Segment 2 showed me sharing the pool with a single ‘human swimmer.’ The underwater view revealed the critical differences that allowed me to travel twice as far on each stroke. The most significant is that Perpetual Motion Freestyle (PMF) prioritizes active streamlining, while human-swimming prioritizes pulling and kicking.

We showed that contrast to illustrate that swimming ‘like a human’ is normal . . . a relaxed and streamlined stroke is a learned skill. From 1966 to 1991, I swam ‘like a human’ too. I only began learning PMF at age 40 — and have continued improving my form for 20 years. Such enduring improvement is possible because human-swimming instincts are encoded in our DNA. However, as the TI coaches and swimmers in Segment 2 illustrate once you learn PMF you replace wired-in struggle with flow.  Segment 3 reveals the starting point for learning it. (Note: One of those swimmers, Dave Barra, completed an English Channel crossing yesterday, Sept 1.)

Humans naturally swim like other terrestrial mammals, head high and limbs churning. PMF consciously mimics the swimming of aquatic mammals (whales, dolphins, walrus, manatee, sea otters) to whom evolution has given a naturally streamlined shape. Another natural advantage of aquatic mammals is aquatic balance – a low-drag horizontal position. The designed-in balance we humans have is vertical – great for walking and running, but a source of drag when swimming.

Thus the first step in learning PMF is to rewire your brain.  This creates new circuits of motor neurons,  which allow us to move differently. Even more critically, it creates new cognitive circuits, so we can think differently.

Superman Glide, illustrated here, begins the creation of motor circuits that guide my head (hanging) arms (wide tracks) and legs (passive and streamlined) into new positions. Cognitively, it replaces the almost-universal sinking sensation with a ray of hope that ‘weightlessness’ is possible. Once I felt the possibility of weightlessness, I gained the freedom to make a conscious choice to use my arms to (i) extend my bodyline and (ii) ‘pierce’ the water instead of churning — an inevitable legacy of the sinking sensation.

Superman Glide and Laser-Lead Flutter, shown in this segment, are examples of a new form of TI drill – called Tuneups – introduced in the Self-Coached Workshop. Tuneups are intended for practice  in short intervals–usually 6 to 10 yards, rather than  full lengths.  They’re designed to narrownly target your attention on an essential aspect of the stroke, making it easier to maintain as you progress to more complex movement and longer reps. They also help you relax when you feel yourself becoming tense or — as human swimmers usually do — working too hard.

Segment 1 of the “Work Less, Swim Better” series showed me moving smoothly through a pack of other swimmers in rough water in the 2006 World Masters Championship. Segment 2 uses underwater video to reveal what was happening underwater as I did. The key points include:

Pierce the Water

Human swimming, exemplified by the swimmer in the next lane, is all about pulling and kicking. His hand goes in, down and back in one motion. As the video shows, I travel twice as far on each stroke, taking 4 to 5 strokes, to his 9 to 10 over about 10 yards. His stroke moves water back, My stroke moves my body forward. One reason is that I use my extending hand to “separate water molecules” (as does the tapered snout of a barracuda) then line up my body to slide torso and legs through the human-sized sleeve I create. That habit – taught in Lessons 2 and 4 of the Self-Coached Workshop – significantly reduces drag so I travel farther on each stroke.

Hold your place

Human swimmers press the hand straight down by instinct – and because they need constant propulsion. When drag is high, you lose momentum quickly, so you have to stroke ceaselessly. Streamlining helps me conserve momentum, which gives me the luxury of more time to firmly trap water behind my hand. My solid “grip” is another reason my stroke propels me twice as far. It also means lets me use the “free energy” of a weight shift, rather than weaker and easily-fatigued arm muscles, as my human-swimming lane mate does. The patient catch and synchronized weight shift are taught in Lessons 5 and 6.

Cocoon of Calm

We all start out as Human Swimmers.  It takes targeted and patient focus to replace deep-seated habits with Separating Molecules and Holding your Place. This not only helps you hold form in  rough water; it also builds powerful focus that converts into a “cocoon of calm” when you encounter a churning crowd in a triathlon swim leg or open water race. Practice like that demonstrated by TI coaches from 2:14 to 2:38 helps swimmers not only accept, but enjoy, close quarters. Even while crowding each other, and intentionally creating contact, none change their form. (Click here for an expanded version of this video .) This builds resistance to the loss of form and focus experienced by many triathletes in the first minutes of a race.

Anyone can learn PMF.

There’s nothing accidental about the form those TI coaches display. Besides the seven coaches in a pack, the three swimming under the bridge, and the four swimmers following the rope all look virtually the same. PMF is the first example in swimming history of a precisely-replicable technique . . .  and one that’s highly effective: All three TI coaches swimming under the bridge — Greg Sautner, Dave Barra and me – have won USMS national open water championships. PMF is a form anyone can learn by following the  step-by-step stroke-building procedures in the 10-Lesson Series.

Wed Feb 10 0800 AM at Coronado Pool        3500 LCM

Set #1 7 x 400 on 7:30 – “Tempo Pyramid”

Time, Tempo and Total Strokes

Notes: This was another example of what is becoming a favorite set – a “Tempo Pyramid” in which I (i) start with a faster tempo; (ii) slow tempo gradually, seeking to reduce SPL; then (iii) speed tempo again, intent upon minimizing SPL increase. As the chart shows, I took off 28 strokes, from #1 to #4 as tempo slowed. From #4 to #7, as tempo increased again, I added back only 9.

I calculated stroke count for each 400 by dividing time by tempo then subtracting 24 (I allow 3 beeps on the initial pushoff and all turns.)  My last 400 was 21 seconds faster than the first – though both were at the same tempo — because I took 19 fewer 1.1-second strokes.  (This improvement – multiplied by the approx 95 x 400 in an English Channel swim – converts into reaching France 32 minutes faster, in about 1800 fewer strokes.)

Most people know only one way to swim faster – stroke faster and work harder. By using the Tempo Trainer (combined with hundreds of hours of technique practice) I’ve learned to swim faster by traveling farther. The Tempo Pyramid has proven to be one of the most reliable ways to imprint that on my brain.

Experience has shown me that slowing my tempo (by precise amounts as the TT allows) dependably leads to a longer stroke. Not by accident but because I use the extra time to improve my streamline and stroke. A good outcome is when I stroke slower and swim the same time. A better outcome is when I stroke slower and swim faster, as I did here.

When I begin increasing tempo again, on the 2^nd half of the set, I concentrate on making it feel slow. Indeed the last 400 felt more leisurely than the first. I felt as if I had more time between beeps to extend my bodyline, trap water behind my hand, etc. Taking 19 fewer strokes shows that perception indeed had become reality.

This is also an illustration of how rapidly the brain and nervous system adapt when you give them the right kind of stimulus. Adaptation here was stimulated by (i) the intense focus I gave to each stroke; and (ii) the auditory stimulus from the Tempo Trainer beep. The nervous system adapts far faster than the aerobic system – and when it does adapt you sense it immediately. That’s motivating.

Set #2 8 x 50 @ 1.10 and 36 SPL, resting 10 beeps (11 sec.) at each wall.

Notes: I finished practice with a brisk set of 50s. I do these in hopes of improving Set #1 when I repeat it in the future. Finishing 50m in 36 SPL at a tempo of 1.1 (allowing 3 beeps for pushoff) gives a time of 42.9 sec, or a pace of 5:43 for 400. This set starts developing a neural program for traveling farther and faster in 1.1 sec than I did on the 400 (39 strokes per 50 and a pace of about 47 sec.). The more 50 repeats I swim with fewer strokes and seconds, the more robust that brain circuit becomes. Eventually, I hope, it will be strong enough to sustain that pace for a nonstop 400, during a set such as today’s.

Endnote: A comment described me as having a preference for scientific training. It’s more accurate to say I prefer empirical training. I train in ways that provide measurable feedback that allows me to link efforts to outcomes. I.E. That a particular combination of SPL and tempo allows me to hold a stronger pace at a more sustainable effort level. That tells me where to focus my training efforts. At age 59, training for 3 marathons, I don’t want to waste energy and time on ineffective – or unexamined – training.

Evening Swim – 2 Miles in the 57F Pacific along Coronado’s Silver Strand. I swam right along the breaker line for a bit more fun and challenge.

Tuesday Feb 9 at Coronado Municipal Pool

Set #1 50+100+150+200+250 FR. EZ 50 BK between FR repeats

Notes: I held 36-37 SPL on FR repeats and 38-39 on BK lengths.  My goals on this set were to (1) begin practice by deepening my neural program for a long, relaxed stroke and (2) to test whether I was equally efficient on both breathing sides. I breathed right on one length and left the next. I was pleased that SPL was same on both.

Set #2 Swim  12 X 150 FR with Tempo Trainer, striving for best combination of SPL and Stroke Rate (or tempo).

1-4 @ 1.10-1.12-1.14-1.16

5-8 @ 1.16-1.14-1.12-1.10

9-12 @ 1.08-1.0-1.04-1.02

Notes: On the 1^st 150, with my Tempo Trainer set at 1.10 sec/stroke, I averaged 40SPL (38+41+41). My plan on #’s 1-4 was to slow tempo on each and try to subtract as many strokes as possible as tempo slowed. My plan on #’s 5-8 was to reverse tempo back to my starting point – while trying to avoid adding strokes.

On # 4 I averaged 38 SPL – or 6 fewer total strokes for 150. How does that convert into pace? I allow 3 beeps on each pushoff so my pace/50 on #1 was 43 x 1.10 or 47.3 sec. My pace on #4 was 41 x 1.16 or 47.5 sec.  My pace was .2 sec/50 slower BUT I felt materially more relaxed, meaning that pace would likely be sustainable for a longer distance.

The real benefit came when I begin increasing tempo again, (and seeking to avoid adding strokes.) When I got back to 1.10 on #8 my average SPL was 39, one stroke lower than when I started the set. This converted into a pace of 46.2 sec – which, though faster, actually felt a bit easier than #1 had.

I’d originally planned to swim only 8 x 150, but decided spontaneously to keep swimming 150s – and increasing tempo – until my stroke count reached the same level where I’d started – 40 SPL. That didn’t happen until I reached 1.02 sec/stroke on #12, At 1.02, 40 SPL converts to a pace of 43.8 sec. And how does this difference in pace convert over the estimated 38,000 meters (760 x 50m) of an English Channel crossing? 760 x 3.5 sec = 44 minutes saved.

As I’ve noted, every set I do in the pool has one of two objects: (1) to develop brain circuits that get me across the Channel more easily or (2) to develop circuits that get me across faster.

I don’t do any sets for conditioning purposes (Conditioning “happens.”) I don’t do any to get the yards in; over the next six months, there will be sufficient yards.

Set #1 was for the former. Set #2 was for the latter. But here’s the key takeaway from this set. While I swam much faster on #12, and worked harder, my brain wasn’t thinking “Work harder.”  It wasn’t even thinking “Swim faster.”  My focus was entirely on the difficult task of keeping my stroke long, effective — and feeling relaxed and leisurely — while the beep on my Tempo Trainer got faster.

An intention of “going harder” isn’t a realistic option in swimming the English Channel. That’s why my intention, my focus, is always on building or maintaining efficiency in training, — and will be the same while swimming alongside Lance Oram’s boat.

• They’re out of breath after a lap or two
• They hold their breathing, because their stroke falls apart during a breath.
• They’re concerned with taking in water, instead of air.

If any of these are true it’s nearly impossible to build toward a continuous mile. In fact, you become so preoccupied with or distracted by lack of air that it’s hard to think of much of anything else.

If this describes you — or even if you can swim a mile but feel your breathing technique could be better — this blog’s for you. This stepwise series of focal points focus on breathing easier:

1. Blow bubbles. Exhale steadily and strongly enough that you can hear bubbles streaming from your mouth and nose anytime your face is in the water.

2. Inhale like you sing. If you sing at all, even in the shower, you’re familiar with how you often have to grab a quick, sharp inhale between phrases. You don’t have time to fill your chest, so you just take a “quick bite” to get through the next phrase. That’s how you inhale between strokes. The exhale is strong, conscious, sustained. You hardly notice the inhale.

3. Follow your shoulder. If you’re breathing to your left, move your chin in synch with your left shoulder as that arm strokes. Your chin follows the shoulder back, then leads it forward again.

4. Hang your head. Focus on feeling a weightless head, resting on the water, as you follow your shoulder to breathe.  Keep your “laser” aimed in the direction you’re going, as your mouth clears the surface.

"Resting" the Head on Inhale - from O2inH2O DVD

5. Swim “taller.” With each stroke focus on using your hand to lengthen your body-line, rather than to push water back. Then give particular attention to lengthening with one hand as your chin follows the other shoulder back.

To learn more about breathing skills – in all strokes – check out our O2 in H2O DVD.

As I scrolled down the list I was surprised about the omission of my most constant and critical focal point: I think about my stroke — one at a time, in the moment I’m taking it, until I’m finished — even when I take 25,000 or more strokes as I did in swimming 28.5-miles around Manhattan.

My stroke thoughts are primary, conscious and explicit. Anything else that passes through my consciousness is momentary and mostly implicit. Even my observations of other swimmers leads back to thoughts of my stroke – either to mirror or emulate something they’re doing well, or to strive for even greater efficiency, ease, relaxation or sense of leisure when I see examples (far more common) of the opposite in their strokes.

When I looked over the list again, I realized that “stroke” was indeed among the choices – at choice # 11 of 19, lumped in with “course,direction and pace.”

The first two items on the list – probably tongue-in-cheek – were Pray and Fantasize. Choices 8 through 10 – probably reflecting reality for many swimmers – were:

Think about work or school.

Think about friends or family.

Think about nothing (zone out).

What would happen if we bend K’s arm to form more of a compact, triangular recovery?

Though he didn’t necessarily infer that the swimmer in the video should intentionally bend her arm, for me that question brought up a very subtle, but I think very significant, aspect of thinking habits we trying to encourage among TI swimmers.

The specific question is: Is it better to bend your arm to achieve the optimal shape or position during recovery — or to relax it?

The general question is: Is it better to DO or NOT DO?

The principle of “Not Doing” is drawn from Alexander Technique.  When you become aware that you’ve formed a – usually unconscious – habit that negatively impacts posture or body arrangement, you correct it by training yourself to be aware of the muscles you’ve been tensing or activating unhelpfully and just stop doing so.

The two leading examples in TI “Perpetual Motion Freestyle” (PMF) technique have been:
1) Hang the Head. Release your head until it feels weightless (i.e. supported by the water) rather than activate muscle to hold it – or put it – in position. At times I use this reminder to correct a tendency to push the head down, or bury it, not just to stop holding it up. Those who use this as a Stroke Thought, relate that not only does it naturally create a neutral head position; it also leaves their neck, shoulders and upper back feeling more relaxed.

2) Hang the Hand. Relax the hand, rather than stiffen or tense it – on entry, catch and stroke.
In both instances, the force of gravity takes over from muscle force and effortlessly moves the head or hand into a more-effective position.

We teach the same principle in recovery. If you maintain a relaxed hand throughout the stroke, it should lead naturally to a graceful release and exit – rather than pushing past the hip, which fatigues the tricep without adding anything to propulsion.

Relaxing the hand should encourage the forearm to relax as well as the arm moves forward. Keeping hand and forearm relaxed as the hand approaches re-entry should lead just as naturally to the Mail Slot entry and the hand sinking into the optimal palm-back catch position.

In each instance you achieve the desired outcome by turning muscles off, not on.

These skills – and the stroke thoughts that implement them – are all taught in Lesson Five of the Easy Freestyle DVD and in the Perpetual Motion Freestyle segment of the Outside the Box DVD.

Rehearsing the relaxed hand and forearm for Mail Slot entry (video image of Terry Laughlin from Easy Freestyle DVD)

Relaxed Hand and Forearm (Terry Laughlin demonstrating on Easy Freestyle DVD)

Michael at the Lake Placid Ironman

Since 2006, I have completed over a dozen triathlons, including five Olympic distance, two half and two full Ironman, and countless sprints. All with a torn rotator cuff.

Just over a year ago I had surgery to repair the tear then took a pass on the 2009 racing season. While others were training, I was rehabbing and gradually reintroducing my body to the sport. Taking time away to heal forced me to rethink my approach. I am 59 years old, so my focus changed from piling on the training miles to improving technique. Working smarter if you will.

To improve technique I embraced first Chi Running and then Total Immersion. I have been practicing Chi Running for four years and my body has responded with improved times and no injuries.  TI has taken longer. Overcoming 50 years of muscle memory has proved to be a bigger challenge than I first imagined.

I have worked with excellent TI coaches, read the books, watched the videos and done the drills. Still, it wasn’t “sinking in.” (No pun intended.)

Until last July, when I attended a TI Open Water Workshop in Lake Placid, NY with Terry and Betsy Laughlin. The focus was on calm observant swimming, body-sensing, matching the strokes of other swimmers, relaxing in a crowd with a focus on enjoying the water and making gradual and continual improvements.

The following Monday at a weekly mini-tri in Lake Placid I had an opportunity to practice what I had learned. This was to be my first foray of the year into a competitive environment so I was curious as to what I would experience. Swimming observantly, for the first time during a race, I found myself noticing how many people seemed at odds with the water—more kicking and thrashing than swimming. I decided to focus on swimming long, keeping my head down, making sure I was using proper arm position and staying quiet.

I also began to look for someone whose stroke I could match. A swimmer came by who had good extension and really nice ‘marionette’ arms (one of our focal points from the clinic). Must be another TI student I thought. Then I looked again and realized that it was my 15-year old daughter, Jane!

When I got to the buoy, I decided to try the turn we learned in TI clinic—and it worked! As I was coming back, the sun was on my right so I had to breathe on my left. Not my strong suit, but I simply rolled at the core and it was OK. I noticed I was not able to sense what my left arm was doing so I’ll work on that next time I’m out. I exited the water in 10 minutes.

What was unusual was I was not the least bit winded. This is important as it made it much easier to get out of my wetsuit. I was on the bike and out of the transition area in under 2 minutes. What happened next was totally unexpected. I was so focused on body sensing and being relaxed that I maintained that on the bike. I relaxed and focused on how I was sitting on the bike, where my head was and having a good pedal stroke. Focusing on relaxation translated into more speed with surprisingly little effort. During the 12-mile bike I (the biker who never passes anyone) passed 25 people.

After another fast transition to the run, I continued body-sensing during my Chi Run. The result was the easiest race I’ve ever done, yet13 minutes faster than my previous best on this course.

What was most important was not the time but the new way I learned to race. Moving forward I will focus not on the clock but on how I’m feeling and moving  – i.e. process, not outcome). Improved performance, it seems, follows improved mindfulness.

Michael finishes 2008 LP Ironman in 15:14.

Visit Michael’s website www.go2ctsonline.com to read inspirational essays on triathlon and personal development, or to learn about his Corporate Business Consulting, Outplacement Services, One-On-One Coaching, and Inspirational & Educational Speeches.

Jim at Ironman Wisconsin

“Terry’s advice was to be the quiet center of whatever pack you’re in.  This created a ‘cocoon of calm purpose’ and led to my most memorable swim of all time.”

I subscribe to “Triathlete” and “Inside Triathlon” magazines, whose articles mostly feature elite athletes in their mid-20s with no visible body fat and limitless training time. While these athletes are incredibly impressive, I don’t find their times and stories inspirational.  I’m 57 years old, with spinal discs that bulge and slip, knees missing cartilage, and one leg shorter than the other, as a result of breaking my pelvis in a bike crash. Then there’s my day job. As dean of Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, I spend 80 hours a week tending to the needs of 6200 students.  When colleagues are heading home after a college event at 10:30 pm, I’m heading to the conference center pool to squeeze in a bit of practice. I think of myself more as a completer than competer. Yet I think most triathletes probably have more in common with me than with the athletes in the magazines. In that spirit, I’m writing to share some insights that have made my athletic pursuits much more satisfying and rewarding.

After years as a runner, my myriad injuries made me consider triathlon . . . but first there was the matter of that open water swim. Total Immersion first made it possible to be a triathlete, then made it actually pleasurable. A TI Weekend Workshop gave me the confidence to enter a few sprint and Olympic distance races. In August 2008, I completed a Half-Iron distance, and, wondered if I could finish a full Ironman. The ease with which I completed a 2 ¼-mile ocean race on the final day of a TI Open Water Camp at Maho Bay last spring clinched the deal.

In September, I heard the uplifting phrase “You’re an Ironman” while crossing the finish line at Madison in 16:09 – an unremarkable time compared to the folks in “Triathlete” but for me a lifetime peak moment. While the leaders were escorted through their final miles by motorcycles, I had an older woman in a motorized wheelchair telling me I was “special.”  That was inspirational. And my day-long, 140.6-mile journey was affirming.

At the start, I’d positioned myself far to one side. I recall thinking “What am I doing here with all these young, fit athletes?” Before we’d swum 3 minutes, I was instead thinking “What are some of these guys doing here” as I saw so many churning wastefully.

Before the race I’d watched Terry’s video interview in which his advice was to strive to be the quiet center of whatever pack you found yourself in.  This focus – legs streamlined, arms extending, strokes measured — created what Terry calls a “cocoon of calm purpose” and led to    my most memorable swim of all time. I jogged out of the water at 1:28, a pleasant surprise considering how easily I’d swum. But the more significant impact of my TI mindset was still ahead.

I’d learned in training that the purposeful focus developed by TI practice also benefits cycling and running. As I set out for 112 miles of riding and 26.2 of running, I knew the unity of thought and action  I’d established in the water would carry through the long day we all faced. I carried on as many around me were dropping out — not because of superior fitness, but because TI taught me to stay focused on this moment not the miles ahead.  I had a “technique thought” for each stroke, pedal  or stride. These thoughts seemed to propel me steadily to the next mile marker.  Repeat 140 times. What could be easier?

I kept my focus through transitions as well.  Each lasted a languid 14 minutes. It was restorative to escape the heat and relax for a bit, but I wasn’t idle.  I reviewed focal strategies — physical, geographical, emotional – to build confidence and to reinforce my calm state.

So my advice to other adult-onset athletes is don’t rely solely on high profile athletes for direction or inspiration.  Set your own goals and share your insights on what gets you through a long day, how you prepare, how you cope with intimidation in the swim, etc. Most of us have more in common with each other than with the better-known athletes. I hope this contributes to a dialogue from which we can all learn.

Jim Thomas lives in State College, PA.  He is the dean of the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University.  He has been at PSU for 23 years as a faculty member and administrator.  Jim is married to his support team and biggest inspiration, Michele. He has two kids in college and one recent grad all at Penn State.