Criticism of TI Principles

If I may: TI2: "swim down hill": if a swimmer is pressing his torso so deep that he has to lift his head to breath, he is overdoing it. The problem is as you describe; however, the issue is the swimmer executing the skill properly, not the design of the skill. As discussed below, the primary purpose of the balance drills is to learn how to swim with your spine, and especially your neck, in a neutral position the entire time, and to breath by rolling to your side with your "fore and aft" balance unaffected. The term "swim downhill" is meant to be a sensation the swimmer experiences, and not the literal truth. A casual review of the illustration in a TI book, or a video, would make that clear. TI1 "over-rotation": you are confusing the drill with the desired effect on whole stroke swimming. Of course, no one actually swims whole stroke by rolling their body entirely from one side to the other (i.e. with shoulders and hips aligned vertically on top of each other and perpendicular to the surface of the water, so-called "point your belly button at the wall"). The purpose of the lower arm extended drills (I am trying to avoid TI jargon) is to find your balance, and then learn to roll with proper body alignment, as described in T2 above. You take a single stroke, and roll from your balanced position on one side to the same balanced position on the other side. This is a dynamic balance drill. When you go to whole stroke swimming, you don't roll that much. But you do roll MORE THAN YOU DID BEFORE, and you maintain your balance. I know this works. Once I got the body roll idea, I did some serious butt-kicking in practice when we did long pulling sets with a pull buoy. While my teammates were using their arms, I was using every muscle group I had above my waist. The longer we went, the more I pulled away. TI3 "no kicking": Jazz answered this pretty well. Let me just add that the real idea is to stop using a heavy kick to correct imbalance because your head is too high. Yes a strong kick does add speed, but at what cost in lactic acid and especially oxygen debt? It is a useful tool in sprinting, but you reach dimishing returns at the longer distances. TI4 "front quadrant swimming": this may seem counterintuitive, but hydodynamic studies from as early as the 19th century have shown that all other things being equal, longer hulls suffer less drag traveling through the water. Don't believe me? Look at modern naval architecture. I can show you modern supertankers, cargo ships, and aircraftcarriers, all with a bulge at their bows just below the water line. The ship builders added that feature because it makes the ship more efficient. It is possible that FQS does lose a little forward thrust over "windmill" arm technique, but it gains some back by losing a little drag. Also, the energy you save by not windmilling early you get to use later in the race. TI5 "drilling bad": if your point is all drills and no conditioning is bad, that would be valid. Terry does say that many swimmers would be better off doing only drills, and letting conditioning happen. Many people wrongly believe he meant that for all swimmers. That is not what he meant. He is talking about beginners who skills and conditioning are poor, and who only desire to swim more comfortably. People who plan to compete clearly need to have conditioning work as well. The question is emphasis. If your point is that only conditioning matters and you can leave stroke technique to chance, I would disagree. Lots of people may not care for TI; that's fine. But, it does work for a great many people, and some are too quick to dismiss it because they don't fully grasp the ideas behind it. I hope these clarifications help. Matt

If I may: TI2: "swim down hill": if a swimmer is pressing his torso so deep that he has to lift his head to breath, he is overdoing it. The problem is as you describe; however, the issue is the swimmer executing the skill properly, not the design of the skill. As discussed below, the primary purpose of the balance drills is to learn how to swim with your spine, and especially your neck, in a neutral position the entire time, and to breath by rolling to your side with your "fore and aft" balance unaffected. The term "swim downhill" is meant to be a sensation the swimmer experiences, and not the literal truth. A casual review of the illustration in a TI book, or a video, would make that clear. TI1 "over-rotation": you are confusing the drill with the desired effect on whole stroke swimming. Of course, no one actually swims whole stroke by rolling their body entirely from one side to the other (i.e. with shoulders and hips aligned vertically on top of each other and perpendicular to the surface of the water, so-called "point your belly button at the wall"). The purpose of the lower arm extended drills (I am trying to avoid TI jargon) is to find your balance, and then learn to roll with proper body alignment, as described in T2 above. You take a single stroke, and roll from your balanced position on one side to the same balanced position on the other side. This is a dynamic balance drill. When you go to whole stroke swimming, you don't roll that much. But you do roll MORE THAN YOU DID BEFORE, and you maintain your balance. I know this works. Once I got the body roll idea, I did some serious butt-kicking in practice when we did long pulling sets with a pull buoy. While my teammates were using their arms, I was using every muscle group I had above my waist. The longer we went, the more I pulled away. TI3 "no kicking": Jazz answered this pretty well. Let me just add that the real idea is to stop using a heavy kick to correct imbalance because your head is too high. Yes a strong kick does add speed, but at what cost in lactic acid and especially oxygen debt? It is a useful tool in sprinting, but you reach dimishing returns at the longer distances. TI4 "front quadrant swimming": this may seem counterintuitive, but hydodynamic studies from as early as the 19th century have shown that all other things being equal, longer hulls suffer less drag traveling through the water. Don't believe me? Look at modern naval architecture. I can show you modern supertankers, cargo ships, and aircraftcarriers, all with a bulge at their bows just below the water line. The ship builders added that feature because it makes the ship more efficient. It is possible that FQS does lose a little forward thrust over "windmill" arm technique, but it gains some back by losing a little drag. Also, the energy you save by not windmilling early you get to use later in the race. TI5 "drilling bad": if your point is all drills and no conditioning is bad, that would be valid. Terry does say that many swimmers would be better off doing only drills, and letting conditioning happen. Many people wrongly believe he meant that for all swimmers. That is not what he meant. He is talking about beginners who skills and conditioning are poor, and who only desire to swim more comfortably. People who plan to compete clearly need to have conditioning work as well. The question is emphasis. If your point is that only conditioning matters and you can leave stroke technique to chance, I would disagree. Lots of people may not care for TI; that's fine. But, it does work for a great many people, and some are too quick to dismiss it because they don't fully grasp the ideas behind it. I hope these clarifications help. Matt