Swim with Terry – A "Diagonal Power" Breakthrough
By Terry Laughlin

I took another look and saw the leaders still just 10 meters ahead. So I put a stronger accent on my diagonal-thrust-and-downbeat, visualizing as I did that the power of each thrust was carrying me an inch or two closer. And sure enough, it was. Peeking forward every 40 to 50 strokes I could see the gap closing each time.

In the last Total Swim, I reported on the first three races of my 2004 open water season. I was pleased with my swimming in all three, but had won my 50-54 age group in only one – the Mashpee 5K Super Swim; in the other two I placed 4th against remarkably strong fields of 50-54 swimmers in the USMS National 5K and 10K Championships.

But I moved all the way to the top of the “podium” when I won the Adirondack Masters 2-mile Cable Swim in Mirror Lake on July 17, not only winning my age group, but winning the race outright over dozens of younger swimmers. I hadn’t been an overall winner since winning a lifeguard race while working at Jones Beach nearly 30 years ago!

I credit my win at Lake Placid to a discovery I made earlier in the week while practicing in Lake Minnewaska in the Shawangunk Mountains. Lacking the pace clocks one finds on pool walls, lakes encourage the “mindful practice” that I find most rewarding to both my performance and psyche. In Mindful Swimming I explore small details of my stroke in search of more efficiency, comfort or control, tirelessly targeting a single focal point for hundreds of strokes. When a particular focal point feels promising, lake swimming lets me imprint it far more deeply than is possible in the pool.

In this case, my focal point produced a sensation I call “diagonal power.” Each time I sliced my right hand in, I focused on left leg downbeat at the same moment – and vice versa, left hand thrust with right leg downbeat. When I synched them perfectly I felt an electric surge of propulsive power that I’d never experienced in almost 40 years of swimming.

During the week prior to the 2-Mile Cable Swim I swam some 10 miles in training – about 12,000 strokes – and concentrated on producing diagonal power on each one. Naturally I made it my focal point from the start of the race. In the first 100 meters, several swimmers moved quickly ahead. A wetsuit-clad swimmer to my left began to pull ahead a bit less quickly than the lead pack. Wetsuits can provide a significant speed advantage (and thus are segregated into separate awards categories), so I got right on her toes to pick up some “free speed” from her draft. I soon found that my newly powerful stroke allowed me to keep pace with virtually no effort, so I moved up alongside her hip – losing some of her draft, but giving me a chance to compare my strength with hers. I put on a little more pressure and passed with unaccustomed ease.

I then looked for the leaders and saw them about 10 meters ahead. I put my head down, focused on my strokes and followed the cable until I came to the large orange buoy marking the quarter-mile turnaround. As I turned back toward the start I took another look and saw the leaders still just 10 meters ahead, a good sign. Because my stroke is so economical, if someone isn’t pulling away from me, I expect to catch them eventually because I gain speed as others lose it. So I put a stronger accent on my diagonal-thrust-and-downbeat, visualizing as I did that the power of each thrust was carrying me an inch or two closer. And sure enough, it was. I looked ahead every 40 to 50 strokes and could see the gap closing each time.

As we completed 800 meters I was on their heels, facing a decision I’d not had to make for nearly three decades. I knew I’d take the lead at some point – and would then become a target for others to draft off. Should I content myself with laying back for several more laps, conserving myself for a breakaway on the final half- or quarter-mile? Or should I move strongly now, and try to break from the pack, to avoid being passed later by a swimmer who was relatively rested from gliding in my slipstream for a mile or so. The complication was that another heat would follow ours and too conservative a strategy could leave me open to having my time bettered by swimmers in that heat, despite winning this heat.

Diagonal Power - Terry links synchs his right leg driving down with his left hand thrusting forward.

In the event, I took the lead at the third turn and kept up the “diagonal power” pressure for the next 2000 meter, steadily increasing the gap to win the heat by over a minute, in a time of 49:24. Then I sat and watched the second heat. A pack of four swimmers was far ahead of my pace at 800 meters, slightly ahead of me at the mile, but – after trading the lead among themselves several times – finished in 50:06, giving me both the 50-54 title and the opportunity to celebrate an overall win.

My good friend Artie Voigt, a 58-year old from Jay, celebrated an even bigger accomplishment, finishing the swim in about 90 minutes. In 2001 Artie was barely able to cover 25 yards with an exhaustingly inefficient stroke. “Swimming has always been a mystery for me,” he says. “Three years ago, when I decided to attempt a triathlon, I bought Triathlon Swimming Made Easy. It convinced me that swimming was a technique sport and no matter how much I flailed in the pool I wasn’t going to get anywhere without instruction. I got that from the Freestyle Made Easy DVD, from some sessions with Terry and by joining a Masters program on Long Island. Now I understand what I need to work on. I wear a wetsuit in open water, as a security blanket when I’m far from shore. I started swimming in open water at 57. To feel safe, I had a choice – either tow a buoy which upsets my rhythm or wear neoprene.”

In early July, Artie began swimming on the Ironman course in Mirror Lake, with his wife Paula accompanying him in a kayak. During the race, he had a friend paddle for him, carrying both energy gel and water, for sustenance in a swim that Artie thought might take as long as two hours. “For non-athletes at almost 60, the nutrition part of endurance racing is a big piece,” he says. “My body doesn't have the glycogen stores or the burnable fat to sustain me that long. One packet of energy gel after an hour of swimming seemed to give me a boost for the final 30 minutes.”

“The most important thing in preparing was doing long swims, just working on technique. I think about rolling rhythmically, keeping my head and spine aligned, and lengthening my bodyline. During the race, I just stayed focused on those things distracting myself occasionally by watching bubbles going by, other swimmers passing by or looking at the shoreline to figure where I am. Several days after the race, I had a really good – not fast, but zen-like – 1.3 mile swim in Mirror Lake. I was breathing to both sides, extending my arms and felt pretty good both during and after the swim. There were little waves and I felt like a submarine. My goal is to keep improving my form and fitness and be able to do the NYC Ocean Mile (at Gateway National Seashore in Breezy Point NY) without a wetsuit.”

On July 16, 2005, the Mirror Lake 2-Mile Cable Swim will be a National Masters Championship event. Artie and I will both swim in it. While Artie’s goal is to race without a wetsuit, race organizers will offer a wetsuit division for those who feel they need one. In future issues, I’ll outline a training program for “average swimmers” who would like to join Artie and me at the starting line.