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.