Crutches

While swimming today I noticed one of the "regulars" was also there. We chatted for a bit and he commented on how long I typically swim. He complained about his lack of swimming fitness and the fact that he'd been coming for months and hasn't been improving. Without his "accessories" he can only go 50 yds before he has to stop.

In the three or so months I've seen him there I've never seen him swimming without his accessories. He wears flippers, flipper-gloves, a swimmers snorkel, and a pull buoy for almost all his swims.

When they come off, he struggles. So he uses them all the time. I'm gifted with a keen sense of the obvious. The ensuing conversation went something like this:

Me: "Dude - you gotta dump the crutches."
Him: "Huh?"
Me: "All the accessories - flippers, pull buoy, snorkel. Gotta dump those if you want be better without them."
Him: "Yeah. I don't feel strong enough with out them though."
Me: "And you never will unless you dump them."

After that I enlightened him a bit on balance and form and gave him some basic drills to work on.

Don't get me wrong - each of these crutches have their place. It was by using the pull buouy that I discovered that the power in the stroke comes from your upper body and not by kicking. Once I discovered this my swimming changed from exhausting torture to something I really look forward to. Had I not used this crutch I probably would have ended up a Duathlete (not that there's anything wrong with that!) or a couch potato.

The problem isn't in using the crutches - the problem comes when we begin to rely on them. When we begin to believe that we can't do without them. The more we rely on them to correct flaws in our form (or our lives), the harder it is to walk away from them. The trick is to know when use crosses over to abuse. My personal rule when using crutches is this - if by using a crutch I'm no longer making progress towards the point where I can do without them, then it's time to stop using them and try a different approach. As long as the crutch is being used as a tool you're good. Once it's truly a crutch, it's time to dump it. You may take a few steps backwards, but eventually you will come out ahead.

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Workout Summary

3240 yd (1 hr) continuous swim - moderate to easy.

Ever have one of those swims where you felt you could continue going forever? Yeah baby! Love those! Today was one of those days. I found myself wishing I had gotten up earlier so that I could swim more.