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
There are so many posts that are so far off base it amazes me. Being your own coach is as bad as being your own lawyer at a trial for your life. Ion is great at gleaming tid bits from all over the world, often quoted out of context or with no real idea of what the author was speaking about. How about taking some modern courses in swimming technique such as offered through ASCA or Ion could take classes at San Diego State University. After a couple of years of coaching I could begin to listen to your comments.
Lets start with "I don't see any harm using a kickboard in breaststroke. It’s never made my kick worst".
YES is does harm!
In breaststroke for every inch your head is above the water your hips will sink two inches. That greatly increases the drag and cuts into the strong point of all breaststrokers, the kick power. It does not matter what style of breaststroke you swim, you will be faster if you practice your kicks with you head in line with your spine and looking down. You MUST practice and drill as close to race technique as possible. You are right; today’s breaststrokers are not much faster than 20 years ago. In 1984 Steve Lundquist went the first 50 in 28.12 on way to a 1:01.6 in winning Olympic Gold. Today’s World Record splits are slower. Lundquist was the last record holder who had to swim with his head never going under water. The extra resistance caused by the rules of that era made for much more energy use than today’s smooth wave styles. There is no doubt the Lundquist would have done 59.5 with today’s rules. Yet one of these days Ed Moses will go out in 27.5 and come back in 30.5. You heard it first here.
There are so many posts that are so far off base it amazes me. Being your own coach is as bad as being your own lawyer at a trial for your life. Ion is great at gleaming tid bits from all over the world, often quoted out of context or with no real idea of what the author was speaking about. How about taking some modern courses in swimming technique such as offered through ASCA or Ion could take classes at San Diego State University. After a couple of years of coaching I could begin to listen to your comments.
Lets start with "I don't see any harm using a kickboard in breaststroke. It’s never made my kick worst".
YES is does harm!
In breaststroke for every inch your head is above the water your hips will sink two inches. That greatly increases the drag and cuts into the strong point of all breaststrokers, the kick power. It does not matter what style of breaststroke you swim, you will be faster if you practice your kicks with you head in line with your spine and looking down. You MUST practice and drill as close to race technique as possible. You are right; today’s breaststrokers are not much faster than 20 years ago. In 1984 Steve Lundquist went the first 50 in 28.12 on way to a 1:01.6 in winning Olympic Gold. Today’s World Record splits are slower. Lundquist was the last record holder who had to swim with his head never going under water. The extra resistance caused by the rules of that era made for much more energy use than today’s smooth wave styles. There is no doubt the Lundquist would have done 59.5 with today’s rules. Yet one of these days Ed Moses will go out in 27.5 and come back in 30.5. You heard it first here.
