"The Art of Swimming" This guy grosses $580,000 a year teaching people how to swim straight-arm freestyle!

This post is primarily for newer swimmers and triathletes.

The author of the Forbes article I point to below gets a private swim lesson from Steven Shaw and describes some marginal improvement. Note: his only swim training was by way of the Red Cross water safety program four-decades ago.

From Forbes Magazine:

In [Steven] Shaw's crawl, the arm remains straight as it pulls out of the water, bending only once it has formed an L shape with the body. "I want your stroke to be effortless, powerful and graceful," he says. "You should swim like an eagle, not like a chicken."

His 13-year-old, $580,000 (revenues) company, Art of Swimming, operates at 26 pools in the U.K., two venues in New York City and one in San Francisco. Fees range from $175 an hour for a private lesson with Shaw himself, to $250 for a six-week one-hour-a-week group course.

Devotees include Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond, 59, and Evangeline Benedetti, a 68-year-old cellist in the New York Philharmonic, who does a session of Shaw strokes before each performance.

[Link]

Are guys like Steven Shaw and others merely selling "instant talent?" (Rhetorical question and it's very "snarky" of me.)

Selling "Instant talent" is a mirage especially when it comes to swimming, it's snake oil, it's a weight-loss product on a cheesy informercial at 3:00 AM.

Glenn Mills has a DVD for about $30 called Go Swim Straight-Arm Freestyle, with Olympian, Scott Tucker. (Scott Tucker's technique appears to be the same forward crawl that Steven Shaw is teaching).

Contrast the prices of Steven Shaw, the "Swim Whisperer," to actual coaching and training through a masters program:

• $50-per-month investment in a masters program for three months.
• $30 DVD Go Swim Straight-Arm Freestyle, with Scott Tucker, or Jason Lezak, Roland Schoeman, Kara Lynn Joyce, or what ever flavor you like
• Go to your swim workout 4-days-a-week or more depending on your team schedule

Total cost: $180 for 50-hours-plus of training & coaching plus a sound video reference as a technique example.

Clever rhetoric like "swim like an eagle not like a chicken" will not make you a decent swimmer but praticing with simultaneous coaching will.

More Masters Swimming articles in the news!

From the Washington post: "...Research continues to demonstrate the benefits of exercise, no matter your age. But the Tatum brothers, who for nearly 90 years have swum, skied, bowled, played football and worked in the yard, have never needed convincing. ..." [Link]

This is a great article about two masters swimmers with amazing stories and accomplishments. There is even a video included within the article.

In fact, the story was so good that even NPR covered them as well. Here is the audio link: [Link]

Article sent to us by "lane4 [at] SMC."

'New York Times' - Masters Swimmers are getting FASTER!

But we all knew that, didn't we? Dara Torres has really put the spotlight on our sport.

See that 60-year-old looking guy to the right? Well he is not 60-years-old; He's 75-years-old and he is a masters swimmer named Stanley Shechter out of New York. Recently he swam a 100 free SCY in a 1:12.57. Keep in mind that the average life expectancy for a male born today is something like 76-years-old but Stanley apparently is going to last a heck of a lot longer than that.

Snippet from the New York Times: "...Chief among the reasons that Masters swimmers are becoming faster, say coaches, researchers and swimmers themselves, are improved stroke mechanics and new training methods emphasizing intensity over distance. This is good news both for those who like to race, and for those taking to the water for fitness at any age.

As people age, they lose muscle mass and cardiovascular capacity, which declines at a rate of 1 to 1.5 percent annually. But for those who exercise regularly, the rate of decline is slower, researchers say.

“Before, it was thought that athletes peak at 25,” said Scott Trappe, the director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University. “But now this whole paradigm is getting shifted. People are paying attention to their own fitness and nutrition.” ..." [Link]

I know I have said this quote a least two or three dozen times now from Mike Freshly but this article inspires me to say it again: "Show me a runner who is 70-years old and he looks like 90! Show me a swimmer who is 70-years-old and he likes like he is 50." The above photo illustrates that nicely.

Chris B. sent us this article and it was very appreciated.

This is the attitude every masters swimmer should have have when he/she steps up to the blocks

I like this guy - great attitude and ready to storm it. If you are out there, post a comment and tell us how you did?

(Oh, I think this is a Floswimming video. I found it at a video sharing site so I can't confirm.)

Never swim a 100 LCM like a 100 SCY! - Guess how I learned that?

Above is a picture of Jenny owning everybody in her heat during the 400 200 IM at the Mission Viejo Nadadores meet today. (Click on it to enlarge it.)

Though she owned in the 400 200 IM, I was barely able to hold her off in the 100 free. I swam a 108.23 and she she swam a 1:08.57. It was close; I saw her in the corner of my eye the whole race and if the race would have been 1 meter longer I would have lost.

Though my time wasn't that great, I had a good dive, I heard my splash first and did four clean dolphin kicks within clean, blue, water. Totally yummy!

I really failed in the last 15 meters because I didn't breathe enough early on. Taking lots of breaths during the first 50 is like depositing "oxygen" in the "bank" for later "withdrawal" during the last 25 meters. (Erik Hochstein has warned me about that I think Clay came up with the metaphor but I summarily ignored them both. My bad!)

Sweedish Athletes should have GPS chips implanted under their skin to detour them from taking PEDs - So says Swedish athletes Klüft and Holm

I saw this first on Slashdot.org and had to post it. This from The Local: Sweeden's News in the English Language: "... Swedish athletes Carolina Klüft and Stefan Holm; (World class heptathletes), have caused a stir on the home front by proposing radical measures to ensure that top level competitors refrain from taking performance-enhancing drugs.

"... Competitors at the highest level should either have computer chips implanted into their skin or GPS transmitters attached to their training bags to help keep track of their movements at all times. ..." [Link]

It's a radical idea, I don't think it would work since you can dope just about anywhere but I appreciate their enthusiasm. The only way to prevent doping is to remove all possible incentives to dope. That would entail a sport that issued no awards, no prize money or salary, no national recognition, no record books, and you had to compete anonymously. I suspect the only people that would show up to compete would be those that truly loved the game. I would say that masters swimming is about half way there.

Triathlons are biased towards runners and biased against swimmers

I did the the Ironman in 1983 in Kona, Hawaii; (Thank you Julie Moss). After the race, Valerie Silk, the official Ironman race founder, told me that the first ever Ironman was a race between friends to settle a bet as to which athlete was the most superior: The swimmer, the cyclist or runner? (the swimmer won.) With that concept in mind or keeping with the spirit of the race, the distances in a triathlon should be calculated in terms of time/distance for fairness.

A fair triathlon would have the following distances or distances determined by using these proportions: 1.5 kilometer swim (1 mile), 25 Kilometer bike (15 miles), 5 Kilometer run (3.2 miles)

An elite athlete in any of these events could finish in a time of around 15 minutes. Ergo the race would require all around athletes rather than running and biking specialists. This to me would improve the sport of triathlon greatly. It would be a fair race and make the finishes much more exciting with racers much closer together throughout a competition. It would also determine which sport produces the greater athlete. But readers of this blog all ready know the answer to that: The swimmer would win.