7.3. Why does the little skinny girl swim faster than me?

I coach a group of adult swimmers. They’re great guys—big, strong, athletic. They swim twice a week, some even more, and some also cycle and run. They swim pretty fast. But most of them didn’t learn to swim until adulthood.

Why am I telling you this?

Here’s the hard truth: An adult who’s been refining their freestyle technique for years and trains twice a week, even with fitness like a pro, will never be faster than an adult who learned to swim as a kid. By “kid” I mean that golden age of motor learning—roughly 9 to 12 years old—when children absorb everything you show them like a sponge. At that age, they build deep muscle memory for every movement. Once that golden window closes, it’s much harder to develop that same efficiency. We may polish our technique later, but we’ll never catch up with those who started young.

Back to my adult group. One day, I asked them:
“Guys, what do you think you could improve in your freestyle?”
Their answers were things like “kick more with my legs” or “train more with hand paddles.”

That’s all true—every answer had to do with increasing strength and training harder. But then I asked them one more thing: ‘Guys, now tell me this—how is it possible that Lojza’s daughter, who is 11 years old, weighs about 10 kilos, has hands the size of your pinky finger, still beats most of you in swimming?’ That little girl has neither strength nor physical conditioning, so how is it possible?

That little girl learned to feel the water during the golden age of motor learning. Her hand under the water is tilted just right to push her directly forward—not upward, not sideways—but is in a perfect position throughout the entire pull phase.

And that feel for the water is something we can train—through sculling drills.
It’s the single most effective way to get faster without even breaking a sweat.
Fitness and conditioning have their limits. But learning to hold the water—with a perfectly angled palm, applying pressure throughout the stroke path—that’s something you can always improve.
It’s free speed. And it costs you nothing but awareness.