your marks GO, T...

Coaching is moments that matter.

I was coaching a 14 year old.

He looked sad and flat and tired and I asked him how he was going.

He said, “I’m ok. I just wish I was more talented like Steve. He doesn’t train much and yet he keeps kicking my butt in races. It’s not fair.”.

I replied, “From where I’m standing, when I see you I see a tough young man, who never gives up, who always tries his best, who encourages his team mates, who turns up even when h...

I was in Zimbabwe doing a swimming clinic in 1996 for WORLD AQUATICS - FINA as it was.

The hosts took me to a local swimming program.

Run down pool, no lane ropes, no backstroke flags, no starting blocks. Cold water.

The sides of the pool had green scum on them.

One of the kids told me they were toad eggs and they had to be careful not to swallow them.

Coach - a very good guy - was a butcher - very limited high level swimming coaching knowledge but...

By Wayne Goldsmith

ir Alex Ferguson would stop training to talk one-on-one with players. In that moment, they were the only person who mattered.

Laurie Lawrence told me: “Don’t put heart rate before heart.” If you see a moment to inspire an athlete — grab it. They can always do more reps later.

Phil King, Olympic gold medal coach, put it this way: think about the impact of missing coaching opportunities.

Three coaches. Same message.

Physiology matters.

Periodization matters.

But none of it matters more than the...

There are two types of swimmers: Pacers and Racers.

Alex Popov — multiple Olympic Gold medalist, world record holder — told me this years ago. It stuck.

Pacers train to hit a time. They race to a plan, trying to control the controllables.

Racers learn competitive skills that equip them to meet any challenge. They change pace, adjust technique, adapt to whatever the race demands.

If you’re training athletes to WIN when it matters, train them to be Racers.

Which are you coaching?

Wayne Goldsmith

One of the most common questions I get from coaches: “How do I motivate my swimmers to work harder?”

My response: “You can’t. Don’t try.”

You can’t motivate anyone to do something they don’t already want to do. It’s not your job to make them do it — it’s your job to create an environment where they can be all they choose to be.

In this video, I’ll show you how to connect with, engage with and inspire the hearts and minds of every swimmer you coach.

Wayne Goldsmith

By Wayne Goldsmith

One of the most confusing parts of learning about swimming coaching is training zones.

When you attend your first ever swimming coaching course or when you open a swimming coaching textbook for the first time, you’ll see a table full of words like “alactic” and “aerobic” and “anaerobic” and percentages, sample heart rates and effort ratings.

Often there will be six, seven or even more different training zones listed on those tables and the course presenter will tell you that it’s important you learn the training zones and apply them in yo...

By Wayne Goldsmith

Every swimming coach will tell you that kicking is important and that they include kicking practice in all their practice sessions.

Every swimming coach will also tell you that it’s difficult to inspire kids to complete kicking practice with a high level of engagement, intensity, accuracy and precision.

I was talking with an elite coach over a coffee and he asked me an interesting question “How do you make kicking practice (in his words)“sexy”?

TO BE VERY CLEAR - in this context using the word “sexy” - he meant h...

By Wayne Goldsmith

One of the most common questions I get asked by coaches is how to inspire swimmers to complete their workouts with the precision, accuracy and attention to detail that the coach feels is important - i.e. don’t count the laps, make the laps count.

My answer is YOU DON’T AND YOU CAN’T.

What I mean by that is, you are wasting your time if you believe you can stand at the end of the pool yelling at your team and make them / force them / motivate them to do...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

One of the most common issues I get asked to comment on is Aerobic Base development in young swimmers.

To be honest - I don’t remember ever meeting any coach or any sports scientist who’s got a definitive answer on how much to do at what age at what intensity for how long. Lots of people think they know but most of it is based on t...

Welcome to 2026 and welcome to Swimming Gold.

This year I’ve made a commitment to do a lot more video. There’s a lot of Ai generated text out there - and a lot of it is rubbish. So in response, I’ve decided it’s time for me to record videos most days and strive to help more coaches, more teachers, more swimmers and more swimming parents around the world.

I believe our sport is at a cross-roads.

There’s no way to spin it: in many places around the world, the number of...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Three Important Things to Remember:

* Traditional “400m easy” type warm-ups prepare swimmers for mediocrity, not excellence;

* Your warm-up should activate the skills you're about to practice, not just the muscles;

* Elite swimmers warm up their technique first, their fitness second.

Many swimming sessions in the world starts the same way: "400 easy swim, mix your strokes." Twenty minutes later, swimmers are "warmed up"...

By Wayne Goldsmith.

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

If you’re a swimming coach - you probably love it.

Sure there’s early mornings, difficult parents, long slow boring days at swim Meets and your feet that always seem to be cold and wet - but - for the most part - working with young athletes every day and helping them realize their potential while pursuing their dreams is a pretty good way to earn a li...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

You know how swimming coaches love repetition?

Say this to yourself 100 times…

“Swimming is a straight line sport”.

“Swimming is a straight line sport”.

“Swimming is a straight line sport”….you get the idea.

In this sport, in training - and of course in competition, you dive and start straight, swim straight, turn straight, push off straight and finish straight….everyt...

By Wayne Goldsmith

A lot of coaches get to a point in their coaching where they want to lift the standards of their teams, become more performance orientated and reach for higher and higher goals in the sport.

A common scenario is where a Club coach decides that the team could achieve success at State or National level championships and to do that, the team needs to train harder more often.

This leads to the coach considering the introduction of “minimum attendance rules” - e.g. to be in the National Age Group team...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a special video.

I’ve recorded it for COACHES to play to, forward to and share with SWIMMING PARENTS.

It’s a plea for parents / carers to work with their child’s coach: to form a partnership - a “team” - who are committed and dedicated to a single purpose: helping each and every child be all they choose to be.

I do a lot...

Drills, drills, drills.

Every swimming coach has a tool-box full of drills.

Drills for arms and stroke technique.

Drills for legs and kicking.

Drills for timing.

Drill for breathing.

Drills for dives, for turns, for finishes, for underwater…….

But here’s the thing: having more drills than your local hardware store doesn’t make you a better coach or improve the ability of your swimmers to perform at their best when and where it matters.

In this video I talk about swimming drills and sugg...

By Wayne Goldsmith

This is a subscriber only post.

I often get asked “I am just starting out in swimming coaching. What are the most important things I need to do to be successful?”

* Master the technology! Technology is rapidly becoming one of the most dominant elements in swimming coaching. Learn as much as possible - and as quickly as possible about video, performance analysis, Ai and social media - because….the kids you coach are already masters of technology and they have an expectation that you can and will provide them with coachi...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is special just for my subscribers on Swimming Gold.

Three Key Concepts

* Anyone can write a workout, but success comes from coaching the actual swimmer standing in front of you, not the theoretical one in your plan

* Age group swimmers have multiple "swimmanalities" - i.e. swimming personalities - they're different people every day based on school, fatigue, social dynamics and adolescent...

I hear swimming coaches all over the world complain about all the things that are wrong with the sport.

These include:

* Declining numbers of kids in competitive swimming / club level swimming.

* Administrators who don’t understand the sport.

* Not enough pool space.

* No real investment in rural and regional swimming.

* Meets that are poorly attended.

* Teenage drop out rates continuing to worsen.

* Overly invested swimming parents causing stress and frustration.

And the coaches are right. All of these problems exist to a...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

By Wayne Goldsmith

Three Key Concepts

* Traditional 1-1-1-1 periodization (1 week, 1 month, 1 quarter, 1 year) is calendar convenience, not biological reality

* Expecting all swimmers to adapt to training loads by Sunday night for Monday morning progression is coaching insanity

* Bold coaches create periodization around adaptation timelines, not calendar constraints

We've brainwashed an entire generation of swimming coaches into believing...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Three Key Concepts:

* How swimmers approach a workout matters infinitely more than what's written on the whiteboard

* Successful athletes transform THE workout into THEIR workout through conscious choice

* Coaches obsess over physiology while missing the psychology that drives performance

Here's the dirty little secret about swimming coaching that nobody wants to admit: you're probably overthinking your workout design.

I've...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Three Key Concepts

* Complex training zone systems are theoretical perfection but practical insanity

* Individual variables make precise zone targeting impossible with groups of swimmers

* Simplicity and clarity beat complexity and confusion every single time

Here's what drives me absolutely crazy about modern swimming coaching education: we're teaching young coaches that they need to master 5, 6, or 7 different training zones to be successful.<...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Three Key Concepts:

* Most coaches obsess over volume, intensity, and frequency while completely ignoring the brain

* Mental skills training must be integrated into every workout, not treated as an optional add-on

* The fourth variable—training the brain—often determines who reaches their potential and who doesn't

Every coaching textbook teaches the same three variables: Volume (how much), Intensity (how hard), Frequency (how...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Three Key Concepts

* The traditional workout formula is limiting your swimmers' potential

* Creative, adaptive coaching beats cookie-cutter programs every time

* Modern swimming demands purposeful, individualized training approaches

Stop me if this sounds familiar: Warm-up, kick set, pull set, drills and skills, main set, simulators, swim down. Repeat tomorrow. Repeat next week. Repeat for the entire season.

Here's the uncomfortable...

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

THREE KEY CONCEPTS:

* Perfect technique doesn’t exist — there’s only what works for you.

* Fundamentals matter — but so does flexibility, feel, and flow.

* Individuality is the secret weapon — not something to be corrected.

Let’s get something straight:

There is no such thing as perfect swimming technique.

There. I said it.

The swimming world is obsessed with this mythical idea of perf...

By Wayne Goldsmith

THREE KEY CONCEPTS:

* There's a direct relationship between swimming fast and staying relaxed

* Speed comes from moving better, not trying harder

* Practice relaxation and speed together—they're inseparable skills

With so much talk about 50s - I thought I’d record a video about our need for speed!

Want to swim faster? Stop trying so hard.

This sounds counterintuitive, but it's the secret every elite swimmer discovers: the faster you want to go, the more relaxed you need to be.

Watc...

By Wayne Goldsmith

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

THREE KEY CONCEPTS:

* Writing the workout is only step one—coaching the choice is everything

* Swimmers must take ownership of their training standards, not just complete distances

* Excellence is chosen moment by moment, stroke by stroke

Here's the brutal truth: your training program doesn't make swimmers fast. How swimmers choose to execute your training program makes them fast.

You ca...