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Converting
Volvo to a Speed Boat !
Ironmonger Baths, EC1
`Learning
How To Learn` Swimming with Coach Shev Gul
By
Jason Gatenby (Triathlete) Oct 05, London
I
have always exited the water two thirds of the
way down the field and spent the rest of the race
hauling people in on the bike and the run.
Two
years ago I stumbled across the Total Immersion
series of books. I roped a colleague into some
lunchtime swimming and we set about learning how
to balance. By this summer I was swimming with
much less effort than before but I felt like an
old Volvo estate – when
I tried to accelerate I made more noise and used
more fuel but could only go at the same speed.
I
felt I needed to try something different so I
decided to invest in some coaching. I
surfed
the web and found Shev Gul’s contact details.
I sent him a desperate plea. He responded immediately.
“Quite often,” he
wrote, “what an athlete perceives
to be doing and what one sees from an outside
observation (video analysis, trained coaches`
observation) tend to be out of synchro!”
No kidding.
We
booked a slot at the local baths and we met for
the first time at 6.30 one Thursday morning. Shev
recommended that we came in a group of 3 or 4.
This was partly for economic reasons but mostly
because the best thing Shev taught us was how
to coach each other. How many of us can look at
another swimmer and see what it is that makes
them fast or slow? Watching each other swim and
learning what to look for has made every swim
a coached session.
The
four of us were Graham (en route to Kona, Hawaii
Ironman, Oct 05), Matt (occasional triathlete),
Neil (the colleague I had roped in to lunchtime
swimming – but who had always been a useful
swimmer) and me. The point here is that we were
a group of mixed abilities and experience. This
did not matter at all.
Before
we met Shev asked us to review how we breathed.
Breathing, it turns out, is the key to two of
Popov’s three Rs (rhythm and relaxation).
We learned to breathe in a time with our
stroke and using the full capacity of our lungs.
I’ll bet you’re not doing this! Then
he had a look at us. “I will tell you it
as it is,” he said, “Nothing you hear
from me will be sugar coated.”
In
our first session we saw the effects of throwing
your arms wide on the recovery, of pushing your
hand across the centre line of your body and of
not keeping a smooth kick. We watched the various
modern dance movements represented in the weird
contortions of our hands during the stroke. We
revised our balance, learned to keep our elbows
high, to drive our hands forward (not across)
with our hips and to keep our hands pointing down
or back at all stages of the stroke. No more wiggling
your hands around and looking all stylish thank
you very much!..
After
each session we reported our learning to Shev,
which kept us focused and gave us a record of
what to work on between sessions - an excellent
knowledge resource for future `quality stroke
maintenance` refs.
From
this point we moved on to integrating
our breathing with our stroke and learning
the rudiments of timing. At various
times we learned to swim like pencils, like arrows,
ever present silky kicking constantly fueled as
in the pilot light of a gas burner or with cameras
in our fingers. We also witnessed Graham’s
right hand being threatened with jail!........
We
learned about the physics of moving through the
water and what this theory meant in practice.
We also acquired an arsenal of knowledge with
which to give each other a hard time between sessions.............
I have never been the most coordinated of people
but Shev believes that you can learn the required
movements. Even when a drill seemed impossible
and I’d got it wrong he’d just ask
me to do it again focusing on a different aspect
of the exercise and, without exception, I got
the hang of it. This “learning how
to learn” philosophy seems to underpin
most of Shev’s teaching and it works. After
working with Shev we breathe easier,
swim faster and since every swim
is now a coached session we are
still learning.
Those
of us who made it to the end were rewarded with
one of Shev’s super secrets,
worth at least 1 minute per 500 metres. But for
that we had to complete six 90 minute 6.30am sessions
so if you want to hear it you’ll have to
sign him up yourself!...
Contact:
Jason . G
OLD DOGS CAN LEARN NEW TRICKS!
By Peter Chan
Peter Chan is better
known as` Mr. Bonsai` in UK. He has to date won
20 Chelsea Flower Gold medals, Written 6 best selling
books on bonsai, including one book on Japanese
gardens. He founded Herons Bonsai - Britain`s premier
bonsai nursery in 1986 after a career as a Chartered
Electrical Eng and energy policy adviser and speech
writer for the government ministers in early 80`s.
Before coming to England in 1963 he was a cycling
champion of Asia.
One of my great regrets in life
was that I did not learn to swim when I was younger.
I had my first swimming lesson in September 1996
when I had just turned 56. My wife had been going
to the local pool for swimming lessons for a couple
of years and she persuaded me to join her just to
keep her company. I immediately found the experience
of being in the water very enjoyable and because
I had no fear of water, I was able to progress fairly
quickly. After about 12 sessions, I was able to
do the breast stroke after a fashion!
Swimming was much
more sensible
I
should mention that round about the same time
I had the urge to get fit again and went back
to cycling which was my first love.during
the late 1950s and early `60s, I was a competitive
cyclist in the Far East, riding mainly on
the track.
My best time for the 200m sprint was 13.1
sec. in 1963! I rode a vets 40K in 1998 in
1hr.3mins. I even went back to ride at Herne
Hill on Saturday mornings for a while during
the late `90s, but a couple of bad spells
on the track soon put me off cycling. I decided
that swimming was much more sensible and safer.
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continued to attend swimming lessons at our
local pool, and became fairly proficient at
breaststrole. I even did a couple of swimathons
in 2000 & 2001 doing 60 lenghts of breast
stroke in about 40 minutes. However, the backstroke
and freestyle eluded me. My legs used to sink
and my arms just churned like windmill blades
making me very frustrated indeed. I just could
not get the hang of these two strokes. I asked
one of the teachers at our local pool to teach
me on a one-to-one basis, but progress was very
slow. I was just encouraged to keep at it in
hope that I would get there in the end. In retrospect,
I don't think I would have got very far because
proper technique was missing and that was not
being taught. But I am not one to give up easily,
and I was determined as ever to master freestyle,
come what may. |
I realised that good
technique can be learnt.
My first breakthrough came in
December 2001 when my original teacher loaned me
Terry Laughlin's book Total immersion. The revolutionary
way to swim better, faster and easier! (the yellow
and blue book) . My teacher had no experience of
TI but she had heard about it and she found the
book interesting, so she gave me the book to read.
I read it over Christmas, and it opened my mind
to what was possible. For the first time I realized
that proficient swimming technique could be learnt.
I was so intrigued by what I had read, that I soon
got on the web and found out more about TI. I couldn't
believe my luck when I discovered that there was
to be 4-stroke weekend course run by Terry himself
in London in February and I immediately enrolled
for the workshop.
The
weekend course was an eye opener, but frankly
I was out of my depth as most of the other
swimmers attending the course were much more
advanced than me and I did not gain as much
benefit as I had hoped.
What I did learn however over that weekend,
was the importance of balance and being able
to float without fear of sinking.
Having got the taste of learning to swim in
a different way, I got Terry's other book
Swimming made easy and the two TI videos,
and practiced away at the drills for endless
hours at my local pool. I don't
know what the other swimmers and lifeguards
thought of my funny drills, but I made some
progress. but at the back of my mind, I knew
that improvement was slow and I was becoming
more and more frustrated at how long it was
taking me to learn how to swim freestyle well.
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Peter Chan at his world famous bonsai nursery
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I soon got the hang of being balanced
In August last year I attended a week-long
TI course to take my swimming a bit further.
I enjoyed the experience of that week as I
began to get the hang of being really balanced
in the water and my arms had slowed down a
fraction, but my kick was still awful and
I couldn't figure out how to breathe bi-laterally.
Back at my local pool, I continued with the
drills, but I felt that what I really needed
was a coach to give me regular feed-back and
show me what I ought to be doing to make real
progress. |
I heard about coach
Shev`s Stroke Technique Clinics
It was round about the autumn of last year that
out of sheer frustration and desperation I saw an
ad by coach Shev Gul about his swimming clinic.
I e-mailed him and he offered me a free lesson at
the Arnos Grove pool in North London. I didn't take
him up on it straight away as the venue was 70 miles
from where I live. A few weeks later I finally decided
to give it a try and since then I have not looked
back. What coach Shev has been able to do to my
swimming in twelve lessons is nothing short of a
miracle. Before being coached by Shev, I wasn't
able to breathe bi-laterally; my arms were still
too fast and entering the water badly, and my kick
was pretty awful and my body position was as flat
as a pancake - no body roll at all.
Shev did comment on my good balance,
which he attributed to the coaching I had with TI,
and he built on it. What has impressed me most about
Shev's approach is his very unique style and approach
to teaching swimming by focusing on `pure technique`
- such as imagining how it feels to execute that
long relaxed silky kick. Using the mind to have
the self belief and confidence to achieve various
other techniques.
Important concepts such as relaxation
in swimming are banded about glibly that they seldom
have any real meaning at all. But I felt it for
the first time training with Shev as he is a great
believer in the "playful mode" approach
to swimming. I am also beginning to experience what
a relaxed arm entry feels like. Another useful tip
he gave me was not to swim everyday. In my enthusiasm
to learn to swim well, I used to visit the pool
daily; he advocates swimming three to four times
a week. I found that by cutting back a bit on my
swimming sessions; I am now swimming better and
more purposefully.
Swimming with the core body or
engaging the hip is another concept, which I had
heard about, but I did not experience it until taught
by Shev. The `Kayak Arm' position is his forte.
Until I trained with him I did not realize its immense
importance in generating core body propulsion.
Some of Shev's drills and exercises
have been revolutionary so far as Im concerned.
The 'Popov kayak action or rock n roll' drill is
one, the 'fingers skimming drill' is another. Only
recently I was introduced to the 'one arm action'
drill and this has helped me roll and breathe better.
I now breathe bi-laterally with no trouble at all
and well on the way to perfecting that 'sneaky breath'
technique, i.e. breathing with one goggle out of
the water.
Feedback Feedback
Feedback!
Feedback has been a vital part
of my training sessions with Shev. Feedback from
him at poolside; feedback from us and him via e-mail
and feedback to each other fellow swimmers as we
train at the pool. If I had to put a finger on the
key ingredient to my success on in recent months,
it would be this vital `feedback` that we constantly
get from him.
So, am I really making progress?
Because I had a couple of fellow swimmers at my
local pool ask me to show them how to swim with
a `good style` as they describe it. I am also now
able to discern who swims well and who swims badly
and what their faults are. I am aware that I am
long way to go before I get a real taste of swimming
in `The Zone`, i.e. swimming in a `reflex and sub-conscious
mode` as coach Shev calls it, but I believe I will
get there soon…….
May 2003 - UK Swimming Magazine
Peter Chan can be contacted on: herons.bonsai@virgin.net
Note - `Since
this article was written Peter went on to pass the
ASA Level 1 teaching
certificate in December 2003, and the ASA Level
2 teaching cerificate in August
2005. As a fully qualified swimming teacher, Peter
helps Coach Shev at the
California Swimming Clinic on a fairly regular basis.'
EMPOWERING
MELISSA - Competitive Club Swimmer
Story
of 12 years old Melissa and how she learned from
` Thinking Coach` Shev Gul
UK Swimming Magazine
– Feb 05
Coach Shev Gul is considered by
those who know him as a `Thinking Coach`.
Demanding from swimmers complete
length after length, day after day is not for Coach
Shev.
Respecting swimmers` intelligence
and then setting out to empower them with meaningful
knowledge and know-how; to set alight inside them
a burning desire of wanting to learn more, to achieve,
succeed and excel, is more in line with Coach Shev`s
thinking.
The transformation of Melissa
(12) into a thinking swimmer, wanting to excel in
swimming sport may touch a chord with young club
swimmers and parents alike.
Melissa`s parents heard about
Coach Shev`s stroke technique clinics via UK Swimming
Magazine and booked her for a six weeks programme
of stroke technique correction and fine-tuning.
Helping Them To Own
The Knowledge
When the coaches hand over
the stroke technique excellence toolbox to swimmers,
it helps them to `own the knowledge` and the know
– how.
At every step of learning-empowering,
swimmers need to be told and explained clearly,
`WII-FM`-What It Is in it For Me`?
This is the key to Coach Shev`s
success in helping competitive age-group swimmers
to regain their lost self- belief, confidence and
their winning habits again.
This empowerment sets alight a
desire in the swimmers to become more curious, to
work harder, to develop a self discipline , to continue
learning and develop, not for a short term but for
the rest of their lives.
It is a simple recipe for developing
tomorrow`s self-sufficient, motivated, confident,
intelligent and model high-achievers. Indeed, champions
in swimming - in life.
Melissa has benefited enormously
from Coach Shev`s stroke technique programme. She
has gained much from his attitude and coaching-as
well as her technique having been completely `revolutionised`.
Coach Shev has provide excellent inspiration for
her confidence and motivation.
A few samples from
Coach Shev`s Stroke Technique Tips Menu- tasted
by Melissa
Starts
Develop an intuition to be off the starting
blocks with the `bang`. Be the first one to hear
and respond to the starting signal.
Breaststroke
Finish your kicks with a `whip
like action` and soles of feet kissing.
Butterfly
In all strokes timing is everything. Learn well,
when to execute your 1st and 2nd down beat kicks
in relation to the arms/hands position.
Front Crawl
Body rolling, relaxed high elbow recovery and gliding
tall. Sneaky breathing technique (DBT) with relaxation
coming from within….
Back Stroke
Body rolling and gliding tall with high shoulders
and hips, Fixed head resting on the mattress …..
UK Magazine Editor: graham.short@freeUK.com
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