Triathlon swimming made easy (31 page)

Marion Jones's practice sounds very much like the
learning
and
practice
forms I suggested in Chapters 12 and 13, but radically different from conventional grind-it-out swim training. This is what differentiates
practice
from a
workout.
For anyone on the master's journey, the word practice is not just something you
do,
but is akin to the Chinese word
tao,
which means path. A practice is anything you immerse yourself in as an integral part of your life. You practice skilled swimming, not just to swim faster, but for the inherent pleasure it brings.

Sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella observed that the best golfers on the PGA Tour, spend more time on the practice tee than less successful players. Are they best because they practice so much or do they practice so much because of the pressure or responsibility of being the best? Rotella learned, after interviewing them, that their primary motivation for practice was the sheer pleasure of performing at the peak of their abilities. Because they swing a golf club with such exquisite control, they are happy to spend hour upon hour doing it. And the volume and complete engagement of
their practice reinforces their skills and dominance. Finally, the more their skills increase, the more they enjoy practice; the essence of a positive addiction.

A few of our students have shown an impatience to move from simple drills to advanced drills to swimming to swimming fast. In contrast,
the most advanced TI practitioners, like Don Walsh, the TI Master Teacher and champion marathon swimmer I mentioned in Chapter 7, who have been practicing the drills for years, have learned to appreciate the subtleties and endless possibilities contained within even the most rudimentary techniques.

On occasion, Don may repeat a single drill for 30 minutes or more. The uninterrupted, meditative repetition expands his awareness significantly. What start out as barely noticeable variations in execution become significant and revealing and can be tweaked with much more subtlety. This is why Tiger Woods can swing a golf club for six or eight hours a day without a moment of boredom. He experiences and examines so much more in every swing than does the ordinary golfer that it offers an incredible richness of experience. This newness — new insights, new awareness in "old" skills and movements
— banishes boredom and impatience forever.

Becoming a Master

As I said earlier, the rewards of mastery are not reserved only for those gifted with special talents. The process of practicing like a Master will enable you to achieve a higher level of excellence and a deeper sense of satisfaction. Here are several tools to help you start your journey:

Knowledge is Power

When spending your precious time at practice — and to commit yourself without reservation — it's essential that you be confident you're on the right path. If I have done my job well, this book — confirmed by your body's feedback — can be your source of that certainty. I expect that most of those who read this book will be self-coached, but a devoted student armed with knowledge, is better off than a student with a poor teacher. And even if you have a coach, the ultimate responsibility for progress toward Mastery lies not with your teacher but with you.

Videotapes can be a source of guidance and information. If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a moving picture is probably worth 10,000 words. But learning is immeasurably aided by feedback. And you can create feedback for yourself when a teacher isn't available by finding a practice partner.

Build a support system

You can work toward mastery on your own, but it helps to share the journey with others: People who have gone through the same process and can share their wisdom and insight. People who are on the path at the same time as you, so you can compare notes. People who are simply interested in your well-being and growth and will offer encouragement. Finally, you can recruit a practice partner. Share your knowledge and goals with them and invite them to join you on the path to mastery. You'll gain a better understanding of what you have been working on learning if you teach some part o
f it to a partner.. .and they will then be better equipped to help you right back.

Emotional equilibrium

Eugen Herrigel, in his
book Zen in the Art of Archery,
wrote that zen archers do not train primarily to shoot bullseyes, but to increase their selfunderstanding. Similarly, mastery is not a pursuit of perfection, but of self-knowledge — including your flaws and limitations. You'll never reach perfection anyway, and that's fortunate, because, you'll always have some higher goal inspiring you. And particularly in swimming, so long as you have Human DNA, you will never exhaust your opportunities for learning or improvement. Further, it's
essential
to feel clumsy or incompetent at times —
and to smile at yourself when you do. The understanding of a master learner is measured by their willingness to surrender what they "know" in order to learn something new. When teaching a four-stroke camp, we observed that experienced backstrokers struggled far more with a new backstroke drill than those who were inexperienced in backstroke. Because they "knew" how backstroke should feel, they insisted on fitting this drill into that experience. The novices achieved fluency in the drill quickly. The experienced ones began to approach the same fluency only when they allowed themselves to "forget" wh
at they knew about backstroke. And they were soon swimming backstroke better than ever.

Use
all your potentiality

In his influential book,
Tao of Jeet Kune Do,
Bruce Lee wrote that 10 minutes of practice with mind and body
fully integrated is w
orth more than 10 hours of going through t
he motions. It's well known that most
humans operate at only a tiny fraction of
their true potential
and that the key to realizing more of that
potential is mental, not physical. When J
ack Nicklaus was the world's dominant golfer, he revealed t
hat he never hit a shot without first visu
alizing the ball's perfect flight and
successful conclusion "sitting up the
re high and white and
pretty on the green." Mindful practi
ce in swimming will soon give you an archi
ve of "mental movies," as captiv
ating as Nicklaus's. Driving home from practice, you may fin
d yourself reliving the pleasure of a rhyt
hmic, fluid stroke. Impressions like these
provide the basis fo
r detailed recall and rehearsal of the way "great" sw
imming feels — or of the way it look
s, after watching som
e masterful swimmer. As you become more Fi
shlike, practices and races can become so
enjoyable that you'
ll find yourself replaying them, recalling
the pleasures of fluid movement hours lat
er, just as you reliv
e other pleasant memories. These will give
you a powerful tool for reinforcing the p
hysical part of learn
ing. Soon, your "warmup" (both for practice and races) will become as much
mental as physical. Your imagery will begi
n to prime your nervous system as you "
swim on your way to the pool."

Making the path to mastery a powerful habit will enrich the tot
ality of your life experience. Though you
began with the limited goal of swimming better in a triathlon,
you can go well beyond that to making swim
ming a deeply satisfying experience to learning life lessons th
at can enrich nearly any valued undertaking.

Happy laps,
Terry Laughlin
New Paltz NY
October, 2001