Mastery in Action
Mastery in action is an awe-inspiring thing to watch.
Watching human peak performance is mind-blowing.
Earlier this week, Gretchen Walsh continued to do what Gretchen Walsh does best: wow the swimming world.
The 2025 World Aquatics Championships are in full swing this week.
Despite the United States Team being obliterated by “acute gastroenteritis”, Gretchen Walsh came through with the 2nd fastest time in history in the 100-meter butterfly — 2nd to her own World Record.
Prior to her swim, Gretchen Walsh owned the 7 fastest times in history in the 100-meter butterfly.
She now owns the 8 fastest times in history.
Here’s the race video.
The Process Leads to the Outcomes
Gretchen Walsh spent her college career at the University of Virginia working with Todd Desorbo.
Todd Desorbo has mastered the technical parts of swimming.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, Todd Desorbo started partnering with a University of Virginia mathematics professor, Ken Ono, to use data to drive performance.
The results have been tremendous as the University of Virginia women’s team has won the past 5 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
The data has informed how the swimmers swim their race — and Gretchen Walsh has perfected the minutia, which has led to numerous awe-inspiring swims.
The Minutiae
Earlier this summer, Todd Desorbo was interviewed about Gretchen’s race strategy.
Gretchen is an all-out sprinter by nature.
As a result, every stroke that she takes has a huge impact on her power and energy stores — especially later in the race.
This season, Todd Desorbo wanted Gretchen to take one less stroke on her first 50 — knowing that it would serve her at the end of her race.
Gretchen: “You mean you want me to swim slower?”
Todd: “No, slow is not in our vocabulary.”
He wanted her to swim more patiently.
He wanted her to swim bigger.
Dropping one stroke has led to the 4 fast times in history this year.
Gretchen’s Race — All the Minutia
Here’s Gretchen’s race from an underwater view — where you can really see mastery in action.
The Dive
She is the last one off the blocks — this is almost always the case.
Through the data they collect, Gretchen and her coaches discovered that she generates more power when she fully loads off the block rather than worrying about a fast reaction time.
The Underwater
The fastest “stroke” in swimming is underwater dolphin kick.
As such, there is a rule in swimming that swimmers must surface by the 15-meter mark.
By taking exactly 8 underwater dolphin kicks, Gretchen’s head breaks the surface perfectly at the 15-meter mark
She’s already in the lead.
The 1st 50
Per the work they’ve done — “swim more patiently; swim bigger” — Gretchen takes 17 strokes.
One less stroke than she was taking prior to 2025.
At this point, she is .016 ahead of her World Record.
The 2nd Underwater
As a lifetime swimmer, this is where things get crazy to me.
As she turns and pushes off, she does 11 underwater dolphin kicks and breaks out just before the 15-meter mark.
The lung capacity and control to do this is beyond me.
She’s a body length ahead of the closest swimmer.
The last 50
Gretchen finishes the last 50 meters of the race with a total of 19 strokes — also one stroke less than she took in 2024 when she first broke the World Record.
Robert Greene defines mastery as the feeling that we have a greater command of reality, other people, and ourselves.
Gretchen Walsh has command over all three.
So, What’s This All Mean?
Awe is a pretty neat thing.
Watch a kid experience the sound of thunder for the first time — that’s an amazing thing to witness.
As we age, we get accustomed to life — awe can be trickier to find.
But, within every niche — yes, even your niche — there is a master.
Be awed by them.
Watch them.
Study them.
Learn from them.
And then, commit to the process — the minutia — toward your own mastery to unlock your peak performance.
“[Mastery] is not really a goal or a destination but rather a process, a journey [and] it’s available to anyone who is willing to get on the path and stay on the path.”
- George Leonard
Who knows, you may just find yourself to be awe-inspiring…
…mind-blowing.
Onward.
Another example of mastery this week: Leon Marchand breaks the 200m IM World Record
Worth a read: Mastery by Robert Greene
Also worth a read: Mastery by George Leonard