Hi all! While most of us continue to work off the effects of the tryptophan from the holiday weekend - I know I certainly am trying to - it feels like a perfect time to jump in the first, content-based lesson for beginner freestyle. If you haven't yet joined us for the series, we have only just begun, and feel free (get it?) to go check out our introductory post! This week, our goal is to jump right into the foundation of freestyle (and any other stroke, for that matter):...

Hi Sigma Swim and Stroke Schoolers! After a great stretch of weeks walking through progressions for beginner swimming, we're coming to an end of our introductory series. Please click the following link ( here) for access to our blog so that you can follow along through the weekly progressions. We've come quite a long way over the course of our journey since summertime, and those of us here at Sigma would like to congratulate all of our beginning learners on the great progress they've made! This week, we'll be closing...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! We're meandering our way back into the mental side of swimming this week with a new subtopic. Last week, we saw an opinion piece from Coach Justin discussing finding one's reason for swimming. This week, we start to put all of our puzzle pieces together that we have discussed so far. Unfortunately, swimming is a very unforgiving sport - you constantly have to give more than you might get in return. It gets increasingly easy to fall into the trap of complacency and...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! PSA - longer post today as it is an opinion piece It's 6am, you're groggy, scratching at your eyes. Your body is cold, the water looks colder, and all you can think about is how much you don't want to stare at the black line at the bottom of the pool. Sometimes it feels like that line is your only entertainment during the monotony of everyday practice. I know, I've been there. Lap after lap, stroke after stroke, we move up and down...

Happy August, Adult Lessons Swimmers! This week, we will be shifting gears away from deep water work and going on an intermediary string of stand-alone weeks prior to beginning a new series. However, today's video and topic will be somewhat of an abridged version of many of the topics which we have already discussed either with adult beginners or our deep wa ter series. I hope that most of you found some solace in last week's topic about overcoming your fear of deep water, as our goal was to give...

Hi Sigma Swim and Stroke Schoolers! We've spent plenty of time learning new skills over the course of this series. After having already spent some time on freestyle a few weeks ago, we now turn our attention to a new stroke for the beginners. The next stroke in the typical learning sequence is a typical fan favorite: Backstroke. Unlike all other strokes, during backstroke, the face is constantly exposed and open to breathe. So, if you haven't yet checked out our post on "roll breathing", you're in luck! Backstroke is...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! After a week's completion of the young season, we continue to roll through the mental side of swimming. Last week, we delved into the preliminary discussion of the "growth mindset". Having a growth mindset is not just limited to swimming, but also should incorporate goals for school, work, family, life in general, etc. The supplementary information with Carol Dweck hopefully provided some insight on what it means to be open, proactive, and purposeful to achieve all that we dream of and more. This...

Happy August, Adult Lessons Swimmers! As we begin the season and move into bigger and better things, our series on deep water swimming is now coming to a close [insert frown emoji]. Last week, we finished up our instructional series on jumping in, and now we're going to end the series with some supplementary information and closing remarks. We've come a long way in terms of deep water comfort. Hopefully, this series has not only provided some instruction, but also some solace knowing that it is OKAY to have steps...

Hello Swim Team and Adult Fitness Swimmers! Last week, we finished up our two weeks of visualization. This week, as we prepare to commence the new season, we should look to continue to improve our mental focus toward our swimming. Many of these topics can translate into our school and/or work and/or personal lives, because we should have goals in all facets of our life. Don't limit yourself to growth as a swimmer; create room for boundless growth as a whole person. If you'd like to recap from the beginning,...

Happy August, Adult Lessons Swimmers! Hoping everyone had fun learning to bob last week! We're coming to the penultimate week of our series on deep water learning (for now, anyways). If you need a refresher, feel free to start back at the beginning here. We've floated and sunk and climbed down underwater ladders, all while learning our surroundings and perhaps learning more about ourselves in the process. All these different exercises and tips have been in place to give you comfort, or at least cordiality, in deep water scenarios. Most...