Flow
In evaluating past seasons, it became obvious that a coaching error I committed was that while intensively focusing on the precise development of physical skills, I had not given the mental part of the mind/body connection its due. Lack of mental preparation prevented us from achieving what I felt was the actual potential of a very successful season, and to me, achieving to potential is what it swimming is all about.

I did much reading to improve my knowledge of mental training, and was particularly impressed with Cziksentmihaly’s work on a concept he refers to as flow.

In this work he says:
There is an old Italian adage, Imparta l’arte, e metitila da parte, which translated literally means ‘learn the art and then put it aside.’ It is good advice not only for artists and craftsmen, but also for experiencing flow in sports: Practice the skills to the point you forget you have them. Then abandon yourself to the performance.

Our beliefs about what we can do are a powerful influence on what we attempt in life. Sport involves the developments of a range of physical and mental skills in the specific sport setting, from maximizing bursts of speed to restraining oneself when the strategy indicates that one should conserve energy. How we perceive our potential to develop these skills in the specific sport settings in which we participate has a profound influence on what we ultimately accomplish and how we feel about it.

Creation of flow is a beautiful metaphor for what we are working toward in the pool. What we strive for in the early season is precise mastery of skills through a constant and progressively more challenging repetition of specific skills. We approach swimming as art and instill a sense of pride in its practice that goes far beyond that which comes from enduring a great deal of pain. We try to relate it to the other arts-—music, painting, dance, martial arts, and their like—to get more involved in the process of swimming fast. Swimmers need to learn the mechanics of swimming on such an automatic level that it will require no conscious effort to summon up these skills in competition.

One of the major components of flow in sports is a suitable match between challenges and skills. When challenge exceeds skill, it produces anxiety. When skills exceed challenges, boredom results. Flow results when challenge and skills are both high.

These key elements — skills and challenges — can be developed much more readily in a technique-based approach than in a traditional training program. In traditional training, challenges are limited mainly to how much and how fast. The skills are usually incidental, a byproduct of training.

When conditioning is treated as "something that happens while working on technique," skills development is continual and the challenges can be multi-dimensional. The challenges can be how few strokes, how silently, how effortlessly, or how fast and how many strokes.

Redefining Challenge
It is important for the coach to teach athletes how to change their perception of a challenge rather than focusing on winning as the sole objective.

In dual meets, it is a rare event in which all of the competitors are evenly matched in terms of ability level. There is little motivation for the swimmer who is markedly slower than the rest of the field or the one who knows she can easily win. Good coaching provides challenges for each of these swimmers by providing specific focal points to work on during the race rather than focusing on winning or other outcomes. These focal points may include stroke count, pacing, wall work, etc.

In the early season, it is critical to give specific, objective, detailed feedback, but as the season progresses, I tend to give progressively less feedback so that by championship time the swimmers can just get up and swim, and "put it aside" and just let the swim happen without thinking about any of the component skills.

The Quest for Balance
This week, our main challenge will be finding balance, or in most cases, rediscovering balance and comfort in the water. This still requires extreme patience. This is an excerpt from the journal I kept during the first season we committed to technique.

More kids are telling me they’re not feeling balanced this week. Initially I was thinking, "what’s wrong with these kids? After all the work we’ve done on balance, how can they possibly not get it?"

Suddenly the heel of my palm inadvertently slammed into it’s accustomed spot in the middle of my forehead (there’s not only a whole lot of forehead there, but there’s getting to be an indent there). It’s a reaction I have way too often as the obvious sinks in.

Last week, these same kids didn’t have a clue as to what it felt like to be unbalanced in the water. Lack of balance in the water doesn’t leave the great scars I and every other guy who has raced bicycles have. If it did, all swimmers would definitely be more interested in learning what balance feels like in the water.

The only thing bad balance does in the water will do to you is slow you down, and the only reason these kids are complaining they’re not balanced is that they have experienced perfect balance in the water and know how it’s supposed to feel. This is really exciting to me because only the select few naturals who could sense it innately knew what it was supposed to feel like. I also wondered, how many coaches anywhere, any time ever had a swimmer ask them about balance?

"A work of art is finished only when an artist realizes his intentions."
—Rembrandt
I recently had the pleasure of seeing an exhibit called "The Unfinished Print" at the National Gallery at the Smithsonian. It was fascinating to see the progression of Rembrandt prints displayed on the walls. Close scrutiny of the prints revealed that with successive printings, Rembrandt had added or deleted portions of preceding prints. Some of the prints were done as mirror images, and some had color added or went from color to monochrome. Some of the prints were distributed as finished products and then later redone and again distributed as finished projects.

I think that good coaching is artistry as much as it is science. It would greatly surprise me if, in spite of his great gifts and devotion to his craft and though he must have felt an immense satisfaction with his creations, Rembrandt felt that any of his works were perfect. I suspect that as soon as Rembrandt was finally finished with a work, he immediately launched himself into another.

I have shared great elation with my swimmers over great times achieved, meets and championships won, and yet it is my hope that, just as with the great artists, it is the process that is most important.

A Nod to the Gods
In the movie Tin Cup, the gifted but erratic pro gives a lesson on the golf swing. While delivering a monologue about all of the elements of the swing, he describes the slight pause at the top of the back swing as a "nod to the gods" because perfection is unattainable. I am convinced that the swim stroke needs its own nod to the gods. Its perfection is unattainable, just as the golf swing should always be a work in progress. Excellence, however, is attainable and is a necessary and worthwhile goal. It is vital for both coach and swimmer to understand that in this light any mention of imperfection is just a marker on the road to excellence.

I never want any of my swimmers to feel that they had the perfect swim unless it is their last one ever. Toward this end, it is important to create an atmosphere at this point in the season where no swimmer feels compelled to swim hard in practice. Therefore, the flow rule is in effect. Everything must exhibit qualities of flow—starts and turns as well as swimming. The pool must become a splash-free zone.

It is also critical to establish an environment where kids feel free to experiment in order to find the right combinations of balance, changing rhythm, length, and power that will work for them. This will happen for most by starting at very slow speeds and progressively increasing speed as the qualities of motion and conditioning improve. At this point in the season, we do very few repeats with the clock. Most of the time, we leave at 5 or 10 second intervals and leave when the third, fourth, or last person touches. We also do a great number of widths and spend time on starts and turns.

The New Strokeless Swim (AP)
A Russian security official tied his arms and legs to swim "dolphin style" for 1.2 miles in hopes of persuading the Guinness Book of Records to add a new competition category.

Genri Kuprashvili, 54, undulating like a fish, covered the distance in a swimming pool in 92 minutes and 38 seconds Sunday. Journalists were invited to witness the event. Kuprashvili, who is chief spokesman for the country's security service, hoped his feat would be recognized.

"Such a way of swimming was known in ancient Georgia and was called dolphin style," Kuprashvili said afterward. "In August, I am planning to swim across the Dardanelles Strait," between Asiatic and European Turkey.

Kuprashvili hasn't heard yet whether he will receive official recognition and join Georgia's other three record holders: Dzhumber Lezhava, who did over 3,000 push-ups; Georgy Makharadze, who covered 12.5 miles juggling a ball with his feet; and Dmitri Kiknadze, who lifted 11.3-pound weights tied to his ears.

Once again, there is nothing new under the sun. What I had thought was cutting edge was practiced in ancient Georgia. We still call it dolphining and it is far easier than juggling a ball with your feet or lifting even 10-pound weights with your ears.

Normally, we move from doing wall work to working on long axis drills, but this year we thought we would make the transition from underwater dolphining off the walls to applying it to short axis drills. In addition, again, most of the kids have done all of the drills before.

This most critical movement in the short axis strokes is what Terry Laughlin calls pulsing. My experience is that most people will need to spend lots of time drilling to accomplish this motion with ease and fluency, and that girls will inevitably be able to learn this much quicker than guys.


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