Adventure Coach

The best place to teach adventure trekking skills is at the local leisure centre with swimming pools. They have many facilities you may want. Some even have climbing walls overhanging a pool for safe practice.

Dryside for Theory and Equipment Checks

You may have dryside rooms to teach the theory and equipment use. Here you can show how to pack a rucksack and make it waterproof for pool practice.

Participants can try on a variety of adventure clothing. Explain how it works and when to use it. Make sure they wear each outfit under a waterproof layer for the duration of the dry session to get a better feel for it.

Do some exercises to simulate a strenuous hike. Let them build up some sweat until they're wet. Compare ponchos and capes with anoraks and jackets when it comes to ventilation. Stay hydrated to make up for sweating.

Realistic Pool Training

All participants and teachers go fully clothed into the water to make it more interesting. You use a shallow teaching pool to practice wading skills and teach how to swim in various hiking clothes.

As teacher you lead by example. Show how different clothes influence your swimming ability. Then your class learns how to cope by ongoing practice in a variety of outfits. This is a good place to try out new kit. The deep pool is for swim training and refinement.

Reader Comment: Adventure Swim Class

Emailed by Ralf from Hamburg, Germany

One of the most popular courses are the three hour personal survival classes. They begin with a 40 minute dryside briefing about swimming strokes and water safety. Then everyone gets fully clothed, takes a shower and jumps into the pool.

Every week I run survival swimming classes in the local sports centre, aimed at hikers and adventurers. For realism the we all go into the pool fully clothed in our hiking kit. That is great fun and the reason why these classes are so popular.

While the lifeguards watch over us, I teach from within the pool. The only way to demonstrate a skill is by being close to my class in the water. Teaching from the poolside is for wusses.