Swim Smooth Squads Timetable

What, where, how and wherefore

Being a full time professional swim coaching program means that we can offer you up to ten weekly squad training sessions to cater for a variety of needs and schedules.

Click the image below to see our full schedule:

or click here for PDF version
(includes venue locations on pg 2)

WARNING: Tuesday and Fridays at 5.30am are both currently full. If you are new to the squad and wish to enquire as to which sessions have availability, or to be added to our wait list, please email Paul (swimsmooth@me.com), stating in your title "Keen to join but which sessions are available?"

Squad Sessions

In a given week we like to operate a regular cycle or structure which ensures that you know what to expect from each session and equally what benefits that session will give you from a fitness and technique perspective.

We operate two mini-squads within the overall structure running parallel to each other. These are our main early morning / evening "Squad Sessions" and our mid-morning "Time-4-Me Sessions", which (being at 9.30am) offer something unique for those with young kids or flexible work schedules. The two groups operate in parallel to each other to ensure that every swimmer in the squad gets chance to tap into our expertly periodised program, irrespective of their own schedule and commitments.

This is what you can expect at the various sessions throughout the week:

1. Monday 7am & 9.30am: A technique session with a small group size, offering you the chance to come in and work on your stroke. This is not a big volume session, nor is it physically hard, but it does contain a lot of drilling and work on refining your efficiency in the water. A great way to start the week and particularly suitable to those who've recently done a 1-2-1 Video Analysis session.

2. Tuesday 5.35am, 6.35am & 6.30pm: This is an essential session for the week and absolutely adored by those who have a "diesel engine" and like longer, challenging swim sets at moderate paces and with a good focus on technique. An excellent way of building endurance.

3. Wednesday 5.35am: This is a favourite session of Half and Full Ironman athletes as well as Rottnest Solo and Duo swimmers. The primary focus of this 1½hr session is to allow you to work on refining your pace awareness and energy conservation over longer distances. Whilst it contains less drilling work and shorter recoveries than the Tuesday session, we still focus on technique here - the technique of effective race pace strategies. Highly recommended!

4. Wednesday 9.30am, Thursday 6.30pm, Friday 5.35am & 6.35am: If you want to get faster with your swimming, then this session is essential. It has been shown that the most effective way to improve your aerobic (endurance) performance is by tactically shifting your threshold curve to the right, meaning that you can perform at the same speed for less effort OR perform at a faster speed for the same effort. How do you do this? By working specifically at paces just slightly below and slightly above this threshold point. How do you know where this point is? You need to test regularly for it. Is that hard? No, quite the opposite, it's very simple and if done in the right manner and using some simple training tools (like the Wetronome) this session can be both very challenging, highly rewarding and, surprisingly enough, fun!

5. Friday 9.30am: This session is similar in many respects to Monday morning's 7am session but with a slight twist in two respects: 1) each swimmer is encouraged to work through the set session entirely at their own pace and to hold back if they are feeling tired or to push on if they are feeling good. 2) we always conclude with a very special "Friday Fun Challenge" which is sure to keep you on your toes and help you learn some new swimming skills. A great way to round-off the week!

Saturday Sessions Are A Lot Of Fun!

6. Saturday 5.30am: If you're keen on tackling the Rottnest Channel Swim as a Solo or Duo swimmer, then this free uncoached session is for you. Over the course of the summer we gradually build-up from 3.0km to 15.0km (in some cases) and split these distances between some essential pace awareness work in the pool and some specific open water work in the ocean. Each week is different and is emailed out to each year's contingent via a select email list. To be added to this list and to be kept informed of what is on and when, drop Paul an email (swimsmooth@me.com) with the title "I want to be flogged on a Saturday please!". Seriously - this session is not for the feint-hearted.

7. Saturday 1.00pm: By far and away our most enjoyable and practically useful session of the week for triathletes and those following the open water calendar. This is a structured pool-based session focusing on refining your open water skills for more effective and less anxious ocean swimming. We go through drafting, sighting, turning and pacing and if it's not covered in this session, you don't need to worry about it in the ocean! It's a hugely fun session and not to be missed by any aspiring triathlete or open water swimmer.

8. Sunday 7.00am: Towards mid-summer when the Rottnest Crew are starting to really ramp up their distances, we add in this casual 8.00am ocean swim session to get a few more kilometres under your belt in the ocean. Details of this session will be specifically emailed out to the "I want to be flogged on a Saturday please!" email group, so if you're not on that, make sure you are by joining here.

1-2-1 Video Analysis - another great way to experience Swim Smooth in Perth! Find out more here.

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