ASK 220
FEEL FOR THE WATER
Q I keep hearing about ‘feel’ when swimming. What does this mean and how can I do it better?! Karl Orson
A The more effectively you can feel the water, the faster you can swim. The hands are extremely skilled in perceiving sensory information and at producing very nuanced movements. However, there are two issues that triathletes will run into that prevent them from taking advantage of the genius of their hands.
Firstly, the hands simply aren’t as keyed in to the information the water presents as they could be. The water is a foreign environment and most humans aren’t naturally attuned to what the water is conveying. Secondly, learning comes from novel experiences. When you’re consistently using the same arm actions with little variation, there’s not much reason to change.
The solution is a simple one: change the position of your hands
