Comments on: Balance is Profound! https://www.totalimmersion.net/blog/balance-is-profound/ Total Immersion Fri, 20 Feb 2026 11:58:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1 By: CoachBillL https://www.totalimmersion.net/blog/balance-is-profound/#comment-51 Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:45:40 +0000 http://totalimmersion.net/blog/?p=749#comment-51 Shane, I’m especially interested in what you say about exploiting gravity in running by a forward lean from the ankle, which sounds like Chi Running. I took a course in this from a very good coach in 2008 and practiced it for 18 months, with additional coaching, and slowly increasing achilles tendon discomfort. The I read a post from Jeff Galloway, quoted on the Chi Running forum, about the runners trying Chi and Pose he’d seen with injuries. (See http://www.chirunning.com/bulletinboard/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7686&p=15441&hilit=achilles#p15441.) So I decided to stop leaning, or at least trying to lean, and just run very upright and light-footed, as Galloway recommends. It seems to me that if you watch an elite long-distance track team, or the lead pack in a marathon, nobody is leaning forward — they are light and graceful and perfectly upright. So — the idea that leaning from the ankles is The Way to run faster seems to me highly suspect, as is the idea that there is one best way for everybody to run. (Of course swimming is different!)

Welcome your comments —

Bill

]]> By: jmsavi https://www.totalimmersion.net/blog/balance-is-profound/#comment-50 Sun, 07 Nov 2010 17:24:49 +0000 http://totalimmersion.net/blog/?p=749#comment-50 Aloha Shane,
Always look forward to your latest blog and have recently found how the art of balance has been taken for granted in my day to day life.
When I practice Tai Chi with your video it is amazing to me how much my body is constantly adjusting with small muscle movements just to stay still and balanced.Just as it is more difficult for me to swim slowly,it is difficult to slowly breath in with the ball of my feet and exhale thru my heels,all while staying balanced.I’m thinking “the practice” is to do it enough times correctly that there is less effort and eventually it’s effortless.
I studied music briefly with a musician that studied music in India.He told me that an exercise,musical passage, etc. must be correctly performed 108 times before it becomes “part of you”.Possibly the number is different for different people but the idea of repetition until there is “no mind” relates to swimming,cycling,running and life in general.
I’ve found so many parallels between music and TI swimming. Breaking whole stroke down into short drills is the same as breaking down a piece of music or a musical passage into smaller parts making it easier to learn.It’s more difficult to swim slowly.Try playing a song really slow while maintaining an accurate tempo.The ear is how we hear music and the inner ear is where balance receptors are.TI and Tai Chi were just what I was looking for.They make sense to me.
The BMX video is awesome.Again, art in motion,like Shinji swimming.
OK.So I’m reading this latest blog and when I get to the end I had to laugh out loud.I don’t know if you remember the comedy “The Jerk” with Steve Martin, but there’s a scene where the phone company is handing out the new phone books.Steve Martin is running around ,all excited, yelling;”The new phone is here.The new phone book is here.”He turns to the page with his name, reads it out loud and says “My name is in print.Things are going to start happening to me now.”:D Thanks coach
John

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