I’d like to paint a picture for you of that somewhat illusive “feel for the water”, an important and yet hard to define aspect of competitive swimming. I’ve long focused on how to improve my technique and, for the last 40 years, the technique of my swimmers, by enhancing our kinesthetic sense, our total body awareness. I’ve done this primarily with a focus on “teaching” my swimmers about how to interact with the water better rather than simply “training” them. Don’t get me wrong; my swimmers put an emphasis on “training” as another really important aspect of competitive swimming. They’re always fit, strong and fast. I think what makes our practices different is our time in the water is always balanced with a REAL focus on honing technique, not just doing a few drills a couple times a week with a wink and a nod toward learning to swim better. I’ve only coached one truly gifted athlete who knew exactly what to do the first day she joined my team as a 7 year old; the other couple thousand swimmers I’ve coached all had to learn to swim better from the first moment I became their coach to the last.

By way of introduction, I just retired as an NCAA Division II swim coach with a modicum of success: a National Champion, two National Runners-up, 72 All-American honors, 12 Conference Champions, etc. I was also a high school coach for 16 years with All-Americans at that level and a club coach for 38 years with an equal amount of success at that level. In addition, I’ve coached masters off and on over the years and been a masters swimmer myself. It’s important to mention that in addition to our athletic success, especially at the college level, we’ve had academic success as well always having one of our division’s highest team GPAs topping out at 5^th best in the country one year with a sterling 3.58. Why am I mentioning our academic record in an article about technique? Because improving your technique is a real “mind side” approach to swimming better and requires focus and commitment. Those who can do that usually do well in school thus my mention of academics. Again, no one ever accused my swimmers of being under-trained. Rather, many coaches have come up to me over the years and complimented my swimmers on how smooth their technique was. As I said, that generally didn’t come from picking the right parents; that came from a daily focus on improving stroke mechanics.

I’ve always been an early adopter and, at times, an innovator as well. For instance, I believe understanding tempo is crucial to efficient and effective racing. When the first underwater sound system became available, I began piping the sound of an electronic metronome underwater to my swimmers. PRIOR to that, I had held a length of copper pipe on a rope and hit it with a rubber mallet to get the same general effect. That was certainly old school compared to what’s available now. Even the electronic metronome was a bit of a shotgun approach in that it was “one tempo fits all” at practice. As a coach who tries different ways to get the job done, I made sure my team knew one swimmer’s 200 tempo could be another swimmer’s mile tempo so we made the copper pipe work. When I first heard of the tempo trainer I jumped all over it! Now every swimmer can focus on just the right tempo for them, for the specific event they’re working on that day, and easily make changes going slightly more upbeat in some sets or slightly more downbeat in others.

As soon as it was possible to speak to swimmers underwater I made sure my teams all had an underwater stereo system which became integral to every practice session. As a bonus they got to hear music, otherwise I’m pretty sure they’d have quickly blocked my voice out after about the fifth practice. Now FINIS has made it possible for swimmers to either focus on their tempo using a Tempo Trainer Pro, listen to music with a Duo or get instant feedback using the Swim Coach Communicator. It’s a great time to be a swimmer. OR a coach!

My swimmers also thrived on the use of center mounted snorkels and every manner of fin and paddle you can think of. Of course we used all the “training” oriented equipment as well from drag suits to drag chutes to resistance tubing to power towers. I even bought an expensive Australian heart rate monitor designed just for swimmers that’s so sensitive it can pick up the exact moment a swimmer’s heart reaches “maximal stroke volume”. As a coach, I want as much information about my swimmers as I can get. And I want them to have as much information about themselves as they can get.

All of this leads me to the concept of improving your “feel for the water”. I actually wrote a “Manifesto of Feel” which I’ve posted on my web site: www.feelthewater.net. I invented the fistglove stroke trainer as a way for swimmers to learn to feel the water better. What were once called “clenched fist drills” were one of the best ways to help swimmers improve their feel for the force of the water’s pressure. I took it one step further by “enhancing” the clenched fist drill with a simple latex glove. Wearing it keeps your hand closed without either physically clenching your fist (which causes quite a bit of tension in your wrist and forearm) or mentally focusing on keeping your hands closed meaning you’re not focusing on the sensation of “anchoring” your forearm better. In that sense, I believe fistgloves are one of the very first proprioceptive teaching aids in existence.

Years ago I remember hearing Mark Spitz described as an “aquatic motor genius” by way of explaining why he was so good. Genius isn’t taught; you’re either born a genius or you aren’t. I don’t think I can “teach” feel but I think swimmers can “learn” to feel the water better. Wearing fistgloves makes your swimmers “self taught” in the best possible way. If they can feel the water better they can much more precisely place their hands and forearms in positions of optimal leverage and apply just the right amount of force.

After using a pair of fistgloves for the first time, the great Cecil Colwin said their use “. . . almost miraculously enhances sensitivity to the flow on both the palm and the knuckle-sides of the hand, a reaction that is quite unique, and will doubtlessly cause considerable excitement among coaches who are serious about improving the fluency and dexterity of their swimmers’ stroke mechanics.”

I believe I can help every swimmer become, in effect, an “aquatic sensory genius”. If your swimmers have a greater “feel” for what they’re doing, they can improve what they’re doing. Try a pair of fistgloves and “feel” the difference for yourself.