Lessons from the Water

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Last week I taught an adult beginner swimming class at Rogue X. One swimmer was 73 years old and had nearly died after falling into the Rogue River eleven months ago. Another thought she was in the wrong class because she already considered herself a strong swimmer. By the end of class, she was glad she stayed. It left me thinking about how the water reveals what each of us is ready to learn. I wrote about it here: Read:…

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK I was out for a bike ride with my family last weekend when some friends came up behind us. How’s your posture, Shannon? Did you set an intention for your bike ride? Are you going to journal about this later? Each of them had attended some form of my coaching. They were reflecting back to me exactly how I try to help swimmers get out of their ego mind — to learn, grow, and find fulfillment in their practice. I laughed….

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Hi there, This week I got an urgent message from one of my swimmers. She was spiraling about the unseasonably cool temperatures that could affect her upcoming race. What if it’s colder than expected? What if I can’t handle it? I know the feeling. Before swimming the length of Loch Ness I refused to get in the water before the swim start. I was afraid that if I did, I would psych myself out about the temperature. So when…

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Hi there, I got back from a week in Loreto, Mexico coaching with SwimMastery founder and my coach, Tracey Baumann, at the tail end of which I got sick. I was excited to share my lessons from the water right away, but the body has a way of reminding us what’s important. Which gave me the opportunity to sit with everything that happened there longer. We had 13 swimmers from across the US and three women from Guaymas, Mexico…

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LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Hi there, I’ve been quiet for a few weeks — heads down finishing the prep for something I’ve been building toward for months. Last week, I watched six people swim across a bay they’d never seen before. Not once, not twice, but day after day for the entire week. Complete strangers to each other, they’d been training with me since October — scattered across the country, doing laps in their local pools all winter, building…

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Hi there, Just this morning someone told me: “But I’m not a swimmer.” I hear that a lot — and it’s exactly why I created Move with the Water. Swimming has a bit of an image problem. For many of us, learning to swim meant learning to survive — get to the edge, hang on for dear life. It was a safety skill, not a joyful one. And even for those who came out the other side loving the water, it’s worth asking: does it still…

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Hi there, Earlier this week I sat down with a small group of swimmers and asked a question I’ve been sitting with myself: what feels sustainable right now? “I used to wear a watch to track my times and distance in practice — but I realized I had to take it off. Not because the data was wrong, but because I was stuck in comparing today to yesterday.” The watch wasn’t measuring progress anymore. It was measuring…

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK I almost missed it. I’m preparing for a swim adventure in a few months and aiming to be more consistent with my swimming than I’ve ever been. With that newfound consistency, my body spoke up; I noticed a small niggle in my shoulder as I was pushing tempo. Part of me wanted to skip a day (or three, maybe a week), rest the shoulder, wait it out. That’s what I’ve always done. But I want this time to be different—I need to…

Hi there, Yesterday I wrapped up Session 1 of Intro to Efficient Swimming at Rogue X. One participant — a lifelong swimmer who joined because she wanted to keep swimming kind to her joints — described the experience as “revolutionary.” The word struck me—because we weren’t chasing speed or performance, we simply slowed down enough to feel what actually supports the body. The exciting part? What supports the body will actually result in speed. If you’ve been curious about exploring swimming…

Hi there, This month at The Water’s Edge, I’m inviting us to tune into Connection. Connection to your body.Connection to the water.Connection to the people and practices that help you stay with what matters — especially in this time when things feel uncertain, chaotic, and messy. Rather than fixing or pushing, February is about re-establishing contact and noticing what changes when you stay in relationship with your swimming — and yourself. Inside The Water’s Edge, you’ll find weekly polls…

Reflections from the water Reflections | News | Updates Winter Edition As winter settles in, I wanted to pause and reflect on what’s been unfolding at Intrepid Water over the past few months, and offer a glimpse of what’s taking shape in the season ahead. In Swimbound, my five-month virtual coaching program that culminates in an in-person open-water experience, we’re in week 15 — building confidence for longer durations, experimenting with fueling while swimming, and learning how tempo and…

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Where are you gripping? I was driving in traffic the other day and caught myself humming. It’s a practice my coach taught me — a simple way to find myself when I feel scattered or braced. Humming helps ensure I’m continuously exhaling in the water, something I continue to struggle with. While I was surprised to catch myself humming in the car, that wasn’t what was interesting — it was how tightly I was gripping the…

LESSONS FROM THE WATER READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES WEBSITE SCHEDULE SUBSTACK Direction first, then movement January has a way of asking us to move quickly — new plans, new goals, more effort. In the water (and in life), I’ve learned that speed without orientation doesn’t take us very far. Sometimes it takes us beautifully, confidently… in the wrong direction. That’s why I’m beginning this year with orientation — before effort, before intensity, before “doing more.” Over the holidays, I had the…

Earlier this week, I stood in what will become the swim studio space here in Talent with the architect, the landlord, and the builder, reviewing plans from the engineer. It was exciting—15 months in the making—and equally terrifying, seeing something I’ve been imagining start to take shape (the plans still have to be approved by OHA before we can pour concrete). It reminded me of the difference between planning for something and being in it. The gap between the idea and the work. The water…

I’ve been noticing something lately. In my own head, the pieces of my work feel deeply connected — my own swimming, the coaching I do, the stories I’ve gathered through my podcast, and what I write about each week. But I’ve realized that from the outside, these can look scattered across different places, serving different purposes. So I’m making a small but meaningful shift in where my longer reflections live. Starting this week, I’m publishing on Substack — where my podcast, Stories from the…

One Breath at a Time Is it just me, or did it surprise you too when we came back from the long Thanksgiving weekend and it was suddenly December? Sure, I’ve been hearing Christmas music in stores since before Halloween, but it still felt like the season changed overnight. Monday arrived and I found myself staring at the list of everything I wanted to wrap up before the end of the year—wondering how on earth I was going to fit it all into four jam-packed weeks studded with holiday events. I…

The Long Game We’ve talked about awareness. We’ve talked about redirecting attention. But the real work—the work that changes us—lives in the long game. Because once you see a habit… and once you learn where to place your attention instead… you enter the part no one really likes to talk about: Repeating it. Over and over and over. Sometimes with ease. Sometimes with frustration. Sometimes with no visible change at all. This is exactly where most people assume something is wrong. They think if…

Don’t Stop—Redirect “It’s so hard to stop lifting my elbow” is something I hear from swimmers all the time. So I ask, “What do you tell yourself when you notice you’re doing it?” The answer is almost always the same: “I tell myself to stop.” And there it is. When my kids were little, I saw this play out daily. They’d be tapping, humming, banging—doing something that made me crazy—and I’d say, kindly, “Sweetie, please stop banging the table.” They’d pause… and then a minute later, the…

The Power of Awareness This week, one of my swimmers said something that got me thinking:“I used to like swimming. Now I love it.” It had all the makings of a testimonial, but what moved me was the subtle shift in language — because words matter. We do this in SwimMastery all the time. I’m sorry, you don’t have a “hand,” because the moment you think hand, your attention goes there and you disconnect from your engine. You send your books away from your feet — not your head — because thinking…