"Relax More, Swim Faster"

By GARY SMALL

It’s said that all good things come in threes, and so it was during the Kaizen Camp in Coral Springs at the end of November. I attended as one of seven teacher trainees, with whom I had a weekend of preparatory coaching by Terry, prior to camp.

Day 1, SPL 1:

On Monday morning, following thorough analysis of each trainee’s technique, I was looking forward to testing my freestyle. Prior to the 8:30 a.m. start of camp I was doing some swim-golf repeats in the 50 meter pool. I was repeating 29 SPL (strokes per length) in 46 seconds, and was able to sustain this combination without fatigue, a score consistent with how I’d swum for much of the year.

Day 2, SPL 2:

On Tuesday morning, I attempted to repeat my swim-golf score of the previous morning, but could not get below 31 SPL and 46 seconds. I was clueless as to what I was doing differently from the previous day. I tried numerous focal points, but remained stuck at that score. I finished the session feeling frustrated and perplexed.

Tuesday afternoon, Terry led the trainee coaches in a butterfly technique session, preparing us to teach the campers on Wednesday. During the session, I had a series of insights that completely transformed how I swim butterfly. This experience of transformation filled my senses, and on Wednesday evening I swam lap after lap of butterfly, just enjoying the unprecedented ease. I had no inclination to swim freestyle – it was too much fun swimming butterfly.

Day 3, SPL 3:

Thursday morning I decided to do some more freestyle swim-golf, using some of my butterfly insights from the day before. After about six laps, I was standing at the wall with what must have been a stunned expression. Kim Bade, who was sharing the lane, asked what was wrong. I told her that I’d just repeated four laps of freestyle, at 24 SPL in 46 seconds – the first time in my life I had ever managed 24 SPL in a 50 meter pool. I was able to sustain this for the rest of the practice, and even managed to do one lap at 23 SPL.
My breakthrough had come from one of my butterfly insights. A major reason butterfly had previously been so fatiguing was because I was maintaining tension in my arms and shoulders between strokes. Terry had taught us to relax our arms and shoulders after landing, before “turning them on” again briefly in the catch. I realised that, in freestyle, I was also maintaining unproductive tension in my arm and shoulder. So my focus during those breakthrough laps was releasing my leading arm into a gentle catch, leading to an instant efficiency improvement of over 20 percent. This focus enabled me to swim with far more leisure and ease, without sacrificing any speed.

PBT (Personal Best Times) 1, 2 and 3:

On the weekend following the camp, many of us participated in a Masters meet in Coral Springs’ 25-meter pool.

On Sunday I swam three races; the 50-meter butterfly, the 50-meter freestyle and the 400-meter freestyle. In all three, I set personal best times. In the two sprints, I may have swum faster 40 years ago, but I’d never ventured past 100 meters before I resumed competing as an adult in 1999. So my 400 meter time was definitely my life’s best.

I bought a high-tech “speedsuit” on Saturday afternoon, and my times in the sprints may have been aided by the new suit, but my personal best in the 400 was another matter entirely. I had swum the 400 at Spanish Masters Nationals 10 months earlier in a time of 5:35.84, swimming the second half 12 seconds slower than the first half. This falloff in pace was no surprise as I could barely move my arms and legs during the last 150 meters.

My training for the previous five months had been rather inconsistent and my fitness level at Coral Springs was significantly less than when I’d swum that earlier 400. Mindful of this, and of the torturous prior 400, my goal at Coral Springs was to swim conservatively enough to feel good at the finish. As I finished, I felt so relaxed that I looked at the timing board expecting to see a time of about 6 minutes. I was stunned to see that it read 5 minutes 30 seconds, an improvement of over 5 seconds from January. When splits were posted I saw the reason. My second 200 was over 7 seconds faster than previously.

During the race, I had concentrated on two things – an unhurried, light, but firm catch during the first half of the race and a full exhalation on each breath during the second half. Learning to exhale properly has created an enormous sense of liberation. Instead of exhaustion, each breath seems to produce new energy – while also contributing to relaxation.

So the most valuable lesson of this amazing week of swimming is best summed up in the felicitous phrase of one of my fellow trainee coaches, Bob Nelson of Maine: “Relax more. Swim faster!”

Gary Small has been coaching Total Immersion since 2005, and is currently starting up Total Immersion in Spain. He lives in Mijas Costa on the Costa del Sol, where he swims Masters with the Club Natación de Mijas. When not swimming or spending time with his family, he works as a hydrogeologist.