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
my 2 cents.
As Bert states,..T.I. is great for some of the folks who need some serious stroke correction, in particular reducing drag. It's an excellent stepping stone for adults with no prior swimming experience. And the triathletes are the ones who always tend to swim with the head clean out of the water looking ahead for the giant day glow buoys. No wonder they get tired.
But the question is...Do real swimmers actually race this way? And I think that the answer is no. The timing of the stroke doesn't lend itself to a rapid turnover, unless there's a motor boat like kick coming from the back end. And indeed Popov is absolutely not a front quadrant swimmer. He's just very "tall" in the water.
And about your question. I would liken the hand entry near the head as 'putting on the brakes' so to speak. There's gotta be resistance when someone's actually pushing their hand under the water's surface before getting into a full extension for the catch.
Analogy: It would be like having a runner skip through a hundred yards versus actually running with a clean stride. But if that's how your guy wants to swim, so be it. Hopefully it's not contageous. :cool:
my 2 cents.
As Bert states,..T.I. is great for some of the folks who need some serious stroke correction, in particular reducing drag. It's an excellent stepping stone for adults with no prior swimming experience. And the triathletes are the ones who always tend to swim with the head clean out of the water looking ahead for the giant day glow buoys. No wonder they get tired.
But the question is...Do real swimmers actually race this way? And I think that the answer is no. The timing of the stroke doesn't lend itself to a rapid turnover, unless there's a motor boat like kick coming from the back end. And indeed Popov is absolutely not a front quadrant swimmer. He's just very "tall" in the water.
And about your question. I would liken the hand entry near the head as 'putting on the brakes' so to speak. There's gotta be resistance when someone's actually pushing their hand under the water's surface before getting into a full extension for the catch.
Analogy: It would be like having a runner skip through a hundred yards versus actually running with a clean stride. But if that's how your guy wants to swim, so be it. Hopefully it's not contageous. :cool:
