I just got Total immersion book yesterday.
Have read part 1 of the book and just started doing the drills today.
It seems an excallent way to swim and definatly will improve my f/s.
But i'm a bit weary because it's so comercail. so my question is,
Is Total immersion as good a way to swim as it makes out?
or is it the best way to learn how to swim?
Are there better books out there that teach you how to swim well(properly)?
Hope that makes sense
Swifty
Former Member
Aquageek,
Art Augnst talks in some detail about using TI principles to train his HS girls team in Long Strokes in a Short Season . Please note that the HS events have only 3 individual races over 100 yards (200 free, 200 IM, 500 free), and all the relay legs are 50 or 100 yards. Most of us would consider this sprint training.
There is an excerpt from the book at the TI website here: www.totalimmersion.net/free-books.html
All the way at the bottom of the page, just below the review of the book. The links are labeled Excerpt 1, Excerpt 2, & (surprise, surprise) Excerpt 3. You may find Excerpt 1 particularly relevant.
Matt
I disagree with this:
Originally posted by totalswimm
...
To rhink that swimmers should take their cues only from what elite swimmers do would be just as unreasonable.
But that's just me:
I use whatever works, and elite swimming is a reference to whatever works.
In fact I despise whatever doesn't work, and I consider whatever doesn't work as a penalty for corruption and wishful short cuts:
the only difference between age group swimming and adult swimming is in physiology;
the integrity of getting fast in adulthood is the same as in age group swimming.
Originally posted by totalswimm
I get great pleasure from riding a bike. Does that mean I need to train or ride like Lance Armstrong?
Not if you don't plan to compete.
Just curious. Do you disagree with the philosophy (shared by most coaches) that if you want to swim fast, you need to train fast? I'm not trying to start a "flame war," but I'm picking up mixed messages here regarding the role of TI in competitive swimming.
Originally posted by gull80
I would define fast as En3 or race pace. Obviously this will depend on the individual's anaerobic threshold as well as the race he or she is training for. One of the reasons coaches like Mike Bottom use sprint assisted training is to give swimmers a feel for what it is like to move through the water at a very fast pace.
In her book Choose To Win, Susie O'Neill (Aus.) -World Record holder in the 200 fly from 1999 until 2005- describes how she saw sprinter Alex. Popov (Rus.) -under Genady Touretski- almost breaking World Records in workouts, and how she tried herself to emulate this in her own workouts.
That's breaking a plateau, that workouts train you to stay on it, complacently.
For energy systems, I am familiar with five:
Explosive, Sprint Race, VO2Max, threshold and aerobic.
They use five different sources of energy.
In a 500 yards race, the body shifts from one energy system to another, so it is important to train them in percentages of the total mileage of a 52 week season.
Originally posted by Ion Beza
In fact I despise whatever doesn't work, and I consider whatever doesn't work as being a penalty for corruption and wishful short cuts:
Is overtraining a wishful shortcut?
I think you are oversimplifying things just a bit.
Originally posted by Ion Beza
In her book Choose To Win, Susie O'Neill (Aus.) -World Record holder in the 200 fly from 1999 until 2005- describes how she saw sprinter Alex. Popov (Rus.) -under Genady Touretski- almost breaking World Records in workouts, and how she tried herself to emulate this in her own workouts.
I think the problem with this type of training is that it is going to beat your body up. Over time you are going to have problems with your joints from all of the stress. The training intensity and duration required to swim at world record levels cannot be sustained for decades.
Originally posted by scyfreestyler
Is overtraining a wishful shortcut?
I think you are oversimplifying things just a bit.
What is overtraining and who is simplifying?
Someone (Einstein) said something to the tune of:
every solution should be the simplest, but not simpler than the simplest.
Mark Schubert's -and in the 60s, George Haines'- Olympic training, that is overtraining.
Masters swimming is not.
geochuck claimed earlier to train 800 per day, having done 54.6 in 100 meter free Long Course in 1954, and that more yardage is mindless and garbage.
Beware of simplifying.
54.6 didn't exist in the world in 1954, Scholes won gold in 1952 with a 57.4, Henricks won gold and set a record with a 55.4 in 1956, Devitt won gold and set a record with 55.2 in 1960.
geochuck is 73.
His 54.6 is invisible in the books.
Graham Johnston was 72 in 2002.
He is visible in the books as an Olympian in the 1500 free in 1952.
At 72 in 2002 he went 5:58.xx in the 500 yards free and 58.xx in the 100 yards free at the 2002 USMS Short Course Nationals in Hawaii.
With 25,000 yards of training per week, for years including the year of 2002.
There are no short cuts to factual data.
But there is cheap talk that wasn't and won't be backed up with factual data.
Next time you see Graham ask him about me. Also say hi to him from George. Who in the world claimed I was in the 52 Olympics. Still bad mouthing me still you have not agreed to the 50m race. I will only train 1000m a day and if you beat me that will be fine. But you will have to swim under 29 sec for 50m lc.
Originally posted by geochuck
...
Who in the world claimed I was in the 52 Olympics. Still bad mouthing me...
I never said you went to the 52 Olympics.
I said you said that you went to Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, B.C. in 1954, and done 54.6 in the 100 free, faster than the World Record until...
...gasp...
1964 and Don Schollander (U.S.).
Schollander, who was training 100 km per week under Haines, finally swam faster than your invisible 54.6 and prepared with allegedly 800 per day when he set a new World Record.
Originally posted by Ion Beza
the only difference between age group swimming and adult swimming is in physiology;
the integrity of getting fast in adulthood is the same as in age group swimming.
I would argue that this is an oversimplification. 99% of athletics revolves around physiology in some way, shape, or form. Under that heading are many differences that contribute to a persons success or failure. That is why I suggest that this might be an oversimplification. I am also uncertain how the word integrity fits into the second portion of that sentence. What exactly are you trying to say?
Overtraining is when you train so hard that your body is unable to regenrate quickly enough to keep up with the demand being placed upon it. It can cause poor training results and would most certainly not classify as a shortcut.