On Sunday 19th November, twenty-four members of the West Norfolk Swimming Club (WNSC) squads took part in ahighly coveted Adam Peatey Race Clinic swim training event held at Haberdashers Boys School, Elstree, near Watford.
The AP Race Clinic motto is “Where you learn to race… not just swim…” and the group were about the experience exactly what that entails.
The event was spearheaded by none other than double Olympic gold medallist, James Guy MBE.
Guy has been the mainstay of the GB swim team for many years, specialising in both freestyle and butterfly disciplines. He has amassed two gold and three silver Olympic medals, eleven World Championship medals, including five golds, fourteen European Championship medals, including no less than seven golds and a World Record to complete the set. His passion for the sport is infectious, and his story hugely inspiring.
Guy was assisted on the day by Ed Baxter, a Youth Commonwealth champion, multiple British Champion, and record holder for the 200-metre breaststroke. Also assisting were world class strength and conditioning, and performance psychology coaches.
Participants were split into three different age groups, and experienced a taste of the real world physical and mental conditioning elite swimmers endure during their training.
Station One was a pool training session. Here, the group was split into two smaller groups, led by James Guy himself, plus Ed Baxter. This involved James and Ed coaching freestyle swimmers from the moment they mount the starting blocks, all the way through to the finish, including turns on how to extract the best out of their performance, honing their technique and shown where to make small adjustments.
Station Two was a gym training session, involving combinations of plyometrics, yoga, plus strength and flexibility conditioning. Everything needed to increase performance, whilst preventing injury – possibly an athlete’s biggest worry.
Station Three was performance psychology, which best demonstrates how maintaining a positive mindset can affect an athlete’s performance, how to keep showing up for training every day to keep making improvements and to believe in yourself to achieve your goals, when sometimes it feels like you are swimming through custard.
Overall, every single swimmer thoroughly enjoyed this completely unique and exciting event, albeit a physically and mentally challenging, and, sometimes tough one. Every swimmer came away with a heightened mindset and a little bit better for it.
Would they do it again? YOU BET! Until the next one for the Purple Army: #BetterThanYesterday
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