On Thursday 18th June, the 50m pool at Becontree Heath Leisure Centre played host to something a little special. Twenty-two swimmers from our Silver, Sapphire, Gold, and Diamond squads came together for a two-hour workshop led by elite butterfly specialist and international swimmer Jamie Ingram — an opportunity that had our poolside buzzing from the first splash.
Who is Jamie Ingram?
Jamie Ingram is one of Britain’s leading butterfly swimmers, currently competing at the highest level on the international circuit. A Commonwealth Games representative for England, Jamie claimed a silver medal in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay at Birmingham 2022 and finished 8th in the 100m Butterfly at the same Games — an event in which he has since become a seven-time national short-course champion. In December 2024 he recorded a remarkable 49.94 seconds in the short-course 100m Butterfly, making him the third fastest Briton ever in that event and placing him 17th in the world rankings.
Alongside his competitive career, Jamie runs clinics and workshops for clubs across the country through his coaching platform, bringing world-class technical knowledge directly to poolside — and now, to us.
What the Session Covered
Across the two hours, Jamie worked through a series of key technique areas with our swimmers, getting into the water himself to demonstrate drills in real time — a hands-on approach that made it immediately clear why sessions like this are so valuable. In Jamie’s words:
Thank you, and the rest of the club, for your hospitality on Thursday. I really enjoyed the session and I hope that the swimmers took a lot from it too.
As a recap we started from a perfect streamline, into repeated streamline jumps, into push and glides for maximum distance, into the underwater fly kicking where we started with kicks with the arms by the side, into arms overhead and finally into streamline. The focus here was on keeping the head still, moving from the chest, and keeping the legs relaxed. Any increases in speed are through an increased tempo rather than kicking the legs harder.
We moved from there into some fly work. Here I want the kick to dictate the rhythm and flow of the stroke so we started (very similarly to the underwater work) with surface kicks with arms by the side, and progressed that into arms overhead, single arm and finally full stroke. Again when we go through those positions the emphasis is on tempo, and getting the hips and feet to break the surface.
We finished the session on fly turns. The two cues I like are knee drive and spin. So we did a drill where the swimmers lie on their front then drive the knees to the chest so aggressively, and tuck up so tightly they complete a full rotation. We can then do the same but as soon as the knees hit the chest they spin onto their front. This is important because there is no lifting of the head during this movement, and we can see from poolside how low they stay during the spin. Finally we put that into a turn on the wall, repeating the cues of “knees” and “spin”.
A Valuable Session for Swimmers and Coaches Alike
One of the things that made this workshop particularly worthwhile is that it wasn’t just our swimmers who came away with something new. Jamie’s clinics are designed to benefit coaches too — introducing fresh drills, new technical cues, and perspectives drawn from competing at the very top of the sport. There was plenty for our coaching team to take back into everyday training.
For the swimmers, having someone of Jamie’s calibre on the poolside — and in the water — was a genuine learning experience. The combination of technical detail, live demonstration, and the knowledge that these are the same techniques used at international level gave the session a real edge.
With the competition season now building towards its finale, the timing couldn’t have been better. For those heading to the Nationals and beyond, the gains made on Thursday could prove invaluable. And for every swimmer who took part, there’s something concrete to work with in the weeks ahead.
We’d like to thank Jamie for making the trip to Becontree and for delivering such a high-quality session. A special thanks also to Shagor, our Gold squad coach, for organising the workshop and making it happen — it’s exactly the kind of opportunity that makes a real difference to our swimmers’ development. We hope this is the first of many sessions like it, and we’re looking forward to bringing more expert visitors to the poolside in the future.
If you’d like to find out more about Jamie’s coaching and clinics, you can visit him at jingramswimming.com.