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Local variations in pool etiquette and why don’t people talk to each other?
Over the Christmas break I swam in a pool I don’t often visit. It’s not a particularly easy pool to…
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What can we learn about swimming from kids – and what can we do to keep kids swimming?
This weekend my daughter took part in our local swimming club championships. It was pool swimming obviously, not open water,…
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Is this the best use of our Olympic legacy pool?
Last weekend I visited the London Aquatics Centre – the venue for the 2012 Olympics and the premier training and…
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A toast to rebellious ladies of a certain age
You may already have seen this picture. Julie Lloyd shared it via Twitter earlier this week. What does it say…
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Fun with swimming numbers
We’ve had a couple of serious blog posts recently, so we thought we’d lighten the mood and have some fun…
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The difference a few degrees can make
Last weekend I had the pleasure of being a guest of the team behind Swim the Costa Brava at their…
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Even the best swimmers get nervous about open water
Last weekend was the Great North Swim, which takes place on Windermere in the Lake District. It’s Britain’s largest mass…
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How much do you need to train in your wetsuit?
Earlier this summer, southern England was blessed with unusually warm weather and a number of our gravel pit lakes hit…
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A visit to Serpentine Swimming Club
A while ago, a committee member at Serpentine Swimming Club accused me of being “remiss”, if not “negligent”, in failing…
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Developing a swimmer’s sixth sense
Last week I was lucky enough to meet Karen Pickering. For those who don’t know, Karen is one of GB’s…
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Race, play, just swim, workout, train or practise?
Last week we asked, “what are you swimming for?” and looked at the pleasure to be had from simply joining…
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It’s all open water swimming to me
The old docks in Salford and Lake Coniston only have one thing in common, and that’s water. This means, of…
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What to do if your swim is cancelled
Swim cancellations and postponements are a fact of life, especially in places with fickle weather. This week I had hoped…
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Stop worrying about your finish time in open water
At a recent event I came across a young man (late teenager I guess) who was bitterly disappointed about his…
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What other people think about open water swimming
In last week’s blog post I mentioned I’d been in Brighton and did a little sea swimming. While I was…
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Don’t be a ninja swimmer
Every now and then, when driving, you come across a cyclist out in the dark, in black clothing, face mostly…
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Should we, as open water swimmers, be concerned about pool closures?
Swimming Pool News report that more than 300 public swimming pools have closed down within the last 18 months. The…
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10 degrees is not twice as warm as 5 degrees, but it’s useful to assume that is
Regular readers will have noticed that we’re sometimes a little fussy at H2Open about our choice of words. We don’t…
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Swimming: the last refuge?
About twice a week I get up early to swim. I go to the pool (or maybe a lake in…
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Nine New Year’s resolutions suggestions for open water swimmers
We decided it was that time of year to draw up a list of suggestions for New Year’s resolutions for…
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Can we please stop using ‘brave’ to describe open water swimmers?
How many times in the national and regional press have you read the word ‘brave’ to describe people going about…
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What have railways and reservoirs got in common?
There was a story on the BBC website recently about people campaigning to keep railway level crossings open. National Rail,…
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What if Michael Phelps were an open water swimmer?
Michael Phelps’s return to competitive swimming at the Arena Grand Prix in Arizona has been greeted with excitement by both…
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Don’t let Blue Monday get you down
Earlier this week a number of papers were talking about ‘Blue Monday’, describing it as the most depressing day of…
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Isn’t the pool full at the moment?
If you’re a regular pool swimmer (which we know from oursurvey that many open water swimmers also are) you’ll probably have…
