Mach3Multisport.com

For example, in a 1 versus 1 dogfight in which two airplanes pass each other close aboard going opposite directions (like two cars on a highway), there are myriad techniques a pilot can use in order to maneuver his airplane to a position behind the adversary from which he can shoot the adversary down. He can go up, he can go down, he can pull 9Gs, he can pull 6Gs—there are lots of ways to get the job done. However, no matter how he decides to attack the problem, Air Force procedure says that he will never get within 500 feet of the other airplane and he will never descend below the predetermined altitude, or “floor,” which must be at least 5000 feet above the highest terrain over which the fight occurs.

Procedures exist in a vacuum. You can pick and choose any random sampling of procedures from the books, and they will always apply. Techniques only work when they are included as part of a coherent gameplan. Referencing our dogfight example, a gameplan that involves going up after the pass while pulling 6Gs might work as well as one that requires you to go down while pulling 9Gs, but mixing the two by going up while pulling 9Gs might not work at all.

The differences between technique and procedure are particularly important when soliciting swimming advice. Even a casual observer will notice that different swimmers use widely divergent techniques while achieving similar speeds. Despite these differences though, there are some procedures/universal truths that all swimmers have to live with. For instance, the closer the overall body position is to horizontal, the less drag a swimmer has to overcome. She can achieve a horizontal position by lowering her head deeper into the water, by kicking harder, or by combining the two. She may have to incorporate another technique altogether, but the bottom line is that however she attacks the problem the closer she is to horizontal and the less drag she’ll have to overcome.

Avoid taking techniques piecemeal from different people and trying to merge them into one gameplan. Consider these two swimmers: Bob grew up as a sprinter and uses a borderline violent 6-beat kick. He keeps his head tilted so that the waterline is just above his eyebrows. His advice to you is to get out the old kickboard and practice sprint flutter kicking until your legs feel like jello. Jane on the other hand, barely kicks, if at all. She glides through the water barely making a splash and her head is almost submerged except for when she turns to the side to breathe. She tells you that you should throw the kickboard away and spend hours doing balance drills. They both turn in the same triathlon swim splits, so who do you believe?

The answer is “either” as long as you learn their gameplan as a whole. Don’t spend weeks learning Bob’s plan and then throw out your kickboard because Jane makes an offhand comment about how kicking is a waste of time. A 6-beat kick doesn’t work with her technique, but without a kick you’ll be dragging yourself through the water like an anchor.

If you’re a beginner swimmer, prepare yourself for the onslaught of unrelated techniques you’ll be inundated with. Everyone you know from the pool will have some tidbit for you about how you should be bending your arm or rotating your body or kicking your feet or whatever. You should avoid the confusion this causes by picking a swim coach you like and learning that person’s techniques as a complete system. While you’re engaged in that process, don’t listen to random advice that may very well be valid but that conflicts with your coach’s system. At the very least, ask your coach how this outlier technique meshes with what she’s teaching you. If her system doesn’t work for you, find another coach with a different system and start the process all over again.

You have to breathe, you have to pull with your arms, and you have to float on top of the water in some fashion. Those, among some others, are procedures. Everything else is technique.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment