Technique And Power

For swimmers it stands repeating:

What you are not willing to accomplish by technique you will have to make up for with power.

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Consider the speed problem. How do you speed up?

There are just two options in physics:

1. Apply more power.
2. Reduce resistance.

#1 is about building more power to overcome resistance working against you in the water and inside your own body.

#2 is about finding ways to reduce resistance in the water and inside the body so that less power is required to accomplish the task.

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Consider the systems that need to be developed inside every swimmer:

1. Converting energy to power.
2. Smoothly transferring power through the body structure and tissues.
3. Applying power precisely – where it is needed, when it is needed, and in just the right amount.

#1 is about fuel intake, metabolizing energy, building muscle cells and strength and all the training programs focused predominantly on those.

#2 and #3 are about technique, about how well you use the power that is already available in the body and in the environment around you. It’s about cleaning up the whole economy.

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Some simple meta-cognition question to meditate on:

• Which of these do you spend most of your pool time working on?
• Which do you think will produce better pay off for the limited time, energy and resources you have available?
• Do your answers to those two questions line up? Why or why not?
• How will you reconcile the differences between your belief and your practice?
• How will you reinforce and improve the training strategy you believe in?

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