SWIMMING

Master the Art of Fishlike Swimming

Want to swim like an elite? Practice like an artist, not an athlete.

by Terry Laughlin

Courtesy of Total Immersion

Six months later, watching him near the end of a Masters workout, I was surprised again … but this time less favorably. His fluent, effective stroke had become rushed and choppy. How had Alan lost his form? Very simple: Replacing semi-languorous, untimed lake swims with workouts — repeats, tight intervals, chasing lane-mates, the coach's urgings to go harder — had shifted Alan's focus from just feeling good to working hard. It appeared to me as if the main dividend of months of faithful workout attendance was lost efficiency.

If that could happen to a good athlete with a rare natural ability to swim well, how must conventional swimming workouts affect the average athlete? The main reason why simple training — more and harder — doesn't work as well for swimming as for running and cycling is that swimming is an unnatural activity for most humans. We are simply "hard-wired" to be inefficient in the water. If you try to improve by training more and harder, you'll mainly make your "struggling skills" more permanent.

The good news is that you can become a good enough swimmer to make fitness workouts not only good for you but completely enjoyable or to hugely improve your performance in triathlon. What it takes is a little knowledge and a willingness to practice swimming in a completely different way from how you train for other disciplines. Running and cycling are sports. Swimming efficiently is an art, as rigorous and exacting as gymnastics or martial arts. In order to become a good swimmer, you need to practice mindfully, patiently and intelligently.

A "Master of Arts" in Fishlike Swimming
Swimming well and enjoying it is more than a matter of mechanics. It is usually a matter of doing what feels good and trying to make good feel better. Truly gifted swimmers simply have a better intuitive understanding of the most fluent way to move through the water. And they often swim that way in spite of, rather than because of, what coaches tell them. They listen to their inner voice more than any outer voice. Here are some suggestions for developing your own inner coach. If you're willing to temporarily ignore how many laps, how fast and what interval, you can instead cultivate your own sense of swimming like an artist, rather than an athlete.

Pick one of the following focal points and swim short repeats (25 to 50 meters) slowly and easily, trying mainly to feel as described and evaluate how it affects your overall feeling of ease and fluency. Between repeats, just take three to five deep, slow "cleansing" breaths until you feel ready to swim that way again.

What: Hide Your Head
Why: Good head-spine alignment is essential to all skilled movement.
How:
Lead with the top of your head, not your forehead.
Feel water flowing over the back of your head much of the time.
See the bottom directly under you, and not much that's forward of you.

What: Swim Downhill
Why: Balance, a sense of being completely supported by the water, is the one non-negotiable skill of efficient swimming.
How:
Lean on your chest until your hips and legs feel light.
Rhythmically press in one armpit, then the other.
Feel completely supported by the water.

What: Lengthen Your Body
Why: A longer body line reduces drag, allowing you to swim faster, easier.
How:
Extend a weightless arm.
Put your arm into the water as if sliding it into a sleeve.
Keep extending until you feel your shoulder touch your jaw.

What: Swim Connected
Why: Using your core-body as your "engine" puts a tireless power source to work.
How:
Move your body past your hand, rather than focus on pushing water back.
Never move your hand back faster than your body is moving forward.
Swim with your whole body not your arms and legs.

What: Flow like Water
Why: Making waves or creating turbulence takes energy, all of it supplied by you.
How:
Pierce the water; slip through the smallest possible hole.
Drill or swim as quietly as possible.
Try not to make waves or disturb the water.

This article is excerpted from Terry Laughlin's new book Triathlon Swimming Made Easy: How Anyone can Succeed in Triathlon or Open-water Swimming, which will be published in February. For more information visit www.totalimmersion.net.

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