Now that I've gone through the hassle of signing up as a member of this dicussion group, this gets more and more fun. Maybe I'll get fired from my job :)
Anyway... I'm sure that ALL Masters level swimmers have heard of Total Immersion (from now on referred to as TI) swimming, correct? What are everyone's opinions about TI swimming? I am most curious because as a coach of age group swimmers, I was looking for training videos for our kids. I happened upon TI and liked what I saw... at first.
Here's some background for my experience with TI... very well put together, most of what they teach has been in existence for some time anyway, and they certainly are good for teaching novice/beginner swimmers the basic technique for swimming.
However, when looking to swim fast, and I mean fast, not lap swim quality, but truly competitively, I thing TI has missed to boat completely. Yes, smooth and efficient swimming is nice, but did anyone see the NCAA's? There are 20 year old men swimming 9 strokes per length in breaststroke! We have a number of age group coaches in my area teaching their kids how to swim breaststroke at 6 or 7 strokes a length!!! What gives? Extended glide is one thing, but when you slow down your stroke to such an extent just to achieve long and fluid strokes you sacrifice speed tremendously.
Hey, if you can swim 9 strokes a length at 1 second per stroke that is WAY better than 6 strokes a length at 2 seconds per stroke. Simple math.
Anthony Ervin of Cal swam the 100 free in the follwing SPL... 12 (start)/15/16/16. I could be off but that's what I was able to get from the (ahem- PALTRY) ESPN coverage. Now TI has goal SPL's of 12/13! Hello, if the BEST sprinter in history takes 8 cycles, shouldn't that tell us something? Turnover is very important. Same with streamlining, yes streamlines are nice and quite important but A.E. pops up after 5 yards MAX out of each turn. You only serve yourself well if your streamline is faster than you can swim, most age group swimmers would be well-served to explode out of the turn and swim within 3-4 yards.
Alas, it's been a slow day finishing my work for the week. Just looking to start a nice discussion. It's been my experience that a lot of Masters level swimmers are also engaged in coaching age group swimming at some level, and therefore I feel we can get some good dialogue going on this issue.
Now I've just used TI as an example because that's what I've had my experience with, but more general is what keys do you all stress when trying to mold competitive swimmers?
Au revoir,
-Rain Man
Dear Rainman,
When I read your posting, two things popped up that I would like to share and to keep in mind.
Point 1: Watching the best swimmers is fun and informative. It also comes with the risk that we will believe that they are the fastest because their technique is the best in all aspects of their race. We have to be careful with that line of thinking because everyfast swimmer in the world has something they can improve. Best example I can think of is Tom Dolan's backstroke kick.
I too noticed Anthony Ervin popping up at 4 yards right into the wall of water coming at him. If we all starting doing that, we are like lemmings to the sea creating fad after fad instead of solid technical improvement
Point two: Besides trying to swim like fish, we should also emulate the power boats of the past. Early powerboat design was based on long hull design because the longer the boat was, the faster it was. We humans are the same way. Longer strokes lead to faster swimming.
To prove that point, next time at practice, I encourage you to test what I call "The Thoery of Swim-a-Tivity." It is loosely patterns in reverse fashion from Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
The Theory of Swim-A-Tivity states that as the number of strokes per 25 increases, your speed goes down. So, next time in the water, try taking 20 strokes per 25, then 30 strokes, then 40 strokes, and so on until you try to take 200 strokes per length. Do not touch the end of the pool until you take 200 strokes.
Guaranteed, you will not be moving very fast by that time.
Yeah, it is a little toungue in cheek and the kids love trying it.
Good Luck with your swimming.
Paul Windrath
Dear Rainman,
When I read your posting, two things popped up that I would like to share and to keep in mind.
Point 1: Watching the best swimmers is fun and informative. It also comes with the risk that we will believe that they are the fastest because their technique is the best in all aspects of their race. We have to be careful with that line of thinking because everyfast swimmer in the world has something they can improve. Best example I can think of is Tom Dolan's backstroke kick.
I too noticed Anthony Ervin popping up at 4 yards right into the wall of water coming at him. If we all starting doing that, we are like lemmings to the sea creating fad after fad instead of solid technical improvement
Point two: Besides trying to swim like fish, we should also emulate the power boats of the past. Early powerboat design was based on long hull design because the longer the boat was, the faster it was. We humans are the same way. Longer strokes lead to faster swimming.
To prove that point, next time at practice, I encourage you to test what I call "The Thoery of Swim-a-Tivity." It is loosely patterns in reverse fashion from Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
The Theory of Swim-A-Tivity states that as the number of strokes per 25 increases, your speed goes down. So, next time in the water, try taking 20 strokes per 25, then 30 strokes, then 40 strokes, and so on until you try to take 200 strokes per length. Do not touch the end of the pool until you take 200 strokes.
Guaranteed, you will not be moving very fast by that time.
Yeah, it is a little toungue in cheek and the kids love trying it.
Good Luck with your swimming.
Paul Windrath
