The Never Ending Quest for Material

"It's really a lot easier to write about things that are problematic. Who wants to hear how happy you are?"
- Lyle Lovett

From time to time I will look back at what I have written over the past year or so. When I started this thing there was so much mental turmoil going on. Am I a "fixed" man? No, not by any stretch of the imagination; but my mind is a lot nicer place to stay now, thus sometimes there is not great puzzle to pick a part or some terrible problem that needs to be solved.

When I look at the lives of the great artists and writers, most of them had pretty tumultous lives. I wonder if they did it because they needed turmoil, and the torture to get their creative juices flowing. Steven King once said that Hemingway was a great writer who happened to be a raging alcoholic. So, it looks like there are two schools of thoughts in this matter. Maybe great artists can get away with leading crazy lives because that's what people expect out of great minds: torture.

Had a lesson with Coach Kevin today. He's probably the best technical coach I have ever worked with. Some coaches will tell you that you are doing something right, when you are not to spare your ego. Not Kevin. He's Mr. Do It again. Maybe most importantly, he's focused on building a set of skills that allow a swimmer to swim heavy volume without destroying their body. Skills first, volume second. Sounds simple but a lot of coaches will let their swimmers tear up their body unneccessarily.

The pieces of the stroke came together today. I don't have the stroke mastered, but the individual pieces were all demonstrated today. I'll keep swimming 25s until I can hold it together like it's my job. That may be a month or so off, or it could all come together next week. We'll see. My mind is open to the possibilities here. There are no heavy deadlines for mastery in this area.

That's all I got right now. Nothing major. Just needed to stretch the writing muscles tonight.

Namaste..