Conversations with Coach Pedro

Alcatraz advise. Water World Swim Coaching Team from San Francisco, having a conversation about the best way to swim from Alcatraz

This is the first episode in which we will introduce our coaching team. Water World Swim has worked hard to introduce hundreds of swimmers worldwide to open-water swimming. Many transitioned from the swimming pool to the roughest ocean waters thanks to the help and training of this great team of coaches. In this series, we will talk and have conversations with them about their philosophy of coaching or their kind of training.

Sydney Roberts an open water swimmer that started her swimming in the San Francisco Bay with Water World Swim when she was only 12 years old. Her goal was always to swim long distances and she set a goal, to swim a challenging swim. Once she started swimming in the cold waters of the bay, she immediately started to become one of the fastest and dedicated to take challenges like swimming from Alcatraz and other long distances swims, either with wetsuit or skin. 

When she was only 16 years old she found her goal by becoming interested in a 15 to 16 kilometers swim, like the Bonifacio Channel in Italy, a swim from the Island of Sardinia, Italy  to Corsica, France Unfortunately, her goal came right before the pandemic hit the entire world. She definitely did not give up her dreams and kept her commitment to keep training and not to give up. 

With the help of Water World Swim coaches, like Coach Mike and Coach Jake, and others in the coaching team, she kept persevering, just waiting for the opportunity once the countries would reopen. Being a High School senior, came time that she would have to start choosing her School to go to college but at the same time to continue with her training. Even knowing she would swim in warmer waters, she continue training training in open waters, due to the closing of all places like swimming pools, and during the pandemic and winter. She finalize her training in Winter of 2021 swimming four hours and without wetsuit. On this conversation she tell us details of her training and also about her swim across the Bonifacio Channel in 5 hours. She is also a great musician, that plays many instruments, being her favorite, the fidler, that she plays with a musical group. Giving us a demo of her virtuosity at the end of this conversation. 

During the pandemic Coach Pedro had the opportunity to have a conversation with another coach across the atlantic. Here some of his topics on different areas about his coaching life in Austria. This conversation has been edited in order to hear the main issues of coaching in Europe and mainly during the times of pandemic

Coach Pedro gives an update of the Pandemic Situation on May 2021 - Announcing the opening and relaxation of the lockdown

Coach Pedro announces the situation of the pandemic when the U.S. announces the pandemic lockdown

Two great swim sisters converse with Coach Pedro about their experiences dealing with the lockdown and not swimming- Their discovery of open water swimming 

During the pandemic of these past two years, in July 2021 Coach Pedro had the opportunity to talk to Coach Arno from Austria and exchange the experiences that swimmers in general were experiencing due to these drastic changes we all had to go through and for many to try open water swimming for their first time in life. Interesting exchange of ideas and experiences.  Coach Arno grew up in St. Johann in Tirol / He has competed as also has his team participating in competitions in Austria Swim meets in France, Germany, Italy, Hungary. He has also participatie in the European Triathlon Championships in Kitzbühel / Austria. Also in Lake Schwarzsee in Kitzbühel / Austria. Hintersteinersee/Tirol/ Austria. He let us know the differences of open waters in lakes in Europe. His interest lately has been to participate in the new sport growing in Europe of Swim/ Run competitions, where the athlete swim, run and swim on different terrains and different waters, can be lakes, oceans and rough terrain or asphalt. 

Hope you enjoy this conversation.

This conversation was with  Rishima Tewari! a 17 years old and a senior at Lynbrook High school. She is part of her school’s swimming and water polo teams and have been competitively swimming with DACA (De Anza Aquatics ) since the seventh grade. She also teaches at the DACA swim school. Aside from swimming and water polo, she is involved with FBLA (a business club), Indesign (a fashion club), and French Honor Society at school. In her  free time, I like to hike and sew. In college, she plans to study environmental sciences or biological sciences with a concentration in ecology.