By Louis Tharp

I forgot how much patience and how little muscle it takes to make progress when you are a novice swimmer. And, how little patience and how much muscle novice swimmers are ready to expend.

My newest novice swimmer is a 30-year-old overachiever who was a junior high, high school and college wrestler. He has delts for days, and the confidence that goes with being a proficient athlete. These days he’s a triathlete who is fearless on the bike but feckless in the pool.

I tried to prepare him for the non-muscular activity he was about to do called balance drills. I did one and he watched. Then he didn’t do one, but he tried. And tried. It looked so easy.

"It’s all about letting your brain do the work it wants to do. Your brain will figure this out. Just relax and be in the moment," I said 19 different ways. Terry calls it mindful swimming.

Two-and-a-half hours later we were done for the night. I was happy. He had made huge progress, but he didn’t think so. I told him he was feeling frustrated and maybe a little angry. Maybe irritated. He didn’t disagree. I said if we were learning how to run or bike he’d be sweaty, feeling beat-up, and physically exhausted. Learning to swim is more about brain work than muscle firing, so when you’re learning, the result is brain-based. It’s not intuitive. It’s like setting the preferences on anything computer-driven – the result is frustration and irritation while you’re learning.

I said, "if I were charging you $65 an hour and I wanted the next $65, I’d make sure you left practice feeling like you were the best swimmer in the world." But the reality was that I wasn’t and he didn’t.

What I said in an email to him later was, "I can show you how to be one of the fastest swimmers in your triathlon age group, and now isn’t the time to leave practice feeling like you’re the best swimmer in the world because you’re not. Now is the time to sleep well, eat well, be kind to yourself, let your unconscious figure out what balance is all about, and get back in the pool."

 

 About:

Louis Tharp is a competitive age-group swimmer and a TI triathlon swim coach who is currently taking a few semesters off from West Point coaching in order to work one-on-one with Nicholas Sterghos, an ’09 West Point graduate and pro triathlete.

Louis Tharp’s book, "Overachiever’s Diary, How The Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders" is available from Total Immersion.

Read a sample chapter and reviews from the top triathlon and swimming media at Overachiever’s Diary.

Buy Overachiever’s Diary by Louis Tharp on TI. Read a review of Overachiever’s Diary at active.com

His home pool is Club Fit, Briarcliff in Westchester County, New York.

Want to know what Louis Tharp does when he’s not coaching?