swimming books

I would suggest FS, over TI because FS has a progression of workouts to follow and has really helped me take my swimming to another level. It makes the workouts so much easier when you don't have to make them up yourself. Plus, he puts them in a progression of drill combinations so that you are drilling your way to a better stroke. At the begining of this year I started out with my cruise times at 1:45 (with a 4 month lay-off with my first born child), mainly due to endurance (15 years of not swimming). I am now down below 1:30 and should get down to 1:15 by the end of the year. When I am feeling good I am able to keep my 100 yard repeats between 1:15 and 1:20. I know I would not have made this kind of improvement without FS, unless I had a personal coach. I would suggest that you get freestyle drills cd from TI. It makes the drills that much easier to learn and understand exactly what you are supposed to do. Good Luck

Come on, guys!I am sure there are more people who read those two books.Just share the opinion - which one is better?

I haven't read TI. I do own FS and like it. The workout schedule is great. The drills and descriptions are good. The first book I read about swimming was "The Complete Book of Swimming" by Phillip Whitten. It is a great book for motivation and the stroke descriptions are good to. I recommend it for all beginners along with "FS".

Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming Somewher I ran into an opinoin that "T.I." is just the "rephrase" version of the "F.S.", i.e. pretty much the same stuf, just put into different words. I haven't read Hines book, so I can't comment on that. I will say that it is hard for a book that came out in 1996 to "rephrase" what was in a 1998 book. ;)

I thought Hines' book ("FS") came out before "TI".Am I wrong?

Don't over look Dr. Philip Whitten's book, The Complete Book of Swimming. There's a great story about him on the USMS web site by clicking here. He's written 18 books, so perhaps, he just might have a good idea or two or three. :D

Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming I thought Hines' book ("FS") came out before "TI".Am I wrong? Yes.

I read a lot of TI materials prior to joining USMS, and since joining I've had the pleasure to read may articles, and even had a few on-line conversations with Emmet (not having read his entire book yet) I can tell you that even though I think TI is not bad for the very basic beginners, I'm much more sold on Emmet.

I just bought Total Immersion (revised and updated 2004) and am half way through it. It is the first swimming book I have read that provides clear descriptions of how "correct" freestyle swimming should feel. I like they way the author explains the logic behind the technique and then develops that into a series of understandable drills and provides a practical method of measuring their impact (e.g. strokes per lap). I am keen to start trying the drills to see whether they make a difference. I will also look out for Emmet's book. Regards - Johnathon ;)

I have both books and they are useful. Emmet's book excels in giving a whole season of workouts. You can learn a lot on how coaches put together a training plan over a season. I have just bought the latest T.I dvd on freestyle and it is excellent. It is more comprehensive than the earlier ones. It shows info on arm action and turns that was missing on previous dvd,s. An effect that can happen if you do solely total immersion drills is to get stuck into swimming slowly. You need to always add some speed work to keep your stroke rate from falling. I am using the partner assist practices when coaching newbies to great effect. There are many books and videos and you can get quite confused after a while as there are different opinions out there. I coach and swim and have found not to accept anything without trying it out to see if it does work in real life. Most of the texts are written for elite swimmers who have the flexibility to use stroking patterns that a lot of adults cannot use. Learning from books and videos alone can lead to problems. For instance after reading info in Maglischo's swiming fastest I changed my stroke to create two definite phases in free pull with a sharp transition under the chest from the pull to push part of the stroke. I recently was filmed underwater and saw that in that transiton, i would over flex my wrist and angle my hand in such a way that I would lose the hold that I had on the water. I am now using a longer action steadily building up pressure throughout with better results. Ideally you need a good coach who is current on all the modern info and can adapt it to suit your ability and needs. If you can find one !?:)