I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon. Back in my competitive swimming days, I used to put so much effort into making sure I made my sets on time and that I swam as fast as I possibly could. I focused on turnover, speed, and efficiency. But now that I swim “for fun”, my mentality in the pool has completely changed. I don’t focus on the clock anymore to pace myself- in fact, I don’t look at it all unless I’m doing sprints. All of my energy is focused on my stroke. I don’t care how fast I’m going, just that I move with precision and power.

While I am definitely not in as good of shape as I used to be a few years ago, I have drastically improved the efficiency of my stroke. My purpose of swimming is no longer to achieve the fastest time, but the best quality stroke. I’ve found that swimming has become much more enjoyable than me after this motivation shift from extrinsic to intrinsic. I train not against others or against the clock, but against the swimmer I was last practice to improve upon my stroke.

One of the most significant outcomes of my new mindset was discovered a few weeks ago while swimming backstroke. By nature, I feel that swimmers focus on their pulling arm. They try to get as much traction in the water so they can get as much force to propel themselves forward. I’ve spent the past 12 years thinking this way- put all your efforts into the arm that does the work and you’ll go faster. Makes sense right?

But the experimental, adventurous side of me wanted to try something different. I got an idea: what if I took some focus away from the pulling arm and concentrated on what my other arm was doing? I have two arms that rotate- doesn’t it make sense to scrutinize what both are doing?

Thus began a few swimming sessions of experiments. I began with what I should focus on- speed, trajectory, entrance into the water, etc. My coach from several years ago had always commented that I needed a faster turnover in backstroke, but through all of practices I could never get it up to the level I wanted.

But with these experiments, a faster turnover became second nature and almost effortless.

I tried to come up with a plausible explanation, but at first I was puzzled. How does focusing on the arm above the water help the arm below the water? Last week, the answer came to me.

What it comes down to is simple physics. I’ve never been very good at physics, but when it comes to swimming I understand how important inertia is to propelling your body forwards. By focusing on my other arm above the water and training my muscle memory to move faster, I drive more momentum forward and give my pulling arm a better grip in the water. It’s all about balance. I’ve come to think of it like a see-saw: it’s tough when you’re by yourself to move up and down, but when you have someone on the other end who is opposing your weight the motion becomes much easier. Speeding up the motion of the arm above the water helped speed up the motion of my arm below the water.

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All of this got me thinking: What are some “other arms” in my life? What are some things that I concentrate tremendous focus into when I should actually divert some of my efforts into the “other arms”?

Tonight I’m going to start something I’ll call “Forward Motions Takeaways”, a summarizing piece of advice which I hope to incorporate into every long post like this one.

»Forward Motion Takeaway: Keep an eye out for the “other arms” in your life. Experiment to find out the best way to utilize them, and practice harnessing their potential to move you closer to peak performance.