Over the years as an athlete, you develop a skill set that is unique to your sport. Fast transitions from one stroke to another, precise flip turns, and efficient stroke rates are just a few swim-related examples. However, there is an equally real, albeit much less obvious, set of skills that you also tend to develop which are seemingly unrelated to the sport at all. Let’s dive into some of them (see what I did there?)…
1. Intermittent conversations.
Swimmers have perfected the five second conversation since, unlike other sports which have more rest time in between repetitions, we tend to be on the go during sets. Long aerobic sets with short breaks also tend to be the ones that lead to the most amount of boredom, so we have to find ways to entertain ourselves and our team mates. Strategically conversing with the person in the lane over from you is truly a delicate art form because it often means having time to only slip in a couple of words at a time, with your team mate having to string the sentence together bit by bit. “Talking this way” … *50 metres later* “Can get a little bit” … *100 metres later* “Confusing at times” … Hey, you get the point, right? Short break times make for skilled conversationalists who know how to…
