2003-06-20 - 5:56 p.m.

"the hint of chlorine in my hair smells like pride" Lady Susanna

I love swimming. I just swam 18 lengths of our pool. That's only a paltry 450 meters but it's the furthest I've gone in a long time.

I've always thought swimming was the perfect SCA armored combat cross-training. It's no accident that both of the crowns I won were fall crowns after a summer of lots of swimming. The great thing about swimming is that it replicates combat in the way that every thing has to be connected in order for your technique to be correct. If your legs aren't right for swimming you go nowhere. If your legs aren't right for combat you fall down go boom!

The hard part of throwing the basic blow perfectly is getting everthing to move at just the right time. This is made more difficult because all these pieces are tied to each other and can't be moved indepently. Well, yes, that is the whole point.

I've been getting even more metaphysical about this lately. All true power derives from Mother Earth. You start with your feet correctly placed to transfer the force for a blow up from Mother Earth through your foot and quickly into the ankles and so on. It's like a relay race. The baton is your gift of power from Mother Earth. Each member of the team must run this package of prowess along an exacting and precise path then pass the power off to the next member of the relay. If the next realy member leaves early, the great gift is lost. All that can be used instead is the power that can be generated by the members of the team yet to run. Many of these team members are quite powerful in their own right, otherwise they would not be the anchors of this relay. But, no matter how puissant, how can a forearm summon as much force as Mother Earth?

How's that for a digression? Well, swimming well requires much the same skills.