Off The Blocks USA Trip Episode 1

Hello Everyone and welcome to the very special series of Off The Blocks Swimming Podcast from the United States of America. Each week we will bring you episodes, either with myself and travel mate Dapto Swim Club Head Coach Phil MciLwraith, or interviews with some of America's best and experienced coaches and athletes including Herbie Behm, Vern Gambetta and many more. In this episode Phil and i discuss our visit to Irvine for the Fitter and Faster camps with College swim pro Maxime Rooney as the lead coach. As well we give our Top 5 Female USA Swimmers of all time. In and Out Burger, Tipping and a whole lot more   The Off the Blocks USA Series is proudly brought to you by NSW SCTA   Off The Blocks USA Series is proudly brought to you by the Harold Holt Swim Centre's historic "Take The Plunge Swim Classic" being held at Melbourne's Harold Holt Swim Centre on Sunday 30th November 2025

Off The Blocks is back for another week, and in this podcast we chat with an Olympic medallist who has gone onto to carve out a very successful coaching career so far with his team at St Andrews Swim Club, Ash Delaney. In this chat, Ash and I discuss his recent success at Trials getting Ben Hence and Isaac Cooper making the Australian teams for World Champs.  We get into the great success the club had at National Age Champs this year in Brisbane with St Andrew's finishing in the top 10 for the first time, and getting 2 athletes on the Junior Aus team heading to Romania in August. We discuss his own swimming career, some great stories and how being an elite athlete himself has helped shape him as a coach. Favourite sets, non negotiables, working with Kirsten from SwimNastics, Kyle Chalmers and a whole lot more.   Don't miss this great chat 

Two of the very best in the business in Bobby Hurley and Meagen Nay sit down with me to go through all of the action from the 2025 Australian Swimming Trials for World Champs in Singapore starting July 27. In this podcast we look at the Aussie team selected including alot of the swimmers making their debuts over in Singapore. We talk about the amazing week Lani Pallister had in the pool and how she has the potential for even more improvements leading into LA. Sienna Toohey's amazing week, at 16 years of age making her first team and the phenomenal work her coach Wayne Gould has done behind the scenes in Albury. Kaylee McKeown's controversial DQ and reinstatement in the 50 Back Kyle Chalmers and Cam McEvoy continuing to impress  Sam Short back on track, Katie Ledecky proving why she is the GOAT. And Summer McIntosh smashes 3 world records and puts the world on notice. All that and a whole lot more

In this NEW EPISODE of Off The Blocks we chat with Carlile Swim Club Head Age Group Coach Michaela Pattinson on the heels of their historic Australian Age point score victory in Brisbane. We discuss the work that has gone into the Carlile program since joining in 2021. Her views on developing junior athletes and some of the keys to their success at Nationals. Michaela gives us a great insight into her journey as a coach from Townsville, to Brisbane and then down to Sydney and all of the amazing mentors she has worked with along the way. We discuss the incredible success she has had placing Olivia Wunsch on the Australian Olympic team and the ride those two have been on to Paris 2024. We get into learning great lessons during the staging camp, as well as her experience in the stands at the Olympics. We talk about being a female coach on deck and what comes with that, especially following the announcement of her pregnancy and how she will be balancing coaching and being a mum in the future.   All that and a whole lot more, don't miss a great opportunity to learn from one of the best coaches on deck in Australia.

Shannon and I look back at the last 2 weeks in Brisbane at Australian Age and Open Champs

We recap all the action from Brisbane, London and Sweden. Its been a fast week in the swimming world

This week on the podcast Shannon and I discuss the massive news in the swimming world at the moment with form 50m events being added to the LA 2028 Olympic program. Good or Bad? we discuss the pros and cons Also we talk about King Kyle Chalmers blistering swims over in Norway last week

It's nationals time again, and Shannon gives his tips as we are a week or so away from the years biggest meet in Brisbane.  

This week on the podcast Shannon and I discuss last weekends 2025 NSW State Open Champs in Sydney. How Shannon's team went, as well as how the racing was across the weekend. With Brisbane 2032 Olympics plans rolled out this week we discuss the winners and potential losers in all of the funding and infrastructure coming. How swimming has a lot to be excited about. We do a blind draft of Olympic Sports, quote of the week, set of the week and of course the always popular song of the week.  

This week Shannon and I sit down with Author, Coach Mentor and Inspiring guest speaker Wayne Goldsmith. Wayne is the founder of MoreGold Peak Performance Consulting and has been involved in the swimming industry now for 35 years learning from some of the legendary coaches of Australia. Shannon and Wayne discuss stories of Gennadi Touretski and Alex Popov,  Bill Sweetenham, the art of coaching and the importance of progressing as a coach and moving with the times. We discuss the alarming stats that came out this week around School carnivals here in Australia at the moment with 50% of year 6 students not knowing how to swim, as well as coaching as a profession and do we have a problem attracting you aspiring coaches to our sport and industry. All that and a whole lot more, Wayne picks song of the week and you don't want to miss it.