the mean stroke count for other MIMS racers between 38,000 and 29,000 strokes, I also saved enough strokes to swim halfway around the island again.
Finally, imagine your body has a kind of shadow trailing behind you as you swim. Remember: You're creating a wake similar to that of a boat, and though it spreads a bit as it reaches your feet, it doesn't spread much. Consider that wake your shadow, and anything that slips outside it as drag. Your feet, forinstance, may be helping you along as you kick, but as soon as they slip outside your "shadow," they increase drag.
The Choice Is Yours
You have a choice to make each time you arrive at the pool: Spend your time training hard and long to muscle up your propulsive force and inflate your aerobic capacity, or focus on trimming drag and reducing the energy spent making waves. A trip to any aquarium will show you the smarter path is the path of least resistance.
Up to this point we've been focusing on good "vessel design," exploring all the ways to stay balanced, long, and sleek. Now that your "hull" is as efficient as it can be, it's time to tune up your engine to run with the same, smart efficiency.
Chapter 8
"95-Mph Freestyle" — Effortless Power from the Core
So far, our strategy for mastering fast, fluent, "fishlike" swimming has focused on minimizing resistance — not on maximizing propulsion. But once you've conquered drag, you can create new efficiencies by learning to tap an effortless power source as you stroke. The good news is that the eliminating skills you learned to minimize drag are the same skills you'll use to maximize propulsion. You just think about them differently and apply them in different ways.
Over time, all the counterintuitive things you've learned you must do in a concentrated way to be Fishlike — hiding your head, pressing your "buoy," lengthening your vessel — will gradually grow into habits. As they do, you'll be able to shift some of your brainpower to making your propelling actions smooth, controlled, and fluent. The first step is to learn to use your most effortless power source: the core body.
You'll see the most persuasive argument for that by visiting an aquarium. Watching fish under water makes it clear that the best "engine" for propulsion in a fluid is the core body. Lacking arms and legs, fish can't propel by pulling and kicking; they use rhythmic body undulation or oscillation to move with stunning speed, grace, and ease. Watch from poolside (or on TV) at an elite-level meet and you'll see the world's best swimmers apply the same principle: The torso sets the rhythm and the arms and legs synchronize with it. Then watch lap swimmers at your pool. Most do just the opposite: arms flail, legs churn, and the core body isn't involved or works at cross-purposes.
So, let's begin a whole-body tune-up of your power train, from the engine (your torso) to the propellers (your hands).
The Kinetic Chain: Power from the Core
It's only natural to think of our arms and legs as the "engine" for fast swimming. When we want to go faster, we instinctively work them harder and faster. And when swimmers devote countless yards to pulling with a foam buoy immobilizing their legs, or kicking with arms holding a board, they're reinforcing these instincts in their muscle memory. The shift from arm-dominated to core-based propulsion will take time, patience, persistence, and attention. But I promise the rewards will be more than worth it.
If you really want to learn to swim like a fish, consider again how fish actually swim. They scoot through the water in a most uncomplicated way, by rhythmically oscillating or undulating the entire body, which produces tail-whip, and off they go. Fishlike propulsion for humans is based on the same principle: core-body rotation for long-axis strokes (freestyle and backstroke), undulation for the short-axis strokes of butterfly and breaststroke.
In an ideal world it wouldn't be necessary for swimmers to learn hip
Finally, imagine your body has a kind of shadow trailing behind you as you swim. Remember: You're creating a wake similar to that of a boat, and though it spreads a bit as it reaches your feet, it doesn't spread much. Consider that wake your shadow, and anything that slips outside it as drag. Your feet, forinstance, may be helping you along as you kick, but as soon as they slip outside your "shadow," they increase drag.
The Choice Is Yours
You have a choice to make each time you arrive at the pool: Spend your time training hard and long to muscle up your propulsive force and inflate your aerobic capacity, or focus on trimming drag and reducing the energy spent making waves. A trip to any aquarium will show you the smarter path is the path of least resistance.
Up to this point we've been focusing on good "vessel design," exploring all the ways to stay balanced, long, and sleek. Now that your "hull" is as efficient as it can be, it's time to tune up your engine to run with the same, smart efficiency.
Chapter 8
"95-Mph Freestyle" — Effortless Power from the Core
So far, our strategy for mastering fast, fluent, "fishlike" swimming has focused on minimizing resistance — not on maximizing propulsion. But once you've conquered drag, you can create new efficiencies by learning to tap an effortless power source as you stroke. The good news is that the eliminating skills you learned to minimize drag are the same skills you'll use to maximize propulsion. You just think about them differently and apply them in different ways.
Over time, all the counterintuitive things you've learned you must do in a concentrated way to be Fishlike — hiding your head, pressing your "buoy," lengthening your vessel — will gradually grow into habits. As they do, you'll be able to shift some of your brainpower to making your propelling actions smooth, controlled, and fluent. The first step is to learn to use your most effortless power source: the core body.
You'll see the most persuasive argument for that by visiting an aquarium. Watching fish under water makes it clear that the best "engine" for propulsion in a fluid is the core body. Lacking arms and legs, fish can't propel by pulling and kicking; they use rhythmic body undulation or oscillation to move with stunning speed, grace, and ease. Watch from poolside (or on TV) at an elite-level meet and you'll see the world's best swimmers apply the same principle: The torso sets the rhythm and the arms and legs synchronize with it. Then watch lap swimmers at your pool. Most do just the opposite: arms flail, legs churn, and the core body isn't involved or works at cross-purposes.
So, let's begin a whole-body tune-up of your power train, from the engine (your torso) to the propellers (your hands).
The Kinetic Chain: Power from the Core
It's only natural to think of our arms and legs as the "engine" for fast swimming. When we want to go faster, we instinctively work them harder and faster. And when swimmers devote countless yards to pulling with a foam buoy immobilizing their legs, or kicking with arms holding a board, they're reinforcing these instincts in their muscle memory. The shift from arm-dominated to core-based propulsion will take time, patience, persistence, and attention. But I promise the rewards will be more than worth it.
If you really want to learn to swim like a fish, consider again how fish actually swim. They scoot through the water in a most uncomplicated way, by rhythmically oscillating or undulating the entire body, which produces tail-whip, and off they go. Fishlike propulsion for humans is based on the same principle: core-body rotation for long-axis strokes (freestyle and backstroke), undulation for the short-axis strokes of butterfly and breaststroke.
In an ideal world it wouldn't be necessary for swimmers to learn hip
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