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
I, like Wayne, hesitate to enter into this thread again. BUT,
The best coaches in the world are not necessarily the coaches of Olympic swimmers for exactly the reasons Wayne points out. It IS painful to watch Olympic swimmers make costly mistakes in their races. Gary Hall's examples are excellent ones. These swimmers, like any other athlete, will only fix their bad habits when they get beat by someone who does it better.
In my opinion, the best coaches are often the coaches of beginner swimmers. These coaches have to mold completely raw talent into swimmers, fix mistakes that are common to every beginner swimmers, and most of the time, do not allow swimmers to make excuses for why they can't do something. Anyone who has tried to teach a stubborn 9-10 year old how to improve knows what I am talking about.
Also, in my opinion, the best coaches do look at the athlete as an individual when they access where improvement should be made. Swimmers who are 6' 7" are going to swimm differently than swimmers who are 5' 10". Swimmers with asthma have different challenges than swimmers who do not.
Coaches should coach to optimize the individual's performance given the individual's limitations. That same coach should also explain to the swimmer that what they are doing may not be as fast as if they could swim in another manner. After that, it is up to the swimmer to decide what they want to do.
Ion, with your asthma, Tom Dolan has asthma - pretty bad too. He does not breathe twice per cycle. I am willing to bet he has learned how to exhale hard enough to get enough oxygen to keep going. So, the best question for you is, do you need to breathe more often, or do you need to change how you exhale? I believe every time you breathe, you add about .4 seconds to your time. What do you want?
Paul Windrath
I, like Wayne, hesitate to enter into this thread again. BUT,
The best coaches in the world are not necessarily the coaches of Olympic swimmers for exactly the reasons Wayne points out. It IS painful to watch Olympic swimmers make costly mistakes in their races. Gary Hall's examples are excellent ones. These swimmers, like any other athlete, will only fix their bad habits when they get beat by someone who does it better.
In my opinion, the best coaches are often the coaches of beginner swimmers. These coaches have to mold completely raw talent into swimmers, fix mistakes that are common to every beginner swimmers, and most of the time, do not allow swimmers to make excuses for why they can't do something. Anyone who has tried to teach a stubborn 9-10 year old how to improve knows what I am talking about.
Also, in my opinion, the best coaches do look at the athlete as an individual when they access where improvement should be made. Swimmers who are 6' 7" are going to swimm differently than swimmers who are 5' 10". Swimmers with asthma have different challenges than swimmers who do not.
Coaches should coach to optimize the individual's performance given the individual's limitations. That same coach should also explain to the swimmer that what they are doing may not be as fast as if they could swim in another manner. After that, it is up to the swimmer to decide what they want to do.
Ion, with your asthma, Tom Dolan has asthma - pretty bad too. He does not breathe twice per cycle. I am willing to bet he has learned how to exhale hard enough to get enough oxygen to keep going. So, the best question for you is, do you need to breathe more often, or do you need to change how you exhale? I believe every time you breathe, you add about .4 seconds to your time. What do you want?
Paul Windrath
