Nick Gillingham’s Swimming Academy
June 5, 2010 at 9:29 pm | Posted in Nick Gillingham | 3 CommentsTags: breaststroke, butterfly, courses, letter, mbe, Nick Gillingham, olympic medallist, stroke, swim247, swimming academy, training
Here are the latest Nick Gillingham Swimming course, from June 2011. Click to find out more:
The Art of Butterfly with Nick Gillingham MBE Double Olympic Medallist. Saturday 4th June 2011 – The Sennocke Centre, Sevenoaks School.
I fully recommend these swimming clinics (I have been to both) and they are well worth going to. Not many swimming clincs teach as many tips as Nick gives and gives you a whole new swimming technique that is faster. Since going to the art of Breastsroke course, for example, I got a club record for 200m breaststroke, knocking off 6 seconds from my original time in the 12 and over category. Nick inspired me and even helped my swimming improve. Be sure to go to one of his clinics to experience a taste of professional swimming. Don’t miss out on a chance to improve and the inspiration jpouney of the art of breaststroke/butterfly. Bookings are availabe for the following dates above. Click on the picturs to find out more. It is well worth it!! Holly xx
The video is made up of pictures. Enjoy 
Nick Gillingham “Starts and Turns Course” Sevenoaks School 29th January 2011
My sister and I were really looking forward to Nick Gillingham’s Starts and Turns course as we had previously been on Nick’s Art of Butterfly and Art of Breaststroke and had learnt so much. “Hi” to everyone who were also at Sevenoaks School, on the morning session on the 29th January. I was in lane 1 and my sister Olivia in lane 4; we were the girls wearing the new Uglies Valentines swimming costumes and no we are not known as the “Ugly Sisters”!
We started our lesson with a warm up that included the famous “Michael Phelps Butterfly Drill”, which was so much fun and then next on to the 3 different dives “Track Start”, “Grab Start” and the relay take over “The Wind –Up” . I have only been doing grab starts for the last few months but unfortunately I got disqualified at a gala because I moved on the block, this was due to getting into my dive position to early at the start of the whistle and by the time the starter said “Take your marks” I had moved on the blocks and got disqualified.
Nick demonstrated all the dives, what position you need to be in and at the correct time, how far and what depth you should aim to dive into the water, your reactions and most importantly your position on the block so you don’t dive to early and fall in. I like the tip which I now do at gala’s, which is to wipe the slippery block before you step-up on to the block and then to wipe your feet on the block to clean the soles of your feet.
The Wind-up dive were quite tricky to master and you needed to feel very confidant and pumped-up to wind your arms and shoulders in the air and dive in during a relay, something I need to practise a little more before I try this at a gala but it was my first attempt at a wind-up dive and I can see the mental and physical benefits.
Nick demonstrated the Backstroke, Butterfly, Breaststroke and Frontcrawl turns.
It was non-stop practising and learning and a whole lot of fun.
During the swimming session we could be filmed to have the Swim Optimum analysis, I had already been filmed at the start of my “Art of Breaststroke” course before Nick had taught us Breaststroke tips and my Swim Optimum score was 554. I am a Backstroker and had no Kent qualifying times in Breaststroke as a 13 year old or 14 year old before attending Nick’s “Art of Breaststroke” but last Sunday I swum 200m Breaststroke in the Kent Counties, 2 weeks after my 14 birthday and came 5th out of 11 swimmers and beating my Novembers PB by 6 seconds.
A week before my race I was constantly watching my Breaststroke analysis, looking at ways to improve and with the knowledge of what I had learnt, the two weeks previously from the “Starts and Turns” course, this all contributed to my 6 second PB. Not only was I seeded to come last out of the 10 other swimmers, in fact I came 5th but I also achieved a Club Record for the 200m Breaststroke. Knowing how much my Breaststroke analysis had helped me, during the “Starts and Turns” course I was filmed for a Butterfly and Frontcrawl analysis as my Achilles Heel has always been Butterfly. However I did Nick’s “Art of Butterfly” course and my butterfly has really improved and my Swim Optimum Butterfly rating has reflected this with a rating of 576, which was higher then my Breaststroke rating.
My Butterfly Analysis 576 My Breaststroke Analysis 554
After the swimming session we went to hear Nick’s inspirational talk, his talks are all different for the three different courses. The “Starts and Turns” course talk included achieving your Goals and Dreams, after coming out of the talk I decided to set myself some goals before 26th January 2012 and to achieve the following 4 Club Records as I have never had a club record before:
50m Back
100m Back
50m Free
50m Breast
But only 2 weeks after setting my goals I have already 1 club record that wasn’t even on my list.
Both my sister and I are gold members on www.swimoptimum.com I have inputted all my swimming data into the Swim Optimum, that allows me to see all my PB’s, the dates, pools and times when these were achieved along with all my previous times to see if I am improving. Also my 3 different strokes Swim Optimum videos can be viewed along with the analysis and helpful videos demonstrating how to swim the stroke correctly. I can also up-load videos of me swimming into my SwimOptimumVideo folder and watch the videos through the SwimOptimum race analyser along with being able to self analyse my Butterfly and Breaststroke stroke technique.
I have not up-loaded any videos yet but watch this space for my reviews.
Holly
http://www.nickgillingham.com/
Hi Guys,
On the 25th of September I attended Nick Gillingham’s Swim Academy for the Art Of Breaststroke, I just wanted to let you know what I thought of it……….
If you do not know already, I attended the Art Of Butterfly as well which was great. I also wrote a review on that so take a look at that too.
Below was the day’s schedule:
Arrival and registration 11.30am – 11.45am
Introductions 11.45am – 12.00pm
Pool session 12.00pm – 2.00pm
Lunch break 2.00pm – 2.45pm
Key note presentation 2.45pm - 3.35pm
Break 3.35pm – 3.45pm
Question and answers session 3.45pm – 4.15pm
Photos/autographs/medals 4.15pm – 4.45pm
Round up and thank you 4.45pm.
We arrived at the pool in Sevenoaks where we signed in and we received a free bottle of water for the pool session.
At 11.30am Nick arrived, he welcomed us, told us what we would be doing and showed us where the changing rooms are.
The changing rooms were very nice! We got in to our swimming costumes and went onto the poolside. When we were on poolside we was told our lines, it was 3 people per lane.
We completed our warm up and then some drills, such as pushing off the bottom of the pool and doing 7 Butterfly kicks, it was really fun.
I lost count on how many tips we were given, they were really helpful!
One of my favourite and memorable tips from Nick, was that you had to swim like there is a tennis ball in-between your chin and chest. If you visualised this you would keep your head still and in the correct position, Nick demonstrated in the pool with a real ball and it worked! It helped that Nick would explain a drill then get in the pool to show us, so it made it easier to understood.
The pool session was really fun and a great help.
One at a time everyone was taken to lane 1 and filmed by Claire (Nick’s wife.) diving from the race block and swimming two lengths for a swim analysis which is where our stroke is looked at by Nick, for each area we get given a score for example: Breathing 7/10, Body position 5/10, Leg action 3/10, and Arm action 9/10 etc………..
It has really helped me to see the area’s in which I need to improve! Also I thought that it was really good that for each point there was a video of Nick swimming it correctly so that you could see the correct technique and see where you are going wrong, also there was information explaining the technique you could read. I think that it is a great way to sit at home and watch the videos over and over until you get the technique perfect; I was even standing in front of my computer screen practicing the moves and breathing techniques just before each swimming training session, so I can practise when I get to the pool!
After the pool session, we got changed and went to a small hall with lots of chairs, we sat down and had our lunch.
At this point I had to leave as I had a swimming gala (in which I was swam 50m breaststroke and got a PB)
Just before I left I had a photo taken with Nick, which is above.
Thank you for reading my report; I hope you found it interesting.
Please feel free to leave a comment.
Olivia.
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The swim optimum has really helped me to improve my breaststroke technique. I think it is a really good way to improve your technique in breaststroke because it feels like you are getting a 1-to-1 session with Nick.
Nick Gillingham’s courses have helped me to improve my stroke so much that I have booked to go on his starts and turns course in January 2011. Before the breaststroke course, I had also been to Nick Gillingham’s Art of Butterfly course. Since the Butterfly course I have improved my PB (Personal Best) time for 50m Butterfly by 3 whole seconds! It just goes to show that his courses can make a real difference to your swimming…..
I have learn’t so many new things about breaststroke and I had a great time too. I now have the confidence to go into a breaststroke race or a Individual Medially and know I have a good chance of doing well. My techniques has gone from good to fantastic, all thanks to Nick!
Hi Everyone,
I have just come back from Nick Gillingham’s swimming academy, I was doing the butterfly clinic. I thought I would do a quick write-up on it, so if anyone is having trouble with butterfly they will be able to get some help. (Please note he does other various strokes.)
Before Nick Gillingham’s course I could hardly swim more than 100m butterfly. I have always struggled with butterfly and have never managed to really understand the stroke. It was only early last year that I started to get my arms over the water and it began to actually look a bit like butterfly. It is not like I don’t want to be good a butterfly and I don’t even try because I really, really try my best at everything I do and I really want to be good at butterfly!
I always thought that me and butterfly just don’t go and that was it. But today I leant it is not true! Maybe I will become a world record holder for 500m butterfly who knows? If there is one thing that I have learnt from Nick Gillingham it is that you can never set a goal or a dream too high!
OK, I will stop blubbering on now and tell you what we actually done on the course.
We arrived at the swimming pool at 11.30am then we was registered almost immediately, we was given each a free bottle of water and told our lanes. After that we waited for about 10-15 minutes for everyone to arrive. Nick Gillingham then done his speech, What we are ment to do in an unlikely event of a fire, where the toilets are, etc……. and then told to get changed and meet at pool side. The changing rooms and the toilets there was quite nice.
On pool side there was a little viewing area for our parents which was really nice because you could go over and talk to your Mum and Dad, before the lesson started. Also Holly and I could go over to get our Mum to help us put our hats on. There was about three people in a lane so it was not too crowded.
We done some brilliant drills which I felt really benefited my stroke. Along the way everyone was given a tip or two relevent to their stroke which was really helpful. At the end we done some turns and then practised three different types of dives.
The first was a track start, the second a grab start (my favourite!) And finely a wind-up dive which before today I have never heard of! It is specific dive only for a relay with the exception of the first person. It involves following the previous swimmer into the wall then throwing your arms backwards and then you quickly dive in. It was great fun!
The swimming session lasted two hours but it only seemed we was in the pool for 2 minutes, the time really did fly! It was so much fun!
After that we had a shower and got changed, we then went into a room full of very comfy red seats in a semi-circle where you could eat your lunch and have a break. The only down side was there was no tables to eat off however it really is not that much of a problem.
45 minutes later Nick done a Powerpoint presentation on the mental side of swimming which was very inspiring! At the end I just wanted to jump back into the pool and try out everything he had told us. It probably sounds a bit weird me wanting to jump back into the pool after I have just done 2 whole hours of butterfly already but if you heard his speech you would say exactly the same!
After that we was allowed to ask questions and he would answer them for us such as the best drink to have, how to keep your goggles on, the best breathing pattern for butterfly ect…………….That was followed by the opportunity to have his autograph, look at this medals and have pictures taken with him.
This Course is amazing! It can really turn your butterfly around, I am so excited about trainning tommorow so I can show my coach my new butterfly! If you would like to know any more infomation then please contact me and I will reply as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Olivia and Holly xxx
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