Degrees of Freedom

Triathlon is a single sport consisting of 3 components: swim, bike, and run. (Some would say long course triathlon has a 4th component - nutrition; and some might say transitions are even another component; anyway, you get the idea...)

Getting better means continually assessing where you are in those 3 components and working on your weaknesses. In my case, my weakness is swimming. I come out of the water mid-pack (I'm slowly moving up) and then start passing people on the bike and then more and more people on the run, which is my relative strength. Sure, I was a lifeguard as a kid, but I quit swim team after like 1 year because I didn't really enjoy it and I wasn't that good at it. However, I continued to play land-based sports because I loved them and was good at them. Now, in my 30s, and wanting to continue some form of sport and competition, I find myself working on getting faster in the pool.

So what is it about swimming that makes it harder to get better, at least for me. There are several reasons:

1) Water is orders of magnitude more resistant than air - Slicing through the air at 20+ mph requires a certain amount of energy applied to forward motion (in our case, it's the power we put into the pedals that is transferred to the road). But moving through water is WAY more difficult.

2) Human beings are not fish - We are simply not designed to be fast swimmers. Almost nothing about our shape and dynamics as human beings lends itself to moving quickly through water.

3) Too many degrees of freedom - When we are running, there are 2 fixed points, i.e., when each foot hits the ground. When cycling, there are 5 fixed points on the bike that restrict the motion our bodies and limbs can have - 2 pedals, 2 hands (or arms), and 1 seat. However, when swimming, we have nearly unlimited degrees of freedom, i.e. our arms and legs can move and articulate any direction, untethered in the water.

4) That brings me to #4 - it takes A LONG time to develop the muscle memory and patterning to create the optimal motions to move us through the water. This is why a 100 lb female can swim circles around a big strong guy if the girl has been swimming since she could walk and the guy is a relative newbie. It's not about shear power or strength; it is about the correct motions with our arms, legs, shoulders, and hips in a concerted, finely tuned way that minimizes resistance and maximizes forward propulsion. This is why HS and college swimmers have a huge advantage - there simply is not enough time for an average AG'er to invest in "catching up" to the folks that have been swimming all their lives.

So, what CAN we do to get better in the pool? Well, you hear about people talking about the "feel for the water" ... but to those of us that are just not natural or experienced swimmers, we don't really understand that. What is a good catch supposed to feel like? What should good body roll feel like? Well, the best way to understand this and your own swim form is by getting some direct visual feedback. Having a coach tell you is one thing, but SEEING it for yourself is something different.

At the risk of large amounts of embarrassment and ridicule, here's a video I made recently of my swim stroke.

Though I'm not a super-fast swimmer, I do have a good understanding of what a good stroke should look like and mine has some significant flaws. Can you say dropped elbow? Holy cow. Check out my left arm in the side-view. And I really didn't think I had much, if any crossover either, but in the front-on view, you can see my left arm crossing over the center line. Not good. Now that I've seen these things, I can work on them in the pool and start to make corrections. Then, in a few months, I can make another video and see the improvements. I will also see improvements in my times (in the pool and in races) throughout this process. The other great thing is that you can find any number of great swimmers and video of their strokes on the web. You can get an idea of what good swimmers look like and compare your stroke to theirs and work to improve.

This is what I love about triathlon, there is always something to work on and a way to get better, stronger, faster and beat our previous selves.