Perpetual Motion Freestyle (PMF) is modeled on the way aquatic mammals move through the water—balanced, streamlined, propelling with whole-body movements. A challenge humans face in learning PMF, is that our instincts to swim like our fellow terrestrial mammals – head up, all four limbs churning – is so strong.  Learning PMF requires conscious choices to do what doesn’t come naturally.  Segment 4 of “Work Less; Swim  Better” illustrates that in many ways.

Shaped like an Aquatic Mammal

Take the path of least resistance – This segment is about imprinting body positions that minimize drag. No human swimmer, purely by instinct, has ever emphasized drag reduction over creating propulsion.

Path of Least Resistance

How much to Rotate – Our first instinct is to swim flat. We feel more secure that way. But ironically when we learn rotation is advantageous, we usually overdo it. (Actually, human swimmers tend to overdo most everything.) The ideal amount of rotation is much smaller than we tend to think. When learning this skill, we generally need to focus on controlling it, not on making it happen.

But rotating just a little is actually harder than rotating to a “stacked-hips” position. To remain stable in a slightly-rotated position, you must activate spinal stabilizer muscles. That’s good. These underappreciated muscles are more important than more familiar and visible muscles — pecs, triceps, quads, etc. And the idea that invisible muscles that we use mainly for stability are more important than very visible ones we use for pushing water back is one more counterintuitive idea!

Extending Bodyline – From our first attempt to swim to the other end of the pool, one of our strongest instinct is to windmill the arms and push water back. Yet, the arm is far more valuable when used to reduce wave drag by extending your body line. That’s a pretty dramatic inversion of our usual way of thinking as we swim.

Relaxed Hand – It’s not just instinct but instruction that tell us to stiffen the hand into a cup or paddle. Red Cross lessons teach that. And we just naturally do it so we can push harder on the water. It takes considerable concentration to stop tensing the hand. But once you do relax it, your fingers drop into a position that both aids balance (by causing your feet to rise) and in which your stroke produces force that moves you forward.

To improve your swimming, you first need to think differently — i.e. develop new cognitive circuits. Consciously focusing on new Stroke Thoughts is one ways to permanently change thinking habits and imprint new intentions. This leads, eventually, to creating new motor circuits.

Because these intentions and actions are so un-natural, a big part of the training I did to make them second nature was very brief, highly examined repeats. I only continue the repeat as long as my focus remains acute because even a moment’s inattention is all it takes for me to go back to doing what comes naturally.

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Yesterday I reviewed an “audition video” from a candidate for TI Teacher Training.  Before accepting candidates for training, we require a high degree of mastery of the skills and forms they will teach. In her case, she began the stroking part of her SpearSwitches a bit prematurely — but that timing issue resolved itself in SwingSwitch and Swimming.  Even so, I advised her to practice Interrupted SpearSwitches (Lesson 4 of the Self-Coached Workshop) until her switches were more patient.

One might ask: “Why make such a point about getting the timing right in Spear?”  The answer, which will be important to her as a teacher, is that there will be certain circumstances in which you would be more particular and others in which you might choose to be less.

In the 100s of workshops I’ve taught I can recall countless instances where some aspect of SpearSwitch — most often Patient Catch — proved elusive for some student. Because the Weekend Workshop follows a formal structure limited by (i) the allotted pool time and (ii) the fact that we can’t hold up a class of 10 to 20 people because 1 or 2 haven’t quite got it, I decide to move on to SwingSwitches. At first I was troubled by progressing to the next drill, when the previous wasn’t quite right. But I often saw that the problem resolved in the next step.

So the question is, if a particular aspect of skill finds resolution in a later step in the progression, why revisit it?

In the case of a teacher trainee, the answer is simple. Students learn movements far faster and more clearly by visual means. Thus the most valuable skill as a teacher of skilled movement is the ability to demonstrate impeccable form.

(It’s also essential that they be able to accurately mimic the incorrect form of a student. I’ve learned that the fastest way I can correct a student’s movement error is to demonstrate a few cycles of what I observed them doing, then, without pausing, smoothly segue into a few cycles what I’d like to see them do.)

The other aspect is: Should she encourage a student to revisit the earlier drill in pursuit of ‘perfection.’ It’s less about pursuing perfection, than it is (i) Encouraging an unquenchable kaizen passion for real Mastery; not every student will choose that path, but we always encourage it. And (ii) Swimming with the highest level of skill is such a complex art, and the path to that level has such individual unpredictability, I have had ‘unexpected epiphanies’ on countless occasions – noticing some sensation I had not noticed before that made such a difference in my whole stroke, that I made it a focal point for hours of practice.

In the case of nailing the timing in SpearSwitch, I’ve found that it helped me get the subtle distinction between holding the water and pulling. When I took that distinction to Swing and Swim, both got better – even after the general form of both had been ‘acceptable’ or even quite good.

SpearSwitch with Patient Catch

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Segment 1 of the Work Less Swim Better series showed me swimming through a pack of a dozen or more ‘human swimmers,’  whose strokes were strikingly similar to each other, but strikingly different from mine — differences that became magnified as they tried to cope with rough water in that race.

Segment 2 showed me sharing the pool with a single ‘human swimmer.’ The underwater view revealed the critical differences that allowed me to travel twice as far on each stroke. The most significant is that Perpetual Motion Freestyle (PMF) prioritizes active streamlining, while human-swimming prioritizes pulling and kicking.

We showed that contrast to illustrate that swimming ‘like a human’ is normal . . . a relaxed and streamlined stroke is a learned skill. From 1966 to 1991, I swam ‘like a human’ too. I only began learning PMF at age 40 — and have continued improving my form for 20 years. Such enduring improvement is possible because human-swimming instincts are encoded in our DNA. However, as the TI coaches and swimmers in Segment 2 illustrate once you learn PMF you replace wired-in struggle with flow.  Segment 3 reveals the starting point for learning it. (Note: One of those swimmers, Dave Barra, completed an English Channel crossing yesterday, Sept 1.)

Humans naturally swim like other terrestrial mammals, head high and limbs churning. PMF consciously mimics the swimming of aquatic mammals (whales, dolphins, walrus, manatee, sea otters) to whom evolution has given a naturally streamlined shape. Another natural advantage of aquatic mammals is aquatic balance – a low-drag horizontal position. The designed-in balance we humans have is vertical – great for walking and running, but a source of drag when swimming.

Thus the first step in learning PMF is to rewire your brain.  This creates new circuits of motor neurons,  which allow us to move differently. Even more critically, it creates new cognitive circuits, so we can think differently.

Superman Glide, illustrated here, begins the creation of motor circuits that guide my head (hanging) arms (wide tracks) and legs (passive and streamlined) into new positions. Cognitively, it replaces the almost-universal sinking sensation with a ray of hope that ‘weightlessness’ is possible. Once I felt the possibility of weightlessness, I gained the freedom to make a conscious choice to use my arms to (i) extend my bodyline and (ii) ‘pierce’ the water instead of churning — an inevitable legacy of the sinking sensation.

Superman Glide and Laser-Lead Flutter, shown in this segment, are examples of a new form of TI drill – called Tuneups – introduced in the Self-Coached Workshop. Tuneups are intended for practice  in short intervals–usually 6 to 10 yards, rather than  full lengths.  They’re designed to narrownly target your attention on an essential aspect of the stroke, making it easier to maintain as you progress to more complex movement and longer reps. They also help you relax when you feel yourself becoming tense or — as human swimmers usually do — working too hard.

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