Total Immersion: Are the workshops worth it?

As Debugger said, there are many components to swimming training. While representing drills and proper technique as easy and relaxing swimming may be a good marketing tool (and has appealed to a wider audience) my swimmers will tell you that drills are anything but easy - and they are not meant to be! Drills are meant to isolate specific muscle groups and specific parts of the swimming stroke in order to improve overall technique, increase strength and therefore improve the speed of your swimming. Completing drills properly can be fatiguing due to the fact that the swimmer is repetitively working on individual areas of the stroke and using targeted muscles in the process. Drills should be used as part of the workout, but not exclusively so. As a final point, I would add that one workshop, one clinic, or one lesson will generally not make you a better swimmer; rather, it is a longer-term, individualized coaching plan emphasizing proper technique and speed work that is the key to success.

As Debugger said, there are many components to swimming training. While representing drills and proper technique as easy and relaxing swimming may be a good marketing tool (and has appealed to a wider audience) my swimmers will tell you that drills are anything but easy - and they are not meant to be! Drills are meant to isolate specific muscle groups and specific parts of the swimming stroke in order to improve overall technique, increase strength and therefore improve the speed of your swimming. Completing drills properly can be fatiguing due to the fact that the swimmer is repetitively working on individual areas of the stroke and using targeted muscles in the process. Drills should be used as part of the workout, but not exclusively so. As a final point, I would add that one workshop, one clinic, or one lesson will generally not make you a better swimmer; rather, it is a longer-term, individualized coaching plan emphasizing proper technique and speed work that is the key to success. Wow, lots of good information and opinions on this. The blog writer said she improved a lot from that one workshop, but she kept at it. Just watching the drills on the dvd makes me tired.

Wow, lots of good information and opinions on this. The blog writer said she improved a lot from that one workshop, but she kept at it. Just watching the drills on the dvd makes me tired. A stopwatch is the best judge on this. All improvements should pass this test. My teammate got excited on TI too. His stroke became smoother he started to swim longer distances, improved endurance, but... his time on 50 LCM free became 3 sec. worse. Considering that 50m free is his main event I cannot call all mentioned above as improvements, not from the competitive perspective.

It sounds like a good method of training for endurance. Terry Laughlin, in his book, claims competitive swimmers can improve their time using TI, and to be honest, in the world of competition 3 seconds is probably a lot but to me it sounds like he's still a pretty darned fast swimmer.

:Lurking: :popcorn: Good dialogue on this thread! All of you have made excellent points worth considering. :agree: This is why I find the USMS Forums a valuable networking site for improving my swimming. :applaud: I agree with Elaine, Swimspire, and Wookie. For a novice swimmer without having much coaching or instruction, a well organized program like TI is very likely to be very beneficial. If nothing else it provides an organized approach and plan, instead of random trial and error. The program may help a lot or it might not work for you. I think its more likely to help with longer swims by improving your efficiency - very important. I don't think sprinting and endurance conditioning are goals of these programs, but once you have basic efficiency adding these goals, adapting your workouts to meet them, and modifying stroke for them should be much easier. Sprinting and endurance swimming are not mutually exclusive, but the training for each is very different. At some point "you know you have to finally decide and say as to one and let the other one slide." For intermediate and advanced swimmers (been at for a long time through lots of coached workouts maybe 5-10 years and more) these programs might not be as beneficial. At this point the swimmer has an approach and system and its a question of tweaking or revising things that have gone south. Individual coaching from the pool deck during workouts or private coaching sessions is more likely to be more effective for these swimmers. My :2cents:.

Well said, Sojerz! I definitely agree with your analysis. Also, to reply to Debugger's comment, the stopwatch may not be the only factor that you should use to determine the value of a swimming program, at least initially. If a stroke analysis reveals weaknesses in the swimmer's technique, implementing a newer and more efficient style of swimming may save him from future injuries, which could be worth an initial decline in performance. As the swimmer adjusts to the new stroke, and incorporates speed work into his routine, he will likely see improvement over the long-term. If he does not see any improvement, then of course he may want to reevaluate his progress with the swimming program he has chosen.

A stopwatch is the best judge on this. All improvements should pass this test. My teammate got excited on TI too. His stroke became smoother he started to swim longer distances, improved endurance, but... his time on 50 LCM free became 3 sec. worse. Considering that 50m free is his main event I cannot call all mentioned above as improvements, not from the competitive perspective. Did your teammate continue to train for sprints, while swimming longer distances?

Exactly! I absolutely agree.

Also, to reply to Debugger's comment, the stopwatch may not be the only factor that you should use to determine the value of a swimming program, at least initially. If a stroke analysis reveals weaknesses in the swimmer's technique, implementing a newer and more efficient style of swimming may save him from future injuries, which could be worth an initial decline in performance. As the swimmer adjusts to the new stroke, and incorporates speed work into his routine, he will likely see improvement over the long-term. If he does not see any improvement, then of course he may want to reevaluate his progress with the swimming program he has chosen. I agree 100% with your comment about the stopwatch. That is just one tool to measure improvement. You are spot on about injury prevention, as well as being patient and reevaluating performance over time. No method is a magic bullet for faster swimming. Improvement takes a lot for work, both mental and physical. People expect immediate results but that isn't always the case. There are instances where a change in mechanics may provide immediate improvements but that isn't normally the case. Regardless of what school of thought a swimmer follows, all of them have similar goals. They want to help people become betters swimmers and enjoy this great activity that we can do for a lifetime.

I have improved my swimming a good amount just from the advice by other forum members.