Alexander Technique and swimming: a stroke of genius?

When Steven Shaw formally brought the Alexander Technique (AT) and swimming together in his book The Art of Swimming in 1996 it was the culmination of, at that point, six years of working on himself and pupils in the water. 15 years later Steven is still continuing that work, learning from his own experience and the thousands of pupils he has taught over the years.

Shaw Method, as Steven’s work is now known, is the result of thousands of hours of hard work and recognising that it was not just about “freeing the neck” or applying other Alexander directions while swimming.

Steven is not unique in applying the Technique to a popular pursuit, but with the exception of Malcolm Balk, the Alexander running coach, is perhaps the only Alexander teacher who has married AT with an activity and formed a whole new discipline. [I know at this point that any Alexander folk who know differently will let me know via the comments – please don't hesitate!]

So many people have had their swimming transformed by Shaw Method over the years, but in that time other benefits from using the Method have come about. Pupils have found their “use” (their self awareness and the way they move and think) improving on land after working in the water with Steven or one of the other Shaw Method teachers, and many people have been introduced to Alexander Technique via Shaw Method.

Jonathan Drake, an Alexander teacher based in Norfolk and exercise expert, agrees that Shaw Method’s benefits go on after you’ve stepped out of the pool. “It will help your general use and posture, and to understand that everything is a process, that the relationship between the head, neck and back is a constant in whatever you are doing,” he says. But he is keen to point out that it is not so easily applied to another activity, so it won’t help you run or use a rowing machine more efficiently. Anecdotally, Steven tells me that he notices postural improvements all the time in his pupils, a key example is his mother who now swims Shaw Method front crawl every morning. She has no aches and pains, and more freedom of movement in her 70s than she had decades ago.

Jonathan, like Steven, had seen the potential for Alexander Technique and swimming many years ago, and wrote about it in his book The Alexander Technique in Everyday Life. Another Alexander teacher who saw AT in the water as an obvious progression was London-based Dorothea Magonet (former Chair of STAT). Before her Alexander training Dorothea had worked as a physio specialising in hydrotheraphy for seven years. “I thought combining the Technique and swimming was a brilliant idea and often thought it would be great to work with people in the water, but with a very busy practice never really had time.”

But why is swimming and the AT such a good fit? Judith Stern, an Alexander teacher and tutor, based in New York, has the following answer: “Swimming is walking in the water,” she says. “It’s a contralateral activity, when the arms and legs are working simultaneously, there’s a spiral to the torso, and it’s an incredibly organic way to have the experience of the whole self [ie the unity of metal processes and physical being].” Judith also feels that pupils have less habits when swimming than they do when walking, an activity most of us do every day.

Interestingly, all the Alexander teachers I spoke to for this article felt that, in certain circumstances, Shaw Method has advantages over AT.

Jonathan Drake suggests it to pupils who who are heavier because of the water’s supportive properties,”The more overweight will often struggle on dry land, but when they’re in the water they can discover a kind of confidence that they don’t have on dry land.” The freedom of movement in the water is something that just can’t be replicated on land, and it’s not just the overweight who benefit from working on themselves in the pool. For those with mobility problems too, the water is a great liberator.

Judith Stern talks about the experience of working in the water as being womb-like. “For us to feel weightless and to experience that movement is so different to being landed. It’s a completely different kinesthetic experience that it opens up people’s possibilities in a more elegant and easy way.”

For Dorothea Magonet it is useful as a diagnostic tool, and can be the key to accelerated learning. “Moving in water can show up all sorts of movement and behavioural habits that are much more amplified than on land, so combining the principles of the Alexander Technique to moving in water and dealing with water can accelerate the learning of swimming and the learning of the AT,” she says.

But what about those who don’t instantly connect with the Technique in its traditional form? Paul Cook, an Alexander teacher working in Brisbane, Australia and editor of the AT journal Direction says, “AT is much easier to understand if applied to something you like to do. If you are suffering from bad posture, in pain or even invalided the transition to relief may be accelerated by applying AT principles to something you already enjoy.”

I have heard that there are pupils who say the AT didn’t make sense to them until they tried Shaw Method, and there is no doubt that being asked to lead with the head when you are swimming is more of a lightbulb moment than being given the same direction for walking or even getting up out of a chair.

While most Alexander teachers are very good at explaining their work and how it will benefit you, there can be a tendency to use jargon and teach it without much contact with pupils’ every day life. “The way it is taught is often a very rarified experience,” says Jonathan Drake. “I had a traditional training, working in the chair mostly, and the reason I wrote my book [see above] was trying to make sense to applying it to other activities.”

Judith Stern concurs with Jonathan. “I think that sometimes applied work is a little easier,” she says. “Steven, in particular, makes the Technique really accessible. There’s no jargon, and a lot of practical application.”

There is no doubt that, for many, the door to Alexander Technique is flung open by Shaw Method, and Steven has seen a lot of pupils transfer from the water to more traditional AT lessons. From their experience in the pool, they are turned on by its possibilities as Dorothea Magonet can attest.”They bring a different motivation to the learning of the AT,” she says. “They have experienced how their habits prevent them from learning and how the principles of the AT can help them unlearn habits. They learn to be comfortable in the water and swim with more pleasure. This gives them a particular impetus to apply what they learn to an AT lesson.”

It seems to me that like all great innovators Steven Shaw has taken an idea that perhaps many would have thought of, and worked tirelessly to make it work, to give back to its twin inspirations – Alexander Technique and swimming – and to promote both. As Dorothea Magonet says, “It’s a stroke of genius, and at the same time so obvious.”