As we end a wonderful year, here's a collection of the best podcast snippets for 2018. Enjoy!

We are joined today by Els Visser who is a professional triathlete from the Netherlands Els had a TEDX talk about how a shipwreck experience changed her life. In this podcast, Els shares to us that experience with the hope of inspiring others.

00:37 Sinking Ship Experience
2:57 Stay or Swim
9:42 Surviving the Island
11:54 The Rescue
16:12 Life after the Shipwreck
17:45 Support of Family and Friends
21:30 From a shipwreck Survivor to a Professional Triathlete
23:59 Using the Indonesia Experience as a Mental Tool for the Race

Here are the 9 things we have learned from Hell Week Camp that I thought it would be worth sharing.

1. Clear your mind

2. Regular feedback

3. Go crazy

4. Find your ideal stroke rate

5. 3 different ways to think about your 'Catch'

6. Patience

7. How a 3-minute active warm up can change your entire workout

8. Educate, try and test

9. Getting faster right away isn't always an indicator of a correct change in your stroke

00:58 Pre Swim Routine for Olympic Athletes
02:35 How Much Time Should Be Given To Pre-Swim Routine
06:33 Basic Movements in Yoga Routine
8:58 Q Swim/ Q Swim App
15:24 Time Commitment in Integrating Yoga into Training
18:52 Yoga And Recovery
20:54 Breathing
25:13 On Adults Wanting To Improve Their Swimming
26:36 Balancing Your Nervous System
27:50 3-Minute Yoga Routine

Our guest for today's episode is Carl Reader who is a Functional Movement Coach and a Biokineticist (Exercise Therapist). He's been helping athletes and clients move and exercise better or what is known as functionally. Join us as we discuss warm up, squats and functional movement.

Our guest today is Ben de Rivaz from Breca. Breca hosts swimrun events which take place on trail and open water; team races in pairs wearing wetsuit and trainers, transitioning between running and swimming stages. Join us as we discuss topics about the format swimrun compared to triathlon, why is it appealing to a lot of athletes, different courses and location and a possibility of a National Championship.

00:19 About Ben de Rivaz
03:12 The SwimRun Format
05:36 The Appeal of SwimRun Sport
14:37 Looking For More Courses
14:51 National Championship

To know more about Breca events, please visit:
https://www.brecaswimrun.com/

Transcript:

Getting beaten up by riot police. Setting his alarm 4 hours too early before the biggest race of his life. Not being able to walk for 4 days just weeks out from his last Olympic Games. These are just a few of the challenges 3x Olympian, Olympic bronze medallist and 100m Freestyle World Champion Brent Hayden shares on today's podcast.

00:47 Brent's achievements
05:22 Focus on the things you can control
06:54 Back spasms leading up to the 2012 Olympics
14:55 Sport is unscripted
16:11 Beaten up and arrested by riot police after 2004 Olympics
28:54 It doesn't need to look pretty
35:17 The best swimmers are the ones that are always open to change
37:19 Key pillars of sprinting
50:26 Astra Athletica

This week I’m joined by Rory Buck to discuss the intricacies of swimming and coaching. Rory Buck is an ex-competitive swimmer turned coach, who went from being a collegiate swimmer to representing South Africa at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Turning to coaching to learn more about swimming, Rory now coaches from Dubai. Join us as we discuss topics such as swim culture, the right age to start swimming, a feel for the water, mentality, sighting, effort in swimming and self-perception as well as much more.

01:10 – Rory’s competitive background.
04:30 – Dubai and swim culture.
06:50 – The right age to start swimming.
11:30 – Putting effort into swimming.
20:00 – Confidence in the water.
27:30 – Developing and maintaining a feel for the water.
38:00 – Swimming in a triathlon.
42:00 – Sighting in open water.
52:50 – Watching triathletes and reflecting.
01:01:10 – The mindset and delusions.

This week’s podcast features Jason Hamilton as our guest. An athlete and triathlete
who I met during Hell Week last year in Thailand, Jason joins us to speak about his
journey as a swimmer, and how he trained to qualify in the World Championships.
We cover topics such as winter swimming locations, using structure to keep yourself
focused while training and exactly what made Jason swim faster.
Join us as we reflect on progress and setting goals as a swimmer.
02:20 – Jason Hamilton.
04:00 – Qualifying for World Championships.
06:00 – What makes you faster.
07:12 – Nathan Shearer
11:00 – Structure to keep focus.
13:14 – Ongoing goals.
15:00 – Winter training locations.

In today's episode, We are joined by Angela Naeth who is a professional triathlete. If you are someone who enjoys thinking and reflecting on your sport, your life and things around that, I think you will really enjoy this episode. Angela is a very genuine person and she is someone who has done a lot of thinking and reflecting on her own over the past eight years that she has been racing triathlon. We talked about some ways that she has overcome anxiety around racing and performing, something that she dealt with in the early days of her triathlon career. She also mentions a book that she has read five or six times that she has been able to use and get a lot from when it comes to becoming a fearless and competitive racer.

There are some beliefs that will help you and there are some beliefs that are keeping us from achieving our full potential. Ask yourself. What are the beliefs that are holding me back?

We are joined today by Vicky Tate who has recently swam the 40 kilometr crossing of Lake. Earlier this year she made a crossing and she is one of less than a hundred swimmers who have completed the crossing. She came along to Hell Week last year, our Hell Week camp in Thailand and this was something that prepared for the swim. Join us we talk about her experience.

00:30 From Not Being Able to Swim a "K" to a 40 km Straight Swim
02:01 The Only Thing That Is Going To Stop You Is You.
04:58 Techniques Taken From Hellweek.
07:57 How Was It Like Mentally?
09:09 Swim Pacing In Lake Taupo
10:30 Motivation During The Swim
12:33 "Don't Look Forward and Don't Look Back"
13:36 Singing Songs And Counting Your Strokes
19:50 Feed During The Swim
22:08 Lake Taupo
27:28 Our Mind Can Get Accustomed Quickly
34:37 The Help Of The Community

Our guest for today's Episode is Bevan Mckinnon who has been in the triathlon scene for over 15 years as a coach and as an athlete. Here are the topics discussed:

05:09 Intermittent Fasting
08:35 Ketogenic State
11:29 Training while Fasting
21:34 The Satisfaction in Coaching
38:10 Speed Reserve
39:59 Zero To Hero

To know more about Bevan Mckinnon, please visit:
https://www.fitter.co.nz/

My guest today is Andrew Ho-Peng who is from Dexa Melbourne. Dexa is a body composition scan that tells you about your bone density, visual fat levels, lean muscle mass and a number of other things. It is a really good way to check in with your health and well being. Listen as Andrew explains what Dexa does, who is it best for.

01:37 How Did Dexa Started?
04:07 Types of Clients that Avail Dexa.
05:33 Metabolic Health
08:11 The Focus of Dexa.
10:36 Dexa as a Motivation

If you ever wondered how you should fuel for a marathon swim, then this podcast is for you. My guest for today is Tara Diversi, who has experience in long-distance swimming. She swam the English Channel and the Rottnest Channel and a number of other long-distance swims. She works closely with a handful of people every year to help them leading to their marathon swim. She works with them to help them get their feeding and fueling right on the day but more than that is looking for the best approach that works for them.

In this episode we talk about: 

03:09 Tara Diversi background

05:01 Things to consider when deciding on the Feeding Plan.

07:39 Freestyle stroke affects food digestion.

09:29 Fat versus Muscle.

10:54 Keeping the core temperature up.

16:43 Trial and Error.

19:32 The concept of Multiple Transportable Carbohydrates.

22:28 Training your Gut.

28:32 How do you put on more fat without killing yourself

In this episode, we talked about the things I have learned from chatting up with the Rottnest Channel Swim 2018 winners, Solomon Wright and Heidi Gan. Leading up to the race, both of them encountered some obstacles, however, I believe they were able to rise above the situation because of these three things :

-Going by Feel/Intuitiveness
-Sustained Pace Work
-Experience

Today's episode is the Rottnest Swim Recap. We've got the winners Solomon Wright and Heidi Gan who won the male and female section in both record times.
Solomon just went under 4 hours and Heidi went 04:21. We've got them on the podcast today talking about their lead up to the race, how they fueled, their pacing, their strategy and you will also hear that both of them have a little bit of interrupted lead-up. We go into detail about what they did to combat that and how they managed to put 6-weeks of training in to still get a good result. We also have Lisandra de Carvalho on the podcast, my friend who has been in the earlier episodes, we talked about how we went to the race and how we found it.

Here some points that we have talked about.
Solomon Wright
-Solomon's injury before the race.
-Going for the "Rotto Feel"
-Feeding on the Race.

Heidi Gan
-Rottnest swim compared to 10k marathon swims.
-Having a slow pace at the start.
- Feeding Strategy
-Flu Before the race.

Lisandra de Carvalho
-The swimming community
-Conditions during the race
-The Swim Results
-The Mental Battle

Our guest in today's podcast is James Fletcher who has a background in Physiology. He has recently moved into Breath Training for athletes. He has worked with elite level swimmers such as Cameron McEvoy and James Roberts who both have been in the Australian Olympic Team. We talked about his specialization which is a very scientific and measured approach to enhancing your ability to breath.

On this episode we discuss:

02:01 James Fletcher's background and Cirque du Soleil.
05:00 Breath Training
7:05 Differences in Breath Training between a 50-meter sprinter and a 10k swimmer.
13:21 The Foundation of Fletcher Method.
19:41 Frequency of the Breath Training Programs
21:23 Difference from other Breath Holding Method.
24:54 Pre-Race warm up for Inspiratory Muscles.

We welcome back Wayne Goldsmith who has been our guest in the previous podcasts. He is one of the most passionate sports performance expert all over Australia, New Zeland, and the world. Join us as we discuss Change, Commitment, and Motivation in the world of coaching.

01:40 - There is no such thing.
03:58 The Role of Parents.
04:26 The Power of Commitment to Excellence
10:51 What we have to change from a Coaching Perspective to Sustain the Sport
17:20 What should Coaches do to help make that Change
25:56 The Difference Between Training and Great Coaching
34:40 Understanding Motivation

To find out more about Wayne Goldsmith please visit:
http://moregold.com.au/

I've known Grant through mutual friends for a quite a while. He is a Triathlon coach and to me, he is one of the best coaches that teaches and coaches a lot base on Mindset, Intuitiveness, and Beliefs. In the podcast, we talked about a lot of different topics from How to Change your Structured Beliefs, the methods and the questions that he asks his athletes in order to get them to change their beliefs. We also tackled overplanning races and how many people are too guarded and protective with the races that they do and following that plan to a tee can sometimes work against them as opposed for them. We talked about mindfulness and how you are better off focusing on the process in order to get in to flow.

Our guest today is Gary Hurring who has been featured on our Podcast episode # 90 which is one of our most listened to episode that we have ever done. Gary is a former Olympic swimmer and coach from New Zealand and I really like his approach to swimming and to coaching and the way he goes about it. I really learned a lot from the episode that we did together. If you haven't listened to it yet, go back to episode #90 and it is called "How to Change your Technique from an Olympic Coaches Perspective". In today's [odcast, we will be discussing how even the smallest changes that we do in training can provide big results.

Join us and let's welcome back Lisandra de Carvalho as we talk about how to train for 10km+ swims. Lisandra has been swimming the Rottnest channel on numerous occasions. She has been my training partner these past few months in preparing for the Rottnest Swim this month. Listen as we talk about the things that are essential in preparing for 10km+ swims.

02:59 Change of Perspective in Training
04:11 Voluntary Graduated Exposure
6:06 The Importance of having a Training Partner
16:23 The Benefits of Massage every after session
21:30 Smaller Races before the Big one
23:01 The Best Race and the Worst Race at the same time
24:47 The Up and Down Week
27:17 The Negative Head Space
30:59 Feeding While Swimming
34:17 Test Sets
43:55 Support Team
50:20 Don't Forget to Have Fun

There are times when we get confused on what to prioritize. In today's podcast, we talk about how it is beneficial to prioritize the bigger things first such as technique, focus, and mindset. Moreover, giving time also for smaller rocks such as strength training, diet, and mobility.

Swimming can be compared to driving a car. In today's podcast, we share with you about going from manual mode to automatic. When training, we like our swimmers to be in the manual mode where they really need to focus so that they can coordinate these little elements together.If you can practice that in training, you come to a point where it starts to become more automatic and you almost completely switch off from thinking about your stroke. You can just go in the race mode and any technical focus has been made automatic and it has become a habit because you have practiced that in training.

One of the analogies we like to use in swimming is the laser vs the lantern approach. Which approach should you use? Listen as we talk about the importance of having a laser approach in your training.

In this podcast we share to you why generalized coaching style doesn't work for most swimmers.

When you train, do you feel like you only have one speed? In this podcast, we share to you on how you vary your pace in training, on how to shock the system.

Most of the propulsion will come from the catch. We have worked with more than 1300 athletes and we have observed that most of them can improve their catch.

How long does it take you to warm up in training? We share our favourite pre-training routine to improve shoulder stability and reduce the chance of injury.

John Mullen grew up swimming his whole life. He studied Physical Therapy and received his Doctorate in Physcal Therapy at USC. He is a renowned expert in sports swimming and rehabilitation. Listen and learn as he and Brenton discuss about Needs Analysis, what to do if you don't have a sports psychologist and many more

This podcast episode is from the audio of our Facebook Live and we talk about my consolidated thoughts on what most triathletes and open water swimmers can do to swim faster this 2018.