Variety is the Spice of Life
First in a series of three articles
By Coach Doug Garcia
You’ve heard me say many times “don’t have a stroke about stroke,” when I refer to swimming a stroke other than freestyle (how’s it going Rob?). I like to think of butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke as the pepper of swimming- it gives a little kick to plain freestyle.
In addition to swimming different strokes, I encourage you to consider activities outside of swimming. In general, we are a very active group of people— which is amazing for a group of individuals who get up at 5:30 am to swim. I know in addition to triathletes, bikers, and runners in our group, we also have horseback riders, tennis players, paddlers, and mountain climbers, to name a few. These activities are fabulous supplements to swimming. Many of these activities require significantly more time or equipment—hiking boots, buying a kayak, or horse-boarding fees. Several family-friendly, non-time consuming, and non-expensive activities exist that can supplement your swimming.
Over the years, I have participated in many activities outside swimming that have opened the opportunity for improved physical fitness. During my college days, I played racquetball, though this did require joining a fitness club, but the costs were nominal. The short blasts of energy in racquetball are similar to the fast twitch needs of sprint swimming. Most of you know I do a fair amount of skiing (20 days last year), which can be similar to the endurance needed for distance swimming. Since the middle of June, I have ridden my bike to work, south Ft. Collins to CSU. I ride about two days a week, a 14-mile round trip, in addition to other longer rides.
In the past five months I have tried, and really enjoyed, three new sports: Zumba, skateboarding, and boxing. Each of these sports heightened my need to manage balance and rhythm, something very critical for swimming.
Zumba is an aerobic dance that kicked my butt and left me drenched in sweat and realizing I have two left feet. With each Zumba session, I found the rhythm and coordination improving. The CSU rec center offered a free class that I just popped into at noon one day. One added benefit, I was introduced to the hip music of “today.” Maintaining rhythm, whether in Zumba or swimming, is critical to efficiency in most sports.
My son Joel lives for skateboarding, so I took the plunge to learn to skateboard so I could have something to talk with him about. I took a couple of lessons at Launch, and earned a black eye and mild concussion to go with it, but I still get on the board and now notice college students who don’t have “it” down as good as I do. Like swimming, balance is key in skateboarding.
Most recently a student intern and I were talking about working out and he invited me to the CSU rec center to do some boxing. Just hitting the bag for three minutes felt like swimming a 500 for time. As I watched him hit the speed bag like Rocky, I was impressed. When I tried, the first few hits had the bag bouncing back and hitting me in the face. It was then when I realized, it’s all about rhythm. With practice I will get the rhythm. This same young man wanted me to look at his swimming stroke—he has some work to do before he has the balance and rhythm needed for swimming.
Should everyone pick up the sports I’ve mentioned above? Probably not. Yoga and weight training are two additional sports I feel are great supplements to swimming. Both require a certain amount of rhythm and balance to help increase your strength.
I will never become an expert at any of these new sports, and I know some of you probably think I’m crazy for taking on these activities. The variety of each of these sports keeps my mind active and my body moving in ways it is not used to. After the first boxing session I thought I was going to be sore, but luckily all the swimming, biking, and other activities made for relatively no pain.
Spice up your life and consider some new activities to supplement and improve your swimming.