by Terry Laughlin
Why Swimming is Different
Have you ever noticed that the more and harder some athletes work at
swimming the less they have to show for it? This tends to be a
mystery_especially to beginners. The secrets of a better swim tend to elude
them.
This is the first in a series of articles that will clear up some of that
mystery and explain how to make swimming much less frustrating for the
average adult swimmer.
Most swimmers believe the way to improve is to do more laps or do them
harder. The mileage solution seems to work out well enough for running and
biking, so why shouldn't it for swimming? Because swimming is a motor skill
sport_having more in common with sports like tennis and skiing.
It's the water that makes swimming different. Water robs the swimmer of
energy and efficiency. With every stroke you take, the water is holding you
back and slowing you down.
Experts believe that the great performances of world-class swimmers are
approximately 70 percent determined by the efficiency and economy of their
body position and stroking movements, and only 30 percent by their power and
physical conditioning. For the less experienced and less skilled swimmer,
perhaps 90 percent or more of your performance is determined by how
efficiently you move through the water. Less than 10 percent is determined by
how fit you are. But very few people work at swimming that way.
However, simply acknowledging that better technique is the way to swim
faster still doesn't get you completely out of the woods. Many swimmers work
on technique for months or years, but still see little improvement. This is
because their attention is on things that have little effect on their
performance.
So what makes swimming faster? An analysis of races at the U.S. Olympic
Swimming Trials in 1984 and a separate study of the swimming events at the
1988 Olympics in Seoul concluded that faster swimmers consistently took fewer
strokes than slower swimmers. This offers us an indisputable goal: the
farther you can make your body travel on each stroke, the faster you will
swim.
There are two ways to make that happen. The most obvious is to develop a
more powerful stroke that will thrust you farther down the pool with each
pull. With this approach, swimmers devote lots of attention to how their
hands pull and to developing the perfect "S-stroke."
Another approach is to change the position or shape of your body to make it
more "slippery" and reduce the drag caused by the water. However, few
swimmers focus on that as a way to improve.
Becoming "slippery" starts with a torso-centered approach to technique.
Focus on the head and trunk first. Don't worry about the extremities_the arm
stroke and kick_until much later. If your body isn't balanced, stabilized and
streamlined, even the most powerful pull will go to waste trying to overcome
drag forces. These forces could be easily eliminated with simple adjustments
in body position.
Three body position adjustments will help you reduce drag: 1) balance and
stabilize your body; 2) make your body longer in the water; and 3) cut the
water on your side.
For a lesson in how to balance your body, refer to my column (page 15 of the
January/February issue of SWIM magazine) on pressing the "T." The next
installment in this series will teach you how to make your body longer and
cut the water on your side.
Coach Laughlin holds his Total Immersion Masters Swim Camps throughout the
year.
