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
Originally posted by gull80
Klim is Australian and swims the crawl with a straight arm recovery; I don't think that means a straight arm recovery is characteristic of the Australian crawl.
...
Swim magazine from March/April 2000 doesn't mention Klim.
I mention Klim, based on videos I have seen of his swimming.
Again, Swim magazine from March/April 2000, under 'Fairly Good Sequence Illustrating the "New Australian Crawl"', teaches the characteristics of the 'New Australian Crawl' in general.
Like I wrote, pictures 1 and 4 show straigt arms characteristics in the 'New Australian Crawl'.
Picture 1 shows the left arm, straight when traveling in the air.
Picture 4 shows the right arm, straight when hitting the water, with fingers pointing forward (not downward).
Like I wrote, the caption under the picture 4 says:
"Vision is downward, and the head is carried low in the water with full reach forward with the recovering arm."
So you have it here:
a straight arm characteristic in the 'Australian Crawl', as in "...full reach forward with the recovering arm.".
Originally posted by gull80
Klim is Australian and swims the crawl with a straight arm recovery; I don't think that means a straight arm recovery is characteristic of the Australian crawl.
...
Swim magazine from March/April 2000 doesn't mention Klim.
I mention Klim, based on videos I have seen of his swimming.
Again, Swim magazine from March/April 2000, under 'Fairly Good Sequence Illustrating the "New Australian Crawl"', teaches the characteristics of the 'New Australian Crawl' in general.
Like I wrote, pictures 1 and 4 show straigt arms characteristics in the 'New Australian Crawl'.
Picture 1 shows the left arm, straight when traveling in the air.
Picture 4 shows the right arm, straight when hitting the water, with fingers pointing forward (not downward).
Like I wrote, the caption under the picture 4 says:
"Vision is downward, and the head is carried low in the water with full reach forward with the recovering arm."
So you have it here:
a straight arm characteristic in the 'Australian Crawl', as in "...full reach forward with the recovering arm.".
