Growth Takes Time.

Teaching Technique – What We Know, What We Think We Know, and What We Do.
By John Leonard
One of the more common questions that parents have, is when/how the coach teaches the technical aspects of swimming to the athletes. First of all, we know that swimming is a “technique limited” sport. Which means that without good technical strokes, starts and turns, effort and hard work will only carry you a very limited way…..the fact that water becomes more resistant as you go faster, means that perfect technique is rewarded and impaired technique is punished with less speed for more effort. This is age old wisdom that is accepted by all experienced coaches and athletes.
We think we know, that we can teach good technique. Coaches spend countless hours learning not only WHAT a swimmer should do, but HOW to teach them to do it. It appears, in non-scientific terms, that when coaches spend time teaching technique, technique improves. We hope that means there is a direct correlation between our teaching and the athletes learning. It’s a reasonable belief.
Our friend Dr. K. Anders Ericsson at Florida State University, is the world’s leading authority on “becoming an expert” in any domain. Part of his research, written about in popular literature, is that it requires 10,000 hours of dedicated practice (which he terms “Purposeful practice”) in order to acquire “expert” status in any domain. Interestingly, if the ordinary swimmer begins practice at age 8 and follows a normal curve of increasing practice hours each year to age 17-18, they will have put in approximately 10,000 hours……which is a nice coincidence with the long held “truth” among coaches that it takes 10 years to “make a swimmer.” Science meets experience right in the middle, and both are validated.
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