Before, my foot was always flat on the accelerator. Here I could go faster, go slower — and still felt I could do more.
Est. 2019
· practiced since 2025
About
SwimGym is a coaching pool in Amsterdam built to make technique land for adult swimmers and triathletes: a level system, themed weeks, team lanes, and daily Swim of the Day (SWOD) sessions that repeat a single focus often enough for a cue to finally “click”. The facility is a hotel-basement pool corridor (50m / split-lane setup), but the differentiator is what SwimGym puts inside the container: professional coaches, screens at pool level, and filming above and below the water — so you can see what you’re actually doing and correct it fast.
Guide Notes
First Impression
SwimGym is built around a structure most adult swimmers never encounter: three levels, themed weekly sessions (SWOD — Swim of the Day), team lanes with a lead swimmer, and all four strokes in rotation. This is exactly what competitive swimmers get as children in clubs — the rounded development, the cohort, the skill progression. For adults who learned to swim functionally but never technically, it is the architecture that was always missing. The level system is not about climbing — it is about going deeper within your level. The weekly theme creates repeated chances for a cue to land: same focus, adjusted equipment (fins lower the threshold for butterfly; paddles amplify hand entry errors), same instructors watching.
What I Felt
The pool is a basement corridor — low ceiling, a wall mid-pool, limited daylight. None of that is what you remember. What you remember is the big screen at pool level where you can study the technique being demonstrated, and the underwater camera angle from your own private session replaying what your elbow was actually doing. Most adults have never seen themselves swim. The kit is all there, all sizes — pull buoy, fins, tuba, paddles, kickboards — no friction, no forgotten bag, no restriction. Hours from early mornings to late evenings. Clean, organised, and — despite the basement setting — an inspirational volume to be in.
Breakthrough Details
For a body with scoliosis, getting the rotation right turned out to be a health question as much as a performance one. Years of swimming with incorrect rolling had left recurring tension in the lower and mid-back. SwimGym's technique work (hip rotation, mid-back engagement, head as fixed anchor) reduced that cost. In May 2026, a 4K open water swim — the first ever attempted — left cold-exhaustion from 17°C water but no swimming exhaustion. Still in good form throughout. Still feeling like there was more available. A 5K is scheduled for June 14.
