Conf: Favorite Practices and Sets
From: Brian Vande Krol
Date: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 12:45 PM

One of Terry's resolutions particularly interests me: "Do my best to swim every day."

Terry, I'm curious about the logic behind this resolution, to better understand how what you do relates to what I do. After all, I'd rather swim more like you than like me.

My initial question was whether I could actually improve by swimming every day. After all, if I run, bike, or lift every day, I’d expect to get tired rather than stronger. Bob McAdams rightfully pointed out that we are skill building, rather than strength building.

When I was an avid rock climber, some of my best gains in technique were when I was injured and unable to climb. During that period, I had the good fortune to watch some of the world's best climbers in person. The study of their techniques and visualization of myself climbing with that technique, allowed me to climb with better technique upon my return. Though my strength and endurance had diminished, I was able to climb at a fairly high standard.

As a competitive skydiver, our team was only able to get about 12 minutes of actual practice for each 10-hour training day. And for monetary and time reasons, we could only practice 4 to 6 days per month. We supplemented our practice with visualization exercises and actually got better in our off time. We spent a lot of time watching video of top performing teams, analyzing it, comparing it to our own performances, and then visualizing ourselves performing at a higher level.

Our skydiving coaches often quoted studies showing that proper visualization was as effective as actual practice for skill development. I don't have the studies to cite, but I believe it to be true because I have experienced it.

So I'm not convinced that practice everyday will make a swimmer better. And for a person like myself who still doesn't slip through the water with great ease, the fatigue of everyday swimming may be ill advised. As I fatigue, it is even harder for me to imprint good technique.

If I wanted to swim everyday just because I enjoy swimming so much, it seems that a resolution should not be needed, as the enjoyment of swimming itself should be the reward, rather than the satisfaction of fulfilling a resolution. In fact, the pressure to fulfill that resolution might reduce my enjoyment.


From: Terry Laughlin
Date: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 02:36 PM

Brian,

Thanks for prodding me to more clearly explain my thinking. Your questions make me examine my motivations in a deeper way. Perhaps it's not precisely a resolution, but a public statement of intention. I'll try to explain that intention.

My thinking in making that statement was to more consciously practice swimming in the same way that a yogi practices – or those graceful older folks seen practicing tai chi in parks all over China, or in parks here as well. Yogis practice yoga every day because it improves their day. For quite a while it’s been evident that swimming improves my day. Not just physically - creation of endorphins through graceful rhythmic integrated whole-body movement - but I find it stimulates me creatively, and a flow of fresh thoughts about swimming is essential to my work.

That flow of thoughts also includes a great deal of “irresistible visualization.” I call it irresistible because reveries about swimming come to me without warning, and sometimes in my dreams. All it takes to stimulate those thoughts are the sight of someone else swimming…or even just an empty pool or other body of water. I strongly believe that good visualization helps to encode the actual physical movements in your brain.

In addition there's the Mastery model. Those who are consciously in pursuit of Mastery, whether their metier is piano or chess or creative writing, usually feel a day is incomplete if they've not spent time practicing their craft. Because their craft is how they create meaning in their lives, and because practicing it is more satisfying than anything else they might choose to do. I've clearly chosen swimming as my craft - doing, thinking or writing about, teaching. I find all of the secondary effects - thinking, writing, teaching - benefit from the doing.

I should be clear that I'm not suggesting this intention as appropriate for all. For one thing it's more practical for me because I have the keys to the Swim Studio and can swim in the Endless Pool any time. (Often I think how much better it would be if I had an EP at home.)

I should also say that I’ll resist becoming dogged about this. I'll continue as long as it remains enjoyable, and feels good physically to swim every day. Another way to view it is that, for the first time in my life, I’ll allow myself to swim every day. If it feels better on a given day to allow myself a day off, I will.


From: Bk Jagadish
Date: Thursday, January 03, 2008 06:38 AM

I confess to being a regular “swim addict.” Since our nearby pool is closed on Mondays I have no choice but to make it a swim-less day. Consequently I find it very difficult to fall asleep on Monday nights. So I have resolved to go to another pool which is half an hour drive. I personally feel that certain activities like swimming, yoga, slow walk, lunch/dinner, regular sip of non-alcoholic beverages, etc. can be indulged in daily like our restful sleep.


From: Robert McAdams
Date: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 04:45 AM

One of the adages I was given when I was doing weight training was that bodybuilding requires a combination of exercise, food, and rest. Exercise stimulates your muscles to grow, food provides the raw materials, and it is during rest that they actually grow. Consequently, it was recommended that people train three days per week, with intervening days of rest (though some bodybuilders exercise six days per week, and allow their muscles to rest by alternating days of upper body workouts with days of lower body workouts).
But different rules apply in a sport like swimming, in which you are developing skills as well as building muscles. It may be worthwhile to vary what stroke(s) you are working on from day to day, so that the muscles associated with each stroke get days of rest during which they can grow. But I believe that skill development works best when practicing those skills every day.


From: Richard Skerrett
Date: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 03:27 PM

On the subject of swimming daily, it seems to me that if it is treated the way professional musicians, or even keen amateur musicians treat their practice then it can do nothing but good. An occasional brief holiday may be good, though. Most amateur musicians don't practice enough and don't practice in as thoroughly focused a way as they ought to and I suspect this is true of most amateur swimmers.

On the other hand, relentlessly pushing through pain barriers the way hard core competitive swimmers seem to do is probably a recipe for fatigue, strain and loss of appetite for swimming. This is just a guess of course, because I have never tried it.