Breakthrough Swim
Comments: 24
I need to try to write something about the swim I had today because, well, it was a bloody good swim, a breakthrough swim, one of those swims you have about once a year. The kind you write about.
Before I do, though, I should make clear that my purpose in telling you what happened today is not to let you know what a good swimmer I am (I’m not — that’s the whole point) but to tell you that if this can happen to me, it can happen to you (trust me here) and you really ought to be out there exercising regularly (if you’re not already) because … it will make you a better person. Seriously. In ways you didn’t know it could. It’s also cheaper than drugs and the effects are better and longer-lasting.
When I was a kid, I was absolutely not interested in sport at all. Sport was a bunch of sub-literate jocks kicking the shit out of each other on a field while a ball rolled around somewhere, generally unattended. Now in Australia, you are basically defined by your sporting ability, and if you’re not the sporting type, then you’re a poofter (a fag, a pansy). If the choice was between the type of people I seemed to find myself among in PE class and being a poof, then a poof I would gladly be. It was a role I would happily embrace throughout my entire school career, leaving me with a lot of time to read. PE class where I went to school made The Lord of the Flies look like a Tupperware party.
Now, however, I know the real reason why I didn’t get into sport: I didn’t understand it. That old saw about it being about “how you play the game” is true, but not in ways that were ever made clear to me (and not, incidentally, in the way the saying is usually intended). It’s a bit like that Tag-Heuer advertising campaign of a few years back (“Success: It’s a mind game”). It is a mind game, but not at all in the testosteronically silly way of those ads.
The goal is only ostensibly to cross the finish line or put the ball in a net or whatever. The real goal of sport, I now understand, especially individual sports, is to get high.
OK. I’m being slightly facetious for the sake of a gag. But I will tell you in all seriousness that swimming provides me with the best trips I’ve had since I was heavily into magic mushrooms almost 20 years ago.
I’ve been training with a group of people for a couple of years. We swim 2 km interval training Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Recently, I’ve been swimming slow, loose 3 km straight-through runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well because there are some things I’ve been trying to concentrate on and I wanted to accelerate the unlearning of previous sub-optimal habits (and also, it must be noted, because of the distinct possibility that I’ve become addicted to what happens in the brain when swimming). I’ve heard that it generally takes about 20 km to really learn something new. I’d agree with this, and would add that about 16 km of that is unlearning your previous habits.
For the past week, our group has been joined by a woman who’s a fantastic swimmer, a regular at the pool and well-known in swimming circles. She’s great to swim with because apart from giving me a break at the head of the line (I’m the youngest in our group so usually lead off), she’s a good observer and knows exactly what to say to make you think. This is the hallmark of a good coach (and this is really a paean to great coaching rather than endorphin addiction).
As I say, I’ve been training for a while and I think I’ve made some reasonable gains, but for the last 8 months or so I’ve been on a plateau that I just can’t seem to lose. My times have been loitering around 40 seconds for 50 metres, and around 1:30 for 100 m (averaged over a session, but my sprint times aren’t much better) and I haven’t been able to consistently improve them. Swimming has been enjoyable, but an element of frustration has been creeping in, and it’s not the striving-to-do-better frustration either but the kind that threatens to become a real drag (hydrodynamically speaking).
A week ago Midori-san (the woman I mentioned) suggested I do one thing — move the catch point of my stroke 14 cm lower in the water — and I’ve been practicing this all week with no discernible gains. Today, however, well, the magic happened is the only way I can describe it.
In individual sports, especially those where you’re performing a limited range of repetitive actions (swimming, running, jumping, &c.) a single small change in one part of your stroke routine (and, please, no stroke jokes — I’ve heard them all … more than once) can create strong changes right throughout your entire body. Once you’ve got the basics down, you quickly begin to be able to identify all the sub-parts of the action you’re performing. Your discriminatory powers become heightened and you’re able to start dealing with things in extremely fine detail.
You become, for example, aware not just of individual muscles, but of the various parts of specific muscles, and one of the first things that happened when I began to follow Midori-san’s advice was that the medial end of my anterior deltoids (the front-most clump of shoulder muscle) began to hurt like hell. A new muscle-memory was being formed.
Other changes cascaded down from the lowered catch point: to hit the new point my hands have to enter the water differently, and for them to do this, it’s better for my shoulders to roll into the stroke in a more circular way than they were before. With my shoulders rolling into the stroke more (and consequently assuming more of the work of getting my hands where they need to be) my arms can relax somewhat and the stroke becomes less tiring. When my arms are not so tired I can concentrate on extending my scapula forward into the catch, thus lengthening my stroke. The arm extension comes from movement of the bone, not a straightening of the arm, so I can curve into the catch and take a bigger scoop of water. With the catch adjusted this way, the power for the stroke can come from a different set of more powerful muscles — the posterior deltoid and infraspinatus (the muscle tucked in underneath it) take up the strain and pass it back via the teres major to the latismus dorsi with the serratus anterior, external obliques and intercostals squeezing shut for the push back into the stroke finish.
See how trippy this is? And we’re not even at the good part yet.
This whole series of events then leads to a really dramatic change — call it the noru feeling. Noru (which has become my mantra) means “to get on” or “to board” (as in a train or vehicle, but it’s the same feeling you get when you hoist yourself over a low fence) and what it feels like in this case is that my arm is stationary in the water and my body is hopping up onto the stroke and then falling into the other side of it. Because my centre of gravity has moved back (below my shoulders now but there’s more work to be done here), I feel as if I’m being propelled into the transition point of the stroke by gravity. This feels very, very good. It’s a free ride, after all.
We’re still not done with the stroke, but bear with me. Because my arms are being used more properly, they have more energy left for the finish so my triceps get more attention because I’m not spazzing out about anything below the elbow. The scapula extension I mentioned above is happening at the same time as my opposite arm is finishing a stroke, and it feels balanced to push back further than I had been before (better motive force, longer stroke).
I know this is getting boring but I’m almost done. With my centre of gravity moved back, my bum is higher in the water. Three things happen now: I have a hydrodynamically lower profile, my kicks are higher in the water so the transmission of power from them occurs along a straighter, more lateral line, and I can abdominally crunch into each kick in a way that helps with the arm extension into the next catch.
OK, this is all fine, but what does it really mean? What it means is that today instead of swimming the 50m laps in 40 seconds, I swam them in 30. Consistently. Every single one. In other words, my speed increased by 25%. Over the 100m laps I was pulling 1:20 instead of 1:30. My final laps were only a couple of seconds slower than my earlier post-warm-up ones. Obviously there’s still plenty of room for improvement, but these gains were consistent over 2km (we’ll see how consistent they really are next time I get in the pool, I guess).
But it felt like a breakthrough swim, it really did. It felt like a new room opened in my brain, a nicely lit room, a little messy, sure, a little dusty, but full of things I can use. And it happened because of 7 words — “move your catch point 14 centimetres lower.”
It’s taken me 1,681 words (in my typically verbose style, admittedly) to tell you what was achieved with 7, but you see what brilliant coaching is all about? She knew what happen if she told me those words!
I hope you can imagine how I felt when I got out of the pool today because — back to the point of this whole thing — if I can feel it, you can feel it. And I want everybody to feel this.
One thing I’m sure you can’t imagine is how much I’m looking forward to getting back in the pool tomorrow.
•••
Posted to General Rants • 2003.08.13 (Wed) • 22:46
Comments
Posted by John C 2003.08.13, 23:01
Your post reminds me of why I used to love the early mornings, the constant goggle-marks around my eyes and the smell of chlorine. It wasn’t about the pain, it was about improvement and efficiency. The satisfaction of knifing through the water at speed without disturbing the water.
Swimming’s so technical that the slightest defect in technique can make a massive difference in speed / effort required (as you know). As a former 400m free man my tip of the day is to stretch out your stroke length as much as possible - really reach forwards as you push back with the other hand. I always used to try and picture a javelin cutting through the water…
Posted by jh 2003.08.13, 23:09
400m free —- that’s a tough race!
I’m really starting to understand (i.e., physically understand) the benefits of the longest possible stroke length. And your point about mental imagery (javelin, knife, barracuda, whatever it may happen to be) is so important. It’s kind of strange how much of a difference these images can have.
Posted by Blake 2003.08.14, 04:05
A 25% increase is huge! That doesn’t happen everyday. Reading your descriptions of swimming techniques, I have a new respect for swimmers. It ain’t just jumping in the water. That’s the tip of the diving board (hah). The whole idea of muscle memory is sound. As somebody who lifts weights very heavily three times a week (four would cause injury) I can say with honesty that your muscles “learn”. Every time I attempt a new pattern or routine in my weight lifting, my muscles aren’t ready. However, in a month’s time my have conformed. Quickly. So there’s something to be said for “teaching” the muscles new tricks. They will remember.
Posted by Ben Shewmaker 2003.08.14, 05:22
I should add:
The same can be said of practicing a musical instrument. When trying to master a new playing technique (such as altissimo on the saxophone), even the slightest change in behavior can produce significant results. And altho you can practice for hours, weeks, months with no seeming result in your goal, when it does happen you feel on top of the world (even if you think no one else can really appreciate your accomplishment).
Posted by Chas. Porter 2003.08.14, 13:52
I’ve always felt art and sport were siblings and that both lead to transcendence. What do you think?
Posted by Shazam, MD 2003.08.15, 03:15
I had a similar experience recently after reading total immersion and doing only one session in the water. I felt high, I felt my body jumping forward magically. My very last stroke in the pool was the best, but the pool was closed. I went home giddy and couldn’t wait to swim the next day.
Of course, putting it into practice during the open water 1 mile triathalon swim sent me back into all my old habits, but it’s a start.
Posted by Jim 2003.10.09, 23:17
I know I am getting in on this late, but I came back to read this again after my swim this morning. I found it yesterday. I really would like get a better feel for what you are doing to get such a dramatic improvement.
When you say you are lowering your catch by 13cm. Is your hand entering the water at a different angle or are you reaching for a lower point when you hand enters the water? If this is so, what is the depth of you out streched hand?
Thanks in advance for any additional information you can provide.
Jim
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