Coach Steve Casson
Coach Russell KelfTwitterings
PYF Swims
For those of you who follow MTB racing and Xterra Triathlon
you may already know that PYF Rides...but after several months of cross channel correspondence and planning, professional Xterra Triathlete Pierre-Yves Facomprez came over to the UK to work with us on his swimming.
We booked some lane time (twice a day for four days) at Loughborough University Swimming Pool and we got down to work;Through a combination of Swim Video Analysis, stroke critique and developmental techniques we spent half of our time together identifying and working on aspects of Pierre's stoke which had room for technical improvement.
The other half of our work was geared towards muscular endurance at Critical Swim Speed, lifting PYF's stroke rate and heightening his pace awareness.
It was certainly an intensive learning experience and we probably swam pretty close to maximum training overload, but the long weekend has certainly laid a fantastic foundation to build on through 2012 - we wish PYF the greatest of success in his 2012 race season and look forward to continuing our work together.
Cassonz Performance Coaching
Cassonz Performance Coaching is the Northampton (UK) based triathlon coaching team that can help you achieve your personal goals in the sports of Triathlon, Swimming, Cycling and Running. We offer a variety of coaching sessions and services in the East Midlands Region, including Junior and Adult training clinics and training camps.
Head Coach Steve Casson is a British Triathlon Level 3 Coach, Level 3 Personal Trainer and Registered Exercise Professional. The Cassonz Performance Coaching studios are conveniently located in the Lynn Wilson Centre at the Northants County Cricket Ground for "swim, bike and run" technical coaching and performance analysis. The facilities are equipped with an EndlessPool, Underwater Video recording systems, CycleOps Powerbeam and i400 Pro Indoor Cycles, CompuTrainer, Large Screen TV's for visual feedback, a fully equipped strength & conditioning gym, New Leaf Metabolic Gas Analyser and Blood Lactate testing stations.
Feel free to browse the website to find out more about our coaching and performance analysis services.
Take a look at our online Interactive Coaching Log, which is powered by TrainingPeaks software - this is the two-way communication system that we use to prescribe training for the athletes that we coach and to review the training diary entries that they record - you are welcome to use it for free as a standalone training diary if you wish to. Just click on "Interactive Coaching Log" under the tools option on the menu bar above and follow the instructions to set up a free account.
If you want to enquire about our coaching services, or book a session please don't hestitate to contact us.
The Swimulator and Critical Swim Speed
Is it a simulator or is it a calculator for swimmers? Its both - its the all new Swimulator!
The Swimulator is an iPhone application available for download via iTunes.
It has been designed to let coaches and swimmers make very quick calculations that will help them to design training sessions and plan pacing strategies based upon the swimmer's Critical Swim Speed and their decay exponent. As swimmers and coaches we are always looking for the best way to construct training sessions and set the correct level of training intensity to yield the best possiple improvements in performance.
Most of us would agree that going as fast as you can for as long as you can in every set (inevitably getting slower and slower) isn't going to get the best results - so we are trying to find that magic balance between distance/pace and of course recovery.
Critical Swim Speed (CSS):
this is widely understood to be the pace that is sutainable at the swimmer's Lactate Threshold (LT). As with many other sports we like to know what level of performance the athlete is capable of at LT in order to design their training sessions, to achieve those illusive improvements in performance. CSS is expressed as pace/100m.
Whilst in other landbased sports it is fairly easy for the coach or athlete to take blood samples and measure LT intensity and then use the correlation with heart rate/power output/pace to control the athlete's training or racing intensity, with swimming it isn't quite so easy to measure LT. However, a lot of sports science research evidence supports the assertion that you can use the relationship between the pace of a 400m swim time trial and a 200m swim time trial to determine a good proxy for the pace at LT intensity.
New 1-2-1 Swim Video Analysis Service
For the last three years we have had great fun and achieved some great results working with swimmers in the Endless Pool, using multiple concurrent video feeds to analyse the stroke and the intimacy of the Endless Pool to offer a really effective swim coaching service.Over an even longer period of time we have been providing group swim video capture sessions at a number of different swimming pools around the Northamptonshire region.
Well now we can offer a new service: a 1-2-1 swim video analysis session at arguably the best pool in the area!
So, if you are interested, don't hesitate to get in touch, find out more and arrange an appointment.
Check out the video clip below, which is a short extract from a typical 20 minute analysis* that we do on poolside before the swimmer gets back in the water for the stroke correction session.
*recorded on a DVD for you to keep
Swim Video Analysis in the Endless Pool
Our Endless Pool provides a fantastic environment for 1-2-1 intensive swim coaching experience, we can help you improve awareness of your position in the water, teach you how to reduce the drag that your own body creates and then maximise your propulsion through the water. You'll be amazed at how quickly you can improve your efficiency and progress through the water.We've been working with swimmers and triathletes in this environment for three years now and we know how to get results quickly. Depending on your learning style preferences we can make use of HD video feedback to help you understand what you are doing or we can make the focus more kinaesthetic, helping you to understand how it should "feel" when you are doing it right and how it feels when you get it wrong.
Light rain (36 oF • 2 oC)
Cloudy (54 oF • 12 oC)