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Swimming Advice:
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SWS Review of Steven Shaw's Master the Art of Swimming
Master the Art of Swimming. Review by Ian Cross.
It is ten years since the publication of The Art of Swimming- in a new direction with the Alexander Technique by Steven Shaw and Armond D’Angour. This revolutionary book expresses the need for the application of the principles of the Alexander Technique to swimming. It inspired me, a swimming teacher planning to undertake the AT training, to go for a lesson with Steven, which I liked very much, and subsequently to train on his first Diploma course. The book continues to fascinate swimmers of all abilities and, unlike a swimming manual, is the sort of book you could read from cover to cover on holiday.
Steven’s new book, Master the Art of Swimming, is a Shaw Method manual and, for anyone interested in Steven’s work, an essential tool. The information presented comes from his experience of teaching thousands of people to swim with the Alexander Technique. In the main part of the book, the four strokes are broken down into essential components with their own practices. These practices or steps are complete activities in themselves which help the swimmer to break habits and assimilate new movement patterns. Each step is comprehensively explained. The book is beautifully produced and clearly laid out, with colour photographs illustrating each practice.
Dry land practices form a large part of Steven’s teaching method.Someone new to the Shaw Method may not appreciate the value of these and could be put off by photographs of them. But the aim of the book is to show the process by which anyone can learn to swim like Steven rather than focusing on what the end product is like.
In addition to the dry land pictures, many of the photographs show people working on elements of the strokes rather than really swimming. When photographs are staged in order to illustrate a certain teaching point, the sense of flow doesn’t always come through. But if some of the photographs used to illustrate practices have a static feel to them, these are balanced throughout the book by some stunning action shots of the strokes in their complete form. The cover shot is a good example.
A lesson with Steven can be a unique experience; a process in which you connect with him, yourself and the water. As he guides you through a new movement, he helps you achieve a feeling for water and a sense of completeness difficult to convey in words and beyond stroke mechanics. But such methodical and comprehensive coverage of every Shaw Method step does perhaps prevent him from giving the reader an understanding of how each stroke feels in its full form.
However, Master the Art of Swimming is a manual and, as a manual for The Shaw Method, it is perfect. If this was the book which had introduced me to Steven’s work, rather than The Art of Swimming the result would have been the same: I would have gone for a lesson with him. The first two chapters, 'The Shaw Method' and 'Fun-da-mentals: Core Practices', would have been enough to persuade me to do this. The former is an excellent practical explanation of the Shaw Method and the latter is full of gems about the science of swimming regarding, for example, buoyancy, breathing and weightlessness.
Anyone who has worked with Steven will find the book an invaluable tool for ongoing work. Could it be a substitute for the lessons? I don’t think so because, however clearly he writes, the experience of Steven’s work can’t be fully conveyed, just as with F.M. Alexander. And, clearly, constant reference to the head/ neck/ back relationship will have limited meaning for most people who try to do the work without a teacher. But I think there are enough people already aware of Steven’s work to make the book necessary.
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