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
As far as T.I. methodology goes, I think it's truly a great tool for giving new swimmers proper balance and positioning.
I've enjoyed giving pointers to folks who are in need of a little direction. The feedback is always positive. The obvious "rear quadrant" swimmers are no longer fighting the water, they're gliiiiiding. And that's pretty much the bottom line of the T.I. movement. Getting people to swim with less drag and more efficiency.
Racing T.I. is still another story. As many people have mentioned in this forum,... if you want to swim fast, you have to practice fast. Anyone who pushes themselves outside of their physical boundaries will see results.
I think it's always going to be the great debate however, whether or not T.I. technique is the key to some of the quickest times. It's hard to deny that people without a competitive background can make leaps and bounds in their swimming ability by working with this method.
As far as T.I. methodology goes, I think it's truly a great tool for giving new swimmers proper balance and positioning.
I've enjoyed giving pointers to folks who are in need of a little direction. The feedback is always positive. The obvious "rear quadrant" swimmers are no longer fighting the water, they're gliiiiiding. And that's pretty much the bottom line of the T.I. movement. Getting people to swim with less drag and more efficiency.
Racing T.I. is still another story. As many people have mentioned in this forum,... if you want to swim fast, you have to practice fast. Anyone who pushes themselves outside of their physical boundaries will see results.
I think it's always going to be the great debate however, whether or not T.I. technique is the key to some of the quickest times. It's hard to deny that people without a competitive background can make leaps and bounds in their swimming ability by working with this method.
