What do you think of total immersion?

I think it is time for a redirect. This thread is about Total Immersion, not about individuals that have chosen to post here. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Mark Gill USMS VP of Member Services

Originally posted by dorothyrde Very cool George! I agree, being able to still be in the sport, swimming well 50 years later. I will have to be still swimming at 98 to match that! And maybe I will, maybe I will........heheheheh First race at 5 years old in the public school swimming races, I was in kindergarten raced against 8 year olds. My very first medal, bronze.

Originally posted by newmastersswimmer May 19th we are on I am game for a 29sec 50m lc, 400m in July I'll be ready for it. Hey if you win you can say I showed that old 73 year old. originally posted by Geochuck in response to Ion's Challenge o.k. I'm willing to bet a bottle of tequila (the good stuff...like Petron or Herradura for example) on George for both the 50 free challenge in May and the 400 meter challenge in July.....who wants some of the action? newmastersswimmer I want some action. But don't you think we need to drink something in deference to each one's country. Of course Labatt's for Canada, but no idea what we drink from Romania??

Ion What I could not say was a word that I said out loud when I read some of the things you were saying. Main reason I did not write it here is that I do not swear. It was not meant to curse you or anything like that. It was a four letter word that I never use. It came out and my wife was angry that I said it. I do respect discussion and I thought you were going far and beyond a discussion and when I found out the masters club you swim for, I could not see how with your opinion about TI, you could stay with that club that is so TI.

The age groupers are being taught exactly how Terry has said about not going past the hip. SL will suffer at the expense of SR, but the trick is to practice it so that it won't suffer as much. It is very hard to do, and I think it takes years of practice.

Got a chance swim with Nic Brunelli today (he coaches a couple of practices for Sun Devil Masters) which happened to be a recovery day and was a series of drills leading up to the following set done twice: 4 x 25s drill @ :40 4 x 50s "golf" @ 1:00 1 x 200 holding golf score of the 200 Nic was holding 8 strokes a lap and dropped from :29 to :26 on the 50s, then went about 1:55 on the 200....with a HR of about 120 I'd guess (he was lapping people in his lane and not pushing it). Some interesting discussions with him about SR/SL, these types of workouts relative to race distance, etc. etc. Would love to share with everyone but I'll be keeping for myself! :) By the way, Nic's pretty fast....seems like this type of training works OK for him.

Terry - I must admit that by you hanging in here I'm gaining a great deal of respect for you. Not sure TI is for me but reading your posts is definitely interesting and informative. And Cruise - thanks for the validation that curling is a sport designed to increase liver weight.

I basically teach Tri guys who have no Idea what to do so I have them pressing through to the thigh, but as they become more accomplished they are told to stop pushing around the groin region, rotate and let the hand come out by lifting the elbow. The hand does end up brushing the thigh. By pressing through to the thigh they learn to rotate the shoulders. In the beggining I do not talk SR and SL, that comes later.

Hey, that's the key: Originally posted by scyfreestyler Ion,... ... None of the people I mentioned are swimmers... ... I don't think that my life sucks: Originally posted by scyfreestyler ... You might think your life sucks but you have no idea how bad it can get. When U.S. citizens whine they cannot get out of inner city ghettos in Detroit, I laugh at them because me getting out of communist Romania and succeeding in Western Europe then here that's way harder. My life -including my swimming- is a success.

Originally posted by totalswimm This indicates how fully your criticisms of Total Immersion are based on ignorance. ... 2) We are absolutely not opposed to Stroke Rate. ... I have problems with statement like this: 1.) "...Virtually every swimmer I see already has all the SR they'll ever need..." in the book Total Immersion, page 33; Olympians like Gary Hall Jr. have more SR than the swimmers Terry does see, yet he works on Stroke Rate because nobody -including him- has the Stroke Rate they will ever need; Gary Hall Jr. works foremost at attaining his maximum possible Stroke Rate thru fitness, then at close to that maximum Stroke Rate on the combo Stroke Rate-Stroke Length; 2.) "...In fact properly balanced they hardly kick at all..." in the book Total Immersion in page 42; 1500 meter World Record holder Grant Hackett (Aus.) kicks the entire race of the 1500 in a sprint propulsive kick he develops thru long kicking sets in workouts; he is typical -not an exception, but typical- of today's high class competition; a little before the 2000 Olympics, Ian Thorpe (Aus.) was doing 5x100 meters kick with a board leaving every 5 minutes, and coming in in 1:01; Bill Rose -coach of Olympian Larsen Jensen (U.S.)- recommends 1/3rd. of the weekly mileage in kicking sets with a board, in order to develop the quadriceps of a propulsive kick; 3.) Front Quadrant is explained as "...One hand doesn't start until the other one's nearly back..." -which is a sign of near overlap between the arms- in Total Immersion page 47, and in page 48 "...Enter, e-x-t-e-n-d, pause and pull..."; yet world class swimmers today -like the recently retired Alex. Popov (Rus.), Pieter van den Hoogenband (Netherlands), Jodie Henry (Aus.)- don't pause because they deem it as slowing them down; they swim with arms 180 degrees in opposition; one arm in the water and the other one in the air, 180 degrees apart.