I was participating in a special New Year’s event for Cambridge Masters Swim Club.  The swim was broken up into units of 100 yards swum on timed intervals.  I chose 1 minute 35 second intervals for each 100.  All I had to do was repeat that 100 times.

There were 7 people in my lane when we started.  One by one, we launched into our swim, leaving 5 seconds after the person before us.  The first few 100’s were easy, with lots of rest, and plenty of time for our coach (Abe) to check on us.  I felt like it would be a piece of cake.  That didn’t last.  About 2/3 of the way through I started wondering if I was going to make it, but two things kept me going.  One was the moral support of my two dear friends who took a moment to cheer me on, though they had not been able to keep going themselves.  The other was taiko.

What’s good for a taiko player…

Shigeru maintains a stable frame while playing odaiko. (Photo courtesy Lauren Poussard)

I’ve often thought about taiko while swimming, as the two activities have  a lot in common.  In particular, swimming is often like a slow oroshi.  Both involve the careful coordination of your entire body, while keeping to a steady rhythm.  Staying relaxed is a big part of maintaining endurance, and the details of arm movements can really make a big difference in either activity.

Though I’ve been aware of this for quite some time, it’s become much clearer to me in recent months.

At the end of October, Mark and Juni were off in Switzerland for a week, performing with Marco Lienhard of Taikoza.  While they were away, the other ensemble members took over leadership of the community rehearsal.  Each led a separate segment of rehearsal, which serendipitously built up in a wonderful way: from Shigeru’s segment on body awareness, to Kristen’s oroshi involving mindfulness of our motions, to Karen’s segment on observing one another while playing a song.  It was a wonderful practice, and a real change of pace from the previous few months which had included a lot of intense preparations for performances.

One of the many things that really struck me during that practice was something that Shigeru said.  He explained that he’d noticed the importance of maintaining one’s frame across a wide variety of activities.  From taiko to dance, to swimming, golf, basketball, etc., athletes and performers who are good at what they do, are good at maintaining a strong and stable frame.  (You can think of the shoulders and hips as the corners of a body’s frame.)

He is so right!  It doesn’t look good if a dancer dances hunched up on one side, the best swimmers do not twist much as they swim…  This doesn’t mean that people are completely rigid, but rather that they maintain square shoulders and a stable core while staying relaxed.

When we moved on to Kristen’s segment, she talked about using our koshi: starting the motion from the core–so that we aren’t just using our arms to drum–instead we are using our whole bodies.  Engaging muscles in our cores allows for much greater strength and endurance than if we rely on our arm muscles alone.

All this was reinforced by a visit from Kaoru Watanabe a couple of weeks later.  I was lucky enough to participate in two sessions with him, one on body mechanics playing on yokodai, and one on Yatai Bayashi.

Kaoru focused on starting movements from one’s koshi, and allowing one’s arm to follow along.  He broke it down in an exercise that allowed us to focus on moving a single joint to hit the drum, gradually working from wrist to elbow to shoulder to koshi.

He noted the importance of good posture–mostly emphasizing that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to hunch over as we play.

He also discussed the concept of the unbendable arm, using expanding muscles in your arms and back, rather than the strength of one’s biceps to keep your arm straight while under outside pressure.

Here’s a video which describes the same concept:

This is an important concept for taiko because you usually focus on bending your arm as you bring it downward to hit the drum.  Shifting your focus to expanding the arm outwards has a big impact on what muscles you use, how your arm moves, how relaxed you can be while playing, how it looks, and how long you can endure.

…is good for a swimmer.

Much of what Kaoru, Kristen, and Shigeru shared has translated into good advice for swimming.  The first time I jumped into the pool after Kaoru’s visit, I started thinking about those expanding arm muscles; and the more I thought about it, the more I could feel the motion come from my back.  The more I engaged my back, the stronger I felt.

When I swim I’ve always known that the power in my kick comes from my thighs and buttocks, not at all from bending my knees or flexing my feet  (in fact, I keep my knees and ankles almost completely relaxed).  Yet until Kaoru put the last piece in place, I never made the connection that what was true for my legs is also true for my arms.

As I continued my swim this morning, I thought about those connections: the expanding arm muscles, maintaining my frame, finding strength in my core, and using my back muscles to move my arm.  Focusing on these things allowed me to continue.  Though I was tired, I was able to maintain my intervals, finishing the swim 100 yards at a time, stroke by stroke.  I was swimming like a drummer, and I’ve never gone so far in my life.

My Practice Setup

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement, I absolutely love and recommend Kristofer Bergstrom of On Ensemble’s program 30 Days to Better Shime. I first heard about the course while attending this year’s North American Taiko Conference in Los Angeles, California. Not being one to often play the shime (a small, high-pitched drum often used to lead a taiko ensemble), I almost passed the program by without a thought. Luckily, I realized the very fact that I didn’t play the shime very much was exactly why I should sign up. 28 days in, I can safely say that in my 10-odd years of studying music, this course is one of the most singularly helpful and beneficial tools I have ever encountered.

If I had to find fault with the program, it would be that the title does not imply nearly the full scope of what it has to teach. The exercises and drills that Mr. Bergstrom has put together often focus on musical skills far more fundamental than technique for just this specific drum. The exercises in coordination, tempo control, ear training, and basic practice skills (to name a few) are so well constructed as to serve as training tools for fundamental rhythmic ability and overall musicianship. They’re broken down to their very basic forms, allowing them to easily be applied to other taiko, drum kit, percussion in general, and I’ve even used some of them in my guitar playing.

30 Days is ultimately as simple to use and to complete as it is useful. The entirety of the course can be completed with a single pair of drum sticks and a practice pad, and if you’re willing to practice in front of the computer, all of the materials can be downloaded for free. After a few weeks of practicing 15-20 minutes a day, I’ve already noticed a considerable improvement in my timing, technique, and consistency, and I would strongly recommend this program to any musician, percussionist or otherwise.