ONCORE: Crawling to Swimming

Experiential learning is a fundamental part of human development. From birth, we learn through experience, trial and error, and direct feedback from our environment. This method of learning is deeply ingrained in how we acquire essential skills, from crawling and walking as infants to mastering complex technical abilities as adults. The profound impact of experiential learning comes from the immediate feedback the individual receives, which enables them to feel and understand the changes needed for improvement. In swimming, this learning approach is particularly powerful, and it is at the heart of what makes ONCORE such an effective tool for skill acquisition.

Power of Experiential Learning

Think back to when you learned to walk. As babies, we don’t learn to stand, balance, or walk by reading instructions or watching others; we learn through experience. We begin by crawling, an essential precursor that strengthens our muscles and helps us understand how our body moves in space. With each attempt to pull ourselves up or take a step, we receive direct feedback from our bodies - if we lose balance, we stumble or fall. If we place our foot too far forward, we wobble. These experiences, and the sensations they create, are crucial for learning how to adjust and refine our movements.

This process of trial, error, and adjustment is the essence of experiential learning. The body learns by doing, and the brain creates neural connections that help us improve with each attempt. The sensory feedback we receive - the feel of the ground beneath our feet, the weight shift as we take a step - gives us the information we need to correct mistakes, develop coordination, and eventually master the task.

The Foundation of Human Development

Experiential learning is so effective because it provides real-time feedback. This feedback loop allows us to make immediate corrections and adjust our actions based on the outcome. Whether we’re learning to walk, ride a bike, or swim, the ability to feel what went wrong and adjust accordingly is what makes the learning process so powerful.

The Critical Role of Feedback

In sports, especially swimming, this feedback is critical. Swimmers learn through feeling the water, sensing their body position, and adjusting their movements based on how it feels when they apply pressure or adjust their form. This sensory input enables the swimmer to refine their technique, improve body alignment, and enhance performance over time.

Without this type of direct feedback, skill acquisition becomes much slower and more difficult. Watching or reading about technique can provide intellectual understanding, but it’s the feeling of the movement and the sensory feedback that truly cements new skills in the brain.

ONCORE Leverages Experiential Learning

ONCORE is designed to maximise the benefits of experiential learning in swimming. Unlike traditional swim aids that simply support movement or provide resistance, ONCORE actively engages the swimmer by offering constant, real-time feedback that helps them refine their technique. Here’s how:

1.  Direct Sensory Feedback: The textured surface and unique buoyant properties of ONCORE provide swimmers with tactile feedback. This feedback lets them feel how their body is interacting with the water, especially during drills that emphasise core engagement and body alignment. Swimmers can immediately sense when they’ve lost control or when their body is out of alignment, allowing them to make adjustments in real-time.

2. Muscle Engagement and Awareness: ONCORE’s design challenges the swimmer to engage key muscle groups, especially the core and stabilising muscles. This experiential engagement is critical for developing better body awareness in the water. The swimmer learns not just by intellectual understanding but by physically feeling which muscles are engaged and how their body position impacts their stroke efficiency.

Immediate Sensory Feedback

3.  Highlighting Imbalances: One of the key benefits of ONCORE is that it highlights any weaknesses or imbalances in the swimmer’s body. When performing drills with ONCORE, swimmers receive immediate feedback if one arm is weaker or if their core isn’t properly engaged. This direct feedback helps the swimmer feel what needs to change, creating a learning experience that leads to faster improvement.

4.  Skill Transfer: The experiential learning gained from using ONCORE doesn’t stay isolated in drills. The sensory awareness and muscle engagement developed through using ONCORE transfer directly to the swimmer’s full stroke. As they refine their body alignment, core stability, and feel for the water, these improvements become part of their natural swimming movements, enhancing performance across all strokes.

Precise Movements - Coordinated Engagement

ONCORE’s effectiveness as a swim-specific training tool is rooted in its ability to harness the power of experiential learning. Swimming is an intricate sport, requiring precise body movements, coordinated muscle engagement, and acute awareness of how to move through the water efficiently. The best way to master these complexities is by feeling them, adjusting to the feedback from each movement, and developing the neural pathways that lead to muscle memory and skill acquisition.

Immediate Feedback for Faster Learning: With each drill, ONCORE provides direct feedback on body alignment, core stability, and stroke mechanics. Swimmers can feel what’s working and what isn’t, allowing them to make faster adjustments than they would through verbal cues or visual demonstration alone.

Enhanced Proprioception: Proprioception, or the body’s ability to sense its position in space, is essential for good swimming technique. ONCORE helps swimmers develop better proprioception by providing constant tactile input, helping them feel when their body is in the correct position.

Long-Term Skill Development: The experiential learning fostered by ONCORE leads to long-term skill development. By learning through feel and feedback, swimmers develop muscle memory that allows them to perform technical movements with greater ease and efficiency over time. The sensory feedback becomes part of their swimming routine, leading to consistent improvement.

Experiential learning has been central to human development from birth, whether learning to crawl, walk, or swim. The profound impact of learning through experience comes from the real-time feedback we receive, enabling us to make adjustments and refine our movements. In swimming, this feedback is essential for developing technique, improving efficiency, and avoiding injury. ONCORE taps into the power of experiential learning by providing swimmers with constant sensory feedback that enhances body awareness, strengthens core engagement, and refines stroke mechanics. With ONCORE, swimmers aren’t just practicing drills - they’re engaging in a learning process that accelerates their development and leads to lasting improvements.