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.
I was going to post a first reply, but thought I would wait for people to respond, who knew what they were talking about. :D
Three thoughts:
1) Reaching as far as you can above the water before entering the water will put an awful lot of stress on your shoulder. (For the same reason that you don't try to power your stroke too soon: no leverage for your muscles.)
2) It is correct that your hand will encounter resistance in the water if it enters just above the head. But remember, while your hand is above the water, your head and shoulders are generating *more* resistance in the water. Part of the reason to put the hand in (at less than full arm extension) is to make you more streamlined.
3) A rotary stroke sounds inefficient to me. Unless you are at all-out sprint (which seems to be the example people are giving here), your arm recovery above water will be quicker than your underwater pull. This will automatically make you "front-quadrant".
I was going to post a first reply, but thought I would wait for people to respond, who knew what they were talking about. :D
Three thoughts:
1) Reaching as far as you can above the water before entering the water will put an awful lot of stress on your shoulder. (For the same reason that you don't try to power your stroke too soon: no leverage for your muscles.)
2) It is correct that your hand will encounter resistance in the water if it enters just above the head. But remember, while your hand is above the water, your head and shoulders are generating *more* resistance in the water. Part of the reason to put the hand in (at less than full arm extension) is to make you more streamlined.
3) A rotary stroke sounds inefficient to me. Unless you are at all-out sprint (which seems to be the example people are giving here), your arm recovery above water will be quicker than your underwater pull. This will automatically make you "front-quadrant".
