Why I like Swimming

by Martin Rea--

Exercising regularly, we are told, is good for the body and mind, and though by nature I incline towards the phlegmatic, I am still enough of a pragmatist to appreciate that anything that might assuage the myriad discomforts a body and a mind may have to endure is certainly worth pursuing.

And I am not alone in thinking this. Look to any footpath in the city or environs and you’re sure to see someone jogging, expending energy on an arduous, sweaty, needless journey. I can’t help but admire joggers, their grim determination and pulsating calf muscles: theirs is the most naked and reduced expression of the will to exercise, consisting as it does of only body and mind in space and time.

Yes, I admire them to the point of envy but I know I am no jogger myself. I have tried it and found my body to be too heavy for my legs. I could never generate enough power to move as smoothly as I wanted to, and, to be honest, I found it all a little hard on my joints, my knees in particular.

My chosen method of exercise isn’t jogging; it isn’t cycling either; or football; or hurling; or hockey; or tennis; or skiing; or hill-walking; or lifting heavy weights repetitively; or any of any of the other ingenious sports or games that exist.

The way I like to exercise is by swimming, that is, combining physicality and technique to propel my body as efficiently as possible through the medium of water, creating as little resistance and as much grace as possible.

Swimming exercises every important muscle group in the body, provides a vigorous cardio workout, is very good for the lungs, and burns calories at a steady, if relatively unspectacular rate. Swimming is an exercise all age groups can enjoy. This fact is encouraging if you’ve an eye on the future. Recently a 99-year-old Australian by the name of George Corones shaved an impressive 35 seconds of the world record for the men’s 50 metres in the 100 to 104 age category. Granted he was the only competitor, but his achievement serves as a convincing endorsement for swimming in advanced age nonetheless.

Mostly I swim free style, or front crawl as it is often called. It’s the fastest of the four main strokes, the others being the gentler breast stroke, the inverted back stroke and the ridiculously strenuous butterfly stroke. The key to a successful stroke is the minimisation of drag in the water. It’s a question of physics, universal laws that apply to every one of us and a smooth, efficient stroke will always be faster than a more energetic but less efficient one: technique trumps strength.

My favourite type of place to swim is an open heated pool. There are none in Cork, but one in a city I visit often and it is my favourite part of that whole metropolis. In summer it’s an idyllic urban oasis with blue sky and clear water. In Autumn leaves float on the water and sometimes drowning, doomed insects too. In Winter it is a dreamy place to be with the heated water keeping me warm though the air above may be freezing, vapour rising in thick soft clouds from the surface.

In free-style the body should be high in the water, as parallel as possible with the surface and the legs should extend straight back. Keeping the legs straight calls for strong core muscles. If the legs sink they create an enormous amount of drag. This is one of the most common mistakes a beginner makes and one of the most frustrating habits of even more experienced swimmers.

Propulsion comes from both the upper body and the legs, but mostly the arms and the large muscles of the shoulders and sides.

The arm stroke has four components-the entry, the stretch, the catch, and finally, the pull. Entering the water from a high elbow position, the arm should stay in line with the shoulder and extend straight in front of the head with the fingertips angled slightly towards the bottom, the wrist higher than the fingertips and the elbow higher than the wrist.

Full extension of the arm gives that gratifying glide motion good swimmers have and streamlines the whole body. The catch is made by drawing the hand back in preparation for the pull and the pull should be coordinated with a roll of the body to the side of the driving hand to bring the powerful chest and lateral muscles into play.

With the elbow still high the whole arm-not just the hand-should then be drawn back as forcefully as possible, until the hand reaches the hip and can leave the water to prepare again for entry on the next stroke. Simultaneously, the other hand should be at the opposite stage of the cycle in a balanced, rhythmic double act.

Throughout this cycle of the arms, a kick of the outstretched feet should be interspersed to maximise propulsion. The kick should not splash too much and should create force on the upstroke as well as the downstroke. As we are mammals and have lungs instead of gills, we will need to breathe at some stage when swimming. This is a question of good timing and again, balance.

While swimming the head should remain as steady as possible and when coming up for a breath the head should rotate as little as possible-too much head swing will throw the body out of alignment, create drag and impede progress. Also, the head should not rise too much. Half a mouth out of the water is enough to catch a breath, then the head should rotate back with the eyes facing down at an angle of about 450.

It is best to alternate sides when breathing after three strokes or so. It is the sum of these parts that makes swimming such a challenge and pleasure. A good swimmer executes all these individual elements of the stroke seamlessly and glides forward in apparently effortless motion: a pure expression of the will to progress in water. It is beautiful to watch. A good stroke, one where resistance is minimal and progress is maximum, isn’t easy to achieve and takes practice.

Some days a good stroke isn’t to be had, but when you have it you know you have it, and it feels just perfect and it frees the mind of all confusion and imbalance and doubt.
That’s why I like swimming.