Time For An Unscheduled Asskicking
Monday evening I quickly hit the pool on the way to my massage therapy appointment. I’d resolved to swim twice between last Friday’s TI training and my upcoming session this Thursday evening. Peter had forwarded me an email with about seven drills he wanted me to practice at least twice before our next meeting, so I booked over to the Lord Byng as soon as I could after work, changed like a whirlwind and jumped in.
The first ten minutes were good - practicing my balance, finding my sweet spot, relaxing and focusing on soft shoulders and letting all tension go. I moved to skating, feeling my head floating, focusing my gaze on the bottom of the pool and letting the water bring my head to neutral. Everything was going great.
Then I tried to skate and breath, and all hell broke loose in my head.
It seems I have a bit of a mental block with this one thing. Unfortunately it is the gateway drill to completing my stroke and learning to swim with a minimum of effort, so it’s kind of important unless I get bitten by a radioactive trout and grow gills within the next week or so…
The logical side of my head knows what the problem is…once I move to skate and breath drills, suddenly there’s about five component pieces that have to come together in order to balance, extend, rotate hips, rotate head to shoulder, break surface and breath. It’s tricky because if my head raises even one inch too much in the rotation, my lower body sinks and the panic sets in that I won’t breech the surface quickly enough. There’s a real technique to this TI method, and it runs counter to my inherent nature - I want to be good at it immediately. Feeling frustrated, I talked to John Malone, my Guru of All Things Subtle.
John immediately placed everything in perspective for me. See, we humans learn in one of four modes.
- Unconscious / Unknowing - we don’t know what we don’t know, and meander blissfully though a situation unaware because we don’t know
- Conscious / Unknowing - we are aware that we don’t know what to do or what’s going on…this is where new skillsets and concepts are initially learned and internalized
- Conscious / Knowing - we have learned and internalized the skillset or concept, and are actively involved with the process of doing/being
- Unconscious / Knowing - the skillset/concept is completely internalized and becomes second nature…for most elite athletes, this is where they are mentally when they perform their activity.
Rather than fighting the process, John told me, enjoy it. Rejoice in the fact that I get to learn a new skillset. Part of the delicious process of being an athlete is constantly challenging oneself; if it was easy, everyone would do it. Once this notion had sunk in, my attitude towards the skate drills changed…and the next time I hit the water, every mouthful of chlorinated water, every gagging sputtering moment will be something that, in a sick little way, I’m going to enjoy. Besides, I don’t really have a choice now - as I mentioned to John, I tried to swim lengths normally after doing my drills, and my new programming ran headfirst into oncoming traffic aka my previous stroke memory. I’ve never felt so uncoordinated in my life, but the upside is that it let me know that the new stroke is starting to take in my subconscious.
Filed under: Triathlon training, swimming
