Me: Use your hips! Swimmer: My hips?? How do I “use” my hips?Me: Push, drive, snap those hips! Swimmer: I’m trying to “push, drive, snap” my hips…but nothing happens! Me: Use 500% more hips! Swimmer: Wow…that was amazing! I really moved forward! These are just a few of the conversations that I often have with new
I ask a lot of my clients…especially my swimmers. I ask them to stop swimming full stroke & just drill, drill, drill for weeks on end. It’s a tough challenge…and not everyone is up to the task. But for those that are…they eventually make the eye-opening connection between those drills & what will ultimately be
Mind vs Body Which one is more important for learning? It’s a great question…and generally our answer depends upon what we’re doing. School learning? Mind, right? Sport learning? Well…body, of course! I recently read a groundbreaking book that supports my idea that combining mind & body enhances learning. In his book, The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning
When folks finally decide to get technique help, the usual reason is that they have an event or race that they’re getting ready for. But there’s another reason…one not so commonly used: Just Because. If you think you need an event or race to work on your technique, think again. No race? No problem! I LOVE
Learning…it’s never a linear process. Our human brains are amazing, but they are not computers. We can’t simply put the info in & expect things to be repeatable & duplicatable. For most of us, learning is “one step forward, two steps back” approach where things get better one day & then seemingly worse the next.
For adults, signing up for learn-to-swim lessons is always a challenge. Unfortunately, we often let our fears & egos hold us back. So, it’s particularly important that, when we make the decision to take swim lessons, we set aside fear & ego to learn to swim. What do we fear…besides the water itself? We
If had a dollar for every time I’ve heard: “I thought it would only take 2-3 lessons to learn how to swim.” Oh my…I’d be rich by now!! 😉 No, my friends, it’s a much longer process requiring patience & diligence. Why does learning to swim take so much longer than people think? Here are my Top 4
Over the years I’ve had many opportunities to coach coaches. It’s a challenging situation. We both (me as the coach & the coach as the student) have to watch for the often inaccurate assumption that mastery will come quickly. After all, coaches are really good at the skill sets they teach & they’re often quite
Which is more important? Inborn talent or dedication? I would argue that perseverance & tenacity are the keys to success. As a swim coach I RARELY am asked to help someone learn the Butterfly stroke. Most swimmers stay far, far, FAR away from it because, if not done correctly, it’s truly exhausting. Of the four
When I was on high school & college swim teams, we always started our workouts with technique drills. We did all sorts of different drills…many of which seemed completely pointless. We often asked the coach why we had to do technique drills. He usually gave a vague, general, because-they’re-good-for-you sort of answer. This experience helped