Introduction To Open Water Swimming - Level 1 Swim England Workshop

Your first step into the world of open water & triathlon Swimming working to achieve your Swim England Level 1 Open Water Certificate (and shiny badge, we all like a shiny badge.......right)

South West Swim are the leading provider of Open Water Swim, Triathlon Swim & Pool Swim Coaching in the Swindon & Cotswolds area. Our team are fully qualified swim coaches and swim teachers with vast amounts of open water and triathlon experience. We have delivered sessions to all levels of the swimming spectrum, from adult and child learn to swim through to regional, national and world achievers and champions in both swimming and triathlon.

We are proud to offer our fully coached Introduction sessions for the 2023 season and are confident that our introduction sessions are unrivalled in their content and delivery. Our coaches will be with you in / on the water at all times, you will receive pre session materials to prepare you for your first swim. After the session we will send online resources and support to assist your swimming further and continue your development. All our materials and methods are constantly reviewed for best practice and skills and safety relevance.

The Details
This Level 1 workshop will swim your way to your Swim England Level 1 certificate in Open Water Swimming and provide you with the skills and confidence to take to the water by yourself, tackle your first Open Water or Triathlon event, or just educate and improve the swim of the non competitive swimmer looking for that new and exciting challenge. 

This workshop is around 1.5 hours in duration, actual water time will vary depending on the water temperature at the time of the session.

This session will cover

• Safety / Session brief, including venue specific safety
• Putting on your wetsuit - making the dark art of getting rubber on your body as simple as 1-2-3-4
• Safe Entry / Exit of the water
• Acclimatisation and breathing control
• Self Rescue & Emergency actions
• Basic Sighting Action for front crawl swimmers
• Group Swimming Familiarisation / Drafting
• Common start & finish techniques
• 200m Test Swim (part of the Level 1 Certificate sign off process)
• The Syllabus of the Swim England Level 1 Certificate in Open Water Swimming. This is ONLY passed if the swimmer completes all of the content in the course, including online questions (link sent nearer the course date)

You will need

To participate all swimmers will need to be aged 18 or over and bring with them:

• Aged 18 or over (sessions for 11-17 year olds are available on a 1-to-1 basis)
• To be able to swim at lease 200m of any stroke (note; most of the skills based work in this session is front crawl based)
• A Swimsuit
• A Wetsuit (triathlon/swimming suit NOT a tri suit) – optional on SWS coaches written approval in temperatures over 20 degrees plus but recommended for these sessions due to the stop start nature of skills development.
• Goggles
• Bright coloured swim cap (or two), A south West Swim hat is available to purchase at 50% off, contact us before the session to arrange purchase.
• Swimming gloves and booties are optional.
  
• Towel or Changing Robe. We recommend the Ddipp robes, save 10% using our special discount code SWSWIM-10
• A swimming tow float, such as the Swim Secure Tow Float / Dry Bag Range. Don't worry if you don't have your own, we can loan you one for your session or they are available from us to purchase at a discounted rate (5% off). Contact us before the session to arrange purchase.
  
• A drink, hot or cold depending on the weather. Get an exclusive 15% discount from our friends at Precision Fuel and hydration

Want to develop further?

After your Level 1 course we can also offer our Introduction to Race Skills Level 2 course to take your swimming to the next level, working towards the Swim England Level 2 Certificate in Open Water Swimming.

About South West Swim, Our Coaches and Our Delivery

See information in the special instructions below to find out more