This exchange of views and practical wisdom from the Total Immersion Discussion Forum examines the distinction between drill practice and “mindful swimming”.

Topic: Drilling vs. Mindful Swimming
From: Matt Juric
Date: Saturday, December 06, 2003 02:05 PM
I recently read Terry's column in Triathlete magazine, in which he recommends concentration on drill practice in the triathlon “off season.” He also mentions stroke counting, concentrating on one aspect of one’s stroke. In several posts on these forums he has stressed that great swimmers, such as Alexandre Popov, spend much time doing slow, purposeful swimming.

I'm curious as to what would be considered "drilling." When I was first introduced to TI, I got a great deal of good input from drills. However, though I'm nowhere near perfect, I find I don't get as much "corrective" input from the basic drills as I used to. I would assume that an elite athlete such as Popov or Thorpe would get even less input from basic drills.

With that said, is "mindful swimming" considered a drill? What about holding a certain stroke count for a certain distance – is that considered drilling? My question comes from the idea that not only do we practice technique this time of year but we also do a considerable amount of base building – i.e. slow long swimming." Can "drilling" and "base building" be combined? If not what are "drills" limited to?

Don't get me wrong. I'm still at a level where I get plenty of benefit from the basic drills, just not to the extent that I originally did. I'm sure I could spend 24/7 "perfecting" the basic drills. However as with most things, you enter a period of diminishing returns. I'm trying to figure out where that point is for me and if I can "drill swim" and still succeed at mastering technique.

Topic: Drilling vs. Mindful Swimming
From: Clay McKelvy
Date: Monday, December 08, 2003 02:07 PM
I like to think drilling is 'mindful swimming', especially if there is any kind of extra focus on a particular part of the stroke. Some drills require us to swim differently, while other types of technique focus are best done in whole stroke. I drill about 1000 yards per day. Only 200 yards of my drills are 'partial' swimming drills. Some people like to radically change their freestyle. I like to let my form slowly morph into a natural state. Constant improvement speaks for itself.

Topic: Drilling vs. Mindful Swimming
From: Matt Juric
Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 03:21 AM
Okay, if "mindful swimming" is drilling, do you ever do any swimming that isn't drilling? I would say that on nearly 100% of my swimming I pay special attention to one aspect or another of my stroke. I would say the only time I am not paying attention is during a very strenuous set where it takes most all of my effort to simply hold form and complete it. This however is a rarity for me.

For the last couple of months I've been doing more swimming and less drilling. I've also been seeing quite a bit of improvement in both performance and efficiency. My stroke count has held steady or dropped. My times have dropped and my endurance has increased. I realize I could spend a lot more time, and benefit from, drilling. Yet if "mindful swimming" provides similar results, how much pure drill practice should I be doing?

Topic: Drilling vs. Mindful Swimming
From: Clay McKelvy
Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 04:30 AM
When I go for a long swim, I am mindful of some aspect of technique at all times. Sometimes, I'm concentrating on rhythm and cadence, which are removed from mechanics. During this phase, I am almost 'Zen'. I see only about 5 percent of swimmers in the pool where I swim able to swim continuously for 30 minutes or more, or who care to. Fewer than 5 percent can hold a steady pace. We learn efficiency by feel, by altering our form to swim longer and faster. In the last 4 months, I have swum about 65 miles in long swims at a steadily increasing pace. We learn things no drill can teach when doing pace swimming for extended periods.

Sometimes after a long swim at a steady cadence, I swim a few sprints concentrating on stroke length. I usually swim my best 'optimized' stroke at these times. This week, after swimming 2000 yards at a constant pace, I went 28 seconds for 50 yards in 23 strokes from a push-off. That included a flip-turn and three dolphins each push-off. I cannot duplicate that after a short warm-up. What I believe is that yardage is important to learn efficiency. Sprinting teaches speed. Combine them, and you can become a fast swimmer.

Topic: Drilling vs. Mindful Swimming
From: Terry Laughlin
Date: Monday, December 22, 2003 03:18 PM
This is a great topic. When Clay mentions that not many swimmers can go for 30 minutes straight "or care to" he gets at something important. Swimming for distance is seen by many as tedious – and probably physically unpleasant as well. This is probably so even for many people who CAN swim that far without extreme difficulty.

One of the reasons for this is they can't think of any way to occupy themselves except for "following the black line." How many times has swimming been referred to that way?

When I used the term "mindful swimming" in the article to which Matt refers, I was using it to distinguish technique practice in whole-stroke, from technique practice using drills.

There are two dividends to mindful swimming:
1) It allows for a different kind of skill refinement than is permitted by drills. By swimming the whole stroke, you are dealing with the rhythms and forces and timing, etc that you'll have to deal with in races. Thus it's critical for anyone who DOES race to do a fair proportion of their skill work as "mindful swimming" rather than drilling. Moreover, as you progress toward a higher level of skill, more of your opportunities for further refinement will be in mindful swimming than drilling.

2) Mindful swimming - by definition - promotes a level of engagement that's rare in swimming. And anything to which you devote keen attention will improve. Any engaged lap will be of greater value than any disengaged lap - no matter the general content of the lap. What creates engagement? Any clearly defined task – whether that task is executing a drill, or swimming the whole stroke with a focal point or with a “puzzle” to solve.
In Mindful Swimming you are focused on solving one or more of the myriad small problems posed by the interaction of a human body and water, compounded by fatigue and/or some level of discomfort/intensity. These problems are all about how to maintain:

• Balance
• Body Line
• Vessel Length
• Purchase or Grip
• Timing…

…as you go farther, faster or experience fatigue.

And as you swim lap after lap, focused on the problem and trying to improve your solution of it with each successive repeat, the "physiology" or "training" is still going on in the background. You have simply made "problem-solving" primary and "training" secondary.

Mindful Swimming can be done in two ways:
1) Sensory Skill Practice or Focal Point Swimming.
2) Stroke Count Exercises.

My practice this morning (Dec 22) would be a good example:
After a 400 Warmup (200 EZ Free @ 12spl + 4 x 50 BK-BR descend on 1:00) I did my Main Set: 6 rounds of (4 x 100 FR on 1:45 + 1 x 50 BK Recovery on 1:15)
On the first 5 rounds I held all 100s at 48 strokes. On the 6th round, I allowed myself 52 strokes/100.

Task #1: Maintaining that stroke count consistently for 20 x 100, as 12 spl is a fairly challenging stroke count.

Task #2: I descended each set of 4 x 100, so I had to figure out a way to swim faster on each 100 within the round.

Task #3: To challenge myself even more, I set myself the task of finishing with a faster 100 in each succeeding round.

All without adding a single spl – even as fatigue gradually accumulates. And that's a 4th task. To be able to accurately gauge your efforts in the first couple of rounds, so that you can continue to improve on your performance deep into the set.

A practice I did earlier this week provides another example. I had only 40 minutes to swim, so I decided to swim 2500 yards – 100 laps – nonstop, to examine how well I could maintain a consistent stroke length from beginning to end. I pushed off and took 13 strokes on the first length, hit 14spl on the second length, then held that stroke length for the next 98 lengths, except for three lengths on which my stroke count hit 15 – one each in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd 500s. And I even picked up my pace a bit in the last two 500s without ever taking more than 14 strokes.

As an additional task, I breathed to my left side on odd lengths and my right side on even lengths. It took enormous concentration to maintain the same stroke length for such a long swim. Besides the effects of fatigue, you also have the challenge of wandering attention, which is natural in a long swim. This exercise in counting every stroke – while staying aware of lap count – as well as remaining unwavering in my efficiency – provided two benefits. First I was imprinting “nervous system discipline” that will help me in any distance swim. Second I was practicing mindfulness itself. If I can remain better focused than my rivals in a race of 1.5 or 5 or 10km, I can swim with more efficiency than they can.

In any case, by giving myself such challenging tasks, I forced myself to remain acutely attentive to every stroke and turn and pushoff and breath, throughout the set. That's Mindful Swimming.

And in each practice, "training happened." The conditioning effect in the first example was anaerobic threshold, while that in the long swim was the “aerobic base building” that Matt referred to earlier.