I’ve talked with and coached many athletes for whom improving at swimming is a great mystery. Many people become so frustrated they simply give up trying and accept the limiting belief they cannot improve.
It’s human nature to assume there must be some secret we do not know about whenever it comes to a topic or area in our life where we are not yet successful. If only we too could learn the secret.
When it comes to swimming, I have been very fortunate to learn the secret to becoming a strong and fast swimmer. My swimming journey began by almost getting kicked out of Triathlon 101 at CSU, Chico back in January of 1993. You see I had signed up for Vineman (Ironman triathlon) to be held in July of 1993. When I saw Triathlon 101 in the course catalog of the Physical Education department it felt like divine intervention as I had no idea of how to go about preparing for my first triathlon. I thought I knew how to swim given that I could swim across a standard back yard swimming pool. The second class in the course was a pool swim practice. The instructor told us to warm up and off I went swimming down the lane with my head totally out of the water in order to breathe. I could see the instructor running along the side of the pool to meet me at the other end where she stopped me and said, “Um, you know the course description said that you must know how to swim in order to enroll in the class, right?”
In my mind, I did know how to swim, after all I just swam 1 length of the pool. Sure, I was out of breath, but I also did not drown. Luckily for me she allowed me to stay in the class if I agreed to go to the Chico State Masters Swim at least twice a week for the duration of the class. I didn’t know what it was exactly, but I immediately agreed.
Fortunately, the coach was an excellent teacher who turned me into a perfectly decent swimmer. I remember for the first several workouts he had me hold on to the wall and kick while I practiced exhaling underwater and turning my head to breathe in, which I did for nearly an hour for several sessions. I guess you could say I was determined. Eventually he let me start swimming. From there he would give me one thing to work on until that thing was decent enough and then he’d give me something new to focus on.
After 6+ months of attending the Masters Swim two to three times per week, Vineman was finally here. I was very happy to exit the water with a time of 1 hour 10 minutes. Truth be told, I was really just happy to exit the water alive. At the time, I thought an hour swim for Ironman was the standard and thought 1:10 Hr was slow. Once again, showing my ignorance for the sport I had recently thrown myself into.
There are a couple of ways to become a really strong swimmer. Grow up swimming competitively on a swim team with coaching. For this group there is no secret to swimming well and it’s often difficult for them to understand why those of us who did not grow up on a swim team find it so challenging. For a fun exercise, ask a young person on a swim team how to do a flip turn and enjoy the blank look on their face as they try to explain something so simple (to them). They’ve forgotten more about proper swim technique than most adult onset swimmers will ever know. Asking them to explain how to swim is like asking someone how to walk. It’s simple, just put one foot in front of the other, right?
For those of us who did not grow up swimming, it’s not so simple. We are in the second group and we very much believe there is a secret to swimming better. Afterall, if there weren’t, then it would be as easy as walking, right?
Not all, but many adults learn to swim when they decide to do a triathlon. Injured runners learn to swim when they are cannot run but need to keep their fitness up. The Pandemic of 2020 created a lot of new open water swimmers, some who swam in the pools which were suddenly closed and some who decided to take up swimming for the first time. Here’s one of the great challenges with swimming versus other sports like running and cycling. With running and cycling there is an enormous amount of improvement right away simply from the improvements to one’s physiology. Go further, get fitter and often faster just by doing. Adults apply this logic to swimming and find that no matter how far they swim, how often they swim, they do not improve.
All of this brings me to the secret of swimming better. Do you want make your own swimming feel easier? Do you want to swim faster? Do you want to be a more confident and stronger swimmer?
If so, you’ve come to the right place. Over the next 6 weeks I’m going to share that secret with you and it begins tomorrow with what I call the “Diamond Mindset.”
The Diamond Mindset is the secret to improving your swimming.
Talk to you tomorrow….