Hey Swimmers,
Your Coach Paul here, coming live from not-so-sunny and a-little-bit-stormy Crete on our 6-day Swim Smooth Experience!
There’s something about swimming at sunrise.
On our Swim Smooth Experiences, the days are full. Really full.
There’s video analysis, stroke correction, presentations, pool sessions, open-water skills, discussions about technique, pacing and training - and plenty of individual attention as we try to help every swimmer understand a little more about their swimming.
So you might reasonably ask why we insist on getting everyone out of bed early to swim at sunrise as well.
The answer is that these swims are about something different.
They’re not really about fixing your catch. They’re not about your stroke rate, your CSS, your body position or what the underwater camera might reveal later in the day.
They’re about remembering why we swim in the first place.
There’s a wonderful simplicity to walking down to the water when most people are still asleep. Pulling on your goggles. Looking out at the horizon. Getting in alongside a group of people who, only a few days earlier, might have been complete strangers.
And then just swimming.
No clock to beat. No perfect stroke to chase. No need to prove anything.
Just the rhythm of your stroke, the feel of the water and the shared experience of being somewhere beautiful at the beginning of another day.
Here in Crete this week, the weather hasn’t exactly been playing ball. We’ve had wind, cloud and conditions that perhaps aren’t quite what everyone pictured when they imagined a Greek swimming experience.
But in some ways, that makes these mornings even more meaningful.
You learn to take the opportunity that’s in front of you rather than waiting for the perfect one.
If there’s a safe window to swim, we swim. If the conditions change, we adapt. If the sunrise is hidden behind the clouds, we still get in - because the experience was never really about getting the perfect sunrise photograph anyway.
It was about being there.
And perhaps that’s one of the most important things swimming teaches us.
Not every day is perfect. Not every swim feels amazing. Conditions won’t always cooperate, motivation won’t always be high and progress rarely follows the beautifully straight line we’d like it to.
But you turn up.
You get in.
You swim.
And very often, you come out feeling better than when you went in.
For all the science, technology, video analysis and detailed stroke correction that goes into a Swim Smooth Experience, these quiet mornings remind us that swimming is about far more than becoming technically better.
It’s about friendship. Adventure. Resilience. Connection. Being outside. Feeling alive.
And occasionally standing on a beach in Crete far earlier than seems entirely sensible, looking at a grey and windswept horizon with a group of swimmers and thinking:
Yep. We’re getting in anyway. 🌊
Thanks for reading. Your Coach, Paul.