Thoughts on swimming from Terry Laughlin

The Skiing Lesson: Part Two

I'm still working on mastering the skating or "freestyle" version of cross-country skiing. Skate-skiing as a sports skill has existed for only 20 years, having been unveiled in the 1980 Winter Olympics, when Bill Koch became the first American cross-country skiing gold medalist because his revolutionary style proved much faster on hills. His innovation was quickly copied by competitors and soon was separated from "classic" skiing as a separate event, as butterfly grew out of breaststroke innovations almost 50 years ago.
Yet, despite the relative infancy of this skill, I've discovered instruction in its techniques is astonishingly advanced and refined, compared to the state of swimming instruction and technique coaching. This winter I have taken lessons or classes with four different instructors, in different parts of the country. At each lesson, ranging from beginner to intermediate (and a hint of advanced instruction), the fundamentals of good skiing have been taught in ways that were completely uniform and complemented each other totally. Each coach emphasized the same fundamentals and conveyed the same understanding of the progression of skills to be mastered. There has been an absolute absence of confusion, illogic or misinformation. Every instructor worked from the same understanding of how a body behaves on skis, how to correct errors, and how to improve efficiency. In particular, they all emphasized that there's no point to pushing yourself to ski greater distances or more challenging terrain until you have the skill to do them with good form. And all advocated extensive practice of simple drills to build that efficiency.
Contrast this with the widespread misinformation, illogic and sheer wrongheaded orthodoxy among swim teachers and coaches, despite the fact that, as a profession, we've had 60 or 70 years to study our sport and develop an understanding of its techniques. The only consistency is that swim coaches and instructors so uniformly get it wrong. Every week I hear several new accounts from swimmers of misinformation ranging from innocently clueless to dangerously misguided which they've gotten from swim instructors and coaches. Here are several examples that have come to my attention in just the past two weeks:
Teachers who begin their instruction of a beginner or non-swimmer with hours devoted to the utterly pointless exercise of "making your kick stronger" when they should be teaching their students balance as the non-negotiable first skill of efficient swimming.
Coaches who insist that swimmers "hold your head up so you can get on top of the water" when precisely the opposite is true. A high head position causes the hips and legs to sink, makes good balance almost impossible, and, for good measure, often causes neck and back tension.
Trainers who advise swimmers that they need to lift weights or train with big paddles to develop power, when the quickest path to greater speed is to reduce water resistance or drag.
Coaches who urge swimmers to "turn over faster" in order to swim faster, when it has already been proven that a longer, not faster, stroke is the most reliable way to increase your speed.
The coach whose response to a concerned mother when she said that her 10-year old son's stroke, "looked more like salsa dancing" than swimming, was "Don't worry, that will work itself out in time." The truth is that bad form, when practiced further, simply grows into a more durable habit and truly efficient form, for virtually every swimmer, is never acquired spontaneously, but MUST be taught.
And finally, in the most extreme example of misguided advice, is the coach who told a mother whose 12-year old daughter was beginning to experience persistent shoulder pain that: "Shoulder soreness is a natural part of swimming; the most important thing right now is for her to keep training." The truth is that pain is the body's "injury alarm," that shoulder pain should be treated with particular concern in pre-teens and is nearly always a symptom of poor technique. More training will almost certainly make the injury worse, possibly to the point where surgery is required or to a career-ending situation. The correct response should have been to immediately take her out of training, have the shoulder examined and begin teaching her to be more fluent and efficient.

The obvious conclusion for swimmers (and their parents) is "Caveat emptor" - Buyer beware. Be well-informed yourself, employ common sense and don't assume that swimming instructors or coaches are always correct. Consider it opinion, not gospel, until logic or your own experience tell you it's true. If an instructor tells you that you need to work on your kick, ask them how it will benefit you or accelerate your learning. If a coach tells you that you should hold your head higher, try it and see whether it helps you ride higher or makes you sink (if the latter happens, as it will, their next response will probably be that "you need to make your kick stronger.") And if a coach advises you that the best thing is "more training" when your child's stroke is not fluent or when they may be experiencing pain that lasts for more than a day or two, it's time to find a new coach.
posted by terry laughlin at 2:41 PM

Day by Day with Swimming Made Easy

This is the first in a series of regular (at least a couple of times a week) "swimming lessons" from my new book SWIMMING MADE EASY. I spent an hour last night using a yellow marker to highlight important ideas. I was delighted to find that I was highlighting substantial sections of virtually every page.
Here are some key ideas from the Introduction:

"The Rule of Two Percent,"
Humans are "hard-wired" to be inefficient in the water, so if you've struggled yourself to learn or improve--or just to navigate a lap or two without tiring--don't feel bad. You've got lots of company. We teach 1500 to 2000 improvement-minded swimmers a year at our workshops and have found that only about one person in fifty has the native ability to swim fluently without UNLEARNING bad habits or instincts. The other 98 percent of us follow our instincts and struggle along unnecessarily, mainly making our bad habits more permanent. To swim well, you need to forget everything you "know" about swimming, because virtually everything you do by instinct in the water tends to be clumsy, inefficient, and exhausting. And the more you swim that way, the more durable you make your "struggling skills." .

"Martial Arts Swimming."
Moving through the water like a fish is an elusive skill. The fastest way to unlearn your "human-swimming" habits and replace them with smooth and easy "Fishlike" habits is by NOT swimming. Instead practice simple, easily mastered movements, much like those in martial arts training. Every Total Immersion student, novice to elite, begins by learning a series of positions that although extremely basic, establish a profound "connection" with the water. None of the positions are difficult. Yet mastering these simple moves in a logical progression can make such a powerful difference that within the first hour, you'll be flowing through the water with more ease and less effort than you ever thought possible.

Master the ART of swimming, before you train for it as a SPORT.
When you begin teaching yourself, using the TI method, it's absolutely essential not to rush the program, to take as long as necessary to become completely comfortable with each of the simple movements we teach. For that 98 percent group in which most all of us find ourselves, piling on laps and more laps inevitably leads to struggle and more struggle as we fall back into old habits. But every swimmer who takes the time to first master the basic positions, and then patiently progress through the full sequence of skill-builders, will be able to swim with comfort and control at every stage, and advance through the more advanced skills with almost ridiculous ease and speed.
Happy laps!
Day by Day with Swimming Made Easy

This is the first in a series of regular (at least a couple of times a week) "swimming lessons" from my new book SWIMMING MADE EASY. I spent an hour last night using a yellow marker to highlight important ideas. I was delighted to find that I was highlighting substantial sections of virtually every page.
Here are some key ideas from the Introduction:

"The Rule of Two Percent,"
Humans are "hard-wired" to be inefficient in the water, so if you've struggled yourself to learn or improve--or just to navigate a lap or two without tiring--don't feel bad. You've got lots of company. We teach 1500 to 2000 improvement-minded swimmers a year at our workshops and have found that only about one person in fifty has the native ability to swim fluently without UNLEARNING bad habits or instincts. The other 98 percent of us follow our instincts and struggle along unnecessarily, mainly making our bad habits more permanent. To swim well, you need to forget everything you "know" about swimming, because virtually everything you do by instinct in the water tends to be clumsy, inefficient, and exhausting. And the more you swim that way, the more durable you make your "struggling skills." .

"Martial Arts Swimming."
Moving through the water like a fish is an elusive skill. The fastest way to unlearn your "human-swimming" habits and replace them with smooth and easy "Fishlike" habits is by NOT swimming. Instead practice simple, easily mastered movements, much like those in martial arts training. Every Total Immersion student, novice to elite, begins by learning a series of positions that although extremely basic, establish a profound "connection" with the water. None of the positions are difficult. Yet mastering these simple moves in a logical progression can make such a powerful difference that within the first hour, you'll be flowing through the water with more ease and less effort than you ever thought possible.

Master the ART of swimming, before you train for it as a SPORT.
When you begin teaching yourself, using the TI method, it's absolutely essential not to rush the program, to take as long as necessary to become completely comfortable with each of the simple movements we teach. For that 98 percent group in which most all of us find ourselves, piling on laps and more laps inevitably leads to struggle and more struggle as we fall back into old habits. But every swimmer who takes the time to first master the basic positions, and then patiently progress through the full sequence of skill-builders, will be able to swim with comfort and control at every stage, and advance through the more advanced skills with almost ridiculous ease and speed.
Happy laps!
posted by terry laughlin at 3:51 PM

THE SKIING LESSON
Brent Jordan posted this at the TI discussion board: "I'm a lifelong cyclist and have just started training for triathlons. This is my first experience in swimming. I have done swimming and drills from the video twice a week for about a month but can still only do 50 yards before having to stop and rest. My question is: Am I just experiencing a lack of swimming endurance, or should I be able to swim longer without resting by now?"

I am probably at about the same place as Brent as a cross-country skier, at least in the freestyle method (also known as skating). I've been skiing classic style for 10 years, which almost seems a handicap to learning the skating style: Too much muscle memory; I might almost be better off with no skiing experience.

After devoting one or two weekends a year since 1998 to dabbling in skate-skiing, last week I finally invested in skating skis and went to Lake Placid to get serious. On Friday morning, everything I had painstakingly learned in previous winters was forgotten as I scrabbled helplessly around the flat stadium area at Mt Van Hoevenburgh (site of the 1980 Olympic races). But then I remembered the first drill from the first skating lesson I had ever taken: Take your left ski off, place your right (ski-shod) foot in one of the tracks cut for the classic skiers and, using your left (ski-less) foot, push off and glide. The stadium field is about 150 yards in length; I figured that about two trips (or 300 yards) of balance practice on each foot should give me a sufficient foundation to progress to the next drill.

Off I went, but only for 30 yards. I was exhausted!. My skiing foot was tired because I seemed to be clenching it, rather than just "riding the ski." And everything from my thighs to my shoulders seemed to be working far too hard because my body went too far past the balance point (center of mass directly over the ski) every time I pushed off, forcing me to use sheer effort to haul my 200+ lbs. back to the centerline. And because my shaky balance caused me to put the pushing foot down so quickly, I wasn’t getting any glide, making my movements more and more rushed. Was I exhausted because I lacked "skiing endurance?" Definitely not. This was all about massively-wasted energy, not lack of it.

"Okay, let's regroup," I thought. Going much more deliberately and slowly, I went a bit farther before stopping to rest. I finally made it the full 150 yards, in four stages with rest between. Heading back, I made it in three stages. I was feeling my foot relax and my body was beginning to figure out how to balance all my weight right over the ski and glide a bit with the other foot raised. As my balance improved, I also found myself better able to push with power.

I switched the ski to my left foot to figure out balance with the other side of my body (and brain). I also made a mental shift. Rather than plan for a certain number of trips, I knew I should just stay with it, at least until I could make 150 yards non-stop on each foot. As it happens it took about 10 total trips (nearly a mile of practice) to complete a nonstop journey down the field.

But even then, I decided to continue practicing that basic balance for a while longer, wanting to do it beyond relaxation and ease - almost to the point of boredom. Not the boredom of lack of engagement, but the kind where your body falls into such an effortless movement flow that it seems able to carry on without conscious signals from your brain. It was a wise decision. I used the "do it til' you're bored" philosophy for drills and whole skill practice (lots of flat skiing before I attempted hills) during 10 hours of skiing over the 3-day weekend and made really exciting progress.

The lesson for Brent and anyone else hoping to learn fluent Fishlike swimming is the same.
1. Start with the simplest balance drill (from the video Freestyle and Backstroke: the Total Immersion Way)
2. Practice it with no set time limit or number of repetitions in mind.
3. Stay with it until it becomes physically effortless.
4. Then stay with it a bit longer until you are "bored" (mentally effortless).
5. Only then should you progress to the next drill or skill.
6. And make a commitment to avoid "practicing struggle" at any stage. Any time you feel yourself losing control or edging toward fatigue, either (a) stop and rest, or (b) regroup at the prior drill or skill or (c) both.
Happy laps,
Terry
posted by terry laughlin at 1:47 PM