Forty years ago a lanky American made headlines and captivated the crowds when he won the gold medal in the high jump at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games using an innovative technique. His name was Dick Fosbury and his unusually daring maneuver has since been immortalized as the Fosbury Flop. Until Fosbury came along, the prevailing high jump techniques included the scissor kick and the straddle. In the scissor kick, the jumper elevated and then kicked first one and then the other leg over the bar. Using the straddle, the jumper passed over the bar face-down, essentially rolling over the bar with one arm and one leg at a time. Fosbury’s technique involved him passing over the bar on his back while passing his head, shoulders and then his hips and legs over the bar. Thus he was actually able to pass his center of gravity under the bar even as his body travelled fully over the bar. The Flop was a sensation, even distracting the crowd’s attention from the finish of the marathon, traditionally one of the Games’ most celebrated events. Some decried his technique as foolishly dangerous and mocked its awkwardness even as his jump broke the existing Olympic record and put him on top of the podium.
The most fascinating part of the story isn’t as well known. The fact is that Fosbury didn’t debut his technique in 1968 at the Games. He had begun perfecting his Flop five years earlier in 1963. Though he had never jumped higher than 1.6m using the scissor technique, by 1965 Fosbury was clearing 2m with his flop. Incredibly, most high jumpers continued using their old techniques rather than adopt the Flop method. According to Fosbury, "most of the elite athletes had invested so much time in their technique that they didn't want to give it up.” It took a gold medal winning performance at 2.24m (7 feet 4 ¼ inches) for people to sit up and take notice. Even then, it took a decade for the new technique to be fully adopted by the sport.
This story is interesting but not surprising to me. The high jumpers of 1968 are not altogether different from the swimmers of 2008. The most common reason I hear from a swimmer about why he won’t change his technique is that “it will make me slower.” True, it probably will. At first. Consider that in a swimmer’s career he might perform a stroke literally millions of times. Thus, the chances are high that by performing a stroke in a manner that he has never tried before, he will immediately go slower. Now imagine Fosbury trying his flop for the first time. Do you think he magically jumped a foot higher than when using his previous method? Not likely.
Swimmers are not the only ones to blame. I am amazed by the number of good coaches who allow obviously poor technique (even injury-causing technique) to persist in swimmers simply because we are unwilling to risk going slower in the short term in order to achieve long-term gain. We become comfortable with a swimmer’s level of performance and fear that if we change a swimmer’s technique he won’t be able to change it back!!! This irrational fear is paralyzing.
I believe the reason for this hesitant attitude in both swimmers and coaches lies in the lack of a change mentality. By being afraid of change and unwilling to risk the short-term loss, we prevent ourselves from reaching our long-term performance potential. If we are truly intent on achieving excellence, this cannot be.
Coaches, we must first adopt the belief that change is beneficial. Second we must realize that change is not merely beneficial but necessary. Third, we must have the wisdom and the foresight to see the changes that will maximize a swimmer’s long-term performance. Finally, we must impart the value of change to our athletes at a young age and instill it as one of their core swimming beliefs.
Swimmers, you must be willing to change and understand that the point of practice is not to become a better practice swimmer. You must be willing to be a bit slower in training if it means following your coach’s vision for a change you need to make. This is the beauty of practice. It is a place to not only train but to rehearse, to experiment, to attempt, to fail, to attempt again, and to innovate.
Fosbury's technique is still in wide use today, though it has been modified and improved as jumpers go ever higher. Thanks to Fosbury's change mentality, the course of an entire sport was altered. We too must develop a change mentality. This is a frame of mind that welcomes change as a positive necessity to helping us achieve our swimming excellence. This is a risk that requires courage and faith, and it is a risk we must not be afraid to take.
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