Terry Laughlin's Blog, page 20

“Guaranteed” Speed: Swim Faster the Smart Way

In a few weeks, I’ll mark the 50th anniversary of when I first got serious about swimming—i.e. training with an explicit goal of swimming fast. In November of 1965, I joined the newly-launched swim team at my high school, St. Mary’s in Manhasset NY.

For the next five or six years, I got faster each year simply because growing taller and stronger as I matured mattered more than the inefficiency of my stroke or generic nature of the my training. But at age 20 I plateaued. Though I was still maturing, I was already stroking as fast and working as hard as I could. In the 45 years since, speed has never again simply ‘happened.’

However, while I’ll celebrate my 65th birthday in just a few months, I’m still highly motivated to swim as fast as my physical capabilities, and limited training time, allow. Thus it’s thrilling to have mastered a form of training that offers a mathematically precise—almost ‘guaranteed’—way of improving my speed.  The accompanying video illustrates how it works.

The first clip shows me swimming a continuous 100 yards. The onscreen graphics display the key elements in the Math of Speed, based on the formula Velocity = Stroke Length x Stroke Rate. However I’m far less interested in sprinting a breathless 25 meters, than in sustaining a brisk pace for a mile or more. That requires easy—and smart—speed.

My plan for this 100-yard swim included two elements.

I swam the first length at ‘cruise’ pace—a relaxed and restorative pace that feels as if I could swim indefinitely and never tire. This approximates the pace and effort I’ve used in marathon swims of 20 or more miles. On each of the next two lengths, I increased tempo and stroke pressure slightly. On the last length, I swam at what I call ‘brisk’ pace—strong, but quite controlled. It equates to how I like to feel in the latter stages of an open water mile race.

I counted strokes (as I do habitually) while swimming this 100. My plan was to take 13 strokes on the first length, 14 on the next two and 15 on the fourth. (My Green Zone in a 25-yard pool is 13 to 16 SPL.) I missed my target counts by one stroke, taking 15 on the third length. As I increased tempo, pressure, and speed, I focused on keeping my stroke quiet and splash-free—as I always do when increasing pace.

From the video, I took split times, counted strokes, and timed tempo for each length. The seconds, stroke count and Tempo for each length are displayed on screen:

1st 25:   21.7 sec., 13 strokes, 1.24 sec/stroke

2nd 25:  21.7 sec., 14 strokes, 1.20 sec/stroke

3rd 25:   21.6 sec., 15 strokes, 1.16 sec/stroke

4th 25:   20.2 sec., 15 strokes, 1.06 sec/stroke

My 1500-meter pool pace (calculated by multiplying 25-yard split times by 66) improved from 23:52 on the first length to 22:12 on the final length.

Besides the efficiency skills of balance, stability, streamline, etc., this swim also displays a high level of pacing skill, which is critical to racing success at any distance from 100 meters up—and to maximizing your personal speed potential.

Few swimmers can maintain or increase pace on each successive 25 of a continuous 100. Fewer still can increase pace by 6.5% from start to finish. And here’s another thing to consider while watching this video. Drag increases exponentially as speed increases. So an increase of 6.5% in speed should result in a 47% increase in drag. Does it seem as if I’m working 47% harder on the 4th length than on the first or second?

The ability to generate easy speed requires practice of two kinds of skills:

1. The ability to keep one’s stroke efficient, relaxed, and highly integrated at a wide range of tempos and speeds.

2. The ability to precisely control and adjust stroke length, tempo, and pressure.

Both of these come from regularly performing challenging task or problem-solving exercises such as the one illustrated in the next two video clips, shot in a 25-meter pool. Those shown are the first and last in a series of 7 x 25.

I started at a tempo of 1.10 seconds/stroke, and increased tempo by .04 on each successive 25 (1.06, 1.02, 0.98, 0.94, 0.90.) My goal was to test whether I could maintain a consistent stroke count—i.e. travel as far on each stroke—on each 25, to a cumulative tempo increase of two-tenths of a second.  At a tempo of 1.1 seconds, 17 SPL converts mathematically to a 25-meter pace of 22.4 sec 0r 22:24 for 1500m. At a tempo of .9, 17 SPL converts mathematically to a 25-meter pace of 18.8 sec or 18:00 for 1500 meters. That’s what I mean by ‘guaranteed’ speed.

When I first began using a Tempo Trainer, I adjusted in smaller increments—as little as .01 second—and was pleased if I could hold one stroke count while increasing by .06 of a second. Years of practice have significantly improved my ability to hold Stroke Length, while increasing Stroke Rate. As I noted in the post Swim like Katie Ledecky, 40 years of data collected by USA Swimming has revealed that this is the closest thing to an algorithm for swimming success.

As also noted in that post, training for Smart and Easy Speed starts with two steps:

1. Learn to swim consistently in your Green Zone range of stroke counts.

2. Patiently learn to swim each of those stroke counts at incrementally faster tempos.

To test your own level of Smart Speed Skills, download the Green Zone chart and order a Tempo Trainer.

Happy  laps.

 

The post “Guaranteed” Speed: Swim Faster the Smart Way appeared first on Total Immersion.

Swimmer Speed Curve – Part 1

I have been working on a presentation to improve understanding of ‘Easy Speed’ and ‘Smart Speed’ concepts in the Total Immersion swimming framework, as I see it. I will break this presentation down into 4 parts.

Let me post some diagrams to show these ideas visually followed by an outline of my main points…

In this diagram we are looking at the speed curve of a swimmer – I intentionally put POWER on the y-axis and SPEED on the x-axis because I like the way that the increasing slope gives the impression of an increasingly difficult mountain to climb as we get near peak speed. We get a visual sense of the diminishing investment-payoff ratio. Otherwise the graph would more appropriately be drawn with speed in the y-axis as the product of power applied, with curves leveling out at their speed limit.

Hull Speed Limits

Swimmer speed is like the hull speed of a boat, although a boat has a fixed shape and a swimmer has a shape that changes a lot in the act of swimming. So that makes things incredibly complex for measuring human hull speed. Therefore, these diagrams are completely conceptual, not to scale nor reflecting actual data. However, the same basic idea of shape-influences-speed applies.

~  ~  ~

To read more of this article – Swimmer Speed Curve – Part 1 – visit Coach Mat’s Smooth Strokes Blog.

 

The post Swimmer Speed Curve – Part 1 appeared first on Total Immersion.

Using the Math of Speed to Achieve A ‘Dream Swim’

In this post I use a ‘real life’ example to show how one swimmer can improve her speed–and achieve a dream–by using the TI Principles-based approach I’ve described in several recent posts. In a few weeks, I’ll spend a ‘fortnight’ in the UK leading workshops and training coaches. While there I’ll also spend a couple of hours with Helen Webster, editor of 220, the UK triathlon magazine, teaching her TI technique in TI Coach Tracey Baumann’s Endless Pool.

I queried Helen on her swimming history and perceived needs or priorities to ensure we would focus on her priorities. Here are her responses:

I hadn’t swum before coming to work at 220 magazine two years ago, so I’m a complete newbie! I’ve had a few lessons so I can swim front crawl now and have completed around 10 triathlons, swimming up to 1500m in open water. I’m keen to get all the advice and help I can. I may be slow, but I’ve really fallen in love with swimming and have lots of enthusiasm!

  My endurance is pretty good, but I seem to have hit a plateau. I can swim 2k in about 55mins, but can’t seem to get faster. I swim 4x a week for an hour but don’t have a structured plan and thus I mainly just do lengths.

I’ve gotten feedback from coaches that there are quite a few areas I need to focus on, but I struggle to prioritise them. Besides swimming faster, being able to complete a 5km swim in the Lake District next summer, in a reasonable time, is the dream!

Helen also included a link to a video shot by Gabriel Lombriser at a training camp several days earlier.

I replied

I’m delighted that you’ve fallen in love with swimming. I’ll do my best to deepen those feelings. Your video provided invaluable information and insight—both on your form, and on the ‘math’ of the speed at which you’ve plateaued. By ‘math” I mean that your pace is the exact product of how far you travel on each stroke (Stroke Length) and how frequently you take them (Stroke Rate).

I estimate you took about 36 strokes to complete 25 meters. I also timed 10 strokes at two points to learn your Stroke Rate, which was .83 sec/stroke both times. [For sake of comparison, my tempo while racing 1500 meters in open water is between .95 and 1.0 sec/stroke . . . but I’ve worked many years to acquire the skill to keep my stroke efficient at that rate.]

I see you use a kind of ‘windmill’ action. Look for this in the video: Your arm is at full extension when it first appears beneath the surface and immediately begins pushing back. There is no lengthening component in your stroke. This is highly typical of new swimmers.

How long should your stroke be? Our Green Zone chart gives a height-indexed range of efficient counts for 25 meters.

In the TI Method, your arm’s most important role is to lengthen your bodyline . . . and to ‘separate’ the molecules in front of you–the function performed by the sharply tapered nose of an F-15 fighter jet, bullet train or barracuda. Both help in significantly reducing drag.

Like all human swimmers, your upside on reducing drag is almost limitless, while that on increasing propulsion is quite finite.

Thus we’ll focus on significantly increasing your stroke efficiency by adding a lengthening-and-separating phase. We’ll start with Balance, the ‘non-negotiable’ pre-requisite to a long—and far more relaxed–stroke.

Helen replied

I counted strokes this morning in a 25m pool and you’re right; I range from 33 to 36 SPL. According to your Green Zone chart, at my height of 67 inches, I should be taking 17 to 21 strokes. Quite a difference!

  I’ve heard before that I swim with a ‘windmill’ stroke but haven’t had a clue about how to fix this. Even when I understand I’m doing something wrong, trying to make my arms do something different often seems pretty near impossible!

I wrote back

I’m glad this makes sense. Here’s how an increase in stroke efficiency will enable you to improve speed almost effortlessly. We’ll apply the Math of Speed formula (Velocity = Stroke Length x Stroke Rate or V = SL x SR) to what the video reveals about your swimming.

.Allowing 3 to 4 seconds for the pushoff, your pace at 33 strokes and .83 tempo should be about 31 seconds. (.83 x 33 = 27.4 sec. + 3.5 sec (pushoff) = 31 sec.

A few lengths later–feeling fatigued from your high stroke rate—you probably slow your stroke a bit, but your SPL has increased to 36. This mathematically produces a pace of 37 to 38 sec per 25—or 2:25 to 2:30 per 100m. Is this reasonably close to your actual training paces?

If you bring your stroke count into your Green Zone by improving the TI ‘foundation’ skills of Balance, Core Stability and Streamline, here’s how the math changes. Suppose our initial goal is for you to be able to swim a pace of 2:00/100m (30 sec/25m) with such ease that you can maintain it indefinitely.

Calculating as above tells us that at 21 SPL—the highest count in your Green Zone, you need only stroke at a tempo of 1.24 sec/stroke. At this strikingly more relaxed tempo, you’re likely to feel far more ease . . . and consequently, maintain that pace almost indefinitely without fatigue. Improving by 25 seconds per 100m would project to an improvement of about 8:00 in your current 2K time—from 55 to 47 minutes.

I’m highly confident that I can help you develop a sufficiently solid efficiency foundation that a few weeks of practice should bring to comfortably and consistently swimming at 20 to 21 SPL. A few months of ‘encoding’ new skills over the winter should put you in a place to swim sub-50 minutes for 2K . . . and confidently undertake your ‘dream swim’ of 5K in the Lake District.

The post Using the Math of Speed to Achieve A ‘Dream Swim’ appeared first on Total Immersion.

Video Interview: World Triathlon Champion Kirsten Sass and her coach Suzanne Atkinson. Both are TI Coaches!

On Sept 19, TI Master Coach Suzanne Atkinson posted on Facebook that one of her athletes had just won a triathlon world championship. That would be exciting news in any case, but what made this feat particularly special was that the athlete was another TI Coach!

Kirsten Sass was Women’s Overall Age Group Champion in the Olympic Distance World Triathlon Championships.

I couldn’t wait to learn more so I asked Suzanne and Kirsten to join me for a Google hangout. We recorded it to share with you. Though I’ve had the pleasure of spending much time working and swimming with them, I learned some quite surprising things.

A small sample (at the 5:00 mark): In her first triathlon, in 1999, Kirsten placed “dead last in my age group.”

I’ve heard stories of people who ‘made the podium’ in their first tri, discovered potential they hadn’t suspected, and went on to highly successful triathlon careers. But I’d never heard of someone going from last place to a World Championship.

Kirsten’s reaction to finishing last? “Surely I can go faster than that.”  Also, she says, she thoroughly enjoyed the experience, regardless of place, because everyone who passed her was encouraging and supportive.

And here’s something else of interest. We’ve noticed that Total Immersion seems to exert a pronounced attraction to people in the health-care field. Suzanne and Kirsten both coach as an avocation. In their  ‘day jobs,’ both are health-care professionals. Suzanne is an MD with a long-time specialty in emergency medicine. She also teaches at University of Pittsburgh Medical School . . . yet one more form of coaching.

Kirsten is a physician’s assistant, as well as a mom to two young children.

If you’d like to meet Kirsten and Suzanne in person, both will join me as coaches at the TI Triathlon Swimming Camp Feb 25-29, 2016 in Clermont Florida.

The post Video Interview: World Triathlon Champion Kirsten Sass and her coach Suzanne Atkinson. Both are TI Coaches! appeared first on Total Immersion.

How I Used Principles-Based Training to Swim Faster in Spring and Summer

This is the third post in a series describing how to swim faster with a principles-based approach. In this post I share the thought process that guides my own training. Speed isn’t my highest priority, but I frequently use it to measure the effectiveness of my efforts.

Five Core Truths of Speed

To follow a principles-based approach, you drill down to identify core truths about something, then use them to guide your actions. Here are five core truths about speed in swimming that guide the TI Method:

Speed is a math problem captured in the equation Velocity = Stroke Length x Stroke Rate or    V = SL x SR. [Measure Length and Rate in training via Strokes Per Length (SPL) and Tempo.]
Because Stroke Length is the factor in that equation with the strongest proven correlation with speed, it should be your starting point. [Use the TI Green Zone chart to determine how many strokes per length (SPL) is efficient for your height. Download for free here.]
Achieving your most efficient SPL–most swimmers take too many strokes–requires considerable skill . . . primarily the skill of minimizing drag. [Learn these skills with the downloadable TI Self-Coaching Toolkit.]
For a simple and foolproof way to swim faster, incrementally increase Tempo, while keeping SPL constant.                      [Doing this with  a Tempo Trainer is the most precise way to do so.]
Because drag increases exponentially with gains in speed (2x faster = 4x drag), streamlining skill becomes increasingly         important as you swim faster.

In the first post in this series, Can You Swim Faster . . . Easier? I explained why initial efforts to increase speed should focus on learning to swim your current pace with less effort. Reduce energy waste and drag; minimize wavemaking and turbulence; control stroke count and pace.

In the second post Want to swim like Katie Ledecky? You can! I showed that learnable skills were critical to the most dominant distance freestyle performance in swimming history. To recap, Katie was the best in the field at:

Maintaining a highly efficient stroke count—at the lower end of her personal Green Zone, even at top speed.
Keeping SPL consistent at a wide range distances and speeds.
Increasing Stroke Rate/Tempo while maintaining a highly efficient SPL.

Terry’s Training Lab

My three highest priorities in swim training are:

Mens sana in corpore sano—the ancient Latin phrase meaning ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body.’
2. To be energized, mentally and physically, for everything else I’d like to do that day.
To use my training as a ‘laboratory’ to learn what works in swimming, in both technique and training.

I consistently accomplish all three with practices I refer to as ‘Terry’s Training Lab,’ a name inspired by Mike Bryant, an avid Ironman triathlete and improvement-minded swimmer, who refers to practice sessions as his Aqua Lab.

I’ll turn 65 in six months—and have been swimming for over 50 years—so personal best times are no longer a realistic goal. However I keep my passion for improvement high by doing an Improvement Project several times a year. (The inspiration for this also came from a TI enthusiast–Andy Miller, of Brighton, England, who posts on the TI Discussion Forum as “Andy in Norway.”)

Improvement Projects have these elements:

A defined time frame. Mine have lasted from 30 days to 12 weeks. Shorter is generally better because it concentrates your focus. Your time frame can be measured in number of practices or practice hours, or a calendar period.
A measurable goal. The goal comes from an initial test, or assessment, swim or set, including at least two of these three metrics—Time, SPL, or Tempo. You conclude the project by repeating this test swim—and sometimes repeat it at intervals during the project.
An improvement plan. Use information from the test set to plan your practices. Each practice should focus on making tiny improvements on one or more metrics in your test swim, and/or from an earlier practice during the project.

Accountability This is an optional, but critical, element. Andy announced his project—to see how much he could improve his personal best for 400 meters time in 21 practices—on the Forum, and gave periodic progress reports. When you make your goal public—whether to one person, or potentially thousands, as on the TI Forum—you’ll pursue it with greater commitment.

I’ve logged each of my Improvement Projects on the Favorite Practices and Sets conference on the TI Forum. In each, I’ve improved on my initial test set by between 5 and 10 percent. Given my age, half-century-long swimming history, and the relatively minimal training volume during these projects, that is quite striking improvement.

My most important benefit is the galvanizing sense of mission I experience during a project. Each time I go to the pool or lake, I know the precise purpose and ‘success metrics’ of that practice. My consistency in meeting practice goals has created a sense of anticipation and excitement for each swim. That success and satisfaction has flowed from principles-based training, guided by the Core Truths of Speed listed above.

Here are summaries of my last two Improvement Projects.

Terry’s Spring Training Project (click to read all posts)

I began on April 20 with a test set of 3 x 550 yards on interval of 10:00. I chose 3 x 550 because it adds up to 1650y, the equivalent of 1500m in a 25y pool. I’d just taken a 7-month training hiatus, my longest downtime in many years, and thought this would be a good way to prepare for open water races I expected to do beginning in June or July.

On April 20, I swam as follows:

#1 Tempo 1.20 sec/stroke.    Time 8:31

#2 Tempo 1.17                    Time 8:27

#3 Tempo 1.15                    Time 8:25

My cumulative ‘broken’ 1650y time was 25:23.

I chose somewhat ‘leisurely’ tempos because of my lengthy downtime. I estimated they’d allow me to avoid exceeding 16 SPL–the top count in my 25y Green Zone.

My guesstimate turned out to be quite accurate. I was able to easily hold 14 SPL at the start, but it took maximum focus and self-control to avoid exceeding 16 SPL at the end.

Over the next two months, I trained 3 times per week, for an average of just 2000 yards per session. You can review every practice here. Each was focused on making tiny but steady improvements in SPL and/or Tempo from the test set and previous practices.

On June 22, I concluded my Spring Training Lab by repeating my test set of 3 x 550y on 10:00. This practice was the first time I didn’t use a Tempo Trainer. Instead I used SPL as my controlling metric, starting at 14 SPL and finishing at 16 SPL, as on my baseline test two months earlier.

My ‘final exam’ results:

#1 14-15 SPL   Time 8:04

#2 15-16 SPL   Time 7:46

#3  16 SPL         Time 7:45 (I was fighting off foot cramps on this 550.)

My ‘broken’ 1650 time improved to 23:35. This was 7% faster than on April 20—a very significant payoff for rather modest training.

Terry’s Summer Training Project (click to read all posts)

Three days later I began my summer project, which would combine practices in an outdoor 50m pool with open water swims in Lake Minnewaska. I chose a ‘broken’ 1500m baseline test—done as 5 x 300m on 6:00–to maintain consistency with my spring project. I chose the shorter repeats because I began this project with a well-tuned stroke and much better fitness and believed shorter training swims would allow more progress.

For my initial test set of 5 x 300, I decided to start at 40 SPL and allow my count to rise to 41 then 42 (my 50m Green Zone is 36 to 44 SPL) while also increasing stroke-pressure from ‘featherlight’ to ‘firm.’

My times that day were 5:06, 4:59, 4:56, 4:52, 4:52 for a cumulative broken 1500m time of 24:45. I calculated my average tempo on this set as 1.13 sec/stroke.

The two metrics of average SPL and total 1500m time allowed me to calculate the third key metric—Tempo—with a reasonable degree of accuracy. I would use these three metrics in planning my pool and open water practices.

Training in both pool and lake allowed me to be a bit more creative in my summer project than in the spring. I planned to repeat the 5 x 300 every 10 to 14 days, with about six pool or lake practices in between. I know from experience, I can adjust to a faster range of tempo in open water than in the pool. So I planned to push my lake tempo—with a goal of being comfortable and efficient a week or two later in the pool at that same tempo. My goal was to see how much I could increase tempo, while staying close to my initial SPL

In mid-summer, I switched to doing the 5 x 300 with tempo, rather than SPL, as the primary metric. I did this because the spread between my time on the first and last 300m repeats had been too great. By increasing tempo by just .01 second on each repeat, I reasoned I should have a much closer spread—and thus a faster cumulative time for the broken 1500.

When I made that change, I still improved my time on each 300, but I reduced the average spread between fastest and slowest from 14 seconds, to 7 seconds. The key to doing this is to control increase in SPL (loss in SL) as tempo increases. That required intense focus.

On Sept 6, I swam my final test set of 5 x 300 on 6:00. I started at 1.04 sec/stroke tempo and a time of 4:47 (five seconds faster than any 300 on my initial test) and finished at 0.98 tempo and a time of 4:39.

My cumulative 1500 time was 23:41, an improvement of 1:04 and 5 percent from 10 weeks earlier. During those 10 weeks I’d averaged only 2000 meters per practice.

By making precise adjustments, I increased average tempo from 1.13 to 1.00 sec/stroke, while adding only two strokes—from 41 to 43–to average SPL. I increased tempo by 13 percent, while limiting increase in SPL to 5 percent.

In other words, I improved my 1500-meter pace by over a minute by ‘solving’ speed as a math problem.

Summary

In both Improvement Projects, I used a principles-based approach as follows:

Began with Stroke Length/SPL as my primary factor.
Devoted every meter of practice to a problem-solving exercises in the math of speed. Every meter was also 100% specific to my personal capacities on that day.
Never gave a thought to conditioning, yet gained steadily in fitness. As my nervous system adapted to more  difficult combinations of SPL and Tempo–and I swim faster as a result–my fitness gains were specific to my exact requirements at that moment.
These brief periods of highly focused, utterly precise, low-yardage training period resulted in significant gains in speed.
Every practice left me highly energized, mentally and physically, for my other activities.
I learned invaluable lessons about high-efficiency training which I’m sharing with you here.

If you browse the posts on these Forum threads, you’ll find detailed notes on how I planned and adjusted my approach, as well as replies to queries or comments from other Forum members.

The post How I Used Principles-Based Training to Swim Faster in Spring and Summer appeared first on Total Immersion.

Two Essential Measurements

I want to describe two essential measurements we must include in every performance training set.

If one is looking for genuinely efficient speed then there are two essential measurements to make in every swimming action:

 How does it feel?
 What does it produce?

The problem with noting how fast a swimmer went (or what place he/she got) in the race is that it doesn’t tell us what it cost that swimmer to produce that speed. Speed can be obtained at high cost or lowest cost (relatively speaking), and technique determines where each swimmer falls between those two. To some it didn’t matter how much it cost- the only thing that mattered was that she won. That may be fine for a one-off win, but that ignorance is not going to work for a career of winning and a lifetime of swimming. Competitors, and age, will eventually catch and crush an energy-wasteful athlete.

Efficient Speed

Time, pace, tempo, stroke length, etc – these only tell us what has been produced on the outside of the swimmer. They don’t tell us how well the swimmer used energy to produce them. For an assessment of the cost, the swimmer has to look inside the body…

~  ~  ~

To read more of this article – Two Essential Measurements – visit Coach Mat’s Smooth Strokes Blog.

The post Two Essential Measurements appeared first on Total Immersion.

High Turnover vs. The Right Turnover

Conventional wisdom tells us that faster freestyle turnover equals faster speed. If only it were that easy! This might be true for our terrestrial counterparts, runners, but water is about 800 times denser than air. That added resistance means the rules don’t apply in the same way for both runners and swimmers. Additionally, turnover rate and speed don’t share a linear correlation; errors in stroke introduce drag, and as speed increases, this drag coefficient increases exponentially.

Finding the right turnover is personal and based on a swimmer’s height (or wingspan), skill level, tempo (rate of turnover), and stroke length. Tempo is measured in strokes per minute or seconds per stroke. For example, 60 SPM is equivalent to one second for each arm stroke. Stroke length is the distance the body moves forward on every stroke.

More often than not, swimmers stroke at tempos that are too fast—beyond their current skill levels—and are forced to kick too much so they can remain stable. The best device to measure and find your personal turnover rate (or tempo) is use a Finis Tempo Trainer , but a stop watch will do if a tempo trainer is not available.

 

CLICK HERE to read more …

 

The post High Turnover vs. The Right Turnover appeared first on Total Immersion.

Swim Straighter and Faster with Less Effort in Open Water

Open water season is approaching and with it the need to learn and refine the basics of open water sighting. One of the easiest ways to improve your swimmers’ open water performance is by improving their ability to sight on a course. However, sighting well and swimming straighter in open water are often mistaken with sighting forward more frequently and having the target in complete focus. Locking in on a target frequently may be calming and comforting because swimmers feel they’re swimming a straighter and shorter path, but it can come at a big expense.

It’s important for open water swimmers to remember that it’s only necessary to recognize contrast when sighting; it’s not necessary to focus on the target’s absolute size and shape.

Click Here to read more of this post …

The post Swim Straighter and Faster with Less Effort in Open Water appeared first on Total Immersion.

Ultra-Efficient Freestyle: New Book–First Look

On January 30, on the iTunes/iBooks store we’ll release my latest book Swim Ultra-Efficient Freestyle.  While the original TI book has become the most popular swimming book in history, I believe Ultra-Efficient Freestyle is my best effort, as an author (and ‘explainer-of-swimming’) to date. But I’ll leave that to readers to judge, and I hope you’ll be among them.

While the book will not be available for order until Jan, 30, you can read a fairly detailed description, see sample pages, and download an excerpt now at this link.

From now until launch date–and probably for some time thereafter–I’ll post a short blog most days with an excerpt. Each will feature one of the many informative lists of thoughts or principles or actions I’ve included in the book.

This first list is excerpted from the Introduction.

Total Immersion’s ultra-efficient Freestyle is distinguished by these characteristics:

It’s immediately and universally recognizable as a standard ‘form’—like yoga asanas. Every ‘signature’ element in TI Freestyle—from the neutral head position, extended bodyline, and symmetrical arm recovery to the 2-Beat Kick—is there for a compelling reason, which the chapters that follow will explain.
It treats the human body as a system in which all parts are intricately inter-related—and thus the actions of all body parts should be seamlessly synchronized.
It’s not ‘naturally occurring.’ Only a tiny number of elites swim this way by innate instinct. For everyone else, TI Freestyle is an learned skill and an intentional action.
However, the striking similarity in form attained by countless thousands of TI enthusiasts worldwide shows that it’s a stroke anyone can learn (including Dr.Paul Lurie who took his first lesson at age 94). It doesn’t require youth, athleticism, or special gifts.
A striking number of those who learn it become passionately curious and improvement-oriented (Kaizen) about swimming.

 

The post Ultra-Efficient Freestyle: New Book–First Look appeared first on Swim For Life.

The post Ultra-Efficient Freestyle: New Book–First Look appeared first on Total Immersion.

Kick Timing 101: Two-, Four, and Six-Beat Kick

Kick timing is an important but often-overlooked aspect of freestyle. But when your swimmers discover the right kick timing connected to hip rotation, they can tap into previously unavailable core power to drive themselves forward faster with far less effort.

I usually describe kick timing to swimmers by comparing it to the more familiar, upright, terra firma counterparts of walking, jogging, or running. When you’re walking or running, as your left leg swings forward your right arm swings forward as counterbalance. The same is true for the opposite side: when the right leg swings forward, the left arm also swings forward. We’ve acquired this instinctive diagonal timing since taking our first steps as infants.

But put a human in a horizontal position in an aquatic environment and the instinctive diagonal left-right/right-left sync is fleeting or disappears altogether. Worse, swimmers isolating their legs only by using a kickboard or arms only when using a pull-buoy further disengage the core and coordination of their arm strokes with leg kicks. Legs and arms are not mutually exclusive departments and must be trained to work together, not independently.

Click here to read more of this post …

 

The post Kick Timing 101: Two-, Four, and Six-Beat Kick appeared first on Total Immersion.