DRILL 2: FIND YOUR “SWEET SPOT”

Why We Do It: You’ll swim mainly on your side and start and finish every drill on your side, but “side balance” is almost never exactly on the side. The Sweet Spot is where you’ll find true equilibrium and balance and is influenced by your body type. If you’re lean or densely muscled, side balance will probably be almost on your back. Finding your Sweet Spot is critical because you’ll start and finish every drill here. When you master Sweet Spot, you’ll drill with ease and fluency; if you don’t take time to master it, you’ll struggle instead.

Follow This Sequence

1. Start as in Drill 1, palms at your side and kicking gently. Remain on your back until you check your head position and feel effortlessly balanced.

2. Without moving your head, roll just enough for the knuckles of one hand to barely clear the water. Your goal is to find a position where one arm is dry from shoulder to knuckles and you’re just as comfortable as you were on your back. If you feel any discomfort,

return to your back and try again with less rotation.

3. Check that your head is still positioned as in Drill 1, with the water at the corners of your goggles.

4. Watch for signs of discomfort: lifting the head, craning the neck, arching the back, helping with the lower arm. If you feel any tension, return to your back and start over with less rotation.

5. Once you feel at home in Sweet Spot, focus on staying tall and slipping through a small hole in the water, then on making stillness, quiet, and effortlessness feel natural.

6. Repeat on your other side. You may feel more comfortable on one side than the other. I call this having a “chocolate” (better balance) and “vanilla” side. Balance improvements on your vanilla side will usually bring greater dividends. Alternate one length or minute on one side with a similar distance or time on the other side.

7. When you begin to feel comfortable on each side, begin practicing Active Balance. Kick easily on one side for three yoga breaths, then roll gently to show the other arm for three breaths. The two key skills in Active Balance are: (1) maintain constant equilibrium as you roll, and (2) use effortless weight shifts to initiate body roll. Roll without using your arms, without kicking harder, and without disturbing the water. Keep your head in a steady position, with water at the corners of your goggles as you roll from side to side, as if carrying a champagne glass on your forehead.

Your most important task here is to learn the right way—patiently and mindfully—to practice all skill drills. Give yourself unlimited time to acquire effortless ease. You are not on a schedule to advance to Lesson Two. If you cultivate these attitudes and habits in Lesson One, your skills will be stronger and sounder at each subsequent stage:

 

 • Practice each drill with no set time limit or number of repetitions in mind.

• Stay with it until it becomes effortless.

• Then continue a bit longer until you are “bored” (you can do it without mental effort).

• Only then should you progress to the next drill or skill.

Make a commitment to avoid “practicing struggle” at any stage. Any time you feel yourself losing control, stop and rest, regroup at the prior drill or skill, or do both. If you don’t, you’ll simply end up imprinting struggle in your muscle memory and your body will naturally revert to inefficient patterns whenever you get a bit tired.