Google swimming and depression and the most popular articles involve swimming with dolphins to reduce depression.

Yet, it seems like swimming without dolphins also reduces depression per the research below.

Does swimming next to a really, smooth swimmer (animal or human) reduce tension, anxiety and depression better than swimming next to a poor swimmer?  How do you feel after a swim and does it matter how they are swimming in the lane next to you?

Think about it.

http://medwelljournals.com/new/5/detail.php?id=5&jid=rjbs&theme=5&issueno=18&articleno=368

We perform like we are in “a zone” when training or racing goes far better than expected.

One of the primary characteristics of being in “the zone” is a higher level of performance compared to perceived effort.

Swimming is a sport where “zone” performance might be more frequent than other sports because we can float and we can use mental focal points rather than effort to enhance our performance. Here are some suggestions to increase the frequency of “zone” performance in swimming.

1) Focus on ease and speed, not effort and speed.

2) Think of a positive focal point like great balance, good push off, high elbow, etc and enjoy the benefit of the focal point. Think positively about the gain attributable to that one focal point and check your times on some laps to reinforce the performance compared to effort level.

3) “Zone” performances often occur when not expecting them. Pressing workouts leads to higher performances for a short durations. Yet, a week or a month of consistent swimming while not trying to peak, will produce unexpected “zone” performances.

4) Swimming the same distance in the same amount of time and with a feeling of great ease is a “zone” performance. A personal best is not always a “zone” swimming performance.

Enjoy swimming!

Back from Charleston, SC workshop and it is very satisfying seeing swimmers improve.

Most people looking at the three students that I had last weekend would wonder why they would even want swimming lessons because the three already were swimming.

Yet over the weekend their stroke counts went from 21, 18 & 17 to 11, 11 & 10 as an efficiency measurement. They were also swimming 25s in twenty to twenty-two seconds at a fast, easy effort. Their level of ease greatly increased and they learned a little breaststroke from me in order to sight directly ahead of themselves for triathlon swimming.

Because swimming is so much about technique, we can be much better swimmers when we take the time to understand what makes us better.

I find personal improvement in this way to be very satisfying.

Congratulations to those three swimmers and I wish them success with their goals this year.

It’s such a joy to be able to swim.  It is clearly the easiest activity that I do daily.  In many ways it’s easier to have a good swim than a good night’s sleep.  Is your swim as easy as lying down and getting comfortable?

Today I focused on a focal point that Jamie commented about awhile ago.  I focused on “the catch”.  Specifically, I focused on getting to ” the catch” immediately which added length, quickness and speed.  It was a good focal point and reinforces that it pays to think and pay attention as I swim.

While teaching a swimmer today, it really jumped out at me that timing is so key to swimming comfortably.  While a swimmer can have great balance, a kick, a stroke and can naturally breathe, the timing of those activities is key to success.

Timing is a challenge.  I know I could demonstrate and teach timing faster than I could accurately describe it in writing, though over time I will try.

Simply said, when your swimming timing is just right it feels like “one motion” and swimming can be the easiest thing we do.

Enjoy the weekend.  I will be in Charleston teaching with limited or no blogging.

It really pays to swim with our heads down. It’s very tough to raise the head with out sinking the hips when swimming freestyle. Tucking the head downward with each breaststroke also provides a shallow diving motion giving us more ease and speed.

While I do not want a swimmer aiming the head to the bottom of the pool to achieve balance, the problem more often than not is lifting the head while swimming.

Aim the head towards the wall when swimming. The sky and the bottom of the pool make for poor targets when swimming.

Enjoy the water today.

With the recent hikes in gas prices and the likelihood of gas prices continuing to rise, I am thinking of creating a smaller world for myself where I could bike, run or walk and then swim before work. The swim would cool me down and keep me from sweating for an hour or two.

I would probably have to live closer to work too. It’s one thing doing a Sprint triathlon on a daily basis. It’s another thing to do an Olympic distance or longer on a daily basis.

Cars and low gas prices have enabled us to live spread out lives and maybe spread too thin too. On the individual level, perhaps large towns like Atlanta can become smaller towns within a town.

If one can swim, bike,  and run or walk, then one can get around town.  Stay healthy.

As triathletes we sometimes short change our turns in a pool thinking that turns at the end of the pool are an advantage that we won’t have in open water.

Consider these situations that I have observed:

Triathletes taking three to five seconds to turn are probably using more time turning than they would take in the open water.  This would add five to ten seconds every fifty yards in a twenty five yard pool.

Triathletes often approach the wall faster than they push off.  Many triathletes think that because we can not push off in open water, then we should not push off hard in the pool.  Why push off slower than one approaches the wall though?

Why not go for a really good push off the wall and then try to maintain that speed for as long as possible?  This tactic would be similar to cycling where we use drafting or a tailwind to get used to going at faster speeds.

Using the side of the pool to our advantage will have us thinking and thinking will make us better triathletes.

This last week the most noticeable improvement for my students came from focusing on exhaling.

While it’s natural to want to inhale when we feel like we need air, it’s not productive to inhale unless we have had a good exhale.

We can inhale, inhale, inhale and inhale repetitively and never feel like we are getting relief without an exhale between those inhales.

What drives a good inhale is a great exhale.

On land or in water focus on exhale, exhale, exhale and exhale.  What I notice in myself is that after an exhale the inhale automatically happens and is sufficient air for the next exhale.

Suggestion:  Don’t worry about getting new air with an inhale.  Focus on the getting rid of the old air with an exhale.

It’s been enjoyable to hear friends and people talk about long swims being their goal this year. Four mile swims, three mile swims and a swim across a lake.

On the Lake Lanier swim, I think the idea is to swim to an island about two-thirds of the way across the lake and then swim the final third. I think the route may have us starting in one county and ending up in another county. Then we could say we swam from Forsyth county to Dawson county.

http://www.gsmtc.com/july.htm

Above is a site that details a Georgia to North Carolina swim, approximately three miles. It looks like the event has been going on for several years. On some years, it looks like a few individuals also swim back to double the distance for a total of six miles. The three mile times range from just over an hour to over two hours. Regardless of time, I think most people would be impressed with anyone good enough and confident enough to do an open water swim of that length. I think the general non-swimming public would consider it more risky and adventurous than mountain climbing.

My favorite lake is at my sister’s home. It’s one mile across and one mile back. And given that the lake has a little flow, I am glad that I swim the first half against the flow and the second half with the flow.

Is there an outdoor, open water swim that you look forward to every year? If so, would you mind sharing what you enjoy about it?

A worthy goal this summer is to swim across a lake.

If you are a relative beginner, be safe, have a boat along side you and pick a reasonable distance to swim.

If you are a more accomplished swimmer, be safe, pick a challenging distance, swim with others and have a boat along with you for food, drinks and for safety too.

It’s cool to turn to a friend and say, “I swam across Lake ……, last week”.  I think swimming across a lake is definitely worth mentioning.  If others can talk about 10Ks, marathons and century bike rides, then we can talk about swimming across a lake this summer.