Swimming is like dancing...

[khiemtran]

I was only planning on a short swim this morning, since I'd already had a 4km run, but HL and Liem were late getting to the pool and I ended up going for half an hour.


Sundays pretty much mean the fast lane for me, since the medium lane is always filled with the same regulars. I thought I was in trouble half way through, when a tall man jumped in and started blasting along after me, but I was amused to find that, thanks to the magic of drafting, I was actually able to gain on him.

In swimming, as with most racing sports, once you get within a certain distance of the person in front of you, there's usually a pocket of reduced drag where you can belt along at the same speed but with much less effort. After a while, it's quite easy to feel the presence of a swimmer in front of you, long before you see them, especially when doing freestyle where you often have one arm extended out in front of you. I used to get panicked by the sight of flipper-wearers blasting up and down my lane like they had outboard motors on. Now, I just use them to go even faster and then sneak past them on the turns...

But, anyway. My form was pretty ragged today, but there were moments when suddenly it just felt right. Suddenly, I was gliding from arm to arm, perfectly balanced, where each action seemed to flow perfectly to the next. As a confirmed non-dancer, this is probably the closest I'm ever going to get to actual dancing. And when I had that rhythm right, there was almost no effort, and I felt I could go forever. A few laps later, of course, suddenly - wham! There goes the rhythm and suddenly it feels like I'm trying to move through ... well, water.

At last, Liem and HL turned up and we had a family swim before Liem's class. He's just starting to put a few strokes together now, but he still looks like a land-based mammal fighting the water. I wonder how soon it will be that he learns to dance too.

Comments

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

Yes, swimming is like any sport really, it's far more about technique than it is about power or speed. Congratulations! If you get the rhythm and the style right, just like a golf stroke, you'll go faster/ball will go further effortlessly. Ditto getting the approach speed/apex/acceleration right through a corner on 2 or 4 wheels. It's all very Zen, isn't it? Become the stroke ... :)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's easy to forget how hard it used to seem and how frustrating it was to see the better swimmers shoot past seemingly without effort. As least I'm not getting blown away by grannies with flippers anymore...

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

It's all very Zen, isn't it?

And if you want to improve, you concentrate on what you're doing, how you move, how you breathe. As long as you concentrate on results, you'll never get there.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I think that's very true.

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

That sounds lovely. I'm working on improving my swimming technique, but I've never felt like it's all coming together. Maybe next year. Good to know that it can feel that good though.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I'm also lucky that at our local pool you can look down over the outside lanes and see all the really good swimmers lapping up and down. It's quite amazing to watch them, especially when you find someone who's really smooth.