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Hi Tim,
We can start a discussion here on your return to the pool and any projects you are working on.
Here’s another note/question. If I turn my head without ensuring that the extended arm is fully extended and connected, I lose it. I’m still not sure where the exact point of the air grab is, but I noticed unless I think about it I probably have too much out of the water: only one eye should more or less be out, correct? The question is: is the head actively returned to the water? does it fall back? And, what is the position of the body as the head returns: I think I was leaving the shoulders too square; I should be rotated a bit more along the extended arm line.
This is all very difficult for non-natural athletes.
TG
Hi Tim,
Though I have only the most shallow introduction to tai chi chuan, I would like to think I have an idea of what you are describing (I wish I could find another instructor who could explain it like this to me – the one I started with moved away). I so appreciate that you are finding a bridge between what you have been studying in tai chi chuan and your swimming. I do think there is something to adopt from there.
It sounds like you are making the connection from arm, through shoulder down into the pelvis, or center of the body. One side is (not totally contracting, but) relaxing toward the center and the other streamline side is extending. It has probably been easier to explain it as lengthening the body line, where the lead hand is moving away from the foot, but we could also describe this as extending from the center of the body. One side is extending under tension which enables the other side to contract with relaxation, then it rebounds and the two sides switch roles.
An exercise that is forming in my mind right now as I read your words is to practice just pushing off the wall and extending the body, where the lower body merges with the upper body to form a single, long, sleek fuselage. If we don’t think we’re about to start stroking, and rather think we just trying to stay sleek, conserve that momentum and slide as far as possible, then we should maintain that frame/fuselage tone to the body.
Before pushing off, sit on the edge of the pool and take 3 totally mindful deep breaths, then imagine the push off and glide and internal tone that you intend to create, then execute…
Push off and…
Glide in Superman/Balance Position
Glide in Streamline Position
Glide in Streamline, then take one stroke and glide
Glide in Streamline, take one stroke and glide, take another stroke and glide
And so on, up until you need to take a breath to keep going.
The idea here is that the natural internal response of the body should be to lengthen and firm up inside when your intention is to slide as far as you can on a single push off, with no additional propulsive action. This may prime the nervous system to prefer this internal arrangement.
Once you can tap into and maintain the tone you seek on every single streamline position glide, then you can try adding a single stroke with the intention of preserving that internal arrangement during the stroke action, and then switch it to the other side when the arms switch.
You can use this progression to break down the whole sequence of sub-actions to see where you tend to lose it. Then you can concentrate your corrective effort on that moment in the sequence.
The breathing action is going to throw a wrench in that whole thing for most land mammals! So, it may be important to really establish the consistency of the frame/fuselage (or use a better analogy from your tai chi imagery) during the first few non-breathing strokes so that the body has an idea of what it’s suppose to be doing during that breathing stroke.
Then you can approach the breathing stroke in the same build-up sequence of sub-actions.
Take a stroke, turn the head to look sideways underwater (face does not touch the air) and test just the turning of the head, and do not recover that arm – just glide in streamline, turn the head and return the head. Scan the whole body to see if just that first part disrupted your internal arrangement or not.
Next, do the same thing by not recovering, just gliding in streamline, but have the face touch the air (and take a sip if you like) and scan the whole body to see if the higher position of the face disrupted it.
Next, touch the air, and recover the arm, enter and glide on that side (glide after finishing the breathing stroke).
You are just adding one small step at a time, and testing the system to see where the breakdown point is.
If you follow the sequence above and glide in streamline before recovering the arm, you can let the head ‘fall back’ as you say, to the neutral position. The rotation of the torso should have gone up to its 30-45 degree position as the head was turning toward the air, and then it locks into that position and remains there while the head returns to neutral. When your stroke rate is slower, you can afford to be more leisure with the head falling back. But when the stroke rate gets higher, one should more actively turn the head back.
Also, keep in mind that you should turn toward air as soon as possible, the moment your lead hand starts establishing the first bit of grip on the water, the head is already starting to turn. The chin and the shoulder go together toward the air.
There is only one position for the torso – in its ideal rotated streamline position (somewhere between 30-45 degrees – lower the better) and then there is a transition from one streamline to the other. The body is transitioning into that position as the head turns with it, the torso reaches its position and locks in, while the head turns back completely on its own, without affecting the torso, and turning back ahead of the recovery arm. That recovery arm should be slightly later and slower than the return of the head.
Mat,
The fuselage exercises are something I’ve started my swims with for over a year. In the training pool, my goal was to see how far I could propel myself by stretching more. Any more variations on that would be welcome.
As for the breathing.I was going to ask you for the next step, as I thought I was further along before the recommendation you gave. But then in my pool session last night it became clear what I was doing wrong: when I turned my head for air, I would drop the high shoulder on the return, losing the angle. I forgot about that in difference to focusing on the head: I could feel the bad outcome. With the words “the torso reaches its position and locks in” firmly in mind, I practiced returning the head while making sure I didn’t lose the angle. That made huge difference. I have to cement that. I’ll send you a video clip on the weekend. In the meantime, what is the next step/exercise you suggest.
In terms of kicking, I’m trying to make sure I touch one foot against the other before the flick/ hip rotation. I’m guessing that will help remind me not to drag or splay the legs: is that the case?
TG
PROTECT SPINE FROM OVER REACHING
When in Superman/Balance Position, with both arms in front, the two sides of the body are balanced, and the spine between is braced, with no bending. We slide the scapulae forward to extend the body, rather than reach with the arms. If we reach with the arms alone, it can pull the thoracic spine into extension, or at least put tension on it.We want to lengthen the body line, the spine, without pulling it out of its neutral position, or putting tension on it such that it will be urged to come out of position…
… because when you switch into Streamline with an overly extended arm, the other arm is dropped and its tension pulling against the spine no longer provides the counter-tension to hold it straight, and the spine is pulled out of neutral.
You used the term ‘stretching more’ to describe your aim in that drill and I want to make sure you are lengthening the torso only to the limit of the neutral spine, but not stretching from the arms, in such a way that it will pull against the spine. Once the swimmer drops the two arm symmetry and goes into streamline, any pushing or pulling of the spine away from its neutral position by that lead arm will result in a distortion of the swimmer’s spine and/or some deviation from the directly forward path. The body will either contort to rebalance and maintain forward path, or it will deviate from the path. This can also interfere with maintaining a consistent position at the surface, which is necessary for easier breathing.
So, we want to know that your spine remains long AND neutral, that your transition to each streamline does not cause any distortions to it on the non-breathing strokes. One indicator (but not the only one) that you are doing this better is that the head stays right in its neutral position, cutting through the water at the same depth throughout the stroke cycle, from side to side, on non-breathing strokes.
So, another cue you can use to urge an appropriately lengthened body line is to ‘slide the scapula forward’ and let the arm in front of it be pushed forward, rather than let the reaching arm pull the scapula.
IDEAL HEAD POSITION INDICATOR
The approach I am proposing here is that you get some indication that your body is staying right where you want it on a series of non-breathing strokes, on every stroke, and while transitioning from side to side. One of those indicators is that the head easily stays in position at the surface throughout the stroke cycle, without feeling like you have to hold it up there near the surface.
That head position is, ideally, at the depth you want your head when you are turned to the air too. If on the non-breathing strokes, just the back of your head is breaking the surface, then at the breathing moment too, just the side of your face is surfaced (the same amount of head as when the back of the head is surfaced). That’s an extremely skilled position to have the head, but its what you are aiming for – the most minimal exposure of the head above the surface.
The push-off progression and the series of non-breathing strokes progression is meant to help you built that consistency.
Once you have this sense your body is consistently where you want it to be, then, step-by-step, you insert the breathing action to see how it might want to disrupt that great body position you set up on the non-breathing strokes, identify trouble spots and work on specific preventions or corrections.
It is very land-mammal of us to want to thrust the head higher, farther up and out of the water to get that breath, but we want to practice being more and more minimalist about this lift until it gets so comfortable to make what feels and looks like no lift at all. Any thrust of the head upward will provoke small to great distortions of body position underwater because once you push up against gravity, gravity will shove down somewhere on the body in response.
PROGRESSION NOTES
So the progression for practicing zero-disruption breathing is:
1) Develop totally linear trajectory of the body in non-breathing strokes. Once that is consistent, then…
2) Maintain linear trajectory while practice turning and looking at the wall (as if turning to breathe, but not all the way) in non-breathing strokes. Once that is consistent, then…
3) Maintain linear trajectory while practice turning the face all the way to air (a little excessively)
4) Maintain linear trajectory while practice turning the face minimally to air.
SPEED HELPS
It occurs to me to note that the speed of swimming can have some affect on this sense of linear trajectory. A plane needs to hit a certain speed before the wings experience sufficient lift. A bicycle is much easier to balance once is has some forward momentum. I think there is a little of both of these in the swimming situation – an extremely slow swimming speed is easy in one way but the body rides deeper because the lower body has more time to respond to the pull of gravity on each stroke. A long, straight, firm body line has water flowing smoothly under it and with a little more speed, it offers a bit more lift to that lower body, which makes it a bit easier for the head to stay right at the surface. So, try your progress at different speeds and see how that changes the ease of staying in position.
FOOT POSITIONING
You might try the cue ‘upper inner thighs touch each other’ when you lock into streamline position. Another cue could be ‘one knee points to the back of the other knee’.
If you keep the upper legs close, and knees minimally flexed, then the feet may find their position.
During the switch of the feet, that big toe might get close to brushing the inner side of the other foot if someone were watching from behind, but they likely shouldn’t touch.
Am I sensing and addressing your questions? Or am I missing something still? I’d actually like to find a time to chat with you – I think I just need to check in and hear you explain things and I can ask more questions and respond with better understanding.
I found a trouble spot tonight during non-breathing strokes. As I get more and comfortable with my weak side breathing ( the left) , I notice more about my right side. I find this hard to express, but there was an asymmetry to my entry and recovery: when I thought both were the same, as evidenced by the same degree of bend on recovery, there was actually another asymmetry on the timing meeting I could only tell when during one lap I did something that revealed a different synchronicity that resulted in a smoother transfer of energy. It felt better, and I could replicate it. It was the same when I realized earlier this week I could turn my head properly if I was confident I would not flatten my shoulders when my head returned. If that was set , then the head turn to air could move on a string in a relaxed way, and I wouldn’t lose momentum. Something happened better with the smoothness and timing on the recovery.
I understand what you mean. The stretch comes from ‘opening’ the back, definitely. It’s a lengthening that occurs from behind, not pulling from the fingertips.
That process is a Tai Chi Chuan element, by the way, although the name eludes me. An explosive rounding of the back as it opens can propel an opponent who has encircled from behind backwards. The elements describe directional forces of nature. I hope my constant references are not irritating; Indo the same thing in reverse with my Tai Chi teacher. “In the water, you want a still head leading from the crown, also”. I know I told you that I had a brief correspondence with Terry years ago when I began to realize how much was shared between TI and Tai Jii. The focus on balance, contrasting weighting, inner muscle movements, the quiet release of power, the importance of line and position, the constant refinement and adjustment, and the translation of the movements of creatures to humans are common language.Yes, you’re addressing my questions wonderfully. I may be making a mistake, but I find I can understand what you mean, for example by movement of the scapula when in the water because I am working on developing that same thing in movement on land. It’s not intuitive but once you come to understand how one feels it informs the other. Gifted athletes get it right away and the rest of us have to discover it. I believe I’m understanding what you are meaning, but I know my understanding will also arrive in layers.
Certainly, let’s find a time.Mat,
I’m wondering if the above messages appeared properly on your end or if they were unintelligible: I realize that I cut and paste from emails. If so, no matter; things will come around again. I’m going to add something new in any case.
I think that part of the problem is that I did not have the proper position in skate. I feel that my head was not close enough to the outstretched arm. I’m working on returning the head after the turn to air to the neutral position without losing the line. The shoulders still have to be between 30 and 45 degrees while the head turns to 90 degrees and returns to 0 degrees. It seems to be if there is some gap between the head and the arm, if the head is not firmly associated with the arm, then the fuselage is starting out weaker. Does that sound right?
Also, I found that I have spent so much on my weak side ( the left) that turning to the right now feels entirely weird.
I’m also working on correcting what was the asymmetry between right and left. I had a bit of finning movement on the right side that threw things off.
Finally, I’m concentrating on keeping my thighs together as opposed to concentrating on my lower leg.
The messages are coming through without strange formatting.
Sounds like you are making important observations and corrections. The priority is to set the frame – its length, its tone, and its angle – and then set the appendages to that frame. Click-click, the torso rotates and clicks into place on each stroke, and stays there until it is time to rotate and click into place on the other side. It is precise and decisive in its movement, and there is no torso movement between those switching moments.
I like the references to taiji!
You can check the best position for the head relative to the lead arm by standing up in front of a mirror. Stand in Superman position, facing the mirror. Keep your right arm in lead, drop the left arm to tuck along side the body into streamline position as you step forward with the right foot, one small step. Keep the head perfectly still and stable as you do so. The torso will rotate slightly, about 30 degrees. There should be three parallel lines you could draw. A vertical line along your lead arm track, a vertical line along your other arm, and a line along your spine line – like the three lines of a trident spear. There should be about a visible fist-sized gap between your cheek and your lead shoulder. To close that gap, one would have to either pull the head to the shoulder (taking it off its line) or pull the shoulder to the cheek (taking it off its line, causing some tension in the upper shoulder and neck).
Mat,
I’ve renewed for this month. I hope you receive this.
We still haven’t worked out a time to chat, and I haven’t prepared a video file to send ( I forgot the website I use for that, I’m sorry). In the meantime, I just want to review something again. What is the point of entry for the recovering arm? I have the feeling that I’m entering too early and extending through water rather than through the less dense air. I’m under the impression that the ideal point is around the wrist of the extended arm: is that correct, or is that too far?
Hi Tim. Yes, I see the notice of payment. Thanks!
For a chat… I am tied up with lifeguard training first three days this week and Thursday is booked up. Maybe Friday or Saturday?
ARM ENTRY POINT
Ah, you bring up a well-intentioned, but mistaken idea about extending over the surface.
In our view of the physics situation, the challenge for the swimmer is to move the water molecules in the space ahead out of the way in order for the swimmer’s molecules to fill that space. The more quickly those water molecules move, the more quickly the swimmer moves ahead to fill the space. In order to do this most effectively, those water molecules ahead need to be made to start moving out of the way, as smoothly and uniformly as possible.
The human (changing) shape is a terribly unsuitable device for this task, but its what we have to work with. What we can do is insert that entry arm as soon as possible and direct the wave of our force into that arm so that it begins the work of parting water molecules. The body needs to move through water, not air, so there are no points for parting air molecules with that entering and extending arm. We want to enter early and extend under water where it can do this essential work. And we view this entering and extending arm as the leading edge – the purpose of the entire stroke! All the holding streamline position, the swinging of the recovery arm in a linear forward trajectory, the timing of the rotation merges several waves of force into that entering arm and the arm transmits that force into the water where it is put to its essential work to cut a path into the water ahead. We might say that the torso then ‘drafts’ behind that lead arm.
The optimal position we choose for the forearm entering – fingers-hand-forearm piercing the surface at a 45 degree angle about across from the lead elbow – is selected because it is the optimal intersection of conservation of moment on the streamline side, ideal rotation timing, ideal shoulder position on the entry side.
I like to describe what’s happening in the recovery swing as a build up of a wave, and then right at the entry moment, the rotation adds its more powerful rotational wave to it and the arm receives this and transmits it down into the water and into the streamline shape. Image smooth and powerful waves flowing through each shoulder and arm and out your (relaxed) hand on each entry and extension. You project that wave of force in the direction of travel.
It could also be experienced like an ice skater projects force into the foot and into the blade in the direction of travel on each glide, or like a cross-country skier projects force into each ski.
If you enter too late or too far in front, then much of that wave dissipates into the air to no beneficial effect. By entering closer to the body and extending underwater, the arm faces more resistance – but its very purpose is to confront that resistance ahead of the more massive torso and reduce pressure (literally, in terms of physics), making it a bit easier for the torso to push ahead.
The body in its asymmetrical streamline shape is still not even close to a torpedo or attack submarine shape, but projecting that arm ahead of the blunt faced torso is still making the shape a lot better.
I think I was searching for a reason to explain why some lengths felt worse than others, as measured by if I was out of breath or not after 7 strokes ( my pool is 35 feet). I was always unsure of exactly where to enter, and when on some strokes I could tell I wasn’t generating the right forward propulsion I thought maybe I’m entering too early, and tried that. It did feel better but for the wrong reason. I read your post very carefully, reaffirming what you had previously told me, but in the process realizing the problem was that I was not entering at the right angle; I was too shallow, I think.
Also, and perhaps more critically, I realized that although I thought I had a neutral spine, as you described I was in fact way too tense. Last night I focused on being relaxed yet engaged, and today I focused on the 45 degree entry and extension from the back, not over reaching. That made the difference, and now I’m back on track. I think what is still going to be a struggle is returning my head from the turn while maintaining the angle of the shoulders in skate before the rotation. There isn’t a lot to time there, to say the least, and it’s frustrating.Friday works, though I’m aware of the 3 hour time difference. What is best for you ?
( I composed a long message, hit Submit and lost it, with a read Error banner instead appearing. So here goes again).
Entering and extending at 45 degrees rather than 15-20 is fixing the main problem and related problems. I think I overcorrected when I was digging too deep, especially on my right. Everything feels more relaxed in synchronous because I can ( not always) feel the point when the power is transferred. If I remember to tilt my pelvic and touch my thighs, I’m confident I’m more in line. And, with arm pointing more down than out, my head seems freer so I can turn to the right and left walls feeling like I have more than enough time. This is becoming fun.
In Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan, there is the standard 108 hand form. It’s a series of movements, as you know, often repeated. The task is to develop the inner strength and intensity that is inherent and that can take years, but the choreography itself can be learned by a professional dancer in a few hours. I’ve done the form no less than 200o times, probably, and I am considered to be on the third level of five, although five is sort of cosmic and not talked about except by disciples of the Grand Master. In other words, I know the form structure, maybe even backwards, with some conviction in it. Yet, from time to time, I become aware that I’m doing something wrong: an angle, a position of the trailing foot, and hand gesture, something in error just wormed in there and found a home. Keeping the swimming elements straight and consistent for someone at my level of athleticism is really a lot of work. It’s not linear progression, but I think I made a step to the next level in the past few weeks.
I’m keeping the realization that in about 8 weeks I’m not going to have a water source to swim in out from consciousness.
Mat,
I didn’t hear from you about today, so I’ll guess it didn’t work out. Maybe something is possible next week; in the meantime, I want to send you a clip to look at.
TG
Hi Tim. My apology. I was tied up with lifeguard recert training first half of the week and in meetings much of yesterday and didn’t catch up on your notes. If you have a window in the next 3 hours or so, I’d be glad to chat, for sure!
I know it is hard to hold all those details of the body in mind while trying to correct and protect that feel and performance of each stroke!
I was drawn to explore tai chi because I get the impression that this art knows something very deep about the anchoring and movement of the whole body in a coordinated fashion, a whole different way of approaching it (and a lot more mature than what we do in modern sports!).
You seem to be homing in nicely on the internal sensations that should be associated with superior position and movement, and developing sensitivity to more subtle errors, just as you have in tai chi. Your nervous system is already primed to seek and pay attention to subtle signals. But we might say your freestyle catalog of subtle signals is still small compared to your tai chi one!
If there is any way you can slip into a calm lake or inviting body of water, you may find that you can achieve a lot more rapid integration of these skills when you can take hundreds of uninterrupted strokes instead of just a few. Once you can get adjusted to the new environment and relax enough to go into flow, the power of continuous swimming is truly amazing.
Mat,
You’re absolutely correct in saying my catalog with swimming is small. I was going to send you the clips I mentioned, but again it happened: it’s as if I forget I have legs when I concentrate on a video clip. One look for me and I’m annoyed and it’s a waste of your time. I’m working on breathing, slowly: I’m getting used to turning my head to the wall an back in a relaxed manner. It’s interesting how now my weak side is comfortable and my strong side feels weird. Here’s a question: if the head turn is early, is there a big rush to return it to neutral, or is it ok if I see my elbow appear before the head is completely returned?
And: I notice this morning that in my little pool sometimes I can cross in 7.5 strokes, but at other times it takes 9: no breathing either time. I couldn’t understand this until I realized that when I sense I am really following my arm into the sleeve and through the water at 45 degrees, it’s 7.5; if not, it’s 9. I’m guessing also that I’m moving my scapula down better when I thit 7 or 7.5. Does that make sense to you? [ Interestingly, in my Tai Chi lesson last week devoted now to form refinement because there isn’t room for anything martial, the teacher spoke of moving the scapula down: before he used to say move the shoulder down ].
My apology for a late reply…
I meant ‘small’ relative to your tai chi catalog – yet, your swimming catalog is still likely greater than that of many swimmers in your local pool. Your studiousness places you in a different league already.
TIMING OF HEAD TURN
“if the head turn is early, is there a big rush to return it to neutral, or is it ok if I see my elbow appear before the head is completely returned?”
I think there is some room here for variance, but a caution as well. Terry did teach and did demonstrate on his Effortless Endurance videos that one can turn their head up with the roll of the torso and turn it back down with the entry and turn of the torso, which is a very simple and effective way of getting a rhythm established.
One problem with that approach is that movements that happen together get wired together. While turning the head back (relatively slowly) with the entry and turn of the torso is convenient, that late timing introduces some problems too.
A couple big ones to point out…
The swimmer is trying to hold the face above the surface while the body is decelerating and the weight of the recovery arm is held up against gravity which together start sinking the body deeper. When one can see their recovery arm going overhead with their own eyes, this means tha arm has had a long time for the push of gravity to take effect and the face is still there trying to stay high enough.
The recovery arm shoulder is sliding forward creating a bow wave that collapses the pocket the swimmer would (ideally) be taking their sneaky breath from.
And, there is a very strong tendency in our bodies to let the breathing action get later and later. At slow tempos it can feel like we have even more time to spare. But meanwhile our brain is wiring the head and torso turns together. Then when the swimmer starts working with relatively fast tempos, they suddenly can’t get to air soon enough to get a full window and then feel rushed, like they don’t have enough time to get the full inhalation because the window is too small. It’s too small because they are turning their head at the rate of the torso turn which gets them to air too late, and staying longer creates more drag problems.
So at this point we have to ‘snip’ those wires and train the swimmer to be able to turn the head completely independent of the torso turn while keeping the head cooperative with the torso. The head has to learn to turn at a slight different timing and at a slightly different rate from the torso turn (which will increase proportionally to the increase in stroke rate).
So, from the beginning I tend to train swimmers to turn the head toward air as soon as possible, initiated at the very start of setting the catch, and turning slightly faster than the torso it turning. We might exaggerate it slightly to make the separation clear, but we also want to avoid turning so fast to cause ‘whiplash’. One would aim to have the face clear and starting the inhale before the arm is pulled out of the water to begin recovery swing forward. Then they would aim to be turning the face back down ahead of the recovery arm swing, not being able to see their own arm coming overhead, which means the head is turning back before the torso is turning (since it will wait for the entry moment before it rotates).
The swimmer then is maintaining stable streamline (as you know now) while the head is turn and returning. The head should be back in neutral, face-down position before the switching of the arms.
COUNTING STROKES
I am so glad to hear you’ve made that observation with stroke counting. Yes, even in a short pool, the distance per stroke is a very useful indicator.
In that moment of entry and extension there is quite a few 3D things happening as the body rotates and positions, quite difficult to describe it all in words without pictures or video. Your able to use stroke counting to home in on those cues that give you better distance per stroke – an important objective measure of one dimension of efficiency.
Now you have a clear standard to measure against for other tweaks you might make.
Mat,
( I can’t get a reply box to appear after your last post: I’m logged in, but this is the only box offered and it’s out of synch).
Regarding the head turn: I understand what you’re saying, especially the difference between what you’ve described and what Terry taught. I’m certainly trying to initiate the head turn right at the point of the catch; but, I also found that if I didn’t relax a bit I was really whiplashing the movement so much that I was driving water up my nose– that was too frantic. I think what progress I’ve made the past few swims is that I am managing to sip a breath and keep relaxed without panicking that I couldn’t have possibly obtained enough air. I made up an exercise of taking three strokes; turn and sip: two more focusing on the integrity of the line and position of the torso, and making sure I’m exhaling through my nose; and then stop; start again. After a while I switch sides. When I’m feeling really comfortable, then I repeat and keep going after the breath to the end. Then, if everything is holding together, then I try 1-2-3 breath/4-5-6 breath. If it’s not holding together, then I go back to no breathing, and then try again. Here is where the disadvantage of not having open water or a 50 metre pool comes in, but there’s nothing I can do for now. Here’s the question: is there anything I can do, mentally or otherwise, to make the breath sip feel more natural? There’s a lot of un-learning to do, especially the hard-wired idea that you need to get a full breath. Understanding the theory and actually overcoming the pattern enough to feel really at ease just turning the head enough, and opening the mouth enough AND finding the independent rhythm of the turn is a piece of work. And the legs…can’t forgot about them…
It seems like you’re down to the fine details and discernment between what aspect of that anxiety in the breath is relieved by a technical adjustment and what aspect requires learning to reinterpret it. From my vantage point I can’t say definitively that you are adequately respirated on each of those breaths and therefore it’s ‘all in your head’, nor can we discount that a misinterpretation of unfamiliar respiration pattern is having some effect without putting it to the test on longer uninterrupted lengths of swimming/breathing.
On the technical side, these are some questions to ask and examine…
1) Are you exhaling with diaphragm?
2) Are you exhaling enough?
3) Are you regulating the exhaling with a good pattern (as you approach the inhale moment)?
4) Are you using diaphragm muscles to aggresively fill back up completely what you exhaled?
5) Are you getting the airways to the air soon enough that you have enough time to fill back up?
Note that this may need to be a diaphragm muscle-assisted inhalation to fit within that very brief window of opportunity. It can’t be passive (just letting low pressure pull air back in).
If one is squeezing the lungs in the thoracic way, then not only is there not an adequate volume being exchanged, one is using an inferior set of muscles to do all that work. However, a person who does not use the diaphragm muscle much will find it is hard to keep breathing that way consistent and it will fatigue quickly, so the body reverts back to thoracic breathing anyway and the swimmer feels perpetually breathless.
At this point I would keep encouraging your conscious attention on a making a good exhale which should prime you for a better inhale. If you’re making adequate squeeze from the diaphragm then the inhale, being boosted by diaphragm muscle itself, fills that space back up very quickly.
You could do a rough simulation of continuous swimming, but not allowing yourself a breath at the turn – take a breath on the last stroke, turn, push off and take the next breath on that first or second stroke off the wall.
Ok. I am now hopelessly and utterly confused. I’m used to diaphragmatic breathing from all the Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong, but what I am doing in the water in that little bit of time takes me to the point of drowning. Everything I thought I knew about breathing is really rubbish. I thought that negative pressure fills the lungs. I just rewatched Expert Mastery Breathing just to see if I was wrong to think so. In fact, I never really appreciated how everything is different. The head turn, the entry ( Terry is far more extended, and the rotation seems to start before the hand enters,) the insistence on holding the head on the water as the arm comes over is completely different. But I can barely manage to turn my head independently, exhale, inhale in the 1.2 seconds I have. So, I’m back at the beginning.
HELP!
Oh, no! We really need a chat. I am out of town tomorrow, but do you have a window of time Thursday evening by chance?
I have been going over general things, not being able to see what’s happening for you personally in this matter, so I can’t quite diagnose, only throw out some ideas to check against what you’re doing. It may be likely that you’ve got some good things in place which I don’t want a misunderstanding to mess up.
If the stroke tempo is 1.2 seconds per stroke, and we estimate the recovery action takes up about 1/3 of that time, that leaves approx. 0.4 seconds for inhale. There are 2 or 3 strokes between breaths so exhale has somewhere between 2.0 seconds and 3.2 seconds to occur, which is more than enough time. So we can usually start gentle and then intensify the exhale in that last stroke before the turn to air and finish the exhale as the mouth breaks the surface – but intensification means one has to push with the abdominal muscles, it can’t be passive. And the inhale has such a brief time so it can’t be left to negative pressure alone, the diaphragm has to empower it in order to refill in that brief moment.
We also note that the body is lengthened and the girdle of muscles of the abdominal region are firm, so the range of motion for those breathing muscles is constrained within this girdle. The girdle resists the belly pushing out as it would if we were sitting lazily in a chair. The diaphragmatic inhale goes downward toward the pelvic floor; it can’t move outward very much to the front and sides. And because of this firm girdle, the range of motion of those breathing muscles stays in the middle zone of their range – never exhaling to the extreme point nor inhaling as far as those muscles could go when the abdominal region is relaxed. If you stand with back against the wall, tall posture, raise arms into Superman/Balance position and then stand up on tippy toes while lengthening the spine, those abdominal muscles will firm up to stabilize the upper body. That is an approximate simulation to the muscles tone in the freestyle position. Practice a breathing pattern with a half second inhale (mouth), and 3 second exhale (nose) – at moderate volume (so you don’t hyperventilate and pass out!).
I just wrote a long note that somehow went somewhere and vanished. In short, I’m working on the many points of independence. I’m not making music, so to speak, but every now and then a decent cycle comes in. The problems are that I can find I’ve exhaled too much, which causes me to rush to breath out of rhythm, and that’s not good at all; or that I’ lose the line, mostly on the left; or that if I turn to the left my right arm when starting recovery scoops or crosses the midline. I really have to focus on everything starting from the push off. I don’t have the whole stroke grooved in enough to withstand the challenge of breathing, and I’m over thinking the breathing which tends to destroy the hope of a smooth cycle.
I did manage to get some video clips on Sunday.
It’s coming along. The left side is still more of a problem but things are headed in the right direction. The exercise of standing extended along the wall and breathing was extremely helpful: it gave me parameters for the volume of breathing and time interval. To play jazz, you first have to be accurate and then find a groove; only then will it swing; and if it doesn’t swing, forget it. So, I’m more accurate and close to a groove. The pool is feeling shorter and shorter, though.
You are a jazz enthusiast too??
I listen to Ryu Fukui on Youtube sometimes…
I am glad to hear the standing exercise helped connect you to the range of the breath. New body awareness is quite the task!
Yeah, we want to find ways to trick the body into proper movement without having to focus on it (over-think) directly, then we are able to tap into faster, more clever subconscious mechanisms for figuring it out. Conscious deliberate action might be necessary in some or many cases, but if we can bypass that by some drill or exercise or external focus, then we may get there more easily.
( this is the only reply box open, even though it’s not in sequence)
Mat,
I’m a jazz enthusiast, indeed. I play and still study at a serious level; that’s another means of learning about very subtle changes in muscle movement, feeling a shape, trying to move smoothly, and so on.
I sent the latest movie files via We Transfer. I look a mess, as far as I’m concerned, especially my kicking. I think there is something akin to what happens at an instrument lesson: the performance anxiety takes over and what was being done in practice goes out the window in front of the teacher. But anyway, I wanted to finally send something for you to take a peak. It’s not my best work, as they say.
I’ve had moments of feeling the flow– very brief moments– when the coordination of all the pieces seemed to work and in a flash I was across the pool with the sense of very little effort. I have had that more than once, never sustained over more than length ( 12 metres), and only when there is no breathing. I can’t recapture that when I breeze. I think a variety of things are happening, including that I’m not really relaxed and therefore not fully independent ( which is a major necessity to jazz drumming, whereby all four limbs can operate independently of each other, allowing for polyrhythmic playing and improvisation) . The head turn is driving me nuts, in simple terms. It feels rushed and not in the pocket ( another jazz thing, referring to the sense of the rhythm section, especially the bass player and the drummer’s cymbal ride being absolutely, unshakeably, rock solid in the groove). I’m interested in what you perhaps say apropos the clips. When I don’t breathe, I know the angle of the skate is in the sweet spot; I can time the kick to the hip rotation to entry just right, and the time of the glide is right, as if my arms are moving together at the right speed. Throw in the head turn and boom, something is wrong. It feels different and not at all as effortless.
I have to get this closer: I’m closing the pool at the end of September. This will be our last month of coaching until the next outdoor season. I’m not anticipating an indoor pool opening in Toronto this year. The pandemic is under control, but that doesn’t allow for what is necessary to swim in a public pool indoors.
Just a few more things. I think there is a relation between the degree of downward angle of the extended hand, the amount of rotation and the length of time gliding on the extended side. If I’m too shallow, I don’t find the right rotation, and I don’t hold it enough to move smoothly forward. Also, instead of flicking my toes to kick ( ignore the video) if think of kicking from the knee I feel much more propulsion as it seems to key the hip rotation properly. Does that make sense, or am I just making stuff up?
And: can I access a video of you swimming whole stroke?
TG
RHYTHM
I appreciate the jazz analogy, though I can only imagine how such polyrhythm is performed!
When I see smooth, strong ski-skaters on snow, at moderate speed, that is more of the bi-lateral rhythm we might associate with our form of freestyle. One side is stable, remaining in extension, while the other side is, in a relaxed way (though it can be fast), is recovering back to the front where it will take up streamline, replacing the other.
But yes, the head turn is like a couple little fractional beats tossed in between the main beat.
BREAKING THE FRAME
In the video, much is going well, but when you turn to breath, I see a small but critical disruption on the streamline side. It might be that your catch arm is trying to lever the body upward rather than lever the body forward, or the lead arm is tending to press down but you restrain it. I see a braking in the velocity of the body at that moment.
However, I sense that you haven’t completed the frame from head to toe. The proper tension in the frame has not been reached yet. I am pondering how to describe this and think of a way you can get a feel for what you need to achieve inside the body, using the pool you’ve got.
Let me write more tomorrow…
There are some freestyle demos of mine on this page…
https://dojo.mediterraswim.com/library/tutorials/
About time for some new ones!
I have a little experiment for you, if you are game.
Do you have a kick board by chance?
If you do, I would have you lay down in the water in superman/balance position. Place this kickboard flat, with your pointed feet supported on top of the kick board. The front of your body would be supported by the water as normal, and the pointed feet would be supported by the board. That means the middle of your body must essentially create a braced frame, like doing plank on land, bridging between the two supports. With straight legs, you press down on the kickboard slightly so that the back of your torso, hamstrings, calves and heels all touch the air. Hold that position for a comfortable breath hold. Do it many times to get familiar with the body alignment and necessary internal bracing.
This is a way to accentuate the kind of lengthened, braced frame we want to create from shoulders to toes.
If you relax (or hinge) at the hips or knees at all you break the frame and feel the hips and upper legs loose their support. The feet are no longer unified with the frame of the upper body.
I would be curious at your observations with this.
The kick board arrived today: I’ll try the exercise tomorrow. This is what I think: the kick board exercise compels a pelvic tuck, or drop. That is the key in Tai Chi, Tai Chi running, and the swimming frame. Without that, there is cannot be a proper rotation. The other day I practiced Tai Chi, went for a run where I focused for the entire run on the pelvic tuck, and swam. I was for the 90 minutes a pelvis with clothes on. In truth, I know that my posture and walking is becoming different: crown extended, pelvis tucked ( or dropped, or aligned, whatever the metaphor chosen). So, the task is to make sure with each stroke that I maintain the frame coming from the pelvis. I think I lose the focus with that in two situations: 1) when I breathe, and 2) when I demonstrate. In the past three days, I’ve come to realize these things: a) I need to align from the pelvis, b) I need to enter the water at a sufficient downward angle, not an outward angle: I was trying too hard not to go deep, but that was wrong, c) I need to rotate sufficiently onto my side as to free the right arm in particular; this is a question of millimetres but is critical so that d) as the arm extends I imagine pouring myself on its path as if from the deltoid my body is a liquid, so that e) with a kick, still in alignment but with enough force imagined from the knee I will f) shoot forward, and keep momentum. If I fail on any of the above, I will not shoot forward; I might move forward, but not with momentum. The extra fix is that if I am properly rotated, the annoying hitch in my right arm, the one that felt uncoordinated and asynchronous disappears, and I can achieve symmetry. BUT :All this is happening without breathing.
One thing that occurred to me from watching the clip of you and Terry swimming is that I think I have been struggling to snap my head back too hard: it has never felt natural trying to avoid seeing any trace of my recovering arm. I think I was trying to accelerate that process too much at the expense of the rest. I have to find what works for me within the parameter, no?
Interested in your thoughts.
I am glad that you have felt the magic of the pieces of coming together even for moments… otherwise, all that detail could be overwhelming or frustrating to try to pull together merely in faith.
ORDERING SKILLS
Now, you are developing a map of your own body and the choreography and how you personally put it together. I will suggest some order of assembly to those pieces, but let it remain open to your own sense of how to put these together.
Work on non-breathing choreography to prime your system for what the underlying frame and streamline are suppose to be like in the breathing stroke choreography.
Build from the center (spine) outward.
Set the frame of the legs, pelvis and torso.
Then, set the rotation angle, and make it symmetrical from side to side.
Then, work on sliding the scapula, keeping its connection with the rotating torso.
Then, let the (entry and extending) arm be an extension or expression of the rotation and scapula slide.
Refine the pathway of the entry and extension – like a giant ski-jump, starting steep and then leveling out at target depth and extending straight forward. When done well, the scapula stays connected to the torso nicely, maintaining the optimal tissue (force transfer) connection through the bodyline.
Finish extension from the ‘deltoid’ or from the scapula, and imagine sliding the fingernails toward the far wall (as opposed to the fingertips) in order to keep soft fingers on the extension.
Then work on inserting the kick to enhance the choreography of the front (upper) half of the body.
TIMING OF BREATHING ACTION
On one side, we don’t want to be lazy about the head turn. On the other side, we don’t want to ‘whiplash’ either. The head turn needs to be independent of the torso turning but cooperative. The two big trouble spots are 1) turning too late, too slowly which cuts down on the window of inhale opportunity too much, and 2) the return of the head triggering the recovery and the torso turn at the same time, which breaks the choreography of the stroke.
So we may emphasize turning toward the air a bit faster than the torso turn, then be a bit less concerned about the speed of return. However, we do want to work on cutting the wires between the returning head and the recovery arm and the torso turn. The head needs to move independent of these actions (even if it moves at the same speed) so that the recovery swing can come all the way forward before the torso turns – the position and timing of the torso turn and arm switch must be preserved, regardless of whether the head is turning or not. The breathing stroke notoriously breaks the optimal choreography that was established on the non-breathing strokes.
I have to study this in detail a few times, but I wanted to mention before I later respond that I went for a midnight swim last night, something I have never done on a chilly September night to work on the stroke: this is becoming hard core. I really can’t see that much even with a single pool light, and I’m sure the neighbours think I’m insane, but to my satisfaction I consistently crossed the pool in 6 strokes, which is a long way done from 9 or even 7.5, and it was easy. My Everest, Waterloo or Stalingrad will be the breathing while keeping that count.
Mat,
First of all, I hope that the constant turmoil in Portland and the West Coast is not presenting too much difficulty for you and your family and that everyone is well. 2020 will go down in history and a true annus horribilis.
I’ve sent the last file for this training season: you’ll note there’s no breathing included. I’m still working on keeping the form locked; I think I’ve found the moment it relaxes, when it does and I lose a bit of momentum. It’s also a very psychological problem to solve.
I can keep swimming for another three weeks, although it is getting very cool, and then I’ll have to close the pool. In the meantime, if you can pass a comment on the file and guide the next few weeks of swims I’d be grateful. After that, how can I stay somehow connected despite the absence of any place to swim until next outdoor season? Let me know if there is some means.
TG
Hi Tim. Thank you. We are OK, and some rain has started to fall after 11 days of smoke saturated air. But it has been a heavy atmosphere over our region. We know that area of devastation and the refugees are being accommodated at the fairgrounds just a half mile from my home. Just about every place we know there are people absent because they’ve had to go deal with evacuation or property under threat. It is a regional crisis but it feels to me to be a taste of the larger crisis facing our society and planet.
I will look at the video this weekend, and post some thoughts. I know these last few weeks are precious time.
We’re trying to get our online Dojo remodeled into more of a community, interactive site with a single membership with access to all the core features, monthly webinars to meet one another and discuss things that interest us. We’re hoping this will meet some social/health/edu needs for some portion of our tribe out there. That could be one way.
I wonder if there is a way to make some dryland taiji-like swimming choreographies that could built some connections in the body that would then carry back into the water when you return. That would be interesting.
In this video I see so many things coming together. You look very smooth, linear, deliberate about generating that forward swing of the arm and sliding into streamline, with your arm knowing precisely where it is going. You do not appear to over-extend nor over-rotate. You appear to be connecting the catch to the rotation and transfer that wave of force into the entering and extending arm. It all has a very clean, minimalist appearance.
I am not quite sure, but it appears that you get a bit more acceleration (more effective transfer of force) from the right-catch to left-extension combo than on the other side. Did you notice a difference by chance?
Otherwise, it appears quite symmetrical from this angle.
Your body leaves a clean wake, and the exit and entries of both arms are fairly quiet (splashless). That closer, steeper entry – as counter-intuitive as it is – is achieving what we are looking for: directing that rotational force into the water soon than later, directing it on a pathway directly to the target, creating a better acceleration opportunity.
I don’t have much to pick on! Good job.
What do you like about this latest stroke?
I couldn’t get a reply box despite several log ins. I could get to the discussion zone, and my Summer 2020, but I kept being asked to log in and still couldn’t find the means to submit a reply. I also can’t see the URL that was with “ latest stroke” any more, so I didn’t view it.What I did want to say before I forgot was that I figured out in today’s swim something on the head turn. In Tai Chi Chuan, certain qualities of the movements in the form and therefore martial situation are always present, such as: looseness of the limbs; stickiness, meaning a means of grasping the opponent through touch at the surface; connecting, meaning dropping the pelvis, extending the spine and crown, and changing angle of a limb or limbs so that a new system of leverage is created. I’ve been struggling as you know with keeping the line and therefore momentum with the head turn, and making the head turn independent. I knew that I was always in danger of losing the correct degree of rotation to skate, and losing the connection of through the pelvis. I could do that increasingly easily without the head turn to breathe ( one two occasions I crossed the 35 ft in five strokes, even better than six which is routine now) but with the head turn, the stroke count would often shoot up. But: if I extended the arm forward at the correct angle, poured by deltoid/scapula into the tunnel and shot forward, and then imagined connecting the arm so that it was rooted in the water, just as one sinks the connected spine through the pelvis into the inner thighs and down into the earth, thereby rooting ( that is why 75 year old tiny soft form martial artists seem to be immovable by young men a third of their age and twice their size), and from the connection to the water, up the arm to my shoulders and back with a relaxed neck, I can turn my head whenever I want without losing the foundation. Once connected to the water through my arm, I am independent and time slows down. That’s the key. The other thing was that I had to remember to exhale and then inhale for the .5 sec. If I didn’t exhale sufficiently through my nose, I can’t obviously inhale; not news, but once freed from the chaos of not being connected I could focus on that. In short, it’s all about finding the right connection. What I was doing previously was connecting to the water, but the angle of entry was way off, so that I was reaching forward but not down, so there was no real connection for the torso and hips. At least, that’s my theory.I missed making a crucial point: the extended arm becomes connected by subtlety changing the angle and creating leverage by dropping the shoulder which changes the angle of the elbow creating another point of connection, which in turn creates a surface for the volar surface of the wrist to connect to the water. So, instead of an extended arms there is an extended arm sunk into the density of the water, therefore increasing the length of the vessel and decreasing the points of instability.I have another question before we end. Is it realistic to expect an inevitable decrease in efficiency from breathing, or should the impact of the turn be eliminated completely ?Well, I would say that there is a noticeable cost to turning the head for breathing even with the best breathing technique on board. Anyone would prefer to never have to turn the head at all (if only we could have a breathing tube out the back of our necks!) But the cost that a masterful breather experiences is likely so light compared to what most people are experiencing when they try to breathe. The cost is that there is some effort involved in turning the mass of the head, and the turning of that mass has some effect on the stability of the frame which the skilled swimmer absorbs gracefully on each breath. Yet, there is virtually no cost to momentum and streamline when that breath is done in the ‘sneaky’ way.
That’s the long answer. The short answer is that you have a lot more improvement ahead of you to enjoy in that area, so don’t give up! It can become a lot more comfortable and less disruptive than you are experiencing it to be.
I lament the closing of your pool and our dialogue!
I’m simultaneously encouraged and discouraged—a familiar struggle, so it’s all good. It is difficult to string together enough strokes in a small pool to let things get smoother, but there isn’t much choice. I’m going to try to rent a cottage on a lake for a week next summer; my daughter, who is much more athletic than I has also been swimming fervently. In the meantime, I’ll keep drilling to try and keep the foundation as solid as possible so that the head is in it’s own world.All in all, though I’m pleased with the progress this summer. Thanks for all your help. I’ll look forward to continuing with you next summer. Please let me know how the Dojo plans unfold.Best,TimI try not to make an issue of the short pool situation, but I think you’d notice considerable acceleration in integrating skills if you had more repeats of more uninterrupted strokes. And, if only we could meet at the pool in person… it would be so much easier to communicate and sense one another’s movement and meaning.
The new Dojo is going. I’ve extended your membership through the month if you’d like to check it out and talk more.
I’ve enjoyed working with you and hope for more.
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