When Shrewsbury stone-skimmer Emily Bailey phoned me to let me know of her and her dad's successes at an international competition in Germany, there was only one question on my mind: "Can you teach me?"
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00:00I think most kids, as a kid, did it all the time, whenever you're near a lake, but taking it more seriously, in 2012, I started skimming stones.
00:11I've always skimmed with my dad since about the age of 10, and then only become proper into it for about a year and a half, maybe two years.
00:22I won the British title twice, 2016 and 2023. I've got a world title, that's with a team of four of us.
00:32We won the World Championships in 2024, and I won the Berlin Masters about three weeks ago, which was held in Berlin, obviously.
00:42I also won the Berlin Masters this year, the female category, and then in the World Championships, I was 14th this year, which was great, because I hadn't entered that one before.
00:54In 2012, I googled stone throwing competitions, because I just wanted to see if somebody could match how far I could throw a stone.
01:02Not really stone skimming, but there was nothing, but I did find stone skimming online, and they held competitions, so I thought, I'm going to enter them and see how we get on.
01:12Because I used to love doing it as a kid, and that's how I got into it.
01:15And I think for Emily, she can follow me around, and when I practice, I give them a few stones and let both my daughters practice.
01:23Any time there's a body of water, we're skimming stones for a good 30 minutes, so you either join in or we sit about.
01:31It's great to have them doing something that you're really passionate about. It's great that they come along, and they come away for long weekends with me.
01:39Scotland, they came away for a long weekend, Berlin, we went away for a long weekend, so it's not just stone skimming, it's just a lovely way to spend time with your daughters.
01:47Right stone, it's very important, and technique.
01:51Power.
01:52A bit of a mixture of power and getting the right stone and holding it in the right place, and getting a bit low to the ground.
01:59Smooth and flat on the bottom, doesn't matter too much on the top, it can be rough, it can be whatever, but flat and smooth on the bottom, because obviously that's the bit that's going to skim on top of the water.
02:09So yeah, you can spend a long time, hours on the beach, looking for the right stones.
02:15We went to, was it Clarek Bay? We've been a few times just to take a bag for life, and we spend the entire day just collecting stones.
02:24Picking ones that are terrible, and maybe some loads of piles possibly.
02:28Technique, obviously you've got the right stone now, when you're skimming, you want to look at where you're going to be skimming, get yourself ready, you've got the right stone position,
02:40you're going to get yourself in a position, your legs apart, get lowish to the water, bring your arm back, and then with your body and your arm,
02:50both come through, and then your arm and your wrist and your elbow, you're going to snap and get the spin on the stone, and the power as well, so both at the same time.