Using the Challenge Level to Reach Flow State
In our practices we are trying to achieve two things: improvement in our capabilities, and improvement in our enjoyment of practice and performance.
One concept captures both…
Enter into Flow State
This is when both skill and satisfaction in the act of practice (or in the performance) are in their peak growth state.
Too much challenge that is far beyond your current skill and you get anxiety or frustration, and perhaps injury. Too little challenge and you get bored, the mind wanders and skill-growth diminishes.
The practical application for this is to design practices that provide just enough challenge that is not too much nor too little. This is as much of an art as it is a science. And it is profoundly personal.
So, what virtually everything in our coaching service is aimed at is to guide you into the understand and skills you need to keep yourself in Flow State while practicing (and racing, if you do that) – and, hopefully to carry that over into other areas of your life too!
Personalizing The Variables Of Practice
In order to design practices that provide the optimal amount of challenge for you, you need to choose the distances, the number of repeats, the intensity level, the cues, and the feedback metrics to put yourself in that zone. Following the guidelines of our approach you will come to know the science part (principles of physics and physiology), while also working on the is the art part to make it fit you as a unique individual (personalization).
Here are the nuts and bolts:
We can customize the challenge level of the practice set for any swimmer at any skill or fitness level – we do it by increasing the neuro-muscular complexity of the task.
Remember, the brain’s main function (according to some neuro-scientists) is ‘to manage information and energy’. The brain controls the production of energy, and it controls the firing of muscles, which use the energy. Information allows the brain to make decisions about where and how energy should be used, which muscles should be activated. Fitness is the body’s ability to convert fuel to create power. Technique is the brain’s ability to skillfully apply that that power where, when and how it is needed to get the job done well.
So, to provide complete training we must challenge the brain while we challenge the body.
You can Increase Complexity by Using Challenge Modifiers.
In this way, the steps of our approach to advanced training can be followed by any swimmer at any performance level. The same skill might be strong at this level, but once you increase the complexity you find you can strengthen it more. Each skill you’ve worked on once can be revisited to create greater skill-resilience at higher speed, over longer distance. And, even the foundational skills can be improved and refined to finer and finer level of detail that you only notice once you turn up the complexity of the problems you try to solve.
This is a primary reason why we don’t write simple practices as if one size fits everyone. We can give you some ideas to start with, but then we expect you to start adjusting those to facilitate your own Flow State – something we cannot ultimately do for you, only guide you in how to find.
Like jet-ski taxis for the surfers of the giant waves, we can tow you up to the edge of that Flow State zone, but you’ve got to ride into it and keep yourself there.
Ride on into flow!