Lessons from the Pool

I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of the new words I can create with the word Systema.  Swim-stema just works.

My wife Karla has been a swimmer since early childhood and now has me hooked.  At first, though, I felt like a fish out of water– in reverse.  I’ve been “afraid to go in the water” since seeing JAWS as a kid.

Not exactly.  Just open water.

I was fortunate enough to grow up with an above ground pool common in big cities.  Every summer we eagerly looked forward pulling out the garden hose and watching the 5′ pool fill with ice-cold water so we could splash around.  Splash around was about all we did.  The pool wasn’t long enough for laps and we just pushed off the walls and glided to the other side, with a flailing stroke or two.

In 5th Grade I transferred to a grammar school that had an Olympic pool and a diving board.  So I went through the standard tread water for 2 minutes, don’t drown, get across the pool without sinking swim lessons.  I even recall swim races that I participated in.  Still, I never REALLY learned how to swim.  What the core principles were, the key success factors that would make me part man-part fish.

As time went on, I had fewer opportunities to swim.  Being landlocked didn’t help.  Of all the elements I’ve always felt an affinity for, and a healthy fear of, water so when Karla came along and dragged me into the pool I knew I’d get back into swimming.  But the problem was still I didn’t have the principles; I didn’t know what I was doing.

Fortunately, Lisa Rapuano, a family friend, recommended a swimming book and DVD featuring a new style of swimming.  Finally, I had something concrete to focus on to help my swimming instead of just flopping around envying those with the beautiful strokes wondering what I wasn’t getting.

Here’s where this ties into Systema.

It turns out there is a “hard style” vs. “soft style” of swimming just as there is in martial arts.  (Incidentally, the author repeatedly refers to martial arts masters when talking about swimming.  I thought that was telling.) The Hard Style consists of just swimming, trying to bully yourself through the water on muscle-power and the perfect arm movement.  After enough laps/miles you are supposed to figure it out.  This type of swimming is more of the dominate the water variety.  Well, that just didn’t make sense to me seem like something I’d want to spend my time with.  You might know some people who train Systema this way…

The soft style with the “new” stroke is all Systema.  As I read the book I kept noting words like flow, ease, grace and poise.  The author talked about conserving energy, proper body Form for least resistance, moving from your body not your limbs, proper breathing and relaxation, and swimming like fish–who easily move through the water.

Stroke length, how far you travel on one stroke, is your measure of efficiency moving through the water.  The fewer strokes the better as you swim as you get more results from less effort.

Very Systema-like.

Within a couple of weeks working the drills and stroke of this soft style of swimming I went from about 28 strokes per 25 meters to about 18, and a low of 16, strokes.  I’m amazed at how much easier it is to swim, how much more graceful it feels and how fun it is to just glide through the water.