white_hart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
white_hart) wrote2021-09-29 07:56 pm
white_hart) wrote2021-09-29 07:56 pm
Entry tags:
Reading: Why We Swim (272/365)
Bonnie Tsui's Why We Swim looks at the history and practice of swimming from five different perspectives, kind of a Maslow's hierarchy of swimming needs: survival, wellbeing, community, competition and flow. Each section starts with an individual whose swimming story epitomises that theme: an Icelandic man who survived shipwreck in extreme conditions; a woman who started swimming after a serious leg injury and went on to become a marathon open water swimmer; a coach who ran open classes for allied troops and civilian personnel in Iraq; an Olympic medallist who competed in multiple games across more than two decades; an expert in ancient samurai swimming techniques. Tsui uses these stories as a jumping-off point to examine her own experiences of swimming, taking in the history and science of the sport along the way.
Inevitably, some of the themes resonated with me more than others. My swimming community is not based around organised coaching sessions, and I thought that Tsui missed an opportunity to look at other types of community; I also simply don't think of competitive swimming as having anything to do with swimming as I practice it. The final section, on flow (which Tsui sees as encompassing both the slowing down of time of intense focus and the timelessness of pure joy) is the one where I most recognised myself. It really felt as though the whole book was building to this section (though maybe I just think that because that's my experience?) and I did feel that the other sections could perhaps have been shorter, leaving more space for exploring the idea of flow, but perhaps there isn't really that much to say about joy other than that it exists.
In any case, I thought this was a fascinating read, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else with an interest in swimming.
Inevitably, some of the themes resonated with me more than others. My swimming community is not based around organised coaching sessions, and I thought that Tsui missed an opportunity to look at other types of community; I also simply don't think of competitive swimming as having anything to do with swimming as I practice it. The final section, on flow (which Tsui sees as encompassing both the slowing down of time of intense focus and the timelessness of pure joy) is the one where I most recognised myself. It really felt as though the whole book was building to this section (though maybe I just think that because that's my experience?) and I did feel that the other sections could perhaps have been shorter, leaving more space for exploring the idea of flow, but perhaps there isn't really that much to say about joy other than that it exists.
In any case, I thought this was a fascinating read, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else with an interest in swimming.