A version of this article by Terry Laughlin was previously published on ivillage.com in Dec. 2011.

Total Immersion teaches swimming as a practice—in the spirit of yoga and Tai Chi– rather than a workout. The first principle of swimming as a practice is to let go of the usual goal of “Getting to the Other End.” Your new goal is to Be Aware of Every Stroke.  Another word for mindful swimming is intentional swimming. It works best when you target a single, highly specific element in your stroke. The foundation skill of effortless and enjoyable swimming is Balance–or feeling “weightless” in the water. This series of three focal points are designed to improve Balance in the crawl stroke.

Hang Your Head

While stroking “hang” your head– release its weight –until it feels weightless. Neither hold it up, nor press it down; just let it go.  When you release it, concentrate on feeling that it’s cushioned by the water.  Finally, notice if you feel a new relaxation— and maybe freedom of movement —in neck and shoulders.

Float Your Arm Forward . . . Slowly

Next focus intently on the extending arm. Feel the same “cushion” supporting your arm as you extend. Watch for— and eliminate –bubbles in your stroke (looking down, not forward.) Finally, explore how slowly you can float your arm forward . . . and try to extend slightly farther than usual.

Calm Your Legs

Your weightless upper body should help your lower body feel lighter than usual. Take advantage by “calming” and relaxing your legs. Instead of churning them busily and noisily, let them “draft behind” your upper body, in a slipstream. Strive for the easiest, quietest, and most streamlined movement possible.

Practice Tips:

1.) Before practicing the three focal points, swim a few lengths as you usually do. Count your strokes and rate your effort from 1 (Effortless) to 5 (Exhausting).  Repeat this exercise after each focal point to measure how they affect your ease and efficiency.

2.) Practice each focal point by doing a series of learning/familiarizing repeats followed by a series of practicing/memorizing repeats.

• Learning/Familiarizing  Swim a series of short (4 to 6 strokes, or 10 yards or less) repeats. Push off the wall, swim a short distance. Catch your breath and return to where you started. These repeats serve two purposes: (i) to break the habit of feeling obliged to complete every length you start; and (ii) to form a new habit of keen and undistracted attention.  Do at least four of these, but continue as long as you feel yourself discovering new sensations or nuances.

• Practicing/Memorizing Once you feel familiar with the new intention and sensation, swim farther— perhaps one, not more than two, pool lengths. Rest for 3 to 5 cleansing breaths after each. Continue visualizing your modified stroke as you do. Continue swimming the longer repeats as long as they feel as good or better than the shorter ones. If they don’t feel as good, resume shorter repeats to better imprint the new habit. Before progressing to the next focal point, count strokes and rate your effort. How do they compare to your former way of swimming?

This lesson is based entirely on whole-stroke practice. But most new swimmers experience find it much easier to learn Balance by mixing skill drills, like Superman Glide and Skate, with the short whole-stroke repeats described above. The next best thing to learning TI from a Certified Coach is to become your own best coach with the aid of our self-teaching tools.

Transform Your Stroke!

Learn guaranteed skill-builders with our downloadable Total Immersion Effortless Endurance Self Coaching Course! The drills and skills are illustrated in 15 short videos. Guidance on how to learn and practice each drill effectively, illustrated by clear pictures, are contained in the companion Workbook.

The post Your First TI Lesson Is Learning To Be “Weightless” in the Water appeared first on Total Immersion.

This post was originally published by Terry Laughlin on Mar. 20, 2012.

Since January [in 2012] I’ve been teaching an Effortless Endurance class series at the Greenwich (CT) YMCA — a series of four 90-minute sessions on Saturday afternoons. Every fourth week we begin another series. I’ve benefited personally from repeatedly leading new students through the TI foundational skills, in being reminded of the common challenges facing adults learning to swim in mid-life.

Learning to control your body in the water is is a big one. Learning to control your mind is even bigger. Inez, a participant in the current series, emailed me to report feeling overwhelmed when she went to the pool yesterday to practice the skills we worked on two days earlier in the second session, during which we focused on a Rag Doll recovery, Mail Slot entry and using the extended arm to Separate Molecules. That’s a lot of thinking and coordination.

I wrote back that– when learning a skill as complex and counter-intuitive as swimming– feeling overwhelmed is normal. I felt it as well, back in 1990, when I first realized my stroke needed a complete makeover after 25 years of swimming the traditional way. I discovered then that I needed to learn a new way to think before I could learn a new way to swim.

Between 1965 and 1972, when I was developing my inefficient stroke habits, I did all my swimming in workouts– i.e. racing teammates for a couple of hours each afternoon. In 1990 I swam mostly alone, practicing the drills and skills I was teaching in TI clinics and camps. (Weekend workshops didn’t begin until 1993.) Learning to be alone with my thoughts, undistracted by teammates, was a new experience.

I began my stroke makeover with a focus on head position, which had been forward-looking for 25 years and millions of strokes. I quickly realized that before I could learn a new way to swim, I would need to learn a new way to think — specifically how to “Think About One Thing” and ignore or dismiss other thoughts.

I thought about little else but head position for three months, and didn’t feel that a neutral head position had become my “new normal” for six months. By then, I’d formed two invaluable new habits:

(1) To swim with a neutral head position.

(2) To always leave the wall with One Clear Thought about technique.

(PS: Inez went on to say that after returning from her “overwhelmed” pool practice, she reviewed the video I’d shot Saturday and posted online, and felt encouraged and calmed by seeing how much her form had improved from a week earlier.)

 Transform Your Stroke!

Learn guaranteed skill-builders with our downloadable Total Immersion Effortless Endurance Self Coaching Course! The drills and skills are illustrated in 15 short videos. Guidance on how to learn and practice each drill effectively, illustrated by clear pictures, are contained in the companion Workbook.

The post Your First Swim Lesson Isn’t How to Stroke– It’s How to Think One Thought appeared first on Total Immersion.

Editorial Note: This post from the old TI Discussion Forum is archived from 2012, but if you’d like to participate in the current TI Discussion Forum, it is now located on Facebook as “Total Immersion Swimming Technique Discussion Group.”

This post was originally published by Terry Laughlin on Feb. 11, 2012.

The TI Discussion Forum had a query from Werner this morning, who I’m guessing is from Germany. Werner wrote:

Hallo,
I’ve been “on the TI train” for 12 months. Thanks to TI and this Forum I was able to complete 1000 meters of continuous freestyle within six months. My anxious question is: Will it hold?

Is it like biking? My grandma didn’t ride a bike for 55 years but was able to do so again, when someone suggested she do so. So how long will my current swimming success hold?

Thanks for sharing your experiences,
Werner

Here’s my reply to Werner:

Welcome to TI and thanks for engaging with other members of this Forum. As you will soon discover, your fellow TI swimmers are a thoughtful, supportive and generous group and will eagerly share the lessons they’ve learned.

The simplest answer to your question is: No, it will not hold. Quite the contrary, it will improve. Continuously. And likely for decades, not just weeks, months or years. The key is to embrace the most important aspect of the TI philosophy and methodology — Kaizen [continuous, life-long improvement].

Here are 5 Core Principles of Kaizen Swimming:

1) Your goal in every pool session is to improve your swimming – not to complete a certain number of meters or raise your heart rate or any of the traditional goals. As I’ve written many times, “My main thought every time I enter the pool is to be a better swimmer when I leave it an hour later.”

2) Improve by finding and fixing weak points. Those will be more obvious — and easier to fix – in the early stages, and more subtle — and require more patience and more strategic thinking later.

3) Love the “plateau.” This will become more important a few months to a year after you start TI, as the improvements take longer to achieve. You’ll spend weeks, and eventually months, practicing without being conscious of any improvement. During these times, maintain faith that change IS taking place — at the level of neurons. After a period of time that change will consolidate and produce a thrilling forward leap.

4) Become passionately curious. Swimming is the most complex, challenging and non-instinctive of all physical skills. This is because it’s an aquatic skill, while humans are terrestrial mammals. If you tirelessly seek to expand your knowledge and understanding, you’ll enjoy swimming much more, make steadier progress, and be able to have great confidence in your choices.

5) Practice is its own reward. Whatever goals have motivated you to begin swimming, strive to progress to a point where those external goals — while remaining sources of motivation — essentially become beside the point. The motivation that brings you to the pool day after day, year after year, decade after decade is the knowledge that your practice is the high point of your day, it leaves you energized mentally and physically for everything else you do, and–over time–produces enduring positive change in body, mind and spirit.

Happy Laps,
Terry

Find more tips like this in the Ultra-Efficient Freestyle Handbook, a richly-illustrated, easy-to-read 140 page guide to understanding freestyle technique in depth. It comes along with 15 downloadable videos and a learning and practice workbook in our Self-Coaching Toolkit.

The post 5 Principles for Continuous Improvement… for Decades! appeared first on Total Immersion.

Photo credit: Bob Fagan and USIA Video

This post was originally published by Terry Laughlin on Mar. 22, 2011.

Like previous practices posted, this is another example of a technique-focused Mindful Swimming Practice. These are similar to a series of classes led by me and other TI Coaches at the Multisport World Expo [in 2011] for some 160 swimmers at MIT. All showed visible and measurable improvement– in some cases improving stroke efficiency by over 30%, in others improving 1500m pace by as much as 6 minutes – in just over an hour.

All attendees expressed enthusiasm for being exposed to a refreshing alternative to uninspiring workout formulas based only on how hard or long. One set of classes was based on thoughtfully choreographed series of Focal Points (Mindful Swimming), the other on using Tempo Trainer and Stroke Count exercises to discover combinations of Stroke Length and Rate to create faster paces with less effort. 

This practice is devoted entirely to increasing sensitivity and awareness of how your hands enter, extend and find a grip.

Warmup/Tuneup 300 “Add Fingers” 
Do a continuous 300 or 12 x 25 or anything in between. Do 2 rounds of the following series:

25 Fist, 25 1-finger, 25 2-fingers, 25 3-fingers, 2×25 Full hand.

Focus: Round 1, concentrate on improving your sense of holding water as ‘grip’ area increases. Round 2, you may count strokes instead. Or both.

Narrow Focus Swim 6 to 8 x 25 of any 3 of the following Focal Points. Practice those you choose in the order given.

• Hang Hands Keep hands relaxed (not stiff) with fingers loosely separated (not closed).
• Mail Slot Cut a ‘slot’ in the water with fingertips. Slip forearm through that slot.
• Bubble-Free Watch for bubbles as you extend. Try to eliminate if you see.
• Light and Lazy Hand should feel weightless as it floats ‘lazily’ forward.
• Wide Tracks After Mail Slot entry, extend your relaxed hand so outside of wrist and elbow bones are wide of your shoulder. Avoid the center.
• VW Beetle Visualize the hood of a VW Bug. Slide your hand across the hood and down to the bumper as you extend.
• Patient At full extension, pause hand for a nanosecond before stroking. Begin pressing back as slowly and gently as possible.

Combined Focus Combine your three focal points as follows:
2 rounds of [3 x 50 (50 of each) + 2 x 75 (25 of each)]
Test your ability to transition smoothly from one focus to another and sense a distinct difference in your stroke as you do.

Extended Focus
Choose favorite Focal Point and swim [4 x 25 + 3 x 50 + 2 x 75 + 1 x 100]
Test your ability to sustain both focus and an improved sensation for a gradually increasing distance or duration.

Optional: Do this set a second time with Tempo Trainer set at a tempo of your choosing. Rather than count SPL, do this to test whether the addition of Tempo beeps aid in maintaining focus.

See closeups of Mail Slot, Bubble Free, Light and Lazy, Wide Tracks, Relaxed Hands from :20 to 1:20 of this video:

The post PRACTICE SET: Guaranteed to Develop “Smarter” Hands and Improve Your Grip on the Water appeared first on Total Immersion.

One of the single most common questions that T.I. swimmers ask after first learning the T.I. drill process and technique-focused approach is: “How do I apply what I’ve learned in the drills to my whole stroke practice?” To help guide our students with integrating T.I. skills in the transition to whole stroke practice, we have long provided a companion instructional manual to our workshop attendees. Below is an excerpt from a workshop manual that Terry Laughlin adapted from his 2006 book “Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body,” providing practical suggestions to guide T.I. swimmers through the first several weeks or months following a T.I. workshop. This post highlights a detailed list of freestyle focal points that aims to answer the question of how to transition the skills of T.I. drills to whole stroke swimming– an indispensable aid for both new T.I. swimmers and long-term kaizen learners! Enjoy… and Happy Laps!  

 SELECTED EXCERPT FROM:

“KAIZEN SWIMMING: HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TOTAL IMMERSION WORKSHOP” 

DEVELOP YOUR STROKE

This phase of practice can last a lifetime for those most committed to Kaizen Swimming, but it should certainly last between one and several years. Your minimum goal is to swim whole stroke with the same degree of balance, ease, and control that you enjoy in the drills. You do that by:

(1) Learning to swim balanced and tall

(2) Learning to breathe rhythmically without interrupting your flow and while keeping a hand extended and anchored

(3) Learning to start each stroke with a “patient hand”– taking time to trap the water with hand/forearm before stroking

(4) Develop “gears” by establishing an SPL (strokes per length) range of three to four 25 yd/m stroke counts (e.g. 14-17 strokes per length, calibrated precisely according to your chosen pace) at which you can swim efficiently… and be able to swim 400-1500 meters without exceeding your SPL range… and to swim sets of shorter repeats (repeats of 25-200 yd/m in sets that last 10-20 min.) in the lower half of your SPL range

PRACTICE TIPS

Following a period of intensive drill practice, you have two priorities: (1) Apply what you’ve learned in drills to whole-stroke and (2) Begin imprinting an economical stroke into muscle memory. The two key ingredients are Drill/Swim Set and Mindful Swimming. Earlier in this practice guide Coach Brian Van de Krol gave great guidance on Drill/Swim sets. [Those particular drill/swim sets will be shared in a separate blog post in the coming weeks.] Basically, take what feels good in the drill and make it feel the same while swimming whole stroke. At first, it might take you 75 yds of a drill to get a clear idea of the sensation you’re trying to replicate, and you might be able to “hold that feeling” for only 25 yds of swimming. With time, that mix should become 50 yds drill and 50 whole stroke, then 25 drill and 75 whole stroke. Prioritize clarity by having a specific focus at all times and keeping that focus from drill to whole stroke. For example, if you practice Skating with a focus on establishing “wide tracks,” then focus on following those wide tracks in whole stroke.

When you increase your whole-stroke practice, it’s best to simplify your task and heighten your focus with Mindful Swimming. Pages 115-127 of “Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body” [available for purchase– follow this link to the T.I .Store] provide a detailed context for all Freestyle Focal Points. Here is a consolidated list to begin your freestyle practice. 

FOR BALANCE

• Completely release the weight of your head to the water
• Imagine a laser beam coming from your head-spine line– keep it pointed forward
• Feel that the back of your neck is lengthened
• Hang your extended hand– keep fingers below wrist and wrist below elbow

FOR LATERAL STABILITY

• Keep extended lead hand outside of shoulder
• Follow “Wide Tracks” with recovery and extension
• Rotate only enough for shoulder to clear the water

FOR LONG, SLEEK BODYLINES

• Spear hand forward to a target located in Skating and reinforced in Switch drills
• Line up your body to follow your spearing hand down the track
• Keep legs inside the “shadow” or slipstream of your body
• Always have a hand forward of your head

FOR RECOVERY AND ENTRY

• Ear Hops– Hop fingers over an imaginary bar coming from your ear, then into the water
• Marionette Arms– Hang hand/forearm from your shoulder like a marionette or rag doll
• Mail Slot– On entry, slip hand and forearm through a visualized mail slot forward of your shoulder
• Soft Hand– Entering hand should be relaxed enough that fingers separate loosely

HOLD YOUR PLACE

• Enter fingers opposite the elbow of extended hand
• Pause hand– fingers down– for a brief moment before stroke
• Trap the water behind hand/forearm before stroking
• Hold– don’t pull– as best you can

PROPEL EFFORTLESSLY WITH YOUR CORE

• Spear your entering hand past your grip
• Spear your hand through the target established in Skating and Switch drills
• Drive down the high hip as you spear
• Count strokes with hip drives instead of hand entries
• Drive opposite foot as you spear your hand
• Finish each stroke to the front

BREATHING

• Bubble out immediately and continuously after inhale
• Blow out the final 20% more forcefully as you roll to air
• Use the spearing hand to take you to air
• Follow shoulder back with your chin and look past your shoulder
• Keep the top of your head down, aligned with spine
• Get taller as you roll to breathe; stay taller as you return face-down

KICKING

• Legs should be as passive as possible (if you came to workshop with “busy” legs)
• Keep kick as small and “neat” as possible
• Try to close feet briefly as you spear
•  Kick from “gut” and top of legs– don’t feel it in your thighs
• Synchronize left foot drive with right hand spear and vice-versa

AND FINALLY

• Do everything as quietly as possible– drilling, swimming, increasing speed or cadence
• Never Practice Struggle

If you’re counting, that makes 38 different focal points– but it’s not an exhaustive list. I’ve used every one of these, some for hundreds of thousands of strokes, others for tens of thousands. All have contributed something meaningful to my efficiency. I never take a stroke– in training or racing– without thinking about one of them. Each focal point works on a particular part of the stroke. And each lap you consciously focus on, for example, slipping your arm into a mail slot, faintly imprints a new groove in your nervous system. After 5 or 10 minutes thinking only about that, it will feel a bit more natural and improve the chances that you’ll continue doing it when you’re thinking about something else. 

Through practice, you’ll narrow the list to a few particular favorites. Once you do, you might note those on an index card and laminate, or put it in a Ziploc baggie and take it to the pool with you. Put it at the end of your lane, and then do several 25s of each “cue” on the card. Take enough time between reps to catch your breath and think about how you feel. As they become easier, progress to 4 x 50 of each cue. Then, 4 x 75. The level of focus required to do these and groove them into your nervous system makes the time fly, so enjoy this exercise in Mindful Swimming, while you build efficiency and fitness.

The post PRACTICE CUES: Kaizen Focal Point Checklist For Transition From Drills to Whole Stroke Swimming appeared first on Total Immersion.

                                     Terry keeping his head low while breathing to the left

This week’s blog is a look back at a Nov. 2010 post from T.I. founder Terry Laughlin on the ever-popular topic of breathing in freestyle: an essential component of swimming with ease and confidence, no matter the distance. Being able to breathe comfortably is the very foundation of being able to swim comfortably– can’t do anything without air! And yet, this primary skill of swimming mystifies and confounds many swim students because our instinctive human impulses to get to the air (lifting the head up, pushing down on the water with the arm as a “brace” to stay aloft during a breath, etc.) contradict the elements of efficient breathing that characterize T.I. swimming. Terry often remarked that virtually every skill of efficient swimming (as opposed to “survival swimming”) is counter-intuitive and he referred to this dilemma as the “Universal Human Swimming Problem” or “UHSP.” Swimmers who struggle are not outliers, he observed, once writing: “Indeed, swimming poorly–or swimming ‘okay’ without realizing you could be swimming much better–is so common we call it the ‘Universal Human Swimming Problem.’” Fortunately, we can transform our reflexively inefficient “survival swimming” through conscious practice of the counter-intuitive skills of efficient swimming. Learning to breathe in balance is a huge piece of solving the “UHSP” and this article addresses that specific issue, offering insights and practical suggestions for how to develop and refine this crucial skill. Enjoy… and Happy Laps!

Editor’s Note:  The discussion thread Terry mentions below is now archived as a “read-only” thread in the old discussion forum.

November 24, 2010

A focus on Balance shows up virtually every day in one or more threads on the TI Discussion Forum. Today, in a thread titled Back to the Roots, forum member Haschu reported: 

This morning I practiced in a  15-meter hotel pool. I watched Shinji’s video of holding Superman Glide for 12.5 m. I wondered how he could glide such a long distance and tried to match that. So I did SG repeats for about 20 minutes, finally reaching 10, perhaps even 12 m.

Haschu continued: 

After that, I did a few laps of full-stroke breathing to my left, which is my ‘bad’ breathing side. I’m deeper in the water and always lift my head when breathing left. I could never figure out why. I tried to adjust my right spearing arm and other things, but nothing seemed to work. Yet after that extended period of SG [Superman Glide] my mouth was clear of water as I breathed. I find it quite amazing how much benefit one can gain from very ‘basic’ drills like SG and core balance. I can only encourage everybody to use those drills intensively. They make everything else so much easier.

I’m not at all surprised that extending one’s practice of Superman Glide far beyond what most people would consider resulted in finding the solution to a long-term “breathing puzzle.”

Once you’ve practiced T.I. for several years, most of your Kaizen – continuing improvement – opportunities will be rather subtle. You can swim as far as you like. On the whole you feel pretty good when swimming – perhaps even experience “flow states” (aka: feeling “in the zone”) at times.

Yet – because you tirelessly seek small flaws to improve – you find them. Your “symptom”– feeling a bit lower in the water, and that you lift your head slightly when breathing to the left — is clearly balance-related. But it’s difficult to correct because (to quote Sting) every breath you take reinforces the error.

If you analyze a bit, you realize:

1) Lifting your head causes the “sinking feeling”

2) It probably also means that your right hand is “bracing” rather than extend-and-catch

3) All of this happens because you don’t feel as well supported as you roll to your left

Nothing deepens sense-of-support (and emotional security) like Superman Glide. As well, no drill is quite as good at helping you really, really, really release your head. At first just when looking down. It takes greater focus to keep really, really, really releasing your head as you roll to breathe.

“Really, really, really release your head” while breathing

One way to develop this skill is to repeat SG (Superman Glide) until you feel yourself really, really, really releasing your head while gliding.

Then add some strokes and really, really, really release your head while stroking.

Finally, take a few breaths to evaluate whether you’re still really, really, really releasing your head while breathing.  I look for a feeling that the side of my head is floating on a cushion as I breathe.  I don’t mind doing 20 minutes of very short, intensely-focused repeats in pursuit of it.

That kind of practice will often look something like this:
4 x SG (7 to 8 yds)
4 x SG + 3-5 strokes (10-15 yds)
4 x SG + 2-3 breaths (15-18 yds)
4 x SG
4 x SG + 3-5 strokes
4 x SG + 3-5 breaths
4 x SG
4 x SG + 3-5 strokes
4 x SG + 4-6 breaths

As I’ve said previously, just because there’s a convention to make pools 25y/m doesn’t mean we always have to swim that far without stopping. I stop in mid-pool regularly when working on an elusive skill or sensation. As I feel it improve, I  keep adding one more successful cycle at a time.

15m hotel pools are not so good for lap swimming, but they’re perfect for refining subtle skills, as is extended practice of the more basic drills.

Blog Comment– Troubleshooting Question for Terry

Blog reader Craig: I have tried to find this kind of balance for years, but haven’t [gotten it]! I am 6′ 1″ and 165 lbs. so floating is difficult and my legs are very “heavy” in the water. Is this possible for my bodytype? Thanks for all your great info/videos!

Terry: When you say you’re 6-1 and 165 and so floating is difficult I don’t understand, because many elite swimmers have similar body type. Please don’t confuse “balance” with “floating.” The human body is intended to sink to some extent – i.e. only 5% of body mass will typically be above the surface. Balance means to “sink in a horizontal position.” It’s a skill acquired by specific changes in head and limb position and redistribution of body weight.

Craig: I have tried everything to achieve the “Superman glide,” but still end up with my feet about 3 feet under water as soon as my forward speed is lost. If I blow out my air, then I will sink level, but go straight to the bottom of the pool? I can’t find leverage to keep my chest down and legs up? Thanks.

Terry: Mine sink too . . . at some point. Start stroking while you still have a bit of momentum. Start with 3 to 5 strokes and just one thought.

Learn all skills and drills described in this post– and the other elements of efficient freestyle– in our downloadable product: Effortless Endurance Freestyle Complete Self-Coaching Toolkit

The post VIDEO: How Balance Improves Breathing– And A Practice Set for This Skill appeared first on Total Immersion.

Terry demonstrating focal points for the timing of the weight shift, Feb. 2016

This Dec. 2015 photo-illustrated article from T.I. Founder Terry Laughlin is a thorough breakdown of how one can apply several core fundamentals of T.I. technique to a practice session. With great detail, he describes the step-by-step tactical approach of a lesson he conducted with two students. Below, he recounts how he guided his students’ practice with targeted focal points– or “mini skills”– to test how well they could maintain efficiency as they moved from drilling to more seamless whole stroke swimming. Terry’s account of this T.I. practice session with students is an excellent example of how you can integrate foundational technique skills into your own swim practice. Enjoy… and Happy Laps!

December 11, 2015

Two days ago I brought two students, Dmitry and Sergey, to Bard College to guide them through a practice that was 100% focused on increasing efficiency  via improving technique. They had just completed two days of instruction–four 90-minute sessions in the Endless Pool at our Swim Studio. During the final session, they said they’d like to extend their stay and squeeze in one more session.

Both had radically transformed their strokes during the previous two days. But such rapid transformation isn’t always easy to maintain–especially after returning to the very different environment of a lap pool, and to a setting where the pull to resume old routines may be strong. If we did another session in the Endless Pool, I wouldn’t attempt to introduce anything new–only to review and deepen the skills they’d already learned.

But I felt there could be even more value in testing the new skills in the same environment to which they’d be returning.  I proposed we go to Bard College the next morning, where I could guide them through their first post-workshop ‘real world’ practice.  The experience turned out to be as valuable for me as for Sergey and Dmitry.

We began by reviewing the first and most ‘non-negotiable’ skill of efficient swimming: Establishing a neutral–and weightless–head position.  I had them repeat Superman four times. Glide five yards from wall to backstroke flags. Stand for a breather and return.

On the first two reps both were holding the head slightly elevated. I lightly wagged the head to reveal that they were maintaining slight neck tension. On the next two reps, their heads were fully released and aligned with the spine. The visual cue–shown below–is that only a small sliver of the back of the head is visible above the surface.

Ready for the next step: Add a few strokes to test whether they could continue resting their heads on the water. Would I still see that same small sliver of head as they stroked?

We did four reps of Superman plus 4 to 5 non-breathing strokes. I asked them to assess whether their head position felt the same–with same degree of relaxation in neck muscles–after they began stroking. They passed that test, so we advanced to a slightly more demanding skill.

Could they maintain this new skill for a full 25 yards–14 to 17 strokes rather than 4–and while breathing. I instructed them to push off in Superman, establish the weightless head sensation, take four non-breathing strokes, then breathe bilaterally the rest of the way. Could they maintain a neutral, weightless head while breathing–as shown below?

Sergey succeeded. Dmitry lifted his head while breathing. I asked him to tune into the feeling of having the head rest on the surface during the non-breathing strokes, then check whether he felt the same sensation as he breathed. While he didn’t fully correct this error, it was valuable information to identify this as a problem to be solved in practices that followed. I made a mental note to finish the practice by having Dmitry review the TI “Nod” drill–shown below–which can correct head-lifting in as little as 10 minutes.

Nodding to the left

Following the same sequence, we cycled through several foundational mini-skills. For each cycle, choose ONE Focal Point or Mini-Skill while doing the following:

1. Do several reps of a standing rehearsal or drill–depending on the skill.
2. Swim several short reps, transitioning seamlessly from the drill to 4 to 5 non-breathing strokes.
3. Swim 4 to 8 x 25 to test the durability of the new mini-skill with more strokes and while breathing.

The second cycle was most instructive for all three of us. In our first cycle, I’d observed that  both Sergey and Dmitry looked a bit tight, and uncertain, during Recovery. To address this, I instructed them to lightly Paint a Line on the surface with fingertips (hanging from a Rag Doll arm).

First they rehearsed Rag Doll/Paint a Line– as shown below.

Rehearsal: Paint A Line and Rag Doll with right arm

Then they tested their ability to do it while stroking. It should look like this:

In this case, it was Dmitry who succeeded. Sergey’s hand was a bit too close to his body–increasing tension in his shoulder. It was also several inches off the water– an occasion for energy waste, especially when multiplied by the thousands of strokes he would take in a triathlon or open water swim.

A much more important revelation was the keen degree of attention required for new skills that call on fine motor coordination–requiring the cooperation of multiple small muscles. This was an opportunity for a critical takeaway about the Skill of Focus.

Just as with motor skills, one must begin developing mental skills with relatively undemanding tasks. E.G. For just 4 to 5 strokes, can you lightly trace a wide straight line on the surface with fingertips. There’s no point in going farther–either a more complex skill, or swimming a greater distance–until you succeed at this.

To develop the ability to perform complex skills, one must first achieve consistency–and a degree of effortlessness–in a series of much simpler mini-skills.

To acquire the capacity for laser-sharp and unwavering focus– e.g. to remain calmly observant in a chaotic-seeming environment like the start of a triathlon swim– one must first be able to concentrate on doing one simple thing for 25 yards or even less in a quiet pool.

During our practice I was able to not only make corrections to form, but also to leave a much larger lesson: Your goal on each rep is not only to improve a motor skill; it’s to strengthen your capacity to hold one thought.

By the way, my own swimming received a striking benefit. When I wasn’t observing, I swam behind Dmitry and Sergey, practicing the same skills and testing my own focus. (I [passed that test–a result of tireless practice.)

At the beginning I took 13 strokes for 25 yards. Then my count improved to 12 strokes. And a few times I crossed the pool in 11 strokes. Before we got out I had to test this efficiency on a continuous 50.

First 25, 12 strokes. Flip turn and pushoff. 2nd 25, 12 strokes for a total of 24 strokes for 50 yards.

I hadn’t swum 50 yards in fewer than 25 strokes in several years. I was so pleased I immediately swam another to see if I could repeat it. Voila, I did.

Very happy laps indeed.

All skills and Focal Points mentioned in this post are shown and described in the downloadable Effortless Endurance Freestyle Complete Self-Coaching Toolkit. 

The post HOW TO PRACTICE: Terry’s “Mini-Skill” Focal Point Progression from Drills to Whole Stroke Swimming appeared first on Total Immersion.