Training Concept: Developing Water Sense

There's a quote, often attributed-falsely-to Buddha, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."  And that's how I felt when I read Mastering Swimming by Jim Montgomery and Mo Chambers.  Particularly the third chapter of their book, which starts out like this:

When I read about the idea of water sense and its four component traits it completely blew my mind!

It seems so simple and obvious.  When you watch elite swimmers, their water sense is so organic to how they swim, you don't notice it.  (You can see what I mean in every stroke in 4x100 men's individual medley relay from the 2012 London Olympics.) But, when you go to a pool and watch regular people swim laps, the challenge of  relaxation, breathing, balance, and streamlining becomes immediately clear.

This idea has had a profound impact on how I think about swimming and training.  It's led me to be a lot more aware of how my body is positioned in the water.  I now spend more time on body position drills, and think differently about how I use my core to balance and streamline.