Does Pool Depth have an effect on surface turbulence?

I will just add that I personally find that in the water doing things too slowly sometimes makes them difficult. I don't know what speed you are swimming at but I find that when doing new drills sometimes I end up going too slow to do things correctly. The most dramatic example of this principle is butterfly, the dynamics of the stroke change entirely if you slow it down beyond a certain point. Freestyle is not so sensitive to speed but the same principles apply. Just something to experiment with.

Yes, I do agree. Most mission statements are always similar. You know, maybe I have just seen people trying to swim TI the way the videos want them to swim and they are having great difficulty performing. This may be why I see so many people almost underwater and really struggling with a breathing pattern. This could actually be the case here. They just may be having a hard time executing. But swimming a little higher in the water is not an absolute given that the legs will sink. Mine never have even if I am dragging them, but I will say that I hope that my legs are engaged because swimming is not just upper body, we need the lower half a whole lot, too. My entire bottom line is I want everyone in the world to enjoy swimming, but there is so much controversy over which way is best or not. I see some great things from TI, I see some great things from swimming higher in the water. I just want people to know all the pluses and minuses for both and experiment to find that place "somewhere inbetween." Donna

I will just add that I personally find that in the water doing things too slowly sometimes makes them difficult. I don't know what speed you are swimming at but I find that when doing new drills sometimes I end up going too slow to do things correctly. Just something to experiment with. I know I'm jumping into this thread way too long after the original dates (I'm trying to catch up on thousands of "must read"s) Regarding breathing in freestyle, and all the remarks made about how far, to the side, does one have to tilt, swivel (head and/or neck and/or torso), the faster one is swimming, the less one has to "turn", since your head --moving at speed-- creates a trough (the faster, the deeper and the less you have to turn your head). When done right, and if you look at the water surface, you'll notice that your mouth is at a level lower than the water's surface. You cannot train for this by swimming slowly but train, one can. Try at different speeds and see what is the least amount of twisting you have to do to get the lower corner of your mouth barely out of the water. Cheers

Anyway Alphathree, there was this Russian guy, Popup, or Poppy, or Pop Tart or something. He seems to swim with his head and body fairly low in the water and breathes without craning his neck. His coach may have had him swim slow to practice balance or something and imprint technique. What did he know, he probably never heard of TI? Anyway, here is Popov on youtube. Maybe worth a look or two. He sniffs his armpit when he breathes--gross. www.youtube.com/watch --mjm

Actually references to Popov are commonly made in the TI book. He keeps his head relaxed and in neutral...not looking forward....mostly facing down ...and each arm is getting a nice long extension. Staying low in the water keeps the frontal resistance off of his head. And a low head position ensures that the hips are up. (Dragging the pool along with you is not a good idea.) Thanks for posting that link Mike. I haven't seen it in a few years. I don't know about the arm pit business though.