What Good Swim Coaching Looks and Feels Like

It’s a strange situation to be in as a coach: wanting to help more people, but running out of hours, pool space, and capacity.

Most days I’m answering messages from swimmers who want to join the squads, book a 1–1, or finally sort out their swim technique – and I’m having to say some version of “I don’t have any space right now.”

It’s a good problem… but a problem all the same.

And last week, after I mentioned it to one of the swimmers, she sent me a message that stopped me completely:

“I think it’s more of a ‘Bryan problem’ than a swim coaching availability problem. There are other squads and groups and clubs out there… that can never fill their spaces.”

That thought has been sitting with me ever since. Not because of the compliment (although it was a lovely one), but because it made me ask a genuine coaching question:

• Why do some squads fill when others don’t?

• Why do some groups grow, and some stay half-empty?

• What are people actually coming for?

Here’s where I ended up: good coaching isn’t just what you teach. It’s what people feel when they’re in your lane.

Good Coaching… Looks Like Structure, But Feels Like Freedom

Every strong squad session has shape.

Warm-up. Skills. A main set with a purpose. Recovery that helps the session flow. A rhythm.

But swimmers don’t feel boxed in or constrained by that structure, I believe they feel supported by it, guided through it and free within it.

They know:

• what matters today,
• where their attention should go,
• and why the session is shaped the way it is.

Structure creates focus. Focus creates freedom.

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Good Coaching… Looks Like Technical Detail, But Feels Like Clarity

A good coach could talk endlessly about posture, balance, reducing drag, hand entry, rotation, catch mechanics, and every nuance of the stroke…

…but they won’t.

They pick one thing.

The right thing.

The thing that unlocks everything else.

And suddenly a swimmer goes from trying to understand to feeling it. Their stroke can transform in a single length. Something clicks.

They think:

• “I finally get it.”
• “Why didn’t anyone explain it like this before?”

For me, that’s good coaching – making the complex simple and the simple transformative.

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Good Coaching… Looks Like Attention, But Feels Like Being Seen

Good coaching is noticing.

Not just how someone swims, but how they walk in, how they look before they push off the wall, how they act during the session. The energy they bring. The hesitation. The excitement. The days they’re quietly flying and the days they’re barely holding it together.

A coach watches the person before they watch the stroke.

And the swimmer feels it:

• “They’re actually watching me.”
• “They know what I’m capable of today.”

Sometimes that’s all someone needs.

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Good Coaching… Looks Like Correction, But Feels Like Encouragement

Plenty of coaches shout instructions. Far fewer give feedback that helps someone believe in themselves. And the feedback that is given is direct, honest, often immediate… but never belittling, never overwhelming, and never given just to fill silence.

Good coaching is the steady drip of:

• “Yes, that’s it.”
• “That looks really good.”
• “Again.”
• “Now hold it for 25m.”

It feels like:

• “I can do this.”
• “I’m improving.”

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Good Coaching… Looks Like Repetition, But Feels Like Progress

Every squad repeats drills, but only good coaching helps those drills feel meaningful.

In my experience, the same drill can feel pointless or transformative – depending on how clearly you explain what it is for and how you connect it to the swimmer’s stroke.

And then… the click happens.

You see it in their face. They can feel it in their stroke. They suddenly understand why you kept saying the same simple thing every Monday night.

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Good Coaching… Looks Like A Squad, But Feels Like Belonging

At a time when people have endless options…

Triathlon clubs, masters swim sessions, leisure centres, private coaches, groups that are cheaper, groups with more lanes, or more space in lanes…

… I’m not sure swimmers just choose coaching.

• They choose belonging.
• They choose the lane where they feel welcome.
• They choose the coach who remembers their story.
• They choose the environment where it’s okay to be brilliant and okay to struggle.

And belonging, in my opinion, fills squads faster than marketing ever will.

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Good Coaching… Looks Like Coaching, But Feels Like Care

At its best, swim coaching isn’t just improving technique or getting someone ready for an Ironman. It’s giving people confidence – confidence in the water, confidence to swim strong, confidence to push themselves, confidence to enjoy swimming – confidence they didn’t know they were allowed to have.

And our Squads are demonstrating that people will queue for that, will wait for that and will tell their friends about that.

Because in the pool – as in life – people remember how you made them feel. And when the coaching is good, swimmers feel like they belong, like they’re progressing, like they’re capable of things they never thought possible.

And that’s why some squads fill.

And that’s why the “… it’s a Bryan problem” message hit me the way it did.