While the heading of this thread was “Core Power…” of far more enduring interest and value than anything you might learn about core power are the eloquently-stated insights about the “spirit of process” in Kaizen Swimming. Enjoy.

Topic: Core Power: had it, lost it
Conf: Freestyle
From: Kerry Allman
Date: Friday, February 29, 2008 02:33 PM

Yesterday while doing OverSwitches I felt “power from the core” for the first time. My Mail Slot entry, arm extension, and hip drive all coordinated just right and I felt a surge of effortless speed like never before – like being a torpedo! I usually swim for 60 minutes but it was so great I kept going for 90 minutes, and felt refreshed at the end. It was incredible.

Today I couldn’t wait to get to the pool and feel that sensation. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it. One thing I noticed was that yesterday I could distinctly feel as though my left and right hip were separate parts which I could drive independently at will. Not so today, no matter how much I concentrated. How can I get that “propulsion from the core” sensation back? What drills would you recommend? What detail should be my focal point?

Background: I’m 50 and never swam until four months ago. I joined Masters but couldn’t swim 25 metres without needing to cling to the wall to catch my breath. It took me 32 strokes (and probably 150 kicks!) to swim 25 metres freestyle. After a month with Masters, swimming 5 times per week, I was no further ahead. I ordered Extraordinary Swimming. After a week of practicing the drills daily I could swim 25 metres in 20 strokes. Two months later, I can swim 25 metres in 16 to 18 strokes and can swim 800 metres continuously, feeling relaxed and only slightly winded at the end.

From: Kerry Allman
My original post was that I had one session with the sensation of power originating from my hips. Subsequently I could not reproduce that sensation. In retrospect, I would say that session was somewhat of a fluke and the stars just happened to align for me that day. However I’ve received invaluable help on the Forum in response to that post.

Dallas Bob Wiskera suggested that I slow down and concentrate on timing. Alan Perez and Terry Laughlin suggested Fish, Skating and Switch drills with one hand kept “in my pocket.”

Since I started this thread I have practiced these drills and variations over 20 sessions ranging from 60 to 90 minutes each. I did these drills slowly. The most challenging were the Switch drills with one hand in pocket. I also did Fish drills and really concentrated on feeling the water flow around my body. In full stroke I would pick one focal point, usually related to a drill I had just completed.

I learned that I was not as well balanced as I thought I was. Since doing these with more concentration I can say I am more balanced in the water. Both yesterday and today I swam a total of 3000 metres in repeats ranging from 50 to 400 metres at a consistent stroke count (16-18 per 25m) and pace (about 2:00 per 100m), regardless of distance.

Now I can’t say that I feel my hips driving me as I did that magical day. On the other hand, something has definitely changed in my stroke. I can’t quite put my finger on it except to say I simply feel much more relaxed and “effortless” when I swim. Even more important than what I’ve learned about my stroke is my discovery that TI makes swimming a self-monitoring continuous feedback activity. I can pick a movement or body position and concentrate on how it works, or doesn’t work, and then change it until I get a better result.

From: John Carey
Somebody with more knowledge than I of Zen could probably fix my mangling of this concept, but here goes: The student gets a great feeling of connection during meditation. He works for months to get that feeling back but it never happens. He goes to the teacher, who says, "You are focusing on the wrong thing, that feeling was a mirage -- meditate properly and don't try to recreate that feeling." He returns to meditation, and dutifully follows the teacher's instruction. Years later, he tells his teacher, "You were right, I was silly to try to hold on to that useless feeling of connectedness." The teacher replies, "You idiot, who told you that! That is what it is all about!"

Actually, what I think is supposed to be one of the lessons from this, is that the feeling of connectedness is not always the same as you first experienced it, once you have mastered it -- or at least gotten better at it. But it is a real thing. The other night, for two strokes, it felt like I got the perfect breaststroke armstroke. Then the wall came. Bye, bye, perfect stroke. Maybe it will come back next week, maybe next year. I hope not longer than that, but who knows?

From: Julie Friedeberger
John, that is definitely one of the lessons of mindfulness. Once in a while, a person who practises meditation experiences a flash of insight or connectedness, or a moment of stillness or peace, and thinks "Ah! That’s what I'm doing this for!" And the very next thought is "I want more. I want to have that flash or that moment again."

But every teacher of meditation knows that practice is for the sake of practice, and cautions students not to look for the rewards beyond that. If you try to make an experience happen again, it will elude you; and while straining after it you're likely to miss a new and different experience. And - another Zen saying - you can't put your foot in the same river twice.

In meditation and swimming, what these moments of truth give us is enthusiasm for the practice, and the motivation to keep practising. With practice, the moment or flash will happen again, and with consistent practice it will happen more and more often -- and will be different, as you say. But not if you try to have it. The thing is -- and it's not easy -- is to have the experience and let go of it. And keep up with the practice.

(I've just had a real Zen lesson. Writing this, I'd almost finished, and then inadvertently deleted it and had to start over again. What you've just read is different from what I first wrote. I couldn't "get it back". So this will have
to do. Given the topic, I did try not to get too cross!)

From: Kerry Allman
John and Julie, what you both have noted is very true. As I unsuccessfully searched for that hip-drive sensation I eventually realized that if I couldn’t find it, perhaps my focus was too narrow. Maybe my lack of hip drive was not due to the hip-drive itself, but due to other factors.

Instead of looking for the hip-drive as a goal, I thought that perhaps hip drive is really a consequence of doing other things well. In Extraordinary Swimming, Terry advocates that we swim with our body rather than with our arms and legs. So it occurred to me that by looking for only one aspect of my body (the hips) that I might be neglecting other parts.

Terry also warns “never practice struggle.” Obviously I was struggling to recreate one sensation. So I simply stopped practicing with a unique focus on the hip drive and turned my attention to other things as well.

Was my spearing hand too shallow or too deep? What happened when I changed the depth? As I changed that, I noticed the different sound in the water, or how easily or difficultly my breath came.

Loud sound bad; it must mean I am disturbing too much water. Light sound good; less disturbance. Head feeling supported by water results in “easy to receive” air, head not supported means I need to search for air. This means I lift my head, which makes my balance bad. If my balance is bad, how can I possibly expect to coordinate my hips?

Every time I practice a drill, I learn something new. The more I do the same drill, the more I learn something different within that very same drill. That’s taught me not just to do the drill, but to be open to what the drill can tell me.

And because there are so many possible variations of body movement I feel that each drill always offers limitless possibilities to learning something new no matter how often I do it. Absolutely fascinating!