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
Parents
Former Member
I think many posts here and of-the-shelf programs such as Total Immersion, have in common the fact that they are expecting a swimmer to mold into a technique.
The preference that I have, is different: to me, good coaching does the opposite, it molds technique into a swimmer.
It does so, by first an in-depth learning on how the swimmer operates, from novice kid to adult swimmer.
Examples of a swimmer expected to mold into a technique are apparent to me when based on perceived defects in races I have done in Hawaii:
1) I train with the wrong technique too much mileage;
the particular answer in this issue, is that in fact I do more of the coached workouts than others; these coached workouts come packaged with their blend of technique drills and mileage; this blend is comparable to what I experienced in 1995 and 1996 with the Stanford Masters; the blend of technique drills and mileage I saw being done in the Stanford college practices, makes me think the school relies mainly on good recruiting, then it does mature a few and does break many through intensive yardage; these days, to coached workouts here I add on my own kicking, an aspect neglected in Masters, and I add some drills, so I add qualities when I add quantity to the coached workouts.
2) I breathe too much, as in twice in the same cycle;
the particular answer in this issue, after discussing it with an one-on-one coach yesterday, is to keep it like it is now; I developed asthma in the beginning of the 90s, and I need to inhale twice per cycle through a narrow windpipe.
These particular examples of answers are done to tailor individually, when a coach is as directly involved in them as the swimmer is.
There are many by-the-book swimmers, and there are many not by-the-existing-book swimmers who operate and develop their ways.
Facing with the challenge of longtime working closely with the latter, many posts here advocating the former would adjust in time to the latter.
Another claim made in of-the-shelf Total Immersion, is to discard , wrongly I think, kicking with a board, pulling with a pull buoy, and promote a blend of drills and yardage where drills are too emphasized since I am a proponent of better conditioning leads to more spectrum in techniques.
I think many posts here and of-the-shelf programs such as Total Immersion, have in common the fact that they are expecting a swimmer to mold into a technique.
The preference that I have, is different: to me, good coaching does the opposite, it molds technique into a swimmer.
It does so, by first an in-depth learning on how the swimmer operates, from novice kid to adult swimmer.
Examples of a swimmer expected to mold into a technique are apparent to me when based on perceived defects in races I have done in Hawaii:
1) I train with the wrong technique too much mileage;
the particular answer in this issue, is that in fact I do more of the coached workouts than others; these coached workouts come packaged with their blend of technique drills and mileage; this blend is comparable to what I experienced in 1995 and 1996 with the Stanford Masters; the blend of technique drills and mileage I saw being done in the Stanford college practices, makes me think the school relies mainly on good recruiting, then it does mature a few and does break many through intensive yardage; these days, to coached workouts here I add on my own kicking, an aspect neglected in Masters, and I add some drills, so I add qualities when I add quantity to the coached workouts.
2) I breathe too much, as in twice in the same cycle;
the particular answer in this issue, after discussing it with an one-on-one coach yesterday, is to keep it like it is now; I developed asthma in the beginning of the 90s, and I need to inhale twice per cycle through a narrow windpipe.
These particular examples of answers are done to tailor individually, when a coach is as directly involved in them as the swimmer is.
There are many by-the-book swimmers, and there are many not by-the-existing-book swimmers who operate and develop their ways.
Facing with the challenge of longtime working closely with the latter, many posts here advocating the former would adjust in time to the latter.
Another claim made in of-the-shelf Total Immersion, is to discard , wrongly I think, kicking with a board, pulling with a pull buoy, and promote a blend of drills and yardage where drills are too emphasized since I am a proponent of better conditioning leads to more spectrum in techniques.
