For Xmas I received a gift certificate to Amazon.com and was browsing through the books. I came across the book, Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin. He is a masters swimmer. i was wondering if anyone has purchased this book and if it is worth the money. If you do have it, have you learned anything new or learned any new tips while swimming?
Thankyou
Former Member
I have it and think it is great. I highly recomend it. Just make sure you get the most recent book. Also, you might want to see if they have the DVD "Freestyle Made Easy". It just recently came out and has some refined and better drills.
TI is a great way to smooth out your stroke and incorporate the techniques into your stroke.
Hook'em
Blue
I bought the book last year and found that it had some good points. My swimming technique was already close to his teachings, so I agree with a lot of what he says. I am not convinced this is a great book as it does a lot of talking trying to convince you to use his techniques. Give me less stories and more practical drills. I also felt that a lot of the different drill were just a repackaging of previously described drills. It was as if the book could have been half as long but produced the same amount of teaching. Is it worth buying if you need some good techniques - yes.
Good luck>
Kelley,
I have used TI techniques in my own swimming and coaching a summer youth league team. I like 'em. They work for me.
If you are interested, you definitely want the most recent book. Total Immersion is his original book, and he has modified and much improved the drills since then. If you want all 4 strokes, you want Swimming Made Easy. That is the value choice for competitive, pool swimmers. However, if you are a runner trying to become a triathlete, and that is all that matters to you, you might prefer Triathlon Swimming Made Easy.
The philosophy/motivational chapters are a bit long, (and near as I can tell they are verbatim copies of each other in all 3 books). The idea is to shake people out of the mindset that the only way to get faster is conditioning. Terry argues that people are so ineffecient in the water, improved technique will produce far more significant drops in time.
Good luck. Feel free to drop a line here if you have any questions. You can also get some more ideas and explanations from www.totalimmersion.net
Matt
