Technique Vs Understanding

Swimming technique is over-rated!

There, I said it.....

I know, I know, for expert swimmers, technique plays a crucial role in enhancing performance, for sure. That quest for perfection in technique for expert swimmers looking to shave milliseconds off your personal best is entirely justified.

But at what if you're not an expert? What if you're an adult learner/improver simply aspiring to swim further, faster with ease.

Is that never-ending quest for perfect technique is limiting your capacity to learn? And at what cost to on your mental health?

Are you swimming with a negative inner-monologue?

Self-Judgement

If you're beating yourself up about your imperfect technique, comparing yourself to others, giving yourself a hard time over your swimming performance, that's no way to swim. You won't be able to #swimhappy

Solution

Instead, start prioritising the tactile feedback from the water. The more time we notice sensations, movement, momentum as we swim, the more we start enjoying the water.

Comparison

Chances are that 'perfect' technique that you're trying to replicate may not work for you. After all, you may not look like or move like that swimmer on YouTube. I bet you don't walk, run, sit or stand like them either. Are they younger, fitter, stronger? Are they lifelong swimmers with a natural affinity with the water? Are you?

Solution

Choose your swimming role models wisely. After all, spending time on Insta, Facebook and Snapchat looking at the perfect lives of others doesn't do us any good. YouTube swimming videos are much the same.

Over-Dependency

Is obeying all those swimming rules (e.g breathe every 3 strokes, don't rotate, do this with your hands etc) causing you pain, discomfort or frustration and restricting your capacity to learn. Of course, swiming experts are experts for a reason - they know their stuff. But can they relate to your struggles?

Solution

Are you able to consider #SwimmingFreedom? - the choice to take the technique that you know and make it your own. Develop your ability, confidence, self-belief to question all those arbitrary swimming rules. Adopt and adapt" said one of my clients. #SwimYourWay, I say.

Swimming Overwhelm

If you're so busy 'trying' to copy a technique, swim perfectly, follow all those rules, that sense of 'trying hard' will likely feel overwhelming. There's simply too much going on in your head to think straight.

Solution

Pay more attention to the water around you as you swim. Enjoy your connection to the water. Notice your movement and momentum through the water. The water feels great but if we're too busy 'doing' we never take a moment to experience 'being' in the water.

Doing it Wrong

Endless advice, exercises, instruction from so many experts. Which drills to perform? Who to believe? Why doesn't 'it' work for me?

Solution

Make every swim an 'experiment' to encourage a way of learning. Start noticing what's happening as you swim. How much difference is that new hand shape, arm movement, leg kick really making? Is it helping or not helping? Start doing 'the wrong thing' to see what happens. You'll learn more from so called mistakes. Break those swimming rules.

Fear

'You're not scared of the deep', 'you're not scared of the deep', 'you're not...' but wait, your heart rate's increasing, your breath is quickening. You've noticed the change in water colour, you can feel the drop in temperature. Maybe there's a flashback to a childhood experience that you're adamant isn't affecting your swimming. And yet, you're kicking harder to make sure you don't sink. It's a matter of time until you grab for the side.

Solution

For those with a form of 'swimming trauma', where the 'swimming past' is defining their 'swimming present and future', there's a trust in the water that doesn't yet exist - it never had the chance to develop in childhood.

If you're swimming to stay afloat, there's a fundamental aspect of swimming that's lacking. Floating. But there's more to floating than floating. That's why I talk about Balance. A continual process of balancing in the water, being at one with the water, trusting the water and letting it support you in the water. After that, any movement sends you forward through the water with ease.

Swim-Barrassment

Those feelings of shame and embarrassment that rise to the surface every time you have to stop for a breath or get overtaken by someone seemingly less fit than you, it can be frustrating, debilitating, all-consuming.

Solution

An 'Awareness' of any comes first in solving with any issue. Of course, you're already more than aware of your swimming problems. What's next is 'Acceptance'. In this instance, there's an acceptance of that's how far you can swim or how fast you can swim, for now. After that, is developing an 'Understanding' of the underlying issues. If there are fundamental aspects of swimming that are missing then no amount of perfect technique will help.

An Intuitive Perspective

Swimming is not something to be fixed, it needs to be understood. If there's a swimming problem, such as:

• can’t swim very far without stopping for a breath
• always being overtaken
• can't swim in the deep
• sinking legs
• fighting against the water

we need to understand the reasons behind each symptom to get to the underlying root causes.

For me, swimming has as much to do with the mind as it does the body. If we're to change our swimming, we need a way of changing our thinking as we swim. Of couse, change is hard, changing ingrained habits, beliefs and expectations and movement is even harder.

Alexander Technique (an unconventional perspective)

More commonly associated with fixing posture, Alexander Technique is, for me, an awareness-led approach to living in the 'here and now'. Change can't happen in the past and the future doesn't exist. Only in the 'here and now' can change happen.

So, by prioritising an awareness of the world around us provides a moment, 'the present moment' to take a new path, make a new choice, choose a new option.

By prioritising an awareness of the world around us, we gain access to a moment, "the present moment". It's in each present moment where we can take a new path, make fresh choices, and explore new possibilities.

We use this 'Present Moment' to to escape the control of our inner monologue. By noticing and embracing these moments, we can break free from our thoughts, habits and beliefs and experience true change.

This is the skill that an unconventional approach to Alexander Technique helps develop. Be warned, it takes time to unlearn all your existing habits to learn new ways of thinking and being.

Try This

In swimming, your glide is the best time to notice, engage with and enjoy the Present Moment. Consider each glide as a chance to be present; in touch with, connected to, at one with the water, aware of your movement and momentum through the water and conscious of your thoughts in the water. #swiminthepresent

And at the top of your arm recovery (Front Crawl), add a Pause to your stroke. Take this moment to notice the water, the sights above you, the splash, the smell of chlorine (yuk!), the sense of weight of your arm. See how long it takes for your inner monologue to re-surface!

However, first you will need balance. If you're swimming to stay afloat, there will be an over-riding sense of urgency in your swimming that will compromise any attempts to 'be' in the water. You'll feel compelled to keep kicking, for fear of sinking.

That's why I start my coaching/online course with Mind Body Water Unity for you to become at-one with the water. But that's for another article.

If you want to learn more about how to apply the principles of my unconventional approach to Alexander Technique in order to develop your 'Conscious Control' whether that's in swimming, running, golf or your day to day life you can comment below, invest in an online self-study course, book a call with me or visit me at the Southbank Alexander Technique Centre in London.

Book a call with me: https://lnkd.in/eJTH9qeD

Choose the self-study option: https://lnkd.in/eSChQhu9

#swimming #learntoswim #mindfulness #understandingvstechnique #alexandertechnique #wellbeing

Michelle Gachette Simon Holliday Charlotte J Thomas Rose Roldan