Episode notes
By popular demand — let’s talk about speed. There’s a lot written about it. A lot talked about it. And a lot of confusion about how to actually develop it. Here are my five fundamentals of going fast, fast, fast: 1. Forget “throw your arms” I’m not a fan of that old drill where kids get on their back and just throw their arms as fast as possible. Some call it overspeed training. I don’t buy it — physiologically, biomechanically or from a skill learning perspective. It doesn’t teach anything except throwing your arms really fast. And our sport isn’t just about moving your arms quickly. It’s…
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SWIMMING GOLD
Wayne Goldsmith · Sport · English
Straight talk on swimming coaching from Wayne Goldsmith — 30+ years working with Olympic programs and national federations worldwide. Cutting through the noise on technique, training, race skills and building swimmers who love the sport. swimminggold.substack.com
More from SWIMMING GOLD All episodes →
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7 Apr 2026 · 7 min
Skills IN the Set, Not Before It
By Wayne Goldsmith Introduction: Every swimming coach does drills and skills work at the same time in their practices. We can do it differently and better! Three Critical Learning Points: * The typical structure — drills and skills first, main set second — means technique is generally practised when swimmers are fresh. * Skills that only work when rested aren’t race-ready skills. * The fix: integrate drills and technique work DURING your main sets, not before them. Time to Change! Here’s what I see at pools all over the world. Warm-up. Then drill work — catch-up, fingertip drag, six-kick…
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1 Apr 2026 · 7 min
Split Your Main Set
Introduction: The non-stop main set is a relic of 1980s thinking — and it’s producing mediocre swimming disguised as hard work. Three Critical Learning Points: * Pushing straight through a 20 x 100 set often means technique collapses, bad habits are reinforced and swimmers just swim to survive. * Splitting the main set into two parts — with a purposeful break in the middle — restores quality skills execution and protects technique. * We should be chasing consistency of great technique under fatigue, not just pushing kids to mediocrity in the interest of hitting goal times and heart rates.…
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25 Mar 2026 · 8 min
The Four Steps to Making Sure Your Swimmer's Skills Are Race Ready
By Wayne Goldsmith Every swimming coach does some form of skills practice in their training sessions every day. For the most part, coaches focus on learning and practicing skills — but rarely test whether those skills are actually race-ready. The challenge is that there’s a big gap between doing a skill well in training and executing it under race conditions. Here are four steps to bridge that gap: 1. Learn the skill — Understand the movement. Get the basics right. 2. Practice the skill — Repeat it. Refine it. Build consistency. 3. Test the skill — Add speed. Add fatigue. Add pressure. Can…
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19 Mar 2026 · 10 min
Dryland Training's 3 Biggest Questions
By Wayne Goldsmith One of the hottest topics in swimming is always Dryland Training. When I speak at conferences, it’s inevitably a question from the audience. Swimming coaches have more opinions about dryland than just about anything else. Here are the three most commonly asked questions: * What are the best dryland exercises and programs? * When should we do dryland — before or after pool workouts? * At what age should young swimmers start strength training? My answers: 1. Best exercises / best programs It doesn’t matter as much as you think. Free weights, machines, body weight, pilates,…
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16 Mar 2026 · 6 min
This Year's Backstroker is Next Year's Butterflyer.
By Wayne Goldsmith Let’s get this right from the start: There are NO 7 year old backstrokers. There are NO 9 year old freestylers. There are NO 10 year old IMers. There are just kids who swim — who, at that point in their development, swim one specific stroke a little better than the other strokes. Now I know coaches and parents everywhere are reading this and thinking “ He’s wrong. Johnny the 8 year old just broke the club record for 50 backstroke. He’s a backstroker.” WRONG x A MILLION. Little Johnny is just an eight year old kid who, for whatever reason, happens to swim backstroke faster…
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2 Mar 2026 · 6 min
The Best Coaching Lesson You Will Ever Learn
By Wayne Goldsmith A lot of coaches, when they start out, focus on one thing: physiology. The body. The physical elements of swimming. They spend years looking for drills, workouts, training programs, session plans. They go to conferences. An elite coach stands up and talks about their sets and reps, their periodisation. Everyone writes it down or takes a photo of the PowerPoint. Everyone’s looking for the secret formula, the magic pill, the quick fix that’s going to turn their program into a high-performance machine. Colleagues, that’s not where your advantage is going to come from. Because…
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25 Feb 2026 · 7 min
Confidence = Belief x Evidence
By Wayne Goldsmith Coaches and parents often ask me: “How do I help my swimmer develop confidence?” Here’s the equation I use: Confidence = Belief × Evidence Think of confidence as a can — the Confidence Can. Our job as coaches — and as swimmers — is to fill that can with experiences. Evidence that proves “I CAN do this.” Every quality training session. Every race where they held their technique under pressure. Every time they got back on the blocks after a disappointing swim. Every early morning they showed up when they didn’t feel like it. That’s evidence. And evidence fills the ‘can. But…
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23 Feb 2026 · 7 min
Swim Faster by Swimming Straighter — The Straight Line Principle
By Wayne Goldsmith I often get asked to do pool deck sessions with swim teams when I travel. Most of the time it’s drills and skills practices or “motivation” talks, attitude talks etc. But there’s one session I love to do because it’s so important: Straight Line Swimming. Swimming is a straight line sport. We start in a straight line: it’s called Streamlining. We swim in a straight line and avoid the lane ropes if we can. We turn straight! We come to the middle of the lane to then accelerate into the turn so we can turn and push off in a straight line. And we finish straight . We come to…
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20 Feb 2026 · 10 min
The 7 Top Swimming Technique Tips You Need to Know
By Wayne Goldsmith No matter what stroke. No matter the age of the squad swimmer. From “Minis to Masters” - there’s 7 Technique Tips that I guarantee will improve the swimming technique of every swimmer you coach. * Soft hands; * Loose feet; * Head and hips relationship; * Breathing; * Slow to fast; * Relax Relax Relax; * Feel - Connect - Pull. I promise you - these Magnificent 7 work every time! Wayne Goldsmith P.S. Paid subscribers will get a much longer and more detailed video on the “Magnificent 7” next week. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers…
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17 Feb 2026 · 6 min
Coach Your Coaching
Write a training session for yourself, coach! We all write workouts for our athletes. We know the repeats, the drills, the distances, the times. We prepare everything in advance for our swimmers. But what about YOUR plan? Add a column to your workout that says: “How I Will Coach.” So when the swimmers’ workout says “10 x ABC Drill” — yours says “Be energetic. Give individual feedback. Change the speed three times.” When their workout says “Cool-down and stretch” — yours says “Connect 1:1 with two swimmers. Ask how they’re feeling.” Plan their workout. Plan YOUR coaching. Then coach WITH…
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