Approach to teaching competitive swimming?

Former Member
Former Member
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
    Former Member
    Ion, you pull stuff out to suit your own purposes and miss the point - The musician analogy you used - "is like if I were a musician and being asked to play music that I don't want" doesn't apply in the way you expressed it . It doesn't have to do with the type of music being played, it has to do with correct technique on the instrument. The best musicians have nearly flawless technique and they can choose the type of music they want to play. Whatever their choice in music, they take years to master an instrument, and still practice the basics every day to ensure the integrity of their technique. Similarly, TI advocates practicing the drills that reinforce proper technique. I enjoy it so much more these days because it is much easier. Right now, I find that I can go just as fast in workouts as I used to, however my endurance has increased because I am working harder on being streamlined and staying "long" in the water. Part of this is that my lower SR results in a lower heart rate to show for it throughout each set. In effect, I can go faster for longer than before because of technique and not fitness. In the next couple of months I will build up my fitness and find the best balance of SL & SR for each stroke at verious distances. But still I don't care if I'm faster or not right now, because I am still in the process of changing some bad habits. What would be the point of obsessing over times when I'm still a work in progress? Next year I'll see where I stand. Here's the deal: You can either improve fitness or technique. You go back to your old technique and see how your times improve. I'm sure you'll tell us all about it no matter what happens.
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Ion, you pull stuff out to suit your own purposes and miss the point - The musician analogy you used - "is like if I were a musician and being asked to play music that I don't want" doesn't apply in the way you expressed it . It doesn't have to do with the type of music being played, it has to do with correct technique on the instrument. The best musicians have nearly flawless technique and they can choose the type of music they want to play. Whatever their choice in music, they take years to master an instrument, and still practice the basics every day to ensure the integrity of their technique. Similarly, TI advocates practicing the drills that reinforce proper technique. I enjoy it so much more these days because it is much easier. Right now, I find that I can go just as fast in workouts as I used to, however my endurance has increased because I am working harder on being streamlined and staying "long" in the water. Part of this is that my lower SR results in a lower heart rate to show for it throughout each set. In effect, I can go faster for longer than before because of technique and not fitness. In the next couple of months I will build up my fitness and find the best balance of SL & SR for each stroke at verious distances. But still I don't care if I'm faster or not right now, because I am still in the process of changing some bad habits. What would be the point of obsessing over times when I'm still a work in progress? Next year I'll see where I stand. Here's the deal: You can either improve fitness or technique. You go back to your old technique and see how your times improve. I'm sure you'll tell us all about it no matter what happens.
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