PODCAST · sports
SWIMMING GOLD
by Wayne Goldsmith
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
Episodes
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Half Of Your Short Course Race Is Walls.
Three Key Learning Points: * In a 100 metre short course race, 50 metres of it is affected by walls. * Dive starts, turns and finishes are not skill work sitting beside your training. They are half the race. * Every dive is a race dive. Every turn is a race turn. Build it into what you’re already...
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The Swimming Coach's Eye.
By Wayne Goldsmith Three Key Learning Points: * Coach’s Eye is a learnable skill, not a talent some coaches were born with. * Look, scan fingers to feet and feet to fingers, then stand back and look again. * Swimming is a technique-driven sport - yet technique is the thing coaches talk about…
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Keep It Simple In Swimming!
By Wayne Goldsmith Three Key Learning Points: * Propulsion is Newtonian, not aeronautical. Reach out, grab the water, pull straight through. * S-patterns, keyholes and question marks are obsolete - they just haven’t been told yet. * There is no perfect technique. Every swimmer is different…
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The Car Ride Home!
Three Key Learning Points * The worst thing you can do is ask them to analyse what went wrong. * The car ride home is not the time to coach - even if you ARE a coach. * What they need most in that moment is unconditional love and acceptance. This post is ostensibly for swimming parents but it’s a...
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The Power of Coaching Through Questioning!
Three Key Learning Points: * The “sage on a stage” coaching model is failing teenage athletes and contributing to the dropout crisis. * If a swimmer solves the problem they own the solution - and ownership leads to self-responsibility which changes everything. * Coaching through questioning isn’t...
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Whoever Wins the Start Wins the Race
Three Key Learning Points: * First movement matters - what part of the swimmer’s body moves first usually determines the success of their first 15 metres. * The “little hole” - hands together, feet together, body in streamline before entry. * The “three kicks” - kick fast underwater, kick fast to...
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The 5 Hs: Biomechanics Made Simple
Forget Bernoulli. Forget precise hand pitch angles. Forget complex angular analysis. Let’s make swimming biomechanics practical for every coach. The Problem With Traditional Biomechanics Education Coaching courses love to throw physics at new coaches. Bernoulli’s principle. Lift versus drag...
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The PACE Model: Training Zones Made Simple
We’ve overcomplicated training zones for beginner coaches and it’s time to fix it. The Problem With Current Models Most coaching education programs throw 6 or 7 different training zones at first year coaches. Threshold, VO2 max, lactate tolerance, aerobic endurance, race pace, recovery, anaerobic...
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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...
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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. *...
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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…
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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...
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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…
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Speed, Speed, Speed.
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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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One Session to Change Their Lives.
What would you do if you had ONE session with a team you don’t know, in a place you’ve never been, sometimes in a language you don’t speak, in a culture you don’t understand? I have the best job in the world. I get to travel around the globe spending time with swimming coaches, swimmers and...
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5 a.m. In A Swimming Household.
By Wayne Goldsmith This is without doubt my favorite story to tell when I do Club visits, swimming parents workshops and coaching clinics: The 5 a.m. In A Swimming Household story. Please share this with every swimming parent you know. It is a funny story - but in my experience - having done...
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If They Swim 4, You Walk 5.
By Wayne Goldsmith I’ve been to over 1000 swimming pools. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Fiji Islands, USA, South Korea, Zimbabwe, South Africa, England, The Isle of Man, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The Philippines,...
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25 Years Later
Coaching is moments that matter. I was coaching a 14 year old. He looked sad and flat and tired and I asked him how he was going. He said, “I’m ok. I just wish I was more talented like Steve. He doesn’t train much and yet he keeps kicking my butt in races. It’s not fair.”. I replied, “From where...
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Toad Eggs and Olympic Gold
I was in Zimbabwe doing a swimming clinic in 1996 for WORLD AQUATICS - FINA as it was. The hosts took me to a local swimming program. Run down pool, no lane ropes, no backstroke flags, no starting blocks. Cold water. The sides of the pool had green scum on them. One of the kids told me they were...
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Heart Before Heart Rate
By Wayne Goldsmith ir Alex Ferguson would stop training to talk one-on-one with players. In that moment, they were the only person who mattered. Laurie Lawrence told me: “Don’t put heart rate before heart.” If you see a moment to inspire an athlete — grab it. They can always do more reps later....
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Pacers or Racers?
There are two types of swimmers: Pacers and Racers. Alex Popov — multiple Olympic Gold medalist, world record holder — told me this years ago. It stuck. Pacers train to hit a time. They race to a plan, trying to control the controllables. Racers learn competitive skills that equip them to meet…
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Want to Motivate Your Swimmers?
One of the most common questions I get from coaches: “How do I motivate my swimmers to work harder?” My response: “You can’t. Don’t try.” You can’t motivate anyone to do something they don’t already want to do. It’s not your job to make them do it — it’s your job to create an environment where…
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Training Zones - Keep it Simple.
By Wayne Goldsmith One of the most confusing parts of learning about swimming coaching is training zones. When you attend your first ever swimming coaching course or when you open a swimming coaching textbook for the first time, you’ll see a table full of words like “alactic” and “aerobic” and...
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Making Kick Practice "Sexy"
By Wayne Goldsmith Every swimming coach will tell you that kicking is important and that they include kicking practice in all their practice sessions. Every swimming coach will also tell you that it’s difficult to inspire kids to complete kicking practice with a high level of engagement…
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The Secret to Making Your Workouts Work
By Wayne Goldsmith One of the most common questions I get asked by coaches is how to inspire swimmers to complete their workouts with the precision, accuracy and attention to detail that the coach feels is important - i.e. don’t count the laps, make the laps count. My answer is YOU DON’T AND YOU...
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Aerobic Base - Blah Blah Blah....
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. One of the most common issues I get asked to comment on is Aerobic Base development in young swimmers. To be honest - I don’t remember ever...
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Welcome to Swimming Gold 2026
Welcome to 2026 and welcome to Swimming Gold. This year I’ve made a commitment to do a lot more video. There’s a lot of Ai generated text out there - and a lot of it is rubbish. So in response, I’ve decided it’s time for me to record videos most days and strive to help more coaches, more…
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THE WARM-UP THAT WASTES TIME
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Three Important Things to Remember: * Traditional “400m easy” type warm-ups prepare swimmers for mediocrity, not excellence; * Your warm-up...
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Coach - Take Care of You!
By Wayne Goldsmith. SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. If you’re a swimming coach - you probably love it. Sure there’s early mornings, difficult parents, long slow boring days at swim Meets and…
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Swimming is A Straight Line Sport
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You know how swimming coaches love repetition? Say this to yourself 100 times… “Swimming is a straight line sport”. “Swimming is a straight…
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Minimum Sessions - Setting Standards
By Wayne Goldsmith A lot of coaches get to a point in their coaching where they want to lift the standards of their teams, become more performance orientated and reach for higher and higher goals in the sport. A common scenario is where a Club coach decides that the team could achieve success at...
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A Special Message for Swimming Parents
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a special video. I’ve recorded it for COACHES to play to, forward to and share with SWIMMING PARENTS. It’s a plea for parents / carers...
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Drills Drills and More Drills
Drills, drills, drills. Every swimming coach has a tool-box full of drills. Drills for arms and stroke technique. Drills for legs and kicking. Drills for timing. Drill for breathing. Drills for dives, for turns, for finishes, for underwater……. But here’s the thing: having more drills than your...
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So You Want to be a Swimming Coach?
By Wayne Goldsmith This is a subscriber only post. I often get asked “I am just starting out in swimming coaching. What are the most important things I need to do to be successful?” * Master the technology! Technology is rapidly becoming one of the most dominant elements in swimming coaching.…
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Coaching the Swimmer Standing in Front of You
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is special just for my subscribers on Swimming Gold. Three Key Concepts * Anyone can write a workout, but success comes from coaching the...
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Want Swimming to Get Better?
I hear swimming coaches all over the world complain about all the things that are wrong with the sport. These include: * Declining numbers of kids in competitive swimming / club level swimming. * Administrators who don’t understand the sport. * Not enough pool space. * No real investment in rural...
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Periodization - It's Not What You Think
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. By Wayne Goldsmith Three Key Concepts * Traditional 1-1-1-1 periodization (1 week, 1 month, 1 quarter, 1 year) is calendar convenience, not...
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Stop Over-Thinking Your Workout Design
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Three Key Concepts: * How swimmers approach a workout matters infinitely more than what's written on the whiteboard * Successful athletes...
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Training Zone Insanity
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Three Key Concepts * Complex training zone systems are theoretical perfection but practical insanity * Individual variables make precise zone...
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Volume, Intensity, Frequency and...
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Three Key Concepts: * Most coaches obsess over volume, intensity, and frequency while completely ignoring the brain * Mental skills training...
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Break the Workout Mould
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Three Key Concepts * The traditional workout formula is limiting your swimmers' potential * Creative, adaptive coaching beats cookie-cutter...
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There is NO PERFECT TECHNIQUE!
SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. THREE KEY CONCEPTS: * Perfect technique doesn’t exist — there’s only what works for you. * Fundamentals matter — but so does flexibility, feel, and flow. *...
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The Speed Paradox: Go Faster by Relaxing More
By Wayne Goldsmith THREE KEY CONCEPTS: * There's a direct relationship between swimming fast and staying relaxed * Speed comes from moving better, not trying harder * Practice relaxation and speed together—they're inseparable skills With so much talk about 50s - I thought I’d record a video about...
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Don't Just Count the Laps—Make Every Lap Count
By Wayne Goldsmith SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. THREE KEY CONCEPTS: * Writing the workout is only step one—coaching the choice is everything * Swimmers must take ownership of their training...
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Start the Way You Want to Finish:
SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. By Wayne Goldsmith THREE KEY CONCEPTS: * Warm-up sets the mental and emotional tone for the entire workout * Mindful swimming from the first stroke creates…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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
HOSTED BY
Wayne Goldsmith
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does SWIMMING GOLD have?
SWIMMING GOLD currently has 51 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is SWIMMING GOLD about?
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
How often does SWIMMING GOLD release new episodes?
SWIMMING GOLD has 51 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to SWIMMING GOLD?
You can listen to SWIMMING GOLD on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts SWIMMING GOLD?
SWIMMING GOLD is created and hosted by Wayne Goldsmith.
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