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Now
take your swimming to unexpected places
My daughter Cari plays Ultimate Frisbee at Wesleyan University.
I went to watch her play in a tournament. It looked like
exhilarating fun, but later she mentioned that she’d
never even touched the disk during the game. Like me,
she’s not a born athlete, and frisbee is often a
coed game; most of the other players were faster, stronger
or able to jump higher. Cari wistfully related the thrill
of watching a player from another school race from one
side of the end zone to the other, dive headlong, somersault
and then snatch the disk inches from the turf
for a one-of-a-kind, acrobatic score. "I know I’ll
never be a human highlight film," she said "but
I still think I can become a good player and I think the
way to do that is to work on my throwing."
Smart thinking. She’d pinpointed a key part of the
game that doesn’t require special physical talents,
but will benefit from patient, diligent practice. If she
is simply willing to spend hours mastering the countless
ways one can artfully snap one’s wrist to deliver
a disk to the precise spot a streaking teammate will be
at a particular moment in time – while also learning
to read an unfolding play to anticipate opportunities
— she could become a masterful playmaker. And as
she does, she may experience exquisite satisfaction —
not just because frisbee-tossing is fun, but from the
satisfaction of seeing her ability to make it do what
she wishes steadily increase. But most of all, she has
a good chance to achieve the blissful state created by
having mind and body fully engaged in mastering a challenging
skill.
Having completed the basic aim of this book: to provide
practical tools to help you swim better in a triathlon
or open-water — I invite you to go one step further
and experience what has been the most satisfying and instructive
aspect of swimming for me—that it is almost ideally
suited to revealing the pleasures of the pursuit of Mastery.
What is Mastery?
Mastery is the intriguing process during which what was
once difficult becomes progressively easier and more pleasurable
through practice. Whenever we witness some form of memorably
high-level performance–whether it’s Isaac
Stern on the violin, an acrobatic frisbee player, or Ian
Thorpe in the pool — we instinctively assume that
mastery requires some sort of inborn genius. But mastery
is not just for the fortunate few; anyone who
pursues a personally-challenging goal — no matter
how modest their starting point — can experience
its rewards
Swimming is a uniquely fitting medium for cultivating
the habits of mastery because it is the antithesis of
a genetically programmed activity. When we do it instinctively,
by and large, we do it very poorly. Yet, while human DNA
may not be ideal for swimming, it is encoded
to learn prodigiously from birth to death. And it is the
mastery of skills for which we are not genetically programmed
that differentiate us from all other creatures.
Swimming mastery is not about swimming 100 meters under
a minute or a 2.4-mile Ironman swim leg under an hour;
it’s not even really about achieving some level
of stroke efficiency. It’s about uniting mind and
body, without distraction and boredom, in patient, focused,
almost loving, practice. Practice of this sort can teach
you how to learn and perform in almost anything.
The first of these lessons is the value of long-term dedication
to the journey itself. If there is any sure route to personal
fulfillment, it is in valuing the patient journey toward
mastery over the desire for quick and easy results. Cultivate
modest expectations along the way and every time you reach
a benchmark or breakthrough, enjoy it, then keep practicing,
hoping you will always have some further plateau to aim
for.
Learning to love routine.
An essential insight for achieving mastery is that learning
any challenging skill involves brief spurts forward, followed
by a much longer plateau slightly higher than the previous
one. To pursue Mastery, you must embrace the idea of spending
most of your time on a plateau, continuing to practice
enthusiastically even when you seem to be stagnating.
Those occasional upward surges are not the only time progress
is occurring. On an invisible, cellular level, learning
and adaptation are constant, so long as you are giving
your body tasks that require deep concentration to complete.
And you keep yourself on the path toward mastery by practicing
primarily for the sake of practice itself. Rather
than becoming frustrated by your seeming lack of progress,
learn to appreciate your daily practice routine, just
as much as you are thrilled by the periodic breakthrough.
Just as Zen practice does, your swimming practice can
bring peace and serenity by filling the space usually
occupied by the problems and distractions of your external
life.
Every time I enter a pool, I immediately enter a blissful
sense of well-being, because it’s proven to be one
of the few areas of life that I can consistently do just
what I want. That sense of peace allows me to luxuriate
in incremental progress. At the end of every year I know
I’m swimming better than the year before, stroke
counts slightly lower, fluency slightly greater. And perhaps
once a year I get an electrifying moment of clarity or
insight. But the routine between those moments is never
boring because I feel I am never more fully myself than
when working on mastery. The pleasure I have gained from
swimming this way has led me to other activities —
rowing, yoga, cross-country skiing — that offer
similar opportunities for incremental improvement through
mindful practice. Together they provide an encouraging
sense that, even at age 50, I’m getting steadily
better as an athlete.
The Tao of Practice
Just before the 2000 Olympics, I read an illuminating
profile of Marion Jones, who was on her way to gold medals
in sprints and hurdles. I can’t recall the writer’s
name, but I took these notes: "She was endowed with
the neurological on-off switches to take 47 steps in less
than 11 seconds with no loss of power (the average person
can take about 35)...Grueling conditioning helps. So does
obsessive attention to the smallest details. Running 100
meters is a violent act, beginning with a gunshot. At
the same time, the training involved is analogous to a
concert pianist's mastering Chopin; both are performances
that require ferocious concentration and a fanatical regimen
that reduces learned muscular actions to nearly automatic
responses.... She trains with punctilious precision, systematically
solving tiny biomechanical problems that keep her from
running fractionally faster than anyone else." The
writer describes a training session: "I mostly see
her stepping over 10 hurdles set three feet apart...and
that's about all she is doing for the better part of three
hours...drilling it into both mind and body...to maintain
perfect posture, which helps to keep her feet below the
center of mass, which helps her explode through the hips."
Marion Jone’s practice sounds very much like the
learning and practice forms I suggested
in Chapters 12 and 13, but radically different from conventional
grind-it-out swim training. This is what differentiates
practice from a workout. For anyone
on the master’s journey, the word practice is not
just something you do, but is akin to the Chinese
word tao, which means path. A practice is anything
you immerse yourself in as an integral part of your life.
You practice skilled swimming, not just to swim faster,
but for the inherent pleasure it brings.
Sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella observed that the
best golfers on the PGA Tour, spend more time on the practice
tee than less successful players. Are they best because
they practice so much or do they practice so much because
of the pressure or responsibility of being the best? Rotella
learned, after interviewing them, that their primary motivation
for practice was the sheer pleasure of performing at the
peak of their abilities. Because they swing a golf club
with such exquisite control, they are happy to spend hour
upon hour doing it. And the volume and complete engagement
of their practice reinforces their skills and dominance.
Finally, the more their skills increase, the more they
enjoy practice; the essence of a positive addiction.
A few of our students have shown an impatience to move
from simple drills to advanced drills to swimming to swimming
fast. In contrast, the most advanced TI practitioners,
like Don Walsh, the TI Master Teacher and champion marathon
swimmer I mentioned in Chapter 7, who have been practicing
the drills for years, have learned to appreciate the subtleties
and endless possibilities contained within even the most
rudimentary techniques.
On occasion, Don may repeat a single drill for 30 minutes
or more. The uninterrupted, meditative repetition expands
his awareness significantly. What start out as barely
noticeable variations in execution become significant
and revealing and can be tweaked with much more subtlety.
This is why Tiger Woods can swing a golf club for six
or eight hours a day without a moment of boredom. He experiences
and examines so much more in every swing than does the
ordinary golfer that it offers an incredible richness
of experience. This newness — new insights, new
awareness in "old" skills and movements —
banishes boredom and impatience forever.
Becoming a Master
As I said earlier, the rewards of mastery are not reserved
only for those gifted with special talents. The process
of practicing like a Master will enable you to achieve
a higher level of excellence and a deeper sense of satisfaction.
Here are several tools to help you start your journey:
Knowledge is Power
When spending your precious time at practice — and
to commit yourself without reservation — it’s
essential that you be confident you’re on the right
path. If I have done my job well, this book — confirmed
by your body’s feedback – can be your source
of that certainty. I expect that most of those who read
this book will be self-coached, but a devoted student
armed with knowledge, is better off than a student with
a poor teacher. And even if you have a coach, the ultimate
responsibility for progress toward Mastery lies not with
your teacher but with you.
Videotapes can be a source of guidance and information.
If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a moving picture
is probably worth 10,000 words. But learning is immeasurably
aided by feedback. And you can create feedback
for yourself when a teacher isn’t available by finding
a practice partner.
Build a support system.
You can work toward mastery on your own, but it helps
to share the journey with others: People who have gone
through the same process and can share their wisdom and
insight. People who are on the path at the same time as
you, so you can compare notes. People who are simply interested
in your well-being and growth and will offer encouragement.
Finally, you can recruit a practice partner. Share your
knowledge and goals with them and invite them to join
you on the path to mastery. You’ll gain a better
understanding of what you have been working on learning
if you teach some part of it to a partner…and they
will then be better equipped to help you right back.
Emotional equilibrium
Eugen Herrigel, in his book Zen in the Art of Archery,
wrote that zen archers do not train primarily to shoot
bullseyes, but to increase their self-understanding. Similarly,
mastery is not a pursuit of perfection, but of self-knowledge
— including your flaws and limitations. You’ll
never reach perfection anyway, and that’s fortunate,
because, you’ll always have some higher goal inspiring
you. And particularly in swimming, so long as you have
Human DNA, you will never exhaust your opportunities for
learning or improvement. Further, it’s essential
to feel clumsy or incompetent at times – and to
smile at yourself when you do. The understanding of a
master learner is measured by their willingness to surrender
what they "know" in order to learn something
new. When teaching a four-stroke camp, we observed that
experienced backstrokers struggled far more with a new
backstroke drill than those who were inexperienced in
backstroke. Because they "knew" how backstroke
should feel, they insisted on fitting this drill into
that experience. The novices achieved fluency in the drill
quickly. The experienced ones began to approach the same
fluency only when they allowed themselves to "forget"
what they knew about backstroke. And they were soon swimming
backstroke better than ever.
Use all your potential.
In his influential book, Tao of Jeet Kune Do,
Bruce Lee wrote that 10 minutes of practice with mind
and body fully integrated was worth more than 10 hours
of going through the motions. It’s well known that
most humans operate at only a tiny fraction of their true
potential and that the key to realizing more of that potential
is mental, not physical. When Jack Nicklaus was the world’s
dominant golfer, he revealed that he never hit a shot
without first visualizing the ball’s perfect flight
and successful conclusion "sitting up there high
and white and pretty on the green." Mindful practice
in swimming will soon give you an archive of "mental
movies," as captivating as Nicklaus’s. Driving
home from practice, you may find yourself reliving the
pleasure of a rhythmic, fluid stroke. Impressions like
these provide the basis for detailed recall and rehearsal
of the way "great" swimming feels – or
of the way it looks, after watching some masterful swimmer..
As you become more Fishlike, practices and races can become
so enjoyable that you’ll find yourself replaying
them, recalling the pleasures of fluid movement hours
later, just as you relive other pleasant memories. These
will give you a powerful tool for reinforcing the physical
part of learning. Soon, your "warmup" (both
for practice and races) will become as much mental as
physical. Your imagery will begin to prime your nervous
system as you "swim on your way to the pool."
Making the path to mastery a powerful habit will enrich
the totality of your life experience. Though you began
with the limited goal of swimming better in a triathlon,,
you can go well beyond that to making swimming a deeply
satisfying experience to learning life lessons that can
enrich nearly any valued undertaking.
Happy laps,
Terry Laughlin
New Paltz NY
October, 2001
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