So much time is spent on proper technique that by Olympic standards, Klim, Popov and the rest of Touretski's squad have relatively leisurely workouts- though they still swim about 70 kilometres a week. To outsiders, his methods appear odd. In three weeks, I never saw him do a single lap that looked hard. Touretski demonstrates by walking across his office in exaggerated slow motion. By moving extremely slowly, he has to concentrate on the exact placement of each muscle.
Balance becomes imperative.
The same applies in the pool, and when swimmers can travel smoothly at a very slow speed, they can move more smoothly at high speed. Superslow swimming also forces swimmers to concentrate on extending their arms as far as possible, to get maximum range on each stroke. And it improves a swimmer's ability to relax at higher speed. When you absolutely know that your hands and feet will be in the right place at the right time, there are fewer frantic actions and less wasted energy during a race. There's a wave of muscles contracting or relaxing simultaneously.