I don't want kids to drop out as early as I did. I want to give a platform
for people to enjoy swimming, to show how much enjoyment swimming can bring. So whether that's
teaching them how to swim through drills and stuff like that, whether that's giving their swimming
idols of that moment a platform to speak to them through our podcast interviews; I just want people
to stay connected with the sport. Like I said, it's my biggest regret that I completely lost the
sport at the age of 16 and I don't want that to happen to other people because I know I could have
gone a lot further had I stayed with it. I want to provide this platform for a swimming community.
There's many aims in Propulsion Swimming. I think the idea is to make the sports in general grow
bigger. Since starting YouTube we've noticed that YouTube has become quite a big platform
and we just want to continue that growth. And it's not just for the elite side, we want to build more
knowledge through the club swimming side, master swimming side, the learn to swim, right the way
through to that elite level which hopefully we just build more coverage, build a publicity and
build a community so we can talk to everyone and just be fans of swimming. We're fans of swimming
first and foremost and we just we love this sport we want to talk about as much as possible
and get out there so that more younger people can watch the sport watching the likes of Adam Peaty,
Duncan Scott, Freya Anderson, watching these guys on telly and then aspiring to be
those next Olympic hopefuls. That's the dream, to build inspiration for the next generation.
It's very much given me back my enjoyment of the sport. Before we started Propulsion Swimming I
very much wasn't in the water, I wasn't training, my only fitness came from a gym membership. Since
we've started this I'm now training two times a week, I'm now loving talking about swimming
again. I never spoke about it with my family, my friends, it just didn't happen because I had taken
10 years out of the sport. And it's given me a pathway back in basically, back into swimming and
I've felt massively the improvement of my mental health because of it. I think that's
the biggest thing I'm back in the pool and I found an outlet that was missing for a very long time.
So Michael Phelps once said that swimming is more than a once every four year sport and I think we
want everyone to understand that swimming is not just your normal sport. You have to get up at
the crack of dawn, four or five in the morning for two hours, you then have to go to school,
you then have to go back to the pool for another two hours. You got to fit land training in there
somewhere like the gym side or the stretching, the foam rolling, all that sort of stuff and
we just want everyone to understand that's what it's all about. And we want more eyes to be on
the sports especially when we've got superstars in the water for GB right now in terms of Adam Peaty,
Duncan Scott, Freya Anderson, I can list so many. We just want more eyes on the sport so
that the next generation of swimmers can take up their mantle piece basically when they retire.
Ask questions. I think that's the biggest thing I found from running this channel is swimmers are a
lot more approachable than you realize. Social media, in terms of swimming, is a very small
world you can speak to coaches, you can speak to the elite swimmers if you drop them a message.
I'm not saying that they're going to reply but there is a chance that they will and
they'll pick it up or they might offer to do a workshop for your club or stuff like that.
Swimmers really want to get involved in the community more than I have ever known
since starting this channel. So I would say reach out for advice, ask questions because
everyone wants to share their knowledge. It's not like it's behind closed doors.
So of course I've been involved in swimming since the age of seven
and ever since ending swimming, I've wanted to stay involved in the sport and that's the
reason why I still do teaching and coaching. And since doing Propulsion Swimming the amount of
knowledge that I've gained through speaking to coaches on a podcast or speaking to swimmers
is brilliant. I think that's the way it should be, just talking to swimmers, reaching out like
Scott was saying. These swimmers and coaches are actually really accessible which I didn't think
that was the case when growing up but actually it's a very small world, very small community and
me and Scott have spoken to people that we just didn't think was possible at all. We've managed to
speak to Adam Peaty in an Olympic year. I thought he would be really busy doing his training and
stuff like that but he actually took the time to speak to us for for about an hour, which is great
for us because it helps promote us, but at the same time it inspires the next generation even
more because we got a deep look inside what it's like to be at the top of the level of the sport.
So I said before keeping people in the sport. I think we've always tried to be transparent in the
fact that YouTube has revenue opportunities. It isn't our sole focus but it is a nice side
effect of creating a brand, creating a channel and I don't want that revenue to go back into
our pockets. What I actually want that to do is to help swimmers out. So whether that goes straight
back into us creating videos which automatically have more value to swimmers and to the community
or something me and Dan have spoken about is creating like a hardship fund. The only reason he
was able to get to the elite level was because he got sponsored because neither me or Dan came from
quite a wealthy background, not at all. So if we can create a scholarship fund,
a hardship fund for swimmers out there who want to get on to that next level
because our YouTube videos are making money because we're getting sponsored by brands.
If we can put that back into a young swimmer's career and help them get to the next level,
I'd actually be over the moon with that, I really would. I think that would be the
ultimate goal to help us when we get to the next level because of something we're doing.
Even if we inspire one person or keep one more swimmer inside the sport and keep their longevity
going, I think this whole adventure that me and Scott have been on has been completely worth it!