Before swimming this morning while working on several personal matters, there seemed to no truer statement with a capital T than “timing is everything”. When the timing is right, things just seem to fall in place. When the timing is wrong, things take a great deal of work or don’t happen at all.

The timing of my freestyle stroke really had my notice this morning because the timing was very good. It seemed that at the same moment that my forward moving arm was spearing the water with a clean entry then the anchoring hand underwater was catching the water as my body rotated and slid over the hand.

When the timing is off, it seems very hard to push the water back. When the timing is just right, it seems very easy to push the water backwards. While the quality of the underwater catch or anchor remains the same, correct timing makes the swim easier.

I think I just wrote the previous sentences or statements in a way I think many swimmers understand freestyle swimming. Many swimmers view pushing backwards as the best way to move forwards. My view is that the best timing to move forwards combines a solid anchoring hand or an underwater catch with a clean forward moving hand entry into the water timed just right so there is an ease to each stroke.

The timing of a tennis serve is very similar. A strong tennis serve is less about a strong arm and more about the timing of the entire body following the arm to strike or stroke a ball at the right moment.

With each length, I became more aware of timing the stroke better and better. The timing of the stroke while going for a breath was particularly enjoyable when I worked that aspect of my stroke. My shoulder that was in the water felt better and the catch or anchor felt better by keeping the same timing going that I had when not taking a breath.

Timing is very important when swimming. Keep timing in mind when swimming. If you don’t feel like you have the timing down, I would enjoy teaching you the proper timing to make your swim easy and refreshing.

While a great deal of gain can be accomplished by working on technique and steady swimming (not necessarily slow swimming though), swimming faster than your normal pace is beneficial if you do it correctly.

If you are sprinting and your technique is falling apart or you have no idea what your technique is even doing, then you are actually doing harm.  An uncontrolled sprint is likely to reinforce bad, old muscle memory rather than the new technique that you have been trying to learn.

A better way to approach fast swimming is to shorten the distance to 25, 50, 75 or 100 yards and go faster than your race pace.  Also give yourself enough rest in between the intervals so technique does not drop off rapidly.  Keep track of your times so you can see when you are swimming faster and when your speed drops off.  And, stop whens you are no longer swimming faster.

One of the fallacies of interval training is that someone or some piece of paper can tell you how much fast swimming is enough beforehand.  In reality, we can not know how much fast swimming or intervals someone can handle until they are doing the workout and tire.  Once tired, the intervals should stop.  The athlete and coach can better determine when enough work has been done during the workout and elect to stop once tired.

To often, too many intervals are attempted by highly motivated swimmers and their coaches.  For some reason, we tend to think that two more or three more or five more intervals with diminishing returns is better than stopping sooner.  Yet, we also know that injuries and setting personal bests in the pool happen as often as great race performances.

While it’s satisfying to set a personal best at any distance at any time, if you want to set a personal best in a race try swimming faster, shorter, distances in training with sufficient rest and leaving something in reserve for break through racing.  Some faster swimming plus plenty of steady swimming and technique work will pay off.

On Monday I lifted weights before swimming and I did not like the result.  The immediate result was that it felt like that I had lost the fluidity, accuracy and stroke ease that I normally feel when swimming.  My arms felt muscle bound and clunky after weightlifting.  It took me two days to get the feel of my stroke back.

I do like some weightlifting to strengthen muscles to avoid injury.  In the past, I was of the mind that stretching prevented injury.  If something hurt, I concluded I must not have been stretching enough.  When I hurt my left hamstring though I noticed how weak the left hamstring had become.  It was difficult to lift ten pounds with my left hamstring.  By gradually strengthening the hamstring, the seemingly chronic injury went away.  While lifting, I also stretch the muscle by taking the muscle slowly through the full range of motion.  If I feel a stretch while lifting, better yet.

The lesson learned is that I will go back to lifting weights after swimming or later that day and then sleep overnight to let the arms and shoulders recover so I don’t move away from stroke accuracy and a stroke that feels great.

If you are having mixed results with your training, analyze what works well and strive to be the smartest competitor that someone else will face.

A huge benefit that I enjoy from swimming is that I can swim while I am recovering!  Because I know how to balance and float well, swimming is recovery.

If I am physically exhausted or injured, swimming with my focus on floating, balance and ease helps me to recover physically.  The physical recovery could be due to fact that I am lying down horizontally so the blood can return to my heart more easily.  And the little extra water pressure that we experience helps move blood back to the heart too.

When I was waiting for my C6-7 disc in my neck to be removed (due too much head down computer time per the physical therapist ), swimming was the only pain free activity that I enjoyed as my head floated on the water in a neutral position.

And after a bike or a run or a triathlon, I physically recover from a cool down swim so I can stop sweating!

Swimming is also an important part of emotional recovery for me.  I often notice that I do not perform as well physically if I am upset about something.  Perhaps you too have had a bad day and have noticed the run is not as fast after a tough day at work compared to a good day at work.  There is something about swimming, maybe it’s being one tenth of my weight in water, that makes my heart feel less heavy emotionally.  While a hard run can be cathartic, an easy swim is comforting.

Swimming is satisfying mentally in that I can improve my swimming by thinking while I pay attention.  When I pay attention, I can improve my stroke much like golfers or tennis players do.  Great swimming is driven by thinking about what is working really well and what is not working that well.  What I also find mentally interesting about swimming is that there are so many exploratory, easy and interesting swimming drills to do that my mind is stimulated by the experience.

Swimming also seems to be spiritually satisfying.  This is much harder to describe as a transcendent spiritual experience is hard to put in words.  Terry Laughlin and I have had the conversation regarding water and it’s history in religious literature.  So much of the time deliverance comes through the water in religious literature.

If swimming is not recovery for you yet, I strongly urge you to take a weekend workshop with me.  Once you recover, you will be able to swim as hard as you want again.  I personally like to go back and forth from recovery to personal bests as I improve my swimming for pleasure and for triathlons.

Try checking out my schedule for upcoming workshops where I will be teaching to determine what dates work for your schedule.

The ability to float well is a huge advantage in swimming.  Those who float can spend their energy in moving forward.  Those who can not float must spend their energy in getting to the surface for air.

Yet too many people think floating can not be learned.  Many think that floating is determined by their body type.  In particular, I have often heard triathletes and adults say that they have too much muscle and not enough fat to float.

From my experience though, this is not true.  Those who see me realize that I am muscular and my percentage of body fat is very low if not single digit.  My fat does not float me.

What does float me in the water though is my ability to balance on my lungs.  By placing my weight over my lungs, like we place the weight of a wheel barrow over the front wheel, I can balance and float very easily.

While for many people it’s not easy to balance or float on their lungs today, balancing on the lungs can be learned.

If you can not float now, would you like to give it a try?  Would you like to learn how to float and then learn how to swim easily from a floating position?

I will have another Total Immersion workshop at the Ravinia Club in Atlanta, GA on March 8th & 9th – primarily a Saturday PM and Sunday AM two day workshop.

Please enroll at totalimmersion.net if you would like to attend my workshop in two weeks.

While swimming yesterday for recovery after biking and running in preparation for a triathlon, I was very aware of what a “clean” hand entry in the water at just the right angle does for my freestyle stroke.

A splashing hand or arm slows me down. A paddle that splashes on the surfaces is much less effective than a paddle that pierces the surface at a good angle and then simply holds or catches the water while the boat slips over it.

A well balanced, floating body in the water is like a boat. A hand and arm that pierces the water and then holds it is like an effective paddle stroke.

When swimming think.

Question whether you are balanced or not. If you are not balanced and do not know how to get balanced, go to a swim teacher who knows how to do help you balance yourself by balancing on the lungs rather than kicking harder.

Question whether your hand and arm pierces the water and if you have speed, velocity and mass into the forward arm stroke. If you do not have or know this feeling find a swim teacher that focuses as much or more on the clean hand entry forward than the push backwards underwater.

My swimming has become much easier by accepting the laws of physics. Forward motion moves us forward. When swimming freestyle reduce drag with balance and then get those arms moving forward cleanly.

If you are struggling or don’t enjoy swimming yet, see a Total Immersion instructor and go to a workshop or have a lesson to see and feel the difference. Everyone’s time is like money. Don’t waste time performing poorly when instruction will benefit you for the rest of your life!

Too often beginners approach swimming as if the act of swimming required a great deal of motion and effort.  If it takes a lot of effort not to drown, it takes even more effort to swim is the faulty reasoning.

Yet good swimming can be and should be as easy as walking.  And if we could swim as fast as we walk, then we could swim three to four miles in an hour!

The characteristics of a good walk are firm footing, whole body movement and a rhythmic pace.  Applied to swimming, that means a good anchoring hand in the water, a whole body roll to the left and the right and forward arm movement that rhythmically is reaching forward.  Having the feeling of forward momentum is key to walking and swimming.  If the forward momentum is not in our walk or swim, it feels too much like trudging along.

On March 8 & 9, 2008 there will be two day workshop in Atlanta where I will teaching.  If your swimming feels too hard, go to totalimmersion.net and sign up for my March workshop.  The sooner one learns to swim easily, the more satisfying swimming becomes.

Many people seem to have a strong opinion about whether they can or can not swim.  I often hear someone say that have never been able to swim, can’t swim, sink like a rock, feel so uncoordinated, and get scared or anxious just to mention a few things that I have heard.

It’s too bad when we internalize a current inability to do something into our persona and take it so personally.  While I am probably not able to paint a mural now, I could get better at “painting” if I wanted to do so.

The same is true for swimming.  Swimming is an activity that millions of people can do and they enjoy doing it.  Children especially are apt at swimming and many parents make it a safety priority that their children learn how to swim.

Yet, how do we go back and learn to swim when we are adults?

Here are my suggestions for adults learning to swim.

1) Find a pool with warm water.  If the water is warm, it will feel comfortable while you are learning to swim.

2) Find a knowledgeable adult instructor.  Adults are past the point of sink or swim.  And don’t waste your time with someone who is not helping you achieve results.  Believe me, it’s not you, it’s the lack of knowledge that is holding you back.  I am a Total Immersion Area Leader and I recommend TI instructors.

3) Go to the pool or warm water regularly.  Two times a week should be the minimum.  Three times a week is better and more than three times is better yet.

Anyone doing the above three activities will get better at “it”.

PS – I recommend FINIS swimwear because it is long lasting and Aqua Sphere goggles to go with the warm water pool.

1) Total Immersion Fish drill where with elbows on ribs and hands on quadriceps we go face down and face up  on our left and right sides while kicking and balancing on our side.   While this is the simplest drill we do, many would agree that simple does not mean easy.  This is a tough drill to do right.

2) Total Immersion Skating drill where we have one arm and hand leading.  This is like the Fish drill except one arm is out there is the ready to swim position.  It’s pretty amazing how much easier it is having that one arm extended.

3) Under water swimming.  The goal is to always see and arm in front of you.  This will teach you proper stroke timing of when to catch or pull – after the other hand goes past you head in viewing position.  This will also teach those who rotate too much how to rotate less and it will get those not rotating at all to rotate more.

4) Finger tip or knuckle drags while swimming.  The goal is to get the elbow up higher for a cleaner hand entry in the water.

While these are simple to write, it really helps if you go to Total Immersion instructor – like me – to learn how to do these drills correctly.  Once learned, they will change the way you swim and will help make swimming very enjoyable.

From and email chain that came to me,