At the risk of touching off another flame war...
Please let the record reflect that Adrienne Binder, a self described Total Immersion swimmer, posted the following results at NCAA Div. I Championships:
1650 Free - 15:57.64 3rd
georgiadogs.collegesports.com/.../060316F015.htm
400 IM - 4:11.83 4th
georgiadogs.collegesports.com/.../060316F008.htm
500 Free - 4:41.99 4th
georgiadogs.collegesports.com/.../060316F002.htm
Acknowledging the caveat that she is a Junior at Auburn Univ. and therefore has been swimming in their program for three years and therefore is not a "pure" TI swimmer (to the extent the results of any swimmer can be purely attributed to one coach, program or school of technique and training).
This pretty clearly demonstrates that it is possible to "succeed" at the highest levels of competition while using TI principles. This is not to say that everyone will "succeed" using TI, or that everyone can "succeed" using TI, or indeed that TI necessarily has value for everyone.
However, we ain't the ones hollering "Show me a world class TI swimmer!" Well, there you have it.
Matt
Former Member
... and late bloomer status would create the ideal situation for fast swimming.
Don't start - people have been drowned for less.
-LBJ
.......... and somebody, in a very unsportsmanlike manner, has just (dawg) gone and removed those two sites.............:notworking:
Or they never existed. Ya think?!
Sounds as though Russell Mark's info is quasi-proprietary. Would be interesting, though.
VB
Any pause or delay of effective propulsive inertia hinders swimming speed.
I would disagree with this. OK, technically this may be correct. If you could make 100% of your stroke propulsive (i.e., no deceleration phase) you would swim faster. However, this is impossible to achieve. Because of this the goal should be to maximize the propulsive component (which EVF is especially good for), while minimizing the deceleration component (which TI is good for by emphasizing a streamlined body position). In this way I think TI and EVF can be complementary.
You can contact Russell Mark the biomechanist at USA-Swimming. He presented the information at the National Team Coaches meeting in 2006. He presented the information to about 70 coaches of world class swimmers. It's a very interesting question but I haven't looked into it. I suspect that it could be rationalized that every swimmer had to show an EVF and I don't know the criteria that Russell Mark used to make his conclusion. If you find out, will you please email me with your findings. Thanks, Coach T.
If a swimmer doesn't have good body position, no amount of evf will help them achieve their desired results. Knelson is right in that TI and EVF do compliement each other. If a swimmer has good body position but doesn't get a good hold on the water, they really won't go anywhere. And the reverse is true...bad position but a good catch won't get them to their best swimming.
I do think evf is important. However, I think swimmers spend more time than they need focusing on their catch and not enough on their body position. Improving one's body position will(in my opinion) do more for a swimmer than anything else they are able to do.
As body position improves, a person can swim longer, swim harder, swim faster and do it with less stress on joints(ie shoulder area)
