SWIMMING GOLD

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...

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 insp...

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 eve...

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 interesti...

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...

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...

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. Th...

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...

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 eve...

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...

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 l...

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 t...

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 a...

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 me...

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 hav...

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...

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...

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 mi...

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 eve...

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...

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 t...

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 n...

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 t...

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...

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: * Warm-up sets the mental and emotional tone for the entire workout * Mindful swimming from the first stroke creates better technique patterns * Physical preparation and mental engagement must happen simultaneously Most coach...