Does anyone else here NOT kick when they swim freestyle?
When I was 19, a coach told me that a lot of "real" freestylers don't kick, which was a surprise to me because every other coach I'd had would yell at me to kick during my events. I grew up thinking I was the odd one out, but maybe someone on here knows what I'm talking about...
Former Member
Secondly, when you openly criticize mainstream coaching philosphy on this forum (not to mention in your books and on your website), you can expect to be challenged.. Newton's third law of motion if I'm not mistaken : "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. "
Terry we respect what you say but we do have the right to dispute anything you say. Just wondering as you say you sold more books then those other 2guys so everyone has to follow your words exactly. I certainly did not follow Ernie or Doc's everyword i even believe they made a few errors.
You have contributed a lot. There are good things in your stuff but I think you have it wrong when you say Councilman inherited all of his swimmers. Because when you inherit swimmers some are pretty bad and have had very poor instruction/coaches. I think there are some pretty knowledgeble people on this site and I will listen and use whatever I think is good.
George Breen used a 2 beat kick and his stroke looked helter skelter but he sure moved through the water.
Even though I am 73 years old I am still learning and you should still be learning.
You have contributed a lot. There are good things in your stuff but I think you have it wrong when you say Councilman inherited all of his swimmers.
In my humble opinion coaches indeed inherit gifted swimmers. You can coach and train the snot out of mediocre kids, and still not bring them up to world class levels. Superstar athletes have raw talent. A coach know when he's been given the gift of such an athlete.
Oh so true I know of coaches at university level who have received gifted swimmers and those gifted swimmers have become worse swimmers. Never again to attain what they did as age groupers. It takes a skilled coach to advance even gifted swimmers.
In the few years I have been around here it has been rather apparent that non traditional methods of swim training (TI, SwimSmooth, Etc.) are not well respected among most of the competitive members. I still stand by my statement that there is no single method of swimming that suits all people well and I honestly believe that good results can come from more than one method. I started with a TI four strokes DVD but once I became semi-proficient I quit the drills and started working in whole stroke swimming and created my own workouts. My path has not been the most productive for speed but I am still doing it over 2 years later and I feel good to boot.
Many a swimmer has seen success with TI and many a swimmer has seen success with Counsilman and company. I would say that both have earned a place in swimming instruction based upon their results.
I also taught handicapped swimmers and the arm actions can actually control the leg position and each one is an individual and what works for one does not work for everyone we had alittle over 1000 in this group.
I had a contract with the federal government and trained water therapists to work with physically and mentally challenged. We had in the group from profoundly hadicapped to almost any level. Even the profoundly handicapped could show their enjoyement of being in the water.
All we have to do with this group is modify and modify it is not one thing that works.
It's a common misperception of TI that we advocate drill, drill, drill. The approach you have used is that one I have pursued personally and recommend. Drills are most effective when you have deeply ingrained habits that are resistant to change when you swim the whole stroke.
Drills provide a way to break a complex action and/or error down to manageable smaller problems and solutions. They also provide a workaround when the whole-stroke is resistant to change, bcz the CNS doesn't "recognize" the drill as a habit pattern.
However, once one has stored those new movements in long-term memory and can begin working on assemblage or coordination of the parts, it's often better to do polishing with whole-skill practice as that's how one achieves better integration.
Doesn't mean one is necessarily "finished" with drills at that point but that they have their place.
I do very little freestyle drilling at this point. I do a pretty fair amount of drilling in the other strokes as my opportunities for improvement are more basic and my skills less advanced/polished.
Gotcha. I think I recall something in your DVD about awareness swimming in which you swim full stroke free but concentrate on a particular portion of the stroke...for instance, a high elbow pull.
Another DVD I bought was from GoSwim with Erik Vendt and Kaitlin Sandeno. I refined my stroke a bit by watching them swim underwater. In the past few years I have taken bits and pieces from several sources to improve my stroke. My point? I enjoy taking bits and pieces from many different swimmers and coaches to improve my overall swimming.
Are you an exercise physiologist?
No, but I am very curious about the human body and it's inner workings. I took a human bio class at a local CC last year and I have always enjoyed reading books about the subject matter. Many of my friends and some family (My sister works in Level 2 ICU/CCU dealing with post op heart patients which intrigues me greatly) are in the nursing profession so I enjoy talking to them about their work. Additionally, I have JAMA in my IE Favorites so I can look up information about disease/treatment as my curiosity dictates. Should I ever become independently wealthy and not need to work anymore, I would go back to school and apply to some med schools.
Good luck with your book Terry.
