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How to pass yourself off as an Olympic swimmer
Last Saturday night I watched the film Wild with my friend Andy. If you haven’t seen it, Reese Witherspoon escapes…
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Taking on the Rottnest Channel Swim
There were four of us – Pippa Robertson, Michael Mellows, Lachie Kerr and myself – looking to take on the…
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The truth about open water swimmers
Thanks to Katia Vastia & Phil Nobes for the use of his picture
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First anniversary blog
Today is my one year anniversary with H2Open. To celebrate 12 months of blogging, I’m writing a blog about writing…
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Tips for swimming training in public pools – infographic
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A chance for regular swimmers to compete under FINA regulations
Anyone who has been through the British swimming club system will be familiar with the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), the…
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Tips for masters swimming galas
Last weekend I took part in a masters swimming gala at Bracknell – my first in about four years. It…
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My fourth 10km swim
Endurance athletes often say that sports are 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent physical. This is probably an…
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What do they mean, “no joie de vivre”?
Swimming got some bad press last week. Despite still being the UK’s most popular sport in terms of participation, the…
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Elite open water race preparation tips
I might have said this before, but last week I was at BEST FEST in Mallorca. It’s an open water…
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Six neoprene gloves reviewed
In cold water, it is often your often extremities that freeze first. With neoprene gloves you can avoid the dreaded…
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Camlough Lake Water Festival
The big guns are kept for the final day at the Camlough Lake Water Festival. After a morning of shorter…
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What are the minimum criteria for travelling to do a swim?
If you enjoy both travelling and open water swimming you’ll hardly need persuading of the delights in taking part in…
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Beating the Race of Alderney
David Coleman recently became the third person to swim from the Channel Island of Alderney to France, and hence the…
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Something nasty beneath the surface in the North Channel
Swim coach and occasional H2Open contributor Ed Williams set out to swim the North Channel on 3 September 2014. It…
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Why the EC6 didn’t fail
Last week, six very fast swimmers set out from Dover in a very public attempt to beat the record for…
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Overlord 70 Relay – swimmers tackle the Channel 70 years after D-Day
Ed Williams took part in the first English Channel relay of the 2014 on Sunday 8 June, two days after…
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Are you in control of your feet when you swim?
How much are you aware of your kick when you swim? And how important do you think it is? Until…
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Curaçao Channel Swim
Erwin Ruijsink was part of a team that conceived, planned and executed two crossings of the Curaçao channel between the…
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Taking the plunge in business – and what you can learn from open water swimming
Patrick Smith is an open water swimmer and entrepreneur. In this guest post he draws parallels between sport and business…
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Does every coach tell you something different?
Do you sometimes get the impression that every swimming coach tells you something different? It’s something a reader mentioned recently.We’re…
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Don’t do a Davina
On Monday this week, television celebrity Davina McCall swam across Windermere as part of a Sport Relief fundraising challenge. Her…
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Are there alternatives to Dover?
Dover, naturally, is the home of English Channel swimming and anyone with an interest in the sport should pay a…
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How to do the perfect warm-up
The majority of swim training sessions start with a ‘warm-up’, so we thought we’d look at what a warm up…
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Keep something up your sleeve (or down your trunks)
When you talk to top level open water swimmers, a common theme is that every race is different and the…
