Swimmers, Shaving, and Proprioception

Swimmers, Shaving, and Proprioception

Since the publication of Brain Sense, I've received a lot of emails and phone calls from some wonderful, interesting people who found something in the book that struck a cord with them. One such correspondent is Don Megerle (shown left), marathon running coach and long-term swim coach at Tufts. Don had nice things to say about the book, but better than that, he posed a neurological question that he's been trying to answer for forty years. Since I have no answer and Don is still looking, I thought the best approach would be to post the topic here and see if any Psychology Today neuroscience readers can offer some answers.

Here's what Don has noticed in training swimmers, and it has to do with body shaves, which (it was news to me) are done in preparation for major competitions. Megerle has found that his best-trained swimmers derive a 4-6 second advantage from a shave--but only if they have gone through a taper (reduced training) period of as long as six weeks before shaving and competing. Those who train without resting get no advantage from the shave. This is not a friction phenomenon, says Megerle. It has something to do with the nervous system, and--if we could understand it--we might change our view of the whole process of proprioception, he believes. He says the improvement in performance is sensory . . . that altering sensory input results in better coordination of motor output.

Megerle says that removing body hairs with an electric razor makes rested swimmers faster, but that removing some of the surface epidermis with a deeper, wet-shave does even more. He thinks that the shave renders superficial nerve endings more accessible to the stimulation of the water, thus altering sensory stimuli to the brain. What the relative sensitivity or insensitivity of body hairs has to do with it is a mystery, as is why shaving improves performance only after a period of reduced training. The experiment that would test Megerle's basic premise--matched samples of swimmers who shave but do not taper versus swimmers who taper but do not shave--has, as far as I can find, never been done . . . I guess because no swimmer wants to risk losing for the sake of science. The bigger neurological/physiological question of the effects of shaving on proprioception and motor output is, as far as I can tell, a new frontier.

So, here's a challenge to our readers. Do you know of any research that would shed light on Megerle's hypothesis? Both Don and I would be happy to see lots of positive contributions in response to this post.

For More Informaion

Part One of Brain Sense is devoted to touch, but the swimming-shaving hypothesis will have to be a new chapter in More Brain Sense, I think.