What can we learn from online videos?
The other day I was talking to a friend online and he mentioned that he had been looking on YouTube for videos to help him learn how to swim. Naturally, I pointed him in the direction of those knowledge nuggets produced by Tracey Baumann under the banner of Mastery Mondays. Check them out, you can pick up some great tips from them. It’s easy to remember the titles; they’re about SwimMastery and they come out on Mondays (Strangely Tracey decided against branding them something like Tracey’s Knowledge Nuggets. I’m sure I don’t know why).
However, it prompted me to go on my own little exploration of the wonders of YouTube coaching videos to see what I could find.
Hoo-wee. There’s a dangerous rabbit hole to fall down. The channel is awash with films with titles such as “Five things you’re doing wrong in Freestyle” (how do they know?), “A quick fix to aid better breathing in Freestyle” and “How to improve your efficiency and swim faster instantly” etc. But can they deliver on their grand promises?
Well, what is certain is that very little of what is said chimes with the principles behind SwimMastery. Indeed you could take virtually any SwimMastery fundamental principle and you don’t have to search very hard to find someone who will flatly contradict it.
Should you connect the body as one unit? Nope, apparently the shoulders should rotate at a different rate from the hips. Relaxed press of the leg from the hip? Nope, you should be kicking vigorously from the knee. A fluid stroke with constant forward momentum? Wrong again. The best way is to introduce a gentle glide to full extension. And so on.
The language is littered with phrases including words which SwimMastery coaches are advised to avoid as they can encourage te swimmer to develop bad habits. Floats, pull buoys, hand paddles, snorkels and flippers are all advocated as essential in improving the stroke. Fancy diagrams and animations were often used as were demonstrations by the coach although, sadly, they often served only to demonstrate poor overall technique.
It seemed that the advice given fell into four broad categories:
Things which were in line with SwimMastery thinking (there was precious little of this)
Things which would probably work but which could probably be achieved in a much better way
Things that would probably be a waste of time and/or ineffective
Things that were frankly bizarre at best and dangerous at worst
Amongst the stranger tips were things like listening out for a nice firm slap of the elbow on the surface of the water at hand entry to ensure that the hand was entering as far in front of the head as possible, to gauge the rotation by touching the surface of the water behind your back and to send bubbles from the nose when breathing out down along the chest as this would aid buoyancy. Does it? Really? How much air are you breathing out? One film even ended with the narrator assuring us that, if we adopted his style of breathing, we would be able to keep swimming “until our shoulders gave out”. Wow. There’s a target.
It was noticeable how some subjects seemed to be ignored almost completely. Rotation during the stroke was often missed out altogether and only one video that I saw (and I’ve looked at a lot) mentioned safety and injury protection which is so key to the SwimMastery way of thinking. A huge emphasis was placed on swimming faster or more efficiently but rarely was any consideration given to the long-term effects on the body.
So how should SwimMastery respond to all this? Should we remain smug and aloof in our ivory tower looking down on these poor saps who have yet to realise the error of their ways?
The answer is absolutely not. These videos are often produced by extremely experienced and articulate coaches who run very successful businesses. Just because we have a different view of their teaching methods does not mean that they are automatically incorrect. Were we to ask them I am sure they would defend their methods vigorously and be able to point to many happy clients whom they have been able to help. We must afford them the same level of respect that we would hope they would extend towards us.
Some videos are several years old and thinking may have evolved in the meantime. Others (and the Mastery Mondays are an example of this) are never intended to be a comprehensive step-by-step guide to how to swim. Instead, they are a quick focus on one aspect of the stroke in isolation. Terminology which may seem alien to a SwimMastery coach may make far more sense in context. The reverse is certainly true; swans and cuckoos, tattoos and angels are second nature to SwimMastery but are no doubt completely inexplicable to those not in the know.
Far from dismissing YouTube videos produced by others or snickering about them behind our hands (as, to my shame, I have done a little bit here), they should be viewed as a most valuable resource. SwimMastery is blessed with an international community of coaches with, between them, a broad and rich depth of experience. There are bound to be instances where, with an open mind, ideas can be gleaned, honed and developed during discussions for the mutual benefit of all. Alternative thinking should be embraced as a challenge to our own practices. SwimMastery is hopefully, not so arrogant as to think that it has reached the pinacle of swim teaching. Whilst the core principles may remain unchanged and unchangeable there will always be opportunities to expand (or simplify) how they are delivered and the inspiration for those improvements may well come from the most unlikely of sources.
If nothing else, these videos can prepare us for the sort of challenges and questions which will come from new clients. SwimMastery coaches must be prepared to be able to counter the arguments and theories which a new swimmer has seen online and to explain why the SwimMastery approach is different and why we believe it is better.
And what of folks like my friend, the chap looking for a good and reliable source of information? All I can advise is to spend time watching as much as possible. Think carefully about your motivation. If speed is important to you at the cost of everything else, well, good luck to you. If you just want to look good and swim efficiently maybe there are other sources to look at. However, if you are interested in both of these plus having a skill for life which will allow you to swim injury-free for many years to come you could do worse than investigate what SwimMastery has to offer.
From my brief research - a lot worse..
(That’s the end of my little knowledge nugget).