TI Question...heard this and doesn't sound right...
Former Member
I am teaching a stroke clinic class at the YMCA. My background is USS competitive swimming (ages 8-18) and some age-group coaching. One of my students, a triathlon trainer, has been to Total Immersion. Because of his TI training, he is doubtful of any stroke correction I am giving him. Basically he has the typical problems of a short stroke...entering too close to the head and not pulling thru.
The TI triathlete is telling me that the TI "Fish" style swimming technique says the hand should enter the water just in front of the head, then reach forward. In my opinion, he needs to lengthen his stroke, rotating and reaching as far forward as possible, entering out front (not by the head). I am thinking he is mixing up some TI drill with proper freestyle SWIMMING technique. He at least agreed with me when we talked distance per stroke (and started believing I know something about swimming)...but I don't see how you can maximize DPS with hand entry by the head.
Can someone shed light on this for me? What is this "Fish" swimming in a couple sentences? And where does TI say the hand entry should be?
Thank you!!
P.S. I'm new here and enjoying reading...I swim masters and hope to compete in butterfly someday...I'm waiting it out until I get a bit older so can face the competition. My butterfly has held out better than my other strokes (used to be a long distance freestyler too).
P.P.S. I did a search on TI and read some of the posts but they didn't quite get to my specific question above.
Parents
Former Member
From my experience on this board, people are formulating right now the most appropriate answer to their knowledge.
They will post in a few hours, I guess.
In my opinion, a short stroke above the water that stretches the arm underwater (this thiathlete' style) is fighting resistance from the water when stretching, and a short stroke stroke above the water that doesn't stretch the arm underwater is faulty because it doesn't reach far so it makes a small distance per stroke.
Reaching the farthest in the non-resistent air before entering the resistent water, even by throwing the shoulder ahead and by rolling on one side of the body to elongate oneself (as recommended in the T.I. book, in page 52: "...making you 'taller' each time you turn sideways and 'shorter' as you turn back..."), is what I try to do.
If you ask me for a better answer than this, including the use of the word 'fishlike' in the T.I. book which I kind of remember but not clearly, then I will have to research a little better than this.
From my experience on this board, people are formulating right now the most appropriate answer to their knowledge.
They will post in a few hours, I guess.
In my opinion, a short stroke above the water that stretches the arm underwater (this thiathlete' style) is fighting resistance from the water when stretching, and a short stroke stroke above the water that doesn't stretch the arm underwater is faulty because it doesn't reach far so it makes a small distance per stroke.
Reaching the farthest in the non-resistent air before entering the resistent water, even by throwing the shoulder ahead and by rolling on one side of the body to elongate oneself (as recommended in the T.I. book, in page 52: "...making you 'taller' each time you turn sideways and 'shorter' as you turn back..."), is what I try to do.
If you ask me for a better answer than this, including the use of the word 'fishlike' in the T.I. book which I kind of remember but not clearly, then I will have to research a little better than this.
