7.5. Why should I include sculling in my training regularly?

The human body loves falling into patterns and eagerly looks for shortcuts and detours that bring some relief. That’s completely natural.

When your knee hurts, the body finds a different way to walk or run, and in that moment, it doesn’t mind that it’s putting strain on other parts of the body.

It’s the same with swimming — once you start swimming regularly, your body begins to look for “improvements” that make it easier to breathe or reduce shoulder or tricep fatigue. And from that, patterns form. Faulty movement patterns. Ones you don’t even notice — but they slow you down.

Your body won’t tell you that you’re shortening the glide phase of your stroke to breathe more easily, losing momentum and swimming slower.

It won’t tell you that you’ve started pulling with your arms too close to your body, in bubbly water, releasing the catch too early, or turning your palms outward mid-stroke — all to protect your shoulders. And that you’re slowing down because of it.

Nor will your body tell you that to save your triceps, you’ve stopped finishing your stroke properly and no longer push the water all the way back — again making your stroke less efficient.

You don’t even know this is happening — because the technique you’ve learned and reinforced over time is the only input your brain receives. Your brain doesn’t recognize any other underwater arm path than the one it repeats in every single session.

That’s where sculling drills come in. They reveal a whole range of angles, wrist tilts, and hand movements you normally don’t use. It’s like a Swedish buffet — you suddenly enrich your hand awareness and learn how to apply pressure better. You wake up nerve endings in every finger and in your palms. You open up a decision-making process in the water — maybe there’s a better way, a stronger way, a more efficient way. You break the routine.

That’s the goal of regular sculling drills. To break the routine. Routine destroys technique — your body will always try to drag you back to inefficient movement, like a leash.

Instead, break the routine — and awaken the sensory awareness in your fingers and your palms.