February 24, 2007
Why Swimming is Different, by Terry Laughlin - Mar 05 CFJ
The world’s best swimmers move through the water with grace, economy, and flow, while novices are awkward, clumsy, and inefficient. But the rest of us can learn to swim well if we take the time to master swimming as an art before tackling it as a sport.
How many land-based athletes have concluded that swimming requires some exotic or elusive kind of fitness after an experience like this: Joe, who can breeze through a 5-mile jog without breaking a sweat, decides to try a pool workout one day. Within a few minutes, he’s panting for breath and wondering, “How will I ever get in a decent workout if I can’t even make 100 yards without dying?” Experiences like that convince many adult athletes that swimming is only for those who swam competitively as kids and leave them suspecting that the time and effort required to master swimming may not even be worth it.
But mastering the “swim challenge” is decidedly worthwhile. Not only is it ideal as a restorative, general fitness workout for virtually any aging athlete; learning to swim well also gives you the option to try triathlons or Masters swimming. And I’ve yet to meet an otherwise well-rounded athlete who could not learn to swim well enough to stay fit or tackle a triathlon. All they have to do is discard everything other aerobic activities such as running have taught them, as soon as they enter the pool.
Well spoken article...I would love to see Crossfit break through to the "dryland arena" of swimming genre!!! I do WOD hybrid type stuff on the pool deck and incorporate swimming into the ..........aaahhhhh, what a pump!!!!
I can't agree more with this article. I began swim workouts last summer and quickly noticed marked improvement in my abilities. There are so many ways to set up interval type swimming workouts. Swimming workouts are some of the hardest I have ever done, but the benefit to your overall fitness is huge. I had the advantage of training with a guy who had swam competitively throughout his youth, so my advice is find somebody who knows what they are doing to guide your early training.
Swimming is a lot like CF in some ways. It provides an awesome "whole body" workout in a comparatively short time. It's scalable. And without first mastering the basics, it can be easy to give up on both. Give them time and dedicated practice however, and you will reap big rewards.
