Behind the Deck
The Swimmer's Warm Up Deck did not begin with a single idea. It grew from years spent in swimming, coaching, exercise and product design, brought together with one clear aim: to help young swimmers understand pre-pool warm-up in a more visual and engaging way.
WHERE COACHING MEETS DESIGN
The Swimmer's Warm Up Deck brings together the experiences that have shaped much of my life: swimming, coaching, exercise and visual design.
Before moving into coaching, I spent more than 30 years in product design and advertising, developing products and visual communication that made information clearer and more accessible. Today, as Head of Swimming at Basingstoke Bluefins, I support swimmers from their earliest club experiences through to performance training.
As a qualified Level 3 Personal Trainer and a competitive Masters swimmer with multiple British, European and World records, I understand the importance of purposeful movement, clear instruction and consistent habits.
Those different experiences naturally came together. Coaching identified the problem. Product design shaped the solution. Swimming and exercise helped determine the movements, structure and practical application.
The result is a resource created to make pre-pool warm-up more visual, more consistent and easier for young swimmers to understand.
FROM IDEA TO POOLSIDE
The Warm Up Deck began with a recurring problem I kept seeing.
Many young swimmers did not complete a pre-pool warm-up at all. Others rushed through movements, copied those around them or followed instructions without understanding their purpose. The approach often varied between squads and relied heavily on constant coach direction.
I wanted to find a better way.
Not another written programme or a complicated coaching system, but something visual, practical and straightforward for young swimmers to understand and use.
Cards felt like a natural solution. They made each movement visible, gave swimmers something tangible to work from and provided coaches with a flexible system that could be used across different coaching environments.
That combination of design, coaching, movement knowledge and competitive swimming experience shaped the exercise selection, progression, presentation and overall structure of the deck.
The earliest versions were introduced within Development squads, where swimmers handled the cards, selected movements and gradually became more involved in their own warm-up. Coaches provided practical feedback and the wording, layout and structure continued to evolve through everyday use.
As the system developed, it became part of a wider approach to strengthening pre-pool culture. A Warm-up Builder role gave the first swimmer to arrive responsibility for selecting and laying out the day's movements with coach guidance. This created a clear starting point, encouraged earlier arrival and helped make warm-up something swimmers actively contributed to rather than simply followed.
Within the first few weeks, coaches began noticing changes in behaviour. Swimmers organised themselves more quickly, transitions became calmer and routines became more consistent. Some reminded teammates to begin their warm-up, volunteered to build the session and started discussing how movements should be performed rather than simply completing them.
These observations mattered because the aim was never just to produce a better set of exercise cards. The deck needed to support a change in behaviour by making warm-up easier to begin, easier to understand and easier for swimmers to take ownership of.
Throughout the project, I also received valuable feedback from experienced swim coaches, personal trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, educators, healthcare professionals, club leaders, parents and swimmers, including elite athletes and Olympians. Their different perspectives challenged assumptions, refined ideas and helped shape the finished deck.
Feedback from coaches, parents and swimmers will continue to inform future editions, but the purpose remains the same: to help young swimmers understand warm-up more clearly, take greater ownership and give coaches a more consistent way to support them.
Created by Spencer Turner
Head of Swimming | Level 3 Personal Trainer | Product Designer | Competitive Masters Swimmer
Get in Touch
The Warm Up Deck will continue to develop through real use and thoughtful feedback.
If you have used the deck with swimmers, at home or within a club, I’d be interested to hear what worked well, what could be improved and how the system has supported your warm-up routines.
Coaches, parents and swimmers are also welcome to share ideas, questions and practical observations that may help shape future development.
