I had the best darn swim of my life yesterday…
After doing my first triathlon in May I decided that I wanted to improve my swimming. Surfing the ‘net one day I came across the Total Immersion (TI) website.
There are a few free videos on the site that show the TI method of swimming. I was instantly drawn by the beauty and grace of this style of swimming, it’s like nothing i’ve seen before… and so I bought the book to learn more.
Total Immersion swimming is about creating a more efficient stroke in the water, so that each lap is enjoyable and sustainable. They call this “fishlike” or “slippery” swimming, with the being to slip your body to slip through the smallest hole possible in the water. The human body is not built to swim, and this style of swimming is as close to the movement of a fish as the human body can get.
Most people (myself included) are taught to swim by using brute force – arms pumping and legs kicking as hard as possible to move through the water. Not only is this tiring, it is tough to improve your swimming results over time as your arms and legs can only go so fast.
Following the advice of the TI book, I decided to stop my inefficient swimming right then and there and follow the TI drills to learn a new way of swimming (this is freestyle btw). So for the past 4+ weeks I started doing the drills, working my way through the complete series of drills as instructed in the book.
Yesterday at the end of my drill practice I decided to try and swim a lap, just for fun. Let me tell you, I was pleasantly surprised. It was the best lap of swimming I had ever done!! I felt like a totally new person in the pool… my breathing was effortless, I felt a natural flow and rhythm in my stroke.
AND I shaved off a whole 6 strokes per lap from my old style of swimming. 6 strokes!! That’s a 25% improvement. Now i’m no swimming pro, but from what I understand of swimming in general and my own experience to date that is A HUGE improvement to make in just over a month.
I’m telling you, it was just the coolest darn thing. I’ve learned how to swim in a totally different way – a much easier and enjoyable way. So much so that I can’t wait to get in the pool again, and I had a silly grin on my face the rest of the day.
It got me wondering, what else in my life could I look to “re-learn”? Seriously now…
Where else do I *struggle* to get the results I want? Where i’m tired and sometimes plain discouraged, working harder and harder with no end or real improvement in sight?
Isn’t life really about ease and flow? In business terms it is often referred to as “work less and make more”, which i’m totally getting now at a new level.
Hmmm, definitely something that I will be considering in the coming days. How about you?
PS – If you are a swimmer I HIGHLY recommend giving TI swimming a try. I want to sing it from the mountain tops (or the pool deck), I love it that much. If you do, please let me know how it goes.