Approach to teaching competitive swimming?

After a hiatus I've read back through a number of these threads. I find them so chock full of misinformation, conjecture and downright nonsense with respect to TI that its actually entertaining. So I'll add my, admittedly biased (I run an occasional TI clinic and get paid to do so), but also better informed, 2 cents worth... First, the notion that TI, or anyone officially connected with TI, believes or espouses the idea that the concepts taught by TI all originated from TI, or the idea that TI has the only successful method of teaching swimming, is total nonsense. Terry, and everyone else in the organization, credits a large percentage of the conceptual base of what we teach to a wide array of coaches. What and how TI teaches is constantly evolving - due largely from the input of many of the world's most successful coaches (and it is no accident that some of them also happen to be TI coaches). Herein I will refer several times to "TI concepts". This is shorthand for "concepts taught by TI" and not meant to indicate that the concepts "belong" to TI. It is my own personal belief that TI HAS hit upon a better, faster way of teaching these concepts (to groups of swimmers of ANY ability level) than anyone else in the swim clinic business. I am very well acquainted with a large percentage of the coaches that are actually certified as TI coaches - those who direct TI clinics and those who are first tier assistants. I know, intimately, from first-hand observation, how they work in a clinic setting. They faithfully teach the course material according to the paradigm assembled by Terry Laughlin in consultation with all of the senior coaching staff. That's as it should be. That's the expectation of our clients. I also know, from first-hand observation and anecdotally, that these coaches also employ the core philosophies of TI in their ongoing programs. This does not mean they expect every swimmer to adhere to one engraved-in-stone swimming style. None, not a single one, of the TI coaches I am familiar with, does that. Those who espouse the belief that TI, or TI coaches, advocate only one swimming style for all swimmers are, simply, misinformed. There are some coaches out there who call themselves "TI coaches" or indicate that they "teach TI" or say they run "TI programs", but who are not, in fact TI coaches. And there MAY even be a couple of those who do a passable job of it. However, employing TI concepts and philosophies on a day-in, day-out basis takes a combination of committment, understanding, knowledge and experience that these TI Pretenders simply do not have (I've been doing this a long time and I can tell you that I just barely have a tenuous grasp on the whole thing.) Since the dawn of swim coaching, coaches have gone to clinics, nearly always bringing something home to spring on their swimmers. That will never end. Of course, for a coach to go to a TI clinic, bring home one or two new drills, make their swimmers do those drills a few times and say "There, now we are running a TI program." is ludicrous. Yet some do that. Of course, a coach might go to a clinic, hear that Michael Klim trains 15,000 meters a day, then go home and start making his swimmers go similar distances and say "Now we're training like Michael Klim". This is equally absurd. Yet some (many) coaches do it. For an inexperienced coach (call him Coach NeoPhyte) to take some aspect of the training system employed by a successful coach (call him Coach OldVet) entirely out of context, and insert it into his own program and then wonder why it doesn't work the way he hoped it would is...alas... a very common scenario. But that certainly doesn't invalidate the system used by Coach OldVet. Also, the notion that TI, and TI concepts, are only for beginners, novices or non-competitive swimmers is utterly absurd. Such a notion can only be the result of a lack of information. Yes, we get plenty of novices in TI clinics. But we also get a goodly portion of accomplished swimmers as well. These swimmers, with rare exceptions, indicate that the clinic has been extremely beneficial to them. They make lots of progress and continue to employ the methods and concepts espoused by TI to great advantage. I've been in contact with and watched many hundreds of people that have really learned and practiced TI concepts and methods as taught by real TI coaches. The OVERWHELMING majority of those people have been very pleased with the results. I've ALSO been in contact with and watched many people who've only taken a half-hearted stab at employing TI concepts, or have taken one or two TI concepts entirely out of context, or have not given TI concepts enough practice to really learn them on a visceral level. In general, these people have not had as positive a result - as one might expect. These people are, of course, likely to have less positive (perhaps even quite negative) things to say about TI - as one might expect. However, we also find mixed results in this crowd. In some cases, even using a just a pittance of the Whole Package allows some people to make tremendous breakthroughs. Something as simple as keeping one's head down a bit lower can result in huge benefits for nearly any level of swimmer (assuming their current habit is to look forward while swimming). In fact, a goodly percentage of the email I get in the first week or two after a clinic is from swimmers who were able to immediately employ just one of the things they learned to positive effect - and how much they look forward to making ALL of the things we taught them into strongly ingrained habits. I just had to counter some of the misinformation and nonsense. I'm done now - for the moment.

After a hiatus I've read back through a number of these threads. I find them so chock full of misinformation, conjecture and downright nonsense with respect to TI that its actually entertaining. So I'll add my, admittedly biased (I run an occasional TI clinic and get paid to do so), but also better informed, 2 cents worth... First, the notion that TI, or anyone officially connected with TI, believes or espouses the idea that the concepts taught by TI all originated from TI, or the idea that TI has the only successful method of teaching swimming, is total nonsense. Terry, and everyone else in the organization, credits a large percentage of the conceptual base of what we teach to a wide array of coaches. What and how TI teaches is constantly evolving - due largely from the input of many of the world's most successful coaches (and it is no accident that some of them also happen to be TI coaches). Herein I will refer several times to "TI concepts". This is shorthand for "concepts taught by TI" and not meant to indicate that the concepts "belong" to TI. It is my own personal belief that TI HAS hit upon a better, faster way of teaching these concepts (to groups of swimmers of ANY ability level) than anyone else in the swim clinic business. I am very well acquainted with a large percentage of the coaches that are actually certified as TI coaches - those who direct TI clinics and those who are first tier assistants. I know, intimately, from first-hand observation, how they work in a clinic setting. They faithfully teach the course material according to the paradigm assembled by Terry Laughlin in consultation with all of the senior coaching staff. That's as it should be. That's the expectation of our clients. I also know, from first-hand observation and anecdotally, that these coaches also employ the core philosophies of TI in their ongoing programs. This does not mean they expect every swimmer to adhere to one engraved-in-stone swimming style. None, not a single one, of the TI coaches I am familiar with, does that. Those who espouse the belief that TI, or TI coaches, advocate only one swimming style for all swimmers are, simply, misinformed. There are some coaches out there who call themselves "TI coaches" or indicate that they "teach TI" or say they run "TI programs", but who are not, in fact TI coaches. And there MAY even be a couple of those who do a passable job of it. However, employing TI concepts and philosophies on a day-in, day-out basis takes a combination of committment, understanding, knowledge and experience that these TI Pretenders simply do not have (I've been doing this a long time and I can tell you that I just barely have a tenuous grasp on the whole thing.) Since the dawn of swim coaching, coaches have gone to clinics, nearly always bringing something home to spring on their swimmers. That will never end. Of course, for a coach to go to a TI clinic, bring home one or two new drills, make their swimmers do those drills a few times and say "There, now we are running a TI program." is ludicrous. Yet some do that. Of course, a coach might go to a clinic, hear that Michael Klim trains 15,000 meters a day, then go home and start making his swimmers go similar distances and say "Now we're training like Michael Klim". This is equally absurd. Yet some (many) coaches do it. For an inexperienced coach (call him Coach NeoPhyte) to take some aspect of the training system employed by a successful coach (call him Coach OldVet) entirely out of context, and insert it into his own program and then wonder why it doesn't work the way he hoped it would is...alas... a very common scenario. But that certainly doesn't invalidate the system used by Coach OldVet. Also, the notion that TI, and TI concepts, are only for beginners, novices or non-competitive swimmers is utterly absurd. Such a notion can only be the result of a lack of information. Yes, we get plenty of novices in TI clinics. But we also get a goodly portion of accomplished swimmers as well. These swimmers, with rare exceptions, indicate that the clinic has been extremely beneficial to them. They make lots of progress and continue to employ the methods and concepts espoused by TI to great advantage. I've been in contact with and watched many hundreds of people that have really learned and practiced TI concepts and methods as taught by real TI coaches. The OVERWHELMING majority of those people have been very pleased with the results. I've ALSO been in contact with and watched many people who've only taken a half-hearted stab at employing TI concepts, or have taken one or two TI concepts entirely out of context, or have not given TI concepts enough practice to really learn them on a visceral level. In general, these people have not had as positive a result - as one might expect. These people are, of course, likely to have less positive (perhaps even quite negative) things to say about TI - as one might expect. However, we also find mixed results in this crowd. In some cases, even using a just a pittance of the Whole Package allows some people to make tremendous breakthroughs. Something as simple as keeping one's head down a bit lower can result in huge benefits for nearly any level of swimmer (assuming their current habit is to look forward while swimming). In fact, a goodly percentage of the email I get in the first week or two after a clinic is from swimmers who were able to immediately employ just one of the things they learned to positive effect - and how much they look forward to making ALL of the things we taught them into strongly ingrained habits. I just had to counter some of the misinformation and nonsense. I'm done now - for the moment.