TI advice:
This question is aimed at on of you who have instructed people with TI methods and or stroke length vs stroke rate (such as Emmitt H, Matt S, Terry L, etc). I am one of the coaches of a master’s team along with one of these forums’ regular post contributors’, Jim Thornton. As a coach I am a proponent of TI type methods of balance, body position and stroke count. I try to teach all my swimmers to do these things and I believe that the results have been positive. I am pretty sure that every single one of our swimmers who have followed the coaching advice has improved his/her times. As a swimmer I also have been practicing body position and stroke count regularly for the past 2-½ seasons and have somewhat changed the way I swim. I am happy with the results, as my stroke looks very fluid and somewhat relaxed swimming through sets. I have not actually seen my stroke in practice but have had positive feedback from my co-coach and other swimmers.
I think that I should add a little of my swimming background before I get to my point. I was a decent college swimmer and was mainly a breastroker although I swam mostly freestyle in meets due to our roster limitations. My main events were 100yd Free (46.6 best), 50 free (22.0 best), 200 free (1:46.6 best). As a freestyler I had always had a tremendously fast turnover, even when swimming a 200. I would easily take 20+ strokes per 25yd when swimming these times. Needless to say, my turnover rate never went unnoticed.
Now this is where I need help or advice. I have been totally unable to translate TI type methods to fast swimming times. For 2+ seasons I tried to stay long and relaxed while sprinting to mixed success: I know that I felt like my stroke was much more relaxed and less tired (not as much lactic build-up) on my swims using TI methods and I did reasonably good times for my age (32) 50-51sec 100 free, 23.5 sec 50 free. Regardless, during the past 6 months or so I decided to go back to high turnover swimming and lo and behold my times went back down 48.8sec 100 free, 22.4 sec 50 free. I must admit that swimming high turnover is harder on my arms and shoulders however, I don’t really get as extremely tired (aerobic/heart rate) in practice as you might expect as I churn out 15-18 strokes per 25yd. I actually felt (and was) much more tired the 2 seasons I spent swimming low stroke count (11-14 strokes/25yd), balancing my body and using a smaller kicking motion. I am absolutely sure that my stroke looks terrible when I ‘spin’ as I do yet it seems effective.
I would prefer to swim long and relaxed for 2 reasons: 1) I love the way it feels and looks and 2) I need to keep some credibility as a coach since my team sees me not practicing what I preach. I just would like to have the best of both worlds: swim quickly and make it look good.
I don’t know if any of you have ever run into swimmers who just were unable to make the transition to faster times when swimming lower stroke count and if so what your advice would be.
Thanks for any help
Bill White
Parents
Former Member
Bill,
Wow, mentioned in the same parenthesis as Emmett and Terry; thanks for the compliment.
You sound as well qualified to break down your stroke as I am (maybe some videotaping of yourself would help), and I cannot say anything for sure since I cannot see your stroke. However, are you sure you actually have a problem? Terry talks about training your muscle memory to swim the TI style at any speed, without thinking about it. When you race, don't think, just swim. Perhaps your perception of SL vs. SR has shifted so much, that a much improved SL now feels like you are still flailing. A SR of 20/25 yards sounds a little high, but not ridiculous for sprint events.
Are you still hitting all the TI fine points? Rolling your body, head down looking at the pool bottom, kicking in coordination with your arm stroke (See Emmett's articles "Bottom-Up Swimming")? It sounds from your comments that you feel like you are losing the "front quandrant" aspect of your swimming. Maybe you can experiment with taking a split second pause before initiating your pull, and get more of a TI action back in your stroke.
TI is not a static dogma. I can tell you from chatting with them that Emmett and Terry have different views on the use of the kick. The core idea behind it is that the human body is not designed to swim fast. Learning how to swim efficiently is an individual journey you have to tailor to your body, bearing in mind certain hydrodynamic principals. (And it's way more complicated that training your body to be able to work harder and harder using your same old mechanincs.) This is particularly true for someone like you who already swims pretty darn fast even before you started with TI. So tape yourself in workout and in a meet, compare the two with the TI videos and some of the video clips of world-class swimmers in competition. (When I looked really closely at Popov, I noticed he rotates his hips a LOT less than you would expect from reading the TI stories about him.) I expect you will find that the things you would like to change from you current "flailing" style are more incremental than you would expect.
Matt
Bill,
Wow, mentioned in the same parenthesis as Emmett and Terry; thanks for the compliment.
You sound as well qualified to break down your stroke as I am (maybe some videotaping of yourself would help), and I cannot say anything for sure since I cannot see your stroke. However, are you sure you actually have a problem? Terry talks about training your muscle memory to swim the TI style at any speed, without thinking about it. When you race, don't think, just swim. Perhaps your perception of SL vs. SR has shifted so much, that a much improved SL now feels like you are still flailing. A SR of 20/25 yards sounds a little high, but not ridiculous for sprint events.
Are you still hitting all the TI fine points? Rolling your body, head down looking at the pool bottom, kicking in coordination with your arm stroke (See Emmett's articles "Bottom-Up Swimming")? It sounds from your comments that you feel like you are losing the "front quandrant" aspect of your swimming. Maybe you can experiment with taking a split second pause before initiating your pull, and get more of a TI action back in your stroke.
TI is not a static dogma. I can tell you from chatting with them that Emmett and Terry have different views on the use of the kick. The core idea behind it is that the human body is not designed to swim fast. Learning how to swim efficiently is an individual journey you have to tailor to your body, bearing in mind certain hydrodynamic principals. (And it's way more complicated that training your body to be able to work harder and harder using your same old mechanincs.) This is particularly true for someone like you who already swims pretty darn fast even before you started with TI. So tape yourself in workout and in a meet, compare the two with the TI videos and some of the video clips of world-class swimmers in competition. (When I looked really closely at Popov, I noticed he rotates his hips a LOT less than you would expect from reading the TI stories about him.) I expect you will find that the things you would like to change from you current "flailing" style are more incremental than you would expect.
Matt
