I’m Claire and it is my role to coach, teach, but most of all inspire anyone who visits us to enjoy the water, understand how the human body can get through the water in the easiest way possible.
As a child, I was a competitive swimmer, training six maybe seven times a week, including mornings before school and most weekends. I’ve experienced swim tours in Germany, Ireland and competed all around the UK as a child and teenager.
After a gap from pool competitive swimming of about 20 years, I discovered open water swimming in 2013 inspired by the 2012 Olympics. I entered the Great North Swim at Lake Windermere completing my first open water mile, then in 2014, 2 miles, in 2015 I did 5K and I worked my way up to a 10k in 2016. I didn’t even dream of opening my swim school back then. Now we enter the GNS as a family every year and my little people have done their half miles this year and trying to beat mum at the Half mile swim. This is what makes me happy. Sharing my experience, passion and desire to challenge myself and achieve different things. 2022 was an epic year for my swimming, completing a channel swim relay of 5 people and an end to end Ullswater swim. 2023 was a more difficult relay of the channel with only 4 people and I had the challenge of setting off from Dover in the dark and swimming through a swarm of Jelly fish!! beautiful creatures but a little scary! September 2023 brings my longest swim challenge, an End to End Windermere!
Several of my swimmers are following my swim journey and themselves have entered their first events this year, from half mile swims to swimming the length of Ullswater End to End, Windermere End to End
A change in career was needed for me in 2018 so I decided that sharing my Endless pool with the next generation of outdoor swimmers, triathletes, club swimmers or even just teaching little people to float on a lilo, this was the way forward!
I completed Total Immersion Advanced coach training in 2018 and Swim Mastery Coach training 2021 and both are like nothing else offered in the UK. Swim Mastery is a community of swimmers who share professional development, it is nothing like the way I learnt to swim 40 years ago. I spent several weeks learning the techniques in Alicante, Spain over a few years. I am really passionate that this strategy makes complete sense and is biomechanically favourable for the swimmer.
Here is a sample of the fun and the smiles we have as a family, all thanks to the confidence we have in the water.
