Coach, Is It Correct?

Here is a common question I hear from swimmers devotedly practicing their drills: How do I know if it is correct? (“It” being any one of many passive positions of a body part or a particular movement pattern.)

The answer to that question depends on what that particular position or movement pattern is intended to accomplish for you…

At first, it is natural for the student to ask me, a person outside herself, to say if she is doing it ‘correctly’. This is one form of external feedback – and frankly, the least effective kind. But we often start here for this is where the dialogue with her own body begins. From experience, reading her body’s cues, I have a good sense of what may be happening inside. So I tell her what I perceive and ask her to look inside her own body and check. For some, this is a strange and unfamiliar thing to do, but it is absolutely necessary for her progress…

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To view hundreds of articles of coaching advice and answers to swimmer’s questions on training and technique please visit Coach Mat’s Smooth Strokes blog.

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