Push the Water Backward

On reducing unnecessary resistance

One of the simplest principles in swimming is this:

To move forward efficiently, you must push the water backward.

Any movement that pushes water sideways, downward, or forward creates resistance and slows you down.

Sounds obvious.

But swimmers violate this principle constantly.

One morning my coach noticed my feet were pointed toward the bottom of the pool instead of backward. My feet were essentially acting like brakes, creating drag instead of propulsion.

Other times my hands enter or pull in ways that move water everywhere except backward.

Swimming has made me more aware of how often I do the same thing outside the pool.

Whenever I procrastinate, doom scroll, overthink an email, avoid a difficult task, or mentally complain about something that still needs to get done, I’m no longer pushing the water backward.

I’m creating resistance.

And what fascinates me is how much exhaustion comes not from the task itself, but from resisting the task.

If I need to answer twenty emails, my mind turns them into a hundred.

If I need to revise something I already completed, it feels like punishment instead of process.

If I delay my CPE requirements long enough, a manageable task somehow becomes psychologically enormous.

The energy drain often comes before the work even begins.

Swimming keeps reminding me that smooth forward motion matters.

Not frantic motion.

Not dramatic motion.

Not emotionally resistant motion.

Just calm, efficient movement in the right direction.

Push the water backward.

The same principle may apply to life.

Ironically, I’m writing this while sidelined from swimming for several days with a cold and life obligations.

Which may be another reminder that resisting reality is also a form of drag.