In Good Form: How to Tackle Triathlon

By DAN OLIVER

I taught myself to swim in a country mudhole with the help of my brother who’d had YMCA training. The sole object was not to drown; the sole purpose, play. Over the years, kicking drills were all I could think of to improve, but all they did was make me tired faster while somehow propelling me backwards. Twenty five years ago I built a 25-meter lap pool for my teenage son, a talented triathlete. His success in the sport encouraged me to train for it as well, but my results on the swim were disappointing. My only consolation was passing a few in the rest of the race. I marveled at the ease with which accomplished swimmers could slip through the water; why was it so difficult for me?

Danny Dreyer’s Chi Running introduced me to Total Immersion. Any style that reduced reliance on kicking – and the liability of a weak kick – made sense to me. Last year I bought the Triathlon Swimming Made Easy book and Freestyle Made Easy DVD. I practiced the drills last summer and fall, felt I had a good grasp of the technique and only needed more practice. Recognizing that instruction would help I signed up for a TI Workshop in San Diego.

For our “before” video I swam 25 yards in 27 strokes, confident I was using TI technique. What an awakening! I saw that my body was 30 degrees uphill with bubbles everywhere. Video taken at the end of Day One revealed me to be horizontal without bubbles, after practicing Balance and UnderSwitch drills. The second day, after working on ZipperSwitch, OverSwitch and breathing skills, I slipped through the water in 18 strokes.

The difference between before and after videos was dramatic for all. Among my classmates were students who had completed sprint to ironman triathlons, yet all improved an average of nine strokes over 25 yards with markedly smoother form. It was great; everyone slipped through the water.

I could never have improved so much on my own. Several instructors were in the water or on deck at all times observing my every move and correcting my mistakes. The immediate feedback began to register and imprint. It’s one thing to read and observe and do, but only the immediate fine-tuning enabled my muscles to imprint the correct form. I thought and felt I was doing everything right and only needed practice, but I learned what it really feels like to do everything right and to imprint that feeling.

The greatest lesson was recognizing that small changes have a great effect. With that awareness I will continue to improve. I have never had a class that created such transformation in such a short time. Now I concentrate on the drill sequence three times a week. The challenge is the number of mistakes I make, but the satisfaction is the recognition and pleasure of the continuous improvement I see. Each session I review a few movements to refine and afterwards reflect on what I achieved. If my stroke feels less effective than I think it should be, I stop for another day.

I’ve a long way to go - incorporating breathing, even in the drills, is still a work in progress. It’s amazing that I can swim 25m underwater without breathing, yet gasp for a breath after one UnderSwitch.

My goal is to achieve the feeling that I sense in my son and in other great swimmers as they slip through the water. Who knows, I might complete an ironman - with my son.

Originally a nuclear engineer, when the public abandoned nuclear power, Dan returned to his mechanical roots to build “bridges” and “excavate canals” as a general dentist. Now retired, he is taking time to renovate his adobe home, including earthquake reinforcement - a wise idea in California. Dan has been running all of his life, from 1.5 mile runs to a childhood friend’s rural home to 35 marathons (including Boston). His wife of 45 years, Joan, a tennis player, cheers at each but wonders when he is going to finish the house. For 15 years he’s been hiking - 15 “rim to rim to rim” Grand Canyon hikes and San Jacinto, Mt. Whitney, and Mauna Kea Peaks. The last 10 years interrupted for a few days with three visits for heart stents.