The Purpose Of The Pause

Do you pause occasionally in the day to gather your attention, to reflect on what just happened, and to plan your next move?

We all may have heard advice on how beneficial this is – in the workplace, in the rush of the day, in parenting, etc. But how many of us actually do it?

And, do you make use of the pause in your swim practice time?

It may be helpful to develop the discipline in swim practice, so that the habit is available for life outside the pool as well.

What is the pause for?

The pause is there to give you time to think.

The Pause is your opportunity to increase mindfulness. Mindfulness is a state of enhanced objective awareness which in turn sets you up to improve the quality of your swim experience.

And time to think about what?

• What just happened? Evaluate results.
• What do I want to happen next? Set a new intention.
  • Maybe preserve, protect, replicate what was working well.
  • Maybe adjust and improve something.
  • Maybe test an idea or correction.

The pause can be during the rest at the wall. Don’t talk to others. Think about what just happened. Think about what you want to protect or improve on the next repeat.

The pause can be inserted into a drill – a single pause between movements, or the entire movement broken down into segments with pauses between.

The pause can be inserted into whole stroke swimming. In this additional micro-second before you continue the stroke cycle check your setup to see that you are in position to execute the next part as you intend to.

The pause can be set only in your mind – all movement appears continuous from the outside, but inside you’ve gathered your attention to one focal point, taken a snap-shot and use the next micro-seconds to evaluate and decide on an adjustment to make before you reach that point in the stroke again.

 

Pauses are an extremely valuable tool to use in your swim practice… and in your life too.

Try a few today.

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