Listener vs. Grinder: which is more important in the swim learning?

Throughout my coaching career, I remain amazed at how difficult it is to teach swimming.  I can tell a client to do something, and confirm they understand the concept, only to see them swim the way they always have.  They think they are swimming differently, but they aren’t.  For most clients, it is just a victory to get them to understand that they aren’t doing what is asked of them.

Some people learn faster than others.  Why?  Is it because of genetics, superior coaching, or luck?  What can these quick learners tell us all?  I spend a lot of time talking to my high achieving clients, defined as those who improve their time by 10% or more within 2 months.  This is the focus of this article. 

You might think that excelling at the daily grind is what matters.  But strong work ethic was not universal in the high achieving group.  A much better predicator of success in learning swimming was the ability to listen.  Funny thing was it didn’t matter how much work ethic they had.

One high achieving client in particular really summed up being a listener versus a grinder.  After I observed his improvements (well over 10% in a few weeks), I asked him why he thought he improved so much.  He simply said, “I did what you (coach) said, when you told me to do it.”  I asked him if he put in any extra time or effort into swimming.  All he did was repeat, “I did what you said, when you told me to do it.”  Turns out he didn’t train more or work harder (no change in the daily grind).  He just followed the path without questioning it.

It would be simplistic to say that one must be like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz (follow the yellow brick road!) to be a better swimmer.  But it is relevant to state the trait that 100% of my high achievers share.  They spent a lot of time understanding the road that an expert created.  They followed that path, at their own pace, never straying or deviating, until they got where they wanted to go.  The people who paved their own way got mixed results. 

Grinding is a good trait to have when you are already familiar with something, and want to be the best at it you can be.  But that’s not going to help adults learning to swim.  They don’t know what good swimming feels like, and so they don’t know where to focus their efforts.  An example of swimming form is now presented to illustrate why this is important.

In land based movement, animals are rewarded for the speed of their limbs versus position of their limbs.  A runner who can increase their stride rate for the same stride length always goes faster.  This is because the runner is moving through a gaseous medium (air), and bouncing their feet over a solid surface of movement (ground).  You are driving off the same ground regardless of what your foot does when it is touching the ground.  If a person becomes an adult having only learned running sports, they usually assume that faster limbs always equal faster speed, whether swimming or running.

Assuming a 1:1 relationship in limb speed versus swim speed leads to disaster.  A swimmer is moving through a liquid, not a gas.  The medium is the same as the movement surface.  There is no air or ground to push off of.  You are moving through water, and pushing on water to move forward.  In this environment, it is not valid to assume that you push off the same water regardless of what your arm does during the pull. 

In water, you can satisfy a non-swimmer instinct by pulling wide, with a closed hand, spread fingers, dropped elbow or some combination.  These allow you to move your arm faster through the water but they all make you slower.  It feels right because it is the same assumption that works for running.  In swimming, it is the rate of fluid flow that matters, measured in volume of water you push backwards less resistance over time.  Increasing swimming stroke rate does make you faster, but only if the volume of water moved per stroke stays the same. 

It is so hard to convince a non-swimmer that their instincts are bad.  Many report that a focus on moving water feels like cheating and/or hurts in a way they don’t expect.  After a hard sprint, they feel like they haven’t worked hard at all, even though they are exhausted.  They expect to go slower with less fatigue because their limbs are moving more slowly.  But their limbs get very tired (in a different way) because they are moving a lot of water with each stroke. 

The grinders often use their mental powers against themselves.  Limb speed works on land, therefore limb speed works in water at that’s all there is to it.  They listen to their coaches, do their drills, and memorize the techniques they are taught.  They practice and practice and practice.  And they feel pretty good about what they are doing.  They get positive reinforcement by feeling that they are working hard in a way they expect.  But they don’t get faster because their basic assumption of water movement is not valid.

The listeners look at the sport very differently.  They accept the fact that water flow is the valid assumption in increasing water speed.  They aren’t always the crazy elites; many of them are first timers.  They stick with it, even though it feels odd.  They even stick with it even when it feels like they are cheating and not working hard.  It is like there are a million hecklers in their head laughing at them.  They don’t care.  They keep at it so long as their swim times drop.

I hope this helps you in your quest to better swimming.  It is much more important to be listener than it is to be grinder when it comes to learning in the water.  This article covered the assumption many non-swimmers have that limb speed equals swim speed.  The assumption that swimmers make (high rate of fluid flow equals high swim speed) is difficult to imagine.  The specifics of achieving high rate of fluid flow is not covered here, and is worthy of its own discussion in the future.

The trick to succeeding in the swim is being able to let go of what you assume.  Learning swimming is very hard, and being an elite athlete does not make it easier.  It is not the craziest and neurotic people that make it happen.  Oddly enough, it is the people who are willing to get laughed at who make it.  They listen better, they adapt more, and they stay on the path.  Some jog the path, some walk it and some crawl.  But they stick to it and let the clock take them where the clock wants to go.