Master the Art of Swimming
Raising Your Performance with the Alexander Technique
By Steven Shaw

"Steven Shaw's second book on the art of swimming offers 170 well illustrated pages on the Shaw method,  which is applying the Alexander Technique, in learning to swim.  Core elements of the four major strokes: Breaststroke, Backstroke, Crawl and Butterfly are defined with easy to practice lessons.  This book is a guide to mindful swimming.

After attending several of Shaw's workshops in June, I felt inspired to enter LMU's Masters swim program in order to have a daily conversation with swimming and try this book out as a learning manual.

Shaw's personal story is a good read.  He grew up as a swimmer in London, burned out from competitive training in his teens, trained to be a teacher of the Alexander Technique and integrated this work with teaching people how to swim.

Shaw gives concise definitions of F.M. Alexander's ideas on efficient movement: The use of the back, neck and head relationship, giving directions, end gaining, inhibition, faulty sensory perception, thinking in activity, non-doing.  Shaw writes clearly on how to apply these concepts to swimming.

In a chapter called Fun-da-mentals, the author outlines practice steps which establish one's balance and being at ease in the  water:  Weightless walking, backwards walking, lunging, face in the water, the glide, floating and rotation.

The core of Shaw's method lies in the chapters on each stroke which
Include historical origins and well defined sections on key features, benefits and common errors.  Each stroke is analyzed so the reader can practice body orientation, leg action, arm action and breathing actions separately, before integrating them into a complete stroke cycle. Many of the informative photos are taken underwater.

After reading the text, I took my book to the pool and practiced the steps in the chapter on Learning to Crawl Again.  The crawl is the heart of my masters workout.  In the quiet of my home pool, practicing each action of this stroke, I found the logic of this method.  This book is a fine tool for learning to swim with ease. If you are a swimmer, it can enhance your strokes and guide you to swim with more grace. The book is best used in conjunction with lessons from a Shaw method teacher and companion videos."

Charlotte Holtzermann, LA Yoga