On The Move
It doesn’t seem like that long ago I was packing for the Southern Hemisphere summer. Well here I am following the sun (supposedly) and find myself back in London. Water temperatures are hovering around the 10-12 degrees Celcius and with incessant rain and cloud it will take some time before the water heats up. There are plenty of swimmers who have through acclimatisation managed to adapt to swimming in these temperatures. It’s important that everyone is realistic with their abilities, for comfort and more importantly safeties sake. ...
Swimming Faster
Before I delve into the heart of this story I feel it is important to give you some context. I am not an elite level athlete; in fact I left full time training behind in 2000 after a decade of early starts and ten swim sessions a week. These days I am a full time swim coach, a coach who swims for health, recreation, social, fun and the odd competition. One of my foundations of coaching principles is practicing what I preach. I know my training principles, the equipment I use and the techniques I employ all work because I practice and use them myself. My...
Fit&Abel Update
It’s an old adage but a goody; time flies when you’re having fun. It is certainly appropriate for this New Zealand summer. I have had a blast in New Zealand and my home town of Christchurch and have plenty of people to thank for making this season so successful. But first I want to congratulate all of you, yes YOU, all of the swimmers and triathletes out there, whether you are beginner, elite or somewhere in the middle. Thanks for making the sport of swimming such a great fun social challenging awesome activity. Well done to all the newcomers to open water swimming and triathlon....
How to Zip it Up?
A design feature you will notice with a lot of great swim wetsuits is that the zip closes from the top to bottom as opposed to most other wetsuits which zip from bottom to top. Why ? Pretty simple really, it’s faster to undo and get out of your wetsuit. Secondly there is no chance of anyone accidentally pulling your zip cord and undoing your wetsuit while you are swimming. This top down zip feature has been much discussed during our swim sessions this summer. It is a great feature but to zip top down you must first join the zip behind your back. I have...
Happy 2012!
Welcome to 2012. I would like to thank everyone that has supported Fit&Abel and helped share in my passion of swimming over the last 12 months. May we spend more time in the water in 2012, may the sun shine brighter, may we swim further, faster and have a lot more fun doing it. Is that all too much to ask? The next 12 months will tell....
Swim Cords
Swim cords; I believe they are one of the biggest assets to your swimming training and development . I use them, I rave about them. Why? Read on…...
Open Water Swimming: The Basics
I have been back in New Zealand for three weeks now and have been busy with the start of the Open Water Fitness and Technique series at the amazing Pegasus Lake North Canterbury, 1 2 1 open water swim sessions, providing swim support at local triathlon events, planning coaching clinics and also maintaining my own open water swimming training with a little bit of competing thrown in for good measure. I have had plenty of opportunity to talk to swimmers from a wide level of experience and background and have been finding a common theme amongst those who are preparing for their first open water swim. These areas...
Fit&Abel On The Move
Christchurch born swim coach Dan Abel has returned to his home city in New Zealand for the Southern Hemisphere summer of 2011/2012 with his swim coaching company Fit&Abel Ltd. Dan is normally based in London and has a unique swim coaching specialisation of ensuring swimmers are comfortable and competent for open water swimming. ...
A Swimmers State of Mind
I have heard some interesting comments lately about a person’s mental state when swimming; the first was on Twitter, a lady mentioned that she found she solved a lot of her work and life problems when she swam and was wondering if anyone else had similar experiences. I could immediately relate to this. In another situation a client of mine described what she felt was a ‘Zen like state’ when she got into a groove during her open water swims. These are two interesting comments and there are likely to be many more people out there who have related experiences during their swims. Is there...
Swimming Round-Up
There is so much happening in the swimming world lately I thought I would summarize some of the highlights, here is Dan's medley of swimming; 31 Aug 2011 Roger Allsopp becomes the oldest person to swim the English channel,70 year old Roger completed the swim in 17hours 51min 19sec. Roger is fundraising for cancer research you can show your support for him at: www.justgiving.com/rogerchannelswim Well done Roger, awesome!...