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
What is really frustrating as a coach is when a swimmer thinks they know more than you do, and disrupts the whole workout. Some swimmers read too much, and a little knowledge can be dangerous. Ion is obviously very smart, and despite starting swimming late has much potential.
All coaches want the best for their swimmers. I would love to see Ion get better, get faster. The constant arguing takes it's tolls, if Ion was swimming for me I would probably kick him out of practice a couple of times a week. But that would not stop me from wanting to help him, but coaches do have responsibility to the team. That is why I came down on Ion. I see from this discussion so many people who want to learn about things like front quadrant butterfly, the PAUSE in fast freestyle, and even the TI methods of swimming. Ion justs gets us off track sometimes, with dozens of quotes and statistics.
That said I do welcome Ion to contribute to all these forums, he does add to the flavor of discussion. The executives always say to me, don't come to me with a problem, come with a solution. I am always positive in nature. I really believe that if Ion went to a TI camp with someone great like Michael Collins, he would come away a convert. He could improve more than swimmers who swam if their youth.
I see technique improvements in non swimmers all the time, but they are open and listen. All a coach wants is the swimmers to get better, to enjoy the swimming experience.
Lets get going on front quadrant swimming and breaststroke kick discussions.
Coach Wayne McCauley
Come visit me at http://www.breaststroke.info the number one web site for breaststrokers. I am feeling the writing bug again, let me know what interests you, perhaps I can help someone out there with their breaststroke. And if I can't, I have lots of coaches who have contributed and can enlighten you frustrated breaststrokers.
What is really frustrating as a coach is when a swimmer thinks they know more than you do, and disrupts the whole workout. Some swimmers read too much, and a little knowledge can be dangerous. Ion is obviously very smart, and despite starting swimming late has much potential.
All coaches want the best for their swimmers. I would love to see Ion get better, get faster. The constant arguing takes it's tolls, if Ion was swimming for me I would probably kick him out of practice a couple of times a week. But that would not stop me from wanting to help him, but coaches do have responsibility to the team. That is why I came down on Ion. I see from this discussion so many people who want to learn about things like front quadrant butterfly, the PAUSE in fast freestyle, and even the TI methods of swimming. Ion justs gets us off track sometimes, with dozens of quotes and statistics.
That said I do welcome Ion to contribute to all these forums, he does add to the flavor of discussion. The executives always say to me, don't come to me with a problem, come with a solution. I am always positive in nature. I really believe that if Ion went to a TI camp with someone great like Michael Collins, he would come away a convert. He could improve more than swimmers who swam if their youth.
I see technique improvements in non swimmers all the time, but they are open and listen. All a coach wants is the swimmers to get better, to enjoy the swimming experience.
Lets get going on front quadrant swimming and breaststroke kick discussions.
Coach Wayne McCauley
Come visit me at http://www.breaststroke.info the number one web site for breaststrokers. I am feeling the writing bug again, let me know what interests you, perhaps I can help someone out there with their breaststroke. And if I can't, I have lots of coaches who have contributed and can enlighten you frustrated breaststrokers.
