I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of misinformation on swimming, especially on the internet. One website I saw instructing the specifics of the backstroke advocated a completely illegal turn.
A bodybuilder site said that depleting your stores of Glycogen by starving your body of it actually helped the body move faster. I'm not buying that. You can't swim without it.
Other sites like USA Swimming, have a lot of kids with a lot of questions who for some reason don't ask their coaches or parents. Lots of ear infection questions - which are fairly preventable by wearing a swim cap.
Early on in my learning I suffered a severe injury by practicing a drill recommended by one of the so-called experts in swimming technique, who shall remain nameless. That's led me to pay closer attention to sports medicine specialists and surgeons who swim.
Everybody's body is different and has specific limitations. For example, the Neer Test for your shoulders. The entire approach to pitch, catch, pull, etc... is highly individual. I trust top athletic coaches and top swimmers and doctors.
One site on backstroke listed something very technical which actually made sense and works wonders but after running a search a dozen ways through Google I found no one knew of it or spoke of it other than that 1 site!
Who do you trust? What are your thoughts on this?
Parents
Former Member
Connie, I agree with Bob that you have the right kind of coach. Actually, instructor would be a better term for what your coach does. But in my admittedly brief experience, you are in the minority. I think most swimmers still have coaches, not instructors.
You are also correct that self-coaching is difficult. I try to overcome the visualization problem in a variety of ways, such as doing simple drills where I can limit my focus to one or two aspects of technique, and asking for help from lifeguards, other swimmers, and even spectators. I’ve found that most people are happy to watch you for a few seconds to give specific feedback on things you can’t see for yourself (e.g., am I keeping a neutral head position, how far in front of my head is my hand actually entering the water, am I rotating the same amount on both sides, is my elbow pointed at the ceiling during recovery, etc.). Anyone can answer questions like these. The next step for me is to begin using video to analyze my technique, so I am saving my pennies for a camcorder I can use both above and below the water. Once I have videos that I can send to experts for analysis, I expect to make a lot more progress. Self-coaching doesn’t mean that I only listen to myself, just that I only incorporate what makes sense to me.
But back to the way I see swimming being taught, I am 56 years old and have always been very physically active. I studied martial arts seriously for 15 years when I was younger, and have at various times been heavily into baseball, tennis, racquetball, table tennis, volleyball, diving and trampoline. So although I am a novice at swimming, I have a lot of experience learning complex motor skills. In every other discipline I have studied the approach is always the same: Break complex movements down into a series of simple movements, imprint these simple movements in your muscle memory, and then slowly start to recombine the simple movements back into more complex movements. Don’t even try to do the complex movements (like whole stroke swimming) until you have mastered the simple movements, because you will just be imprinting bad habits, especially if you do it when you’re tired. And don’t think about building speed and endurance until you can do the movement perfectly in a slow, controlled manner.
Swimming is the only skill activity I’ve seen where the general approach is different. Can you imagine a tennis pro saying to students, “Just get out there and play game after game. I’ll give you the occasional pointer and we’ll get you so fit you can outrun all your opponents. Just being fit won’t win many matches for you, but eventually your technique will come around. And spend some time watching the pros and try to emulate what they do.” That pro wouldn’t last very long because all the students except the rare few who are naturally gifted would get frustrated and/or injured and leave.
I’ve done a fair bit of searching the Web for swimming related content. I have found lots of “tips” for improving technique, but so far, TI is the only organized swimming “system” I have come across that takes the same approach that I am accustomed to from the other skill sports I have studied. Since I am in the basic/intermediate category, I have found TI to be, as you said in your post, very good for that level. I can’t speak for real competitive swimmers, but I will point out that TI is not at all dogmatic, except at the level of basic principles (e.g., being balanced and streamlined). I have found TI to be very much on board with the idea that each person needs to develop an individual style that is complementary to their unique physiology. TI just says that you need a certain basic foundation of skills before you start to do that.
Would I like to find a great swimming teacher who would work with me in person and teach me in a systematic way, the way I was taught martial arts and tennis? Sure, I would. It would make things a lot easier for me. But they seem to be pretty rare.
Connie, I agree with Bob that you have the right kind of coach. Actually, instructor would be a better term for what your coach does. But in my admittedly brief experience, you are in the minority. I think most swimmers still have coaches, not instructors.
You are also correct that self-coaching is difficult. I try to overcome the visualization problem in a variety of ways, such as doing simple drills where I can limit my focus to one or two aspects of technique, and asking for help from lifeguards, other swimmers, and even spectators. I’ve found that most people are happy to watch you for a few seconds to give specific feedback on things you can’t see for yourself (e.g., am I keeping a neutral head position, how far in front of my head is my hand actually entering the water, am I rotating the same amount on both sides, is my elbow pointed at the ceiling during recovery, etc.). Anyone can answer questions like these. The next step for me is to begin using video to analyze my technique, so I am saving my pennies for a camcorder I can use both above and below the water. Once I have videos that I can send to experts for analysis, I expect to make a lot more progress. Self-coaching doesn’t mean that I only listen to myself, just that I only incorporate what makes sense to me.
But back to the way I see swimming being taught, I am 56 years old and have always been very physically active. I studied martial arts seriously for 15 years when I was younger, and have at various times been heavily into baseball, tennis, racquetball, table tennis, volleyball, diving and trampoline. So although I am a novice at swimming, I have a lot of experience learning complex motor skills. In every other discipline I have studied the approach is always the same: Break complex movements down into a series of simple movements, imprint these simple movements in your muscle memory, and then slowly start to recombine the simple movements back into more complex movements. Don’t even try to do the complex movements (like whole stroke swimming) until you have mastered the simple movements, because you will just be imprinting bad habits, especially if you do it when you’re tired. And don’t think about building speed and endurance until you can do the movement perfectly in a slow, controlled manner.
Swimming is the only skill activity I’ve seen where the general approach is different. Can you imagine a tennis pro saying to students, “Just get out there and play game after game. I’ll give you the occasional pointer and we’ll get you so fit you can outrun all your opponents. Just being fit won’t win many matches for you, but eventually your technique will come around. And spend some time watching the pros and try to emulate what they do.” That pro wouldn’t last very long because all the students except the rare few who are naturally gifted would get frustrated and/or injured and leave.
I’ve done a fair bit of searching the Web for swimming related content. I have found lots of “tips” for improving technique, but so far, TI is the only organized swimming “system” I have come across that takes the same approach that I am accustomed to from the other skill sports I have studied. Since I am in the basic/intermediate category, I have found TI to be, as you said in your post, very good for that level. I can’t speak for real competitive swimmers, but I will point out that TI is not at all dogmatic, except at the level of basic principles (e.g., being balanced and streamlined). I have found TI to be very much on board with the idea that each person needs to develop an individual style that is complementary to their unique physiology. TI just says that you need a certain basic foundation of skills before you start to do that.
Would I like to find a great swimming teacher who would work with me in person and teach me in a systematic way, the way I was taught martial arts and tennis? Sure, I would. It would make things a lot easier for me. But they seem to be pretty rare.
