TriDot Pool School: Getting My Swim Groove Back

The April 2024 Boston Pool School Crew

Ever since TriDot launched its Pool School a year and half ago, I’ve been pining to go. For a while I had plateaued in swimming, and more recently I’ve been getting progressively slower☹. Finally there was a school with dates I was free and in the nearby Boston area. 

 
I received the homework videos and began practicing the moves on dry land, which felt oddly foreign to me. Maybe it’s because the dog kept licking my homework…. The Karate Kid video clips describing the importance of the Miyagi method reminded me that it’s all about patience and building muscle memory. 

 Twenty-something of us arrive at Brandeis University on a rainy April Saturday. We are greeted by a multitude of coaches and given an overview of the 12 grades we will progress through the next couple of days and told to keep an open mind. We are assigned approximately four to a lane with two dedicated coaches. We begin with a kicking drill and then spend the rest of the day “finding our FASST”, which seems to be eluding me since CEO Jeff Booher kindly takes me aside to my own lane to help me find the right body position: Fingers flat, Arms stretched straight, Shoulders at a 45 degree angle, Spine aligned…from tail to crown with head anchored down, Thumb on thigh… with palm to the sky. Sounds easy enough, right?! My biggest problem is getting my shoulder at the 45-degree angle so I’m not “stacked” beyond that. Finally it clicks! 

Once we’ve found the correct body position, we progress to adding the arm motion – “Pinnocio” as they call it, a high, forward-facing elbow, finger trip drill. Four hours of instruction and drills actually pass quickly! Perhaps it’s because watches were prohibited with threat of confiscation! We wrap for the day and enjoy a fun evening socially at the nearby Craft Hall.

The next day we pick up where we left off and begin adding “the glove”, reaching out with one arm first, moving to two arms as we progress. Before I know it, they say it’s time to take our 100-yard time trial test to see if we have improved from our baseline 100 we submitted before the school. I hardly feel ready – after all the drilling I worry I’ve forgotten how to swim for real! One of our lane mates volunteers to go first, and he beats his baseline! Then the next one goes and beats his! I’m encouraged but still wonder if I will really be faster. In I go, and the first 50 feels good, but I feel like I’m losing steam on the next 25. My lane coach Courtney yells “kick Cathy, kick”! And so I do, and I finish and look up to my other lane coach Scott: “1:54,” he cries out! That is 12 seconds faster than my 2:06 benchmark!!!

My lane mates and coaches Scott and Courtney

As all the results come in, every single person improved – amazing!!! Our school saw a 15% improvement over baseline, with some pretty dramatic improvements, including my one lane mate, Amy, who went from a 2:01 to a 1:23! TriDot has grown so much over the last few years with coaches and subscribers all over the world, with former pro triathletes like Mark Allen and Miranda Carafae as coaches, with Mike Reilly as the Chief Motivation Officer, and as an official partner to Ironman. But the focus on training efficiency and science based, measurable results has stayed core to Jeff’s mission. I was beyond impressed that he showed up as one of the coaches. “I want to make sure all of the coaches have fully grasped the teaching methods,” he told me. Given our class success, I would say they have.

Amazing - we all improved!!