Creative Think: Watermelon Butterfly

What do you see in the Photoshop art below?

Well, it depends on who you are.

If you're a swimming coach, you might notice a few things other folks don't.

Tim Edmonds, head coach of the Stanford Masters swimming team had the following comments about it:

The "underwater recovery" butterfly drill which works on, among other things, getting the breath really early in the stroke was nicknamed the "watermelon seed spitting" drill by [Stanford men's assistant swimming coach] Ted Knapp probably 10 or 11 years ago.

He thought the movement was similar to how you would move in order to win a watermelon seed spitting contest.

This is a great, if slightly ironic, image....The fact that this little fella's head is "in line", his chin is "neutral," and his arms are about to exit into a quick recovery (but aren't out yet) is just about perfect technique.

Personally I'd prefer if his movement was a little less vertical, but it's still pretty great.

You can tell he is a Noon swimmer by his dark goggles and his sunburn.

Thanks for the analysis, coach. It just goes to show that inspiration is all around us!

Anyone know the source of this image, and others like it?

Roger von Oech

I'm an author, inventor, and consultant. I started my company, Creative Think, in 1977 to stimulate creativity in business. I'm probably best known as the author of A Whack on the Side of the Head and the Creative Whack Pack, and, most recently, as the creator of the Ball of Whacks. [More]