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
Well now, the devil really IS in the details, isn't it ?
The way you described is the way I normally swim....see? I got it wrong !
I misinterpreted and was trying to insert my hand very close to and directly at the top of my head. Ergo......no workee !
My way of describing the entry (don't you love how the language causes misunderstandings ?) that I use, would be to say that I extend fully over water. But that isn't accurate, because after my hand makes contact with the water, I'm still extending forward and downward.
I don't know if I would qualify as an "elite" swimmer, since I mainly compete as a flyer. I have been coaching for 40 years, off and on.(mostly off, when I wanted to earn money !)
My front quadrant style of skating/swimming/gliding lends itself more to distance rather than sprinting, but my love of sprint fly precludes distance training. (Translation: won't put in the yardage.)
Bert
Well now, the devil really IS in the details, isn't it ?
The way you described is the way I normally swim....see? I got it wrong !
I misinterpreted and was trying to insert my hand very close to and directly at the top of my head. Ergo......no workee !
My way of describing the entry (don't you love how the language causes misunderstandings ?) that I use, would be to say that I extend fully over water. But that isn't accurate, because after my hand makes contact with the water, I'm still extending forward and downward.
I don't know if I would qualify as an "elite" swimmer, since I mainly compete as a flyer. I have been coaching for 40 years, off and on.(mostly off, when I wanted to earn money !)
My front quadrant style of skating/swimming/gliding lends itself more to distance rather than sprinting, but my love of sprint fly precludes distance training. (Translation: won't put in the yardage.)
Bert
