SwimPath Blog

• Improves overall general fitness working on more muscle groups rather than the one stroke you are specialising in,
• Working on other strokes can benefit performance, by helping with recovery and adapting work load,
• Reduces the pressure of trying to beat the time in one event as the swimmer will have a number of events and Best Times to beat rather than just one,
• Racing in different events increases race practise and helps improve racing skills and speed,
• The best type of training is racing! There are lots of top swimmers that still race in a number of events for training purposes, which helps towards their main event,
• You might surprise yourself with a good time in an event you wouldn't normally do,
• It keeps training and racing fun!

Hello, I'm Charlie Attwood, former GB international swimmer and breaststroke specialist. In 2013 I qualified for my first international junior team where I would compete at the European youth Olympic festival held in Utrecht, Netherlands. I came away with a bronze in the 200m breaststroke and then in the 100m breaststroke I ended up winning Gold.

Later, in 2015 I qualified for the European Games held in Baku, Azerbaijan where I won bronze in the 100m Breaststroke and then silver as part of two relays. The same year I competed at the 2015 world junior championships held in Singapore, this meet didn’t go as planned but I did make the final my events which I was happy with.

I then moved training programmes from my home club Taunton Deane to the British swimming national centre in Bath where I would be training alongside Olympians and world medallists ahead of the 2016 Olympic year. I didn’t make the Olympic team, but I did end up competing at the 2016 European championships in London the same year.

My favourite achievement was winning my individual medal in Baku at the European games. I am now working with SwimPath to help other swimmers achieve their goals. A top tip for you breaststrokers to aid your catch is to scull as much as you can in training, as this will strengthen your in sweep and out sweep to maximise your pull.   

Over time Swimmers will perform Millions of Shoulder rotations and arm movements, while expecting our Shoulders to deal with it and just power through. Unfortunately our shoulder's are very unlikely to deal with this amount of stress without proper strengthening and stabilising of our Scapulas.

The majority of Swimmers will experience Shoulder pain during their careers and there's nothing more frustrating then missing out on a competition or only being able to Kick in training due to an injury. 

Strengthening and stabilising the Scaps will allow swimmers' Training to be more consistent. Stronger Shoulders and Scaps allow swimmers to create more power while pulling and travel faster through the water with less energy! 

Scapula exercises can easily be done anywhere around training sessions to improve stability:

Pre- pool workouts- activates the muscles we want to use while swimming to reduce stress on the shoulders, increase Power from our pulling action, decrease chance of injury and missing training.

Around Pool sessions- Increase strength and stability of the shoulders to maximise performance in the pool and reduce chance of injury and pain.

Exercises can be done for a small amount of time each day and is definitely worth it for all of those swimmers with goals and who work hard everyday!

Thera bands are a great tool for training the shoulders and can be found here- Thera bands! Video for exercises to follow!