What do you think of total immersion?

Craig in Liverpool, Total Immersion, just like any other well-considered program for improving stroke technique, will make you better and faster than you would be swimming your same old, same old. Just how much you improve, and just how "fast" you get is affected by a lot of other variables, such as: age, athletic ability, level of conditioning and prior swimming experience. I am experienced (if rather mediocre) swimmer, and I have used TI to improve my swimming, to include non-trivial drops in time in my 40s. I have used TI principals to coach age group and Div III college swimmers. My work, along with the coaching of other more traditional coaches and hard work and dedication by the swimmers themselves have all resulted in very substantial improvements in swimming and drops in personal best times. End of serious discussion. Now, on to the flame wars. You can take or leave the marketing side of Total Immersion. It's your choice, and you are entitled to your opinion. However, consider the marketing in this context. Who needs a program for stroke technique more desparately than any other discrete group of athletes? Triathletes. What else do we know about triathletes? They will drop oodles of cash on gadgets and gimmicks and shoes and five figure bicycles, all chasing that elusive minute or two improvement in a race that will take them hours to finish. In particular, they will spend several times (measured by hourly rate) more money on coaching than comparable masters swimmers. (Because of convenience issues, I chatted up a tri coach about perhaps paying to join her crew in their swim workout the once a week they do that. She had to requote me her rate twice before I realized that WAS IN FACT the once a week swim workout rate, and that these people pay hundreds of dollars, A MONTH, for the full package.) However, from my biased swimmer's point of view, the workouts are not very immaginative interval chasing. Why's that? Because triathletes have so bought into the paradigm of more pain means more improvement that they will fire the coach if their heart rate falls below a certain level. So, how do you get this crowd, who so clearly are highly conditioned well beyond the cardio fitness of any other group of weekend athletes on the face of the planet and the last thing they need is one more high intensity workout with lousy form, to back off of their aerobic threshold and learn how to swim without committing crimes against nature and abominations in the eyes of God? Well, Terry Laughlin, clever man, has hit on a simple formula. He starts with a well conceived set of drills that may or may not be revolutionary. Again, you're entitled to your opinion. (And for we cheapskate swimmers, who *** about paying $3 more in meet entry fees so that the team hosting the meet actually breaks even instead of having to subsidize it, can cleverly get the gist of it for $15-$20 on a book, and a few dollars more on videos if we want to be extravagant, complaining the whole time about why ALL the drills are not available on the web for, you know, free.) Then he charges triathletes buckets of money for "clinics," because they don't take anything seriously if it's not ruinously expensive. Then he hops up on his soap box, and in the idiom of Frank Zappa: "The Mystery Man came over An' he said: 'I'm outa-site!' He said, for a nominal service charge, I could reach nervonna t'nite If I was ready, willing 'n able To pay him his regular fee He would drop all the rest of his pressing affairs And devote His Attention to me "But Gull said . . . Look here brother, Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris? (Now who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?) Look here brother, Don't you waste your time on me "The Mystery Man got nervous An' he fidget around a bit He reached in the pocket of his Mystery Robe An' he whipped out a shaving kit Now, I thought it was a razor An' a can of foamin' goo But he told me right then when the top popped open There was nothin' his box won't do With the oil of Afro-dytee An' the dust of the Grand Wazoo He said: 'You might not believe this, little fella, but it'll cure your Asthma too!' "An' Gull said . . . Look here brother, Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris? (Now what kind of a geroo are you anyway?) Look here brother, Don't you waste your time on me Don't waste yer time . . ." So his Terry jivin' us with his cosmik debris? Or, has he measured his audience and figured out what it will take to get them to pay attention and learn how to swim well? Matt

Craig in Liverpool, Total Immersion, just like any other well-considered program for improving stroke technique, will make you better and faster than you would be swimming your same old, same old. Just how much you improve, and just how "fast" you get is affected by a lot of other variables, such as: age, athletic ability, level of conditioning and prior swimming experience. I am experienced (if rather mediocre) swimmer, and I have used TI to improve my swimming, to include non-trivial drops in time in my 40s. I have used TI principals to coach age group and Div III college swimmers. My work, along with the coaching of other more traditional coaches and hard work and dedication by the swimmers themselves have all resulted in very substantial improvements in swimming and drops in personal best times. End of serious discussion. Now, on to the flame wars. You can take or leave the marketing side of Total Immersion. It's your choice, and you are entitled to your opinion. However, consider the marketing in this context. Who needs a program for stroke technique more desparately than any other discrete group of athletes? Triathletes. What else do we know about triathletes? They will drop oodles of cash on gadgets and gimmicks and shoes and five figure bicycles, all chasing that elusive minute or two improvement in a race that will take them hours to finish. In particular, they will spend several times (measured by hourly rate) more money on coaching than comparable masters swimmers. (Because of convenience issues, I chatted up a tri coach about perhaps paying to join her crew in their swim workout the once a week they do that. She had to requote me her rate twice before I realized that WAS IN FACT the once a week swim workout rate, and that these people pay hundreds of dollars, A MONTH, for the full package.) However, from my biased swimmer's point of view, the workouts are not very immaginative interval chasing. Why's that? Because triathletes have so bought into the paradigm of more pain means more improvement that they will fire the coach if their heart rate falls below a certain level. So, how do you get this crowd, who so clearly are highly conditioned well beyond the cardio fitness of any other group of weekend athletes on the face of the planet and the last thing they need is one more high intensity workout with lousy form, to back off of their aerobic threshold and learn how to swim without committing crimes against nature and abominations in the eyes of God? Well, Terry Laughlin, clever man, has hit on a simple formula. He starts with a well conceived set of drills that may or may not be revolutionary. Again, you're entitled to your opinion. (And for we cheapskate swimmers, who *** about paying $3 more in meet entry fees so that the team hosting the meet actually breaks even instead of having to subsidize it, can cleverly get the gist of it for $15-$20 on a book, and a few dollars more on videos if we want to be extravagant, complaining the whole time about why ALL the drills are not available on the web for, you know, free.) Then he charges triathletes buckets of money for "clinics," because they don't take anything seriously if it's not ruinously expensive. Then he hops up on his soap box, and in the idiom of Frank Zappa: "The Mystery Man came over An' he said: 'I'm outa-site!' He said, for a nominal service charge, I could reach nervonna t'nite If I was ready, willing 'n able To pay him his regular fee He would drop all the rest of his pressing affairs And devote His Attention to me "But Gull said . . . Look here brother, Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris? (Now who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?) Look here brother, Don't you waste your time on me "The Mystery Man got nervous An' he fidget around a bit He reached in the pocket of his Mystery Robe An' he whipped out a shaving kit Now, I thought it was a razor An' a can of foamin' goo But he told me right then when the top popped open There was nothin' his box won't do With the oil of Afro-dytee An' the dust of the Grand Wazoo He said: 'You might not believe this, little fella, but it'll cure your Asthma too!' "An' Gull said . . . Look here brother, Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris? (Now what kind of a geroo are you anyway?) Look here brother, Don't you waste your time on me Don't waste yer time . . ." So his Terry jivin' us with his cosmik debris? Or, has he measured his audience and figured out what it will take to get them to pay attention and learn how to swim well? Matt