I swam competitively as a junior and like many, fell out of swimming aged and 17.
When I came back to club swimming with my local masters group I was still a competent swimmer who had reasonable pace over 200 metres but struggled with distances of 750 metres and beyond. The notion of swimming 1500 metres and beyond was unthinkable to me.
In 1998 an Ironman triathlete at my local club, Chichester Cormorants, lent me the Total Immersion book. I started to learn about how swimming worked and how balance and streamlining are vital to becoming an efficient swimmer.
I had a lot of one to one coaching and rebuilt my stroke with coach Tracey Baumann who was director of coaching at Total Immersion.
In 2015 I took the Total Immersion Coach Certification course and became a fully certified and licensed Total Immersion coach. I then discovered the work of American coach Bill Boomer, who coined the phrase "The shape of the vessel is more important than the size of the engine".
In 2023 with over 5,000 hours of one to one coaching behind me, my understanding of swim coaching had evolved: I had I developed my own methods and theories for how to help swimmers become more effective and efficient and I moved on from Total Immersion to coach with my own methods.
I enjoy swimming, playing chess, pilates, cycling and walking my working cocker spaniel. I am also a passionate open water swimmer and Alpine hiker and guest coach for SwimQuest Swimming Holidays.
When I came back to club swimming with my local masters group I was still a competent swimmer who had reasonable pace over 200 metres but struggled with distances of 750 metres and beyond. The notion of swimming 1500 metres and beyond was unthinkable to me.
In 1998 an Ironman triathlete at my local club, Chichester Cormorants, lent me the Total Immersion book. I started to learn about how swimming worked and how balance and streamlining are vital to becoming an efficient swimmer.
I had a lot of one to one coaching and rebuilt my stroke with coach Tracey Baumann who was director of coaching at Total Immersion.
In 2015 I took the Total Immersion Coach Certification course and became a fully certified and licensed Total Immersion coach. I then discovered the work of American coach Bill Boomer, who coined the phrase "The shape of the vessel is more important than the size of the engine".
In 2023 with over 5,000 hours of one to one coaching behind me, my understanding of swim coaching had evolved: I had I developed my own methods and theories for how to help swimmers become more effective and efficient and I moved on from Total Immersion to coach with my own methods.
I enjoy swimming, playing chess, pilates, cycling and walking my working cocker spaniel. I am also a passionate open water swimmer and Alpine hiker and guest coach for SwimQuest Swimming Holidays.
"James is the most thoughtful and engaging coach I’ve worked with. He responds to what’s in front of him rather than trying to fit your swimming to a general model, unerringly zeroing in on one or two points that will help you improve. His understanding of the stroke dynamics of front crawl, in particular, is exemplary. The video segments James sends post-session are invaluable – and every bit of advice is delivered with tremendous charm and thoughtfulness. His coaching has helped recently my short course PB for 1500m from 19:00.17 to 18:42.32. Big thanks."
– Paul Mason, open-water swimmer; National Masters 1500m silver medalist, SE Regional 3k champion.
– Paul Mason, open-water swimmer; National Masters 1500m silver medalist, SE Regional 3k champion.