The Sheer Bliss of Swimming

This week I have so enjoyed watching the Olympic Games from Rio on TV and of course the highlights for me have been the number of medals won by the GB team. The viewing of the Olympics on TV is a pretty noisy affair in our house with both of us shouting as if our team can hear us and whooping and applauding as if we were right there. 

Steve and I have run our own triathlon club for twenty five years and have always enjoyed the coaching side of things. We both love helping people improve their swimming and don’t even stop when we are just in the pool having a swim ourselves. Steve is usually in the water with the guys he coaches of a morning and even whilst he is swimming, he is watching what everybody is doing under the water, so that when they stop he can give guidance on how to make tiny adjustments to their stroke.

 

This is something I do too, though I don’t stop at the ones who have got in the training lane and are therefore are asking for help. During my own swim sessions I will say a few words to any of the people swimming in the public session on that morning. I am an incurable swim teacher as opposed to Steve who cannot help loving everything that goes into the coaching side. Only this morning I stopped one of the ladies who come to the pool at the same time as me each day. She swims for a while and then goes off for a brisk walk along the sea front and pops in a tiny bit of jogging now and again. Today she had done a little gentle swimming and then a bit of stretching and then a little bit of back stroke. It was the back stroke that I stopped her to talk about. It seems to me, that there are more people who are bad at backstroke than there are people who are bad at front crawl. Most people do seems to have a very rough idea of what they are supposed to do to swim front crawl but appear to not have a clue about back stroke.

 

  

When you go regularly at the same time to swim sessions in a local pool, it is not long before you know everybody’s name, where they live and what they do. So when I see somebody swimming in the same lane as me or close to where I am, and I see an obvious area that they could improve quite simply, I wait for the moment when they stop at the end then stop too, quickly pass the time of day and add, I see that you are working on your front crawl, (or maybe backstroke) and ask, “May I make a helpful comment”. I have never had anybody turn around and tell me that I am an interfering baggage yet. Nor has anybody ever declined. I don’t make a big deal of it and I will only pick on one point at a time. Most people appreciate the help and very often ask for further help in the days that follow.

 

 

Personally, I think that most triathletes would benefit from spending some of their end of season swim time in learning to do back stroke more efficiently. It will help their kick, it will help their long axis rotation and certainly it will improve their head and body position. Doing one arm drills on your back is a good way to concentrate on one arm stroke at a time, as well as helping them develop better arm/ kick timing. I mostly end each session with 200-600 back crawl myself.

 

 

I find it a total mystery that so few people who are swim training regularly don’t take full advantage of the excellent coverage of major swim meets on TV. If you do, you will see really good swimmers from all angles. TV coverage will show swimming from a pool side angle, but also terrific camera shots from above and the very best, I feel from a stroke coverage point of view, is the superb underwater filming; so much of the technique becomes more clear when watching what should happen after the catch and through the water to the end of the stroke cycle.

 

 

Michael Phelps has made this a very special Olympic Games for the USA and I watched all of his events in the pool, and the repeats. He is a joy to watch and 22 Olympic Gold medals is, simply incredible.

 

Endless Ladder 

It’s all quiet

Nobody is there

Keep moving on

Eye’s ahead where 

Focus in this

Underwater scene

Still and tranquil

In bluey green 

Far as the eye can see

It stretches on

How can it be

To infinity it has gone 

Deep down inside

You know it leads

To something better

Where style succeeds

 

The endless ladder

The perfect tutor

Leads you on

Like a loving suitor

 

Passion to reach for

Something better

Rise to the bait

Of this chain letter

 

Reach forward

With your hand

To the next rung

And firmly land

 

Pull your self along

One rung at a time

This arm and then this

Rhythmically in rhyme

 

Plod away and

Keep a steady pace

Relax and settle

No need to race

 

 Pull along the side

Keep your reach

A little wide

Your memory teach 

Slide again along

The ladder’s length

Grip and push back

Use your strength 

One hand one side

One hand the other

Nicely spaced out

And then recover

 

Further along

More power then

Flowing movement

Smooth timing when 

The Endless ladder

Cadence steady

Take a rest

When you are ready 

Comfy now

Onward ever

Feel you could

Do this forever 

Knuckle down to

Peaceful progression

The pleasure true

A satisfying lesson 

Floating climb

Toward infinity

Settled style

With sure affinity 

Pull-push away

Till the move remain

In muscle memory

A sweet refrain 

Never reaching

The ladders end

A better swimmer

You are my friend