“Don’t forget to glide Sweetheart!”, I called out from the dock as my 13 year old swam around the raft at a wild frenzied pace. The sun was sparkling on the water, summer had just begun in earnest and she was preparing for the ever dreaded swim test on the first day of summer camp.
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a bit rudely awakened by the arrival of September. Just a few weeks back we were leaning into Summer together and in my last newsletter we were exploring the magic and brilliance of floating.
As I watch my social feed fill with back to school photos and packing up university bound teens, work ramping up and playing the scheduling Tetris game of a family with THREE teenagers. 🤪
I’m feeling not quite ready to jump into the frenzy of September.
But the frenzy is sure ready for me!
It’s coming at me from every direction. You too I’m guessing.
The change of pace reminds me of my youngest earlier this summer anxiously preparing for the swim test at summer camp. You know that very first thing you do when you arrive at Summer Camp. In the name of safety and maybe a little stress bonding amongst campers, they send you straight down to the lake and see what colour lanyard you’ll earn and what swimming and boating you’ll be able to safely do on your own.
While my youngest has spent her life playing on the beach and in the lake she never did take formal swimming lessons. So her swimming technique would fall more in the functional realm than refined!
So as I watched her practice to feel confident when she arrived at camp, I couldn’t help notice how exhausting her swimming looked!
She was working SO HARD.
Stoke! Stroke! Stroke! A wild, feverish pace.
Whether it was her breast stroke or her front crawl it was all paddling hard with no ease or float to be seen.
All strokes and no glide.
And she seemed to be at angles that just caused a lot of drag while trying to move forward. Almost looking sure she’d sink if she didn’t power-stroke non-stop.
It made me wonder how she could bring a little more of the ease-fullness of the float into her swim.
Rather than sprinting and collapsing, could she find some float and stillness in her movement?
Mini rests in the rhythm of her strokes, while still moving forward?
After all, that swim test isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon! If she tried to keep up this this frenzied pace she’d exhaust herself and burn out long before her 10 laps were done.
So we practiced.
Technique, rhythm, alignment.
A strong kick that would stretch her into a smooth effortless glide.
Finding a powerful rhythm she could sustain with ease.
Day by day she found a more easeful way to move from A to B in the water.
She grew more powerful,
more relaxed,
more fierce grace.
It’s not unlike the teaching I do with my clients.
Most of us are frantically swimming along with great effort to keep our heads above water and ourselves moving forward grinding towards our destination. (Especially when September rears it’s head!)
But the ways we’re moving are not deeply aligned and as a result cause much drag we need to struggle against. We’re also not GLIDING. We’re stroking in a frenzy thinking it’s going to get us where we’re wanting to go.
So as we step (or are yanked into) September… please hear my call:
“Don’t forget to GLIDE Sweetheart!”
As September frenzy rolls in let’s take our summer floating vibe and learn how to lean into stillness in motion, just like a sleek glide in the middle of a powerful swimming breast stroke.
You’ve got this. And know that if you find yourself struggling, I’m right here on the dock and ready to help.
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