Farmer’s Style Swimming Secrets
For the past few weeks I’ve been observing a 40-ish man swimming laps at the gym. And he has a stroke that we called “farmer’s style,” back when I was growing up in Iowa.
As you are aware, the main reason I am at this gym is to use the sauna. I do most of my training at home, but it’s good to get away from the house sometimes, especially when on almost all occasions, real life human beings give me material that practically writes itself.
Anyway, the farmer’s style is when a person swims with his noggin out of the water, cranks his head left and right in accord with his arms crawling through the water. He never puts his head in the water, but not due to the chlorine. It’s simply due to the fact that he doesn’t know how to swim, and “ain’t a gonna get no lessons.”
So he punishes himself and all guilty bystanders, by showcasing the most gawd awful technique ever devised.
Now my wife hails from China, and she’s the only person in her entire family of five who knows how to swim. She learned how shortly after coming to the U.S., when she was 25.
Surprised?
Well, it turns out that millions of Chinese know not how to swim, they don’t have access to pools they way we do here, and those who make an effort, often use this same “lack of” proper technique. And it’s a shame because swimming is not that difficult to learn, at the basic level.
Well, you might be wondering if I offered the man swimming farmers style a few tips. It would be easy to do so because I was a champion swimmer many sleeps ago, and probably still could be if I went in the masters division.
But I offered not one syllable of advice. Why not?
Two reasons:
One, he didn’t ask for advice and there’s no reason to volunteer information if someone doesn’t seek it.
But the even bigger reason, the reason that might surprise you is as follows… he’s not wearing googles.
No goggles means no chlorine in your eyes and no burning eyes if you do so. It also means that this man is swimming the way I would if I didn’t have a pair of goggles on.
So you see, the farmer’s style of swimming has a function after all. It’s not so bad when you consider the painful, stinging eyes you’ll get when you don’t have your goggles on.
Thank goodness for the farmers. They have there swimming down to a practical art form.
Matt Furey
MattFurey.com