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
Cynthia,
I don't consider swimming a hobby. Coins and stamps are hobbies. Swimming is a passion, a lifestyle.
It appears to me Ion has swimming passion. Ion has paid for extra lessons, and has changed teams to get closer to his goals. To be frank, Michael Collins is the best freestyle coach I know. If I were Ion I would at least make the drive to one of Michaels clinics.
Just my opinion as a swimmer and a coach.
As for old pools, the El Segundo pool was built by the WPA in 1940. The starting blocks are now over the deep end, which is 12 feet becasue we used to have a three meter diving board there. The shallow turn end is four foot deep, enough for good turns. The overflow gutters are still pretty good. The only things that are not state of the art are 7 foot wide lanes instead of 8 foot, and the lane lines themselves. Ours are OK, Olympic spec lines are VERY expensive. From this 62 year old pool our team, the SLUGS, have won several small team titles in National Championships. Most impressive is the depth of talent, look in the rule book, many relay records are still held by El Segundo. We have a great head coach and 6-7 others who are equally good in specialty areas. Good coaches make great swimmers, great facilities are not needed.
They are building new 50 meter pools in California all the time. Santa Monica (SCAQ Masters) has a new state of art 50 meter pool.
Wayne
Cynthia,
I don't consider swimming a hobby. Coins and stamps are hobbies. Swimming is a passion, a lifestyle.
It appears to me Ion has swimming passion. Ion has paid for extra lessons, and has changed teams to get closer to his goals. To be frank, Michael Collins is the best freestyle coach I know. If I were Ion I would at least make the drive to one of Michaels clinics.
Just my opinion as a swimmer and a coach.
As for old pools, the El Segundo pool was built by the WPA in 1940. The starting blocks are now over the deep end, which is 12 feet becasue we used to have a three meter diving board there. The shallow turn end is four foot deep, enough for good turns. The overflow gutters are still pretty good. The only things that are not state of the art are 7 foot wide lanes instead of 8 foot, and the lane lines themselves. Ours are OK, Olympic spec lines are VERY expensive. From this 62 year old pool our team, the SLUGS, have won several small team titles in National Championships. Most impressive is the depth of talent, look in the rule book, many relay records are still held by El Segundo. We have a great head coach and 6-7 others who are equally good in specialty areas. Good coaches make great swimmers, great facilities are not needed.
They are building new 50 meter pools in California all the time. Santa Monica (SCAQ Masters) has a new state of art 50 meter pool.
Wayne
