Total Immersion is unique in its singular devotion to the skills that enable one to move more efficiently through the water. No matter what stroke you are working on, paying attention to balance, comfort, relaxation, streamlining, economy of movement, and pacing will result in improvement. If I hadn’t already been convinced of that ( I was),  a recent experience really drove the point home.

 I got an e-mail from a young man who wanted to learn Combat Swimmers Stroke (CSS), commonly known as SideStroke. He’s going into the Navy, and wants to be able to pass their CSS test, which requires swimming 500 yards in 8 minutes or less. Now I don’t get many requests for that particular stroke, and I told him so. I haven’t swam it in years, and I told him so. I’m simply not expert in the stroke, and I told him so. 

 Despite my efforts to convince him I was not the right coach for him, he persisted. It would seem that CSS coaches are hard to come by. I told him that I believe there are certain fundamentals that I could teach him, and he signed up for an hour lesson.

I watched him warm up, a bit of front crawl and a bit of sidestroke at a blistering pace that left me winded just watching. Although his balance was good, it would be difficult not to be balanced at that speed. He nearly disproved the notion that a swimmer can’t hydroplane. It was far from the relaxed easy form we’ve come to know as "Shinji-like". And his breathing after each length reminded me of Lamaze Breathing.

After reviewing video of his freestyle and CSS, we discussed…you guessed it, balance, comfort, relaxation, streamlining, economy of movement, and pacing. We started out with Superman Glides and Skate. Then, with those two drills in mind, we broke CSS down into its components, using a drill for each. Then we re-assembled it, bit by bit. The product was a much easier stroke, albeit slower. However, this slower stroke was sustainable and afforded the opportunity for careful examination and improvement.

 Swimming is about habitual coordination. Constantly swimming beyond your ability nearly ensures that improvement in coordination won’t happen. By slowing down, This lad could improve his movements and make them repeatable.

I got an e-mail from him the other day. He said:

Hey Brian,

I’ve been working on the drills we discussed and my endurance in the pool has skyrocketed. I’d like to schedule another session with you sometime next week. Does Monday at 4:30 work for you? 

Maybe I am a CSS expert…