In early January, I went to Jesus Green Lido in Cambridge for the first time. The water was 4°C, and I only swam just under 200m. I really enjoyed the benefits of cold water and swimming combined, but little did I know that I would take it this far. I also enjoyed doing long distance butterfly. My longest butterfly swim before starting training was 6k (done in a 25m pool)....
The flutter kick is one of the most basic skills in swimming, yet despite its fundamental nature, very few people understand the primary functions of the kick nor how the predominantly up and down movement causes the kicker to move forward. Very little can be found on Google which explains the kick. It took me a few years of teaching it, studying math and researching what little information is available, for me to understand enough that I feel comfortable writing an explainer article....
Freedom is the ability to experience different concepts. Most people desire freedom, as there are many concepts that are extremely enjoyable, such as visiting france or eating good food. However, often attaining high freedom requires limiting your freedom in the short term, or experiencing concepts which aren’t much fun, like hard work. Here is a comprehensive list of things that can limit your freedom: Addiction (You are a slave to your desires)....
I think every teacher is familiar with the moment when a learner “gets it”, the moment where everything falls into place and what seemed so difficult suddenly becomes much easier. It’s a wonderful moment for the teacher and the learner as both of their efforts have paid off. It is in these moments that we can see the potential for how quick humans can really learn. Imagine if teaching was so effective that they could reproduce the feeling of “getting it” for every student they are teaching for every skill they are teaching....
One of the people I have learned the most from online is Grant Sanderson, the man behind the math explainer channel 3Blue1Brown where he uses an inquiry-based learning approach to teach math. He was one of the first people that truly made me understand the importance of visualization and spatialization for understanding math. In the first video of one of Sanderson’s most popular series, “the essence of calculus”, he mentions that:...
On 31 August 2024, I will be attempting to swim the 17km (11 mile) length of Lake Windermere using only butterfly. This will be my first significant open water swim, which poses a challenge in itself. However, the part I am most worried about is swimming 6 hours in the cold water. I am also raising money for the charity Level Water (see my sponsorship page).
The modular philosophy argues that tools should “do one thing and do it well”. Advantages of a modular design Repairability: If one part of the item breaks, it is possible to replace the singular part rather than the whole item. Extensibility: Since the tool is designed to do one job, more complex tasks will require new tools, and so the tool should be able to be used as part of a more complex system....