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
The following statement puzzles me again, after I called it earlier when in a similar version, pseudo-science terminology.
Originally posted by mattson
...
The short version is to scull with your hands to "anchor" them in the water. You then pull your body past your hands, instead of pushing water back.
...
The reason is that one pulls the body in the water by pushing the hand backward, while the hand is in the water.
Thus, pulling is by pushing water back.
I see any competitor's hand pushing water when the hand travels from being in front, past the hips, then out of the water.
"...to "anchor' them in the water..." doesn't exist without a solid grip.
A ship anchors when catching the ground underneath the water.
It doesn't anchor much by having the anchor floating underwater:
the water doesn't give the anchor a hard grip.
Similarly, a swimmer cannot anchor much -and later on pull the body over that anchor- without catching something solid.
The water doesn't give the swimmer a hard enough, stable grip.
I bet this can bring me replies that are poetic 'explanations', pseudo-science, therefore 'technique'.
The following statement puzzles me again, after I called it earlier when in a similar version, pseudo-science terminology.
Originally posted by mattson
...
The short version is to scull with your hands to "anchor" them in the water. You then pull your body past your hands, instead of pushing water back.
...
The reason is that one pulls the body in the water by pushing the hand backward, while the hand is in the water.
Thus, pulling is by pushing water back.
I see any competitor's hand pushing water when the hand travels from being in front, past the hips, then out of the water.
"...to "anchor' them in the water..." doesn't exist without a solid grip.
A ship anchors when catching the ground underneath the water.
It doesn't anchor much by having the anchor floating underwater:
the water doesn't give the anchor a hard grip.
Similarly, a swimmer cannot anchor much -and later on pull the body over that anchor- without catching something solid.
The water doesn't give the swimmer a hard enough, stable grip.
I bet this can bring me replies that are poetic 'explanations', pseudo-science, therefore 'technique'.
