A Tribute to Terry Laughlin

Message from Terry Laughlin’s wife, Alice, and daughters, Fiona, Carrie, and Betsy:

After living with metastatic prostate cancer for two years (about which he blogged widely), Terry passed away on Friday, October 20th, 2017, of complications related to his condition.  He displayed his characteristic optimism, wit, and passion for life– and swimming– until the very end. Our family is in mourning and we ask that we be given time and space to grieve a beloved husband and father privately. While he was “Ter” and “Dad” to us, we fully recognize that Terry was also a legend in the swimming world and admired by countless people whose lives he touched in meaningful ways. We appreciate the well-wishes of Terry’s many friends, fellow coaches, students, and fans. A formal obituary is forthcoming and plans for a public memorial, including several memorial swim events, will be announced for 2018.  

We’ll be using this page to post remembrances from Terry’s friends, family and staff, as well as obituaries and recent interviews he gave.  If you’d like to share a memory or photo please send an email to info@totalimmersion.net.

 

Terry with TI staff (Keith, Tracey, Angela)

Message from Keith Woodburn, Operations Director:

Like many of you reading this I’m still having a hard time accepting the fact that Terry’s gone – that he’s not in his home-office typing away at a blog post, or working on his book….or taking the best swim of his life.  One reason this is so difficult to come to grips with is that Terry still had so much to give.  His creative fire burned bright until his last days, and even in the face of a terminal illness he approached life with optimism and a plan for improvement.

I’m forever grateful to have been Terry’s right-hand-man and to have had the chance to work with a true visionary.  Terry put his full trust in me and took a sincere interest in my development and well-being. I can honestly say that in my 15 year tenure at TI I’ve never had to compromise my values, or do work that challenged my integrity.  That in itself is an enormous gift.

Terry was an entrepreneur in the purist sense of the word.  He was on a mission to change how swimming was taught all over the globe – the business was a byproduct of that passion.  Terry stood tall in stature and influence, and to some he appeared larger than life.  But those who knew him well were struck by his child-like curiosity about the world, and the optimism with which he confronted life’s challenges and rewards.  Terry showed us that if you focus on what’s important to you, and bring a clear and open mind, the work becomes enjoyable.  The work becomes its own reward.

While I mourn the loss of my mentor and friend, I find comfort in considering the body of work and the company he leaves behind.  Total Immersion allowed him to to devote himself to the urgent task of improving lives and changing the world, one swimmer at at time.

Nothing in life is guaranteed, and Terry’s passing reminds us of that. But one thing that’s certain is his legacy will live on.  Total Immersion – a platform for swimming innovation – will live on.

Farewell my friend, I’ll see you on the other side of the lake.

Message from Tracey Baumann, Director of Coaching Services and TI Master Coach:

I first met Terry in Los Angeles.  He was swimming in an ocean race and as I stood on the shore watching a huge pod of Dolphins appeared, and starting playing in between the swimmers.  Dolphins have been my favourite animals for as long as I can remember.  I stood there on this beautiful beach in LA watching my favourite animal and my mentor/idol swim together.  It was one of the most surreal and awesome moments of my life, and one I will never forget.

I feel privileged to say that I then went on to be able to work very closely with Terry over the next few years and ended up being on his main TI Central staff helping Keith and Angela run the business.   During our weekly Skype calls we would discuss pressing matters on our agenda, but Terry always managed to tell us a story of a swim or an amazing person he had met, or to chat to us about what he was currently writing.  During his many visits to Windsor, UK, we would often be in hysterics with tears rolling down Terry’s eyes as he laughed at a Youtube video or a story he was reciting – not to mention his many hilarious impressions.  

Terry was a true genius.  I was endlessly in awe of his general knowledge and I will be forever thankful for all I learned from him about swimming.  He challenged me as a coach and made me the coach I am today, and I hope my skills and knowledge will continue to grow for years to come.  I would not be the person or coach I am today without having met and worked so closely with Terry.   A huge void has been left and I am still in utter disbelief that Terry’s gone.  His legacy will thrive because of the commitment of TI coaches and swimmers, and the strength of the methodology that he developed. 

As the quote says below – Terry sure gave us all so much for it to be impossible to forget him and therefore he will live on in every stroke I teach and every stroke any of us swims.  

“It’s hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember”

Happy Laps Terry! Until we meet again.

 

Message from Angela Dorris, Events Director:

I learned so much from Terry. He was a positive mentor and the most empowering leader I’ve ever worked under.  His solutions were creative and he loved to lead others toward outside the box thinking. What a gift to be around someone that approached everything with kindness and creativity. 

Our final swim together was the Monday after an open water camp ended in Rosendale, NY – just down the road from where we live. He called to ask what time I would return to the lake to pick up supplies, and if I’d like to join him for a swim. Though it was August, it was a chilly morning and it was raining.  But that didn’t dampen our spirits.  The swim was nothing short of fantastic, and a good reminder that we can always pause to make room for what is important.

I’ll be forever grateful for all Terry taught me and feel lucky to have known and worked with him.  I’ll be swimming some happy laps for you, Terry.

 

Terry Laughlin, Who Taught Swimmers Not to Struggle, Dies at 66

Terry Laughlin, who developed a popular method of swimming instruction that emphasized form over speed to help thrashing swimmers learn to glide through the water, died on Oct. 20 in Albany. He was 66.

His daughter Fiona Laughlin said the cause was complications of metastatic prostate cancer.

Mr. Laughlin (pronounced LOCK-lin) became a coach after competing as a swimmer in high school and college. Early on, while observing his swimmers in the pool, he noticed that those with the fastest times usually completed their laps with the fewest strokes, slipping through the water with ease instead of struggling against it.

Conventional swimming instruction at the time called for vigorous kicking and arm strokes in expending a maximum amount of energy for a faster lap time. Competitive swimmers endured endless laps and strength training without concentrating much on the manner with which they moved through the water.

“Only about 2 percent of the human race swims with instinctively long strokes,” Mr. Laughlin told The Washington Post in 1999. “The rest of us have powerful instincts telling us to swim faster by stroking faster.”

Mr. Laughlin studied the motions of the best swimmers, along with hydrodynamics, kinesiology and ship design, to develop a better way to swim. He first taught a class on what he called Total Immersion Swimming in 1989.

CONTINUE TO NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARY

EX-USMMA and USA Swimming Coach Terry Laughlin Dies at 66

Terry Laughlin, who was cut from his junior high school swimming team but went on to coach successfully at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point and revolutionize the sport with his teachings, died Oct. 20 at his home in New Paltz.

Laughlin, 66, who was from Williston Park, lost a battle with prostate cancer according to information posted on totalimmersion.net, named for Total Immersion Swimming, the company he founded in 1989 that taught the sport to adults using a then-radical style that became popular over the years for swimmers of all ages and levels.

“His technique is very innovative. He changed the direction of swimming and will continue to do so,” said USMMA men’s swimming coach Sean Tedesco. “The style can be used for all ages. I use it for clinics and for college when I teach. From little kids to Olympians the technique is all the same, if taught properly.”

Laughlin’s “total immersion” method utilizes a ‘fishlike’ style of swimming that emphasizes streamlining bodylines instead of muscling the water with arms and legs.

Laughlin remained a serious swimmer into his 60s and, according to his blog, completed a Corsica-to-Sardinia swim of nearly 10 miles in 4 hours, 31 minutes, with two friends in 2015.

CONTINUE TO NEWSDAY OBITUARY

 

 

 

Terry Laughlin, Founder of Total Immersion, Passes Away at 66

Terry Laughlin, who created the technique-focused swim training system known as “Total Immersion,” passed away Friday, Oct. 20, after complications with prostate cancer. Laughlin was 66 years old.

Laughlin is survived by his wife, Alice, and daughters Fiona, Carrie and Betsy. The family announced his death Monday:

“After living with metastatic prostate cancer for two years, Terry passed away on Friday, October 20th, 2017, of complications related to his condition. 

“He displayed his characteristic optimism, wit, and passion for life—and swimming—until the very end. Our family is in mourning and we ask that we be given time and space to grieve a beloved husband and father privately.”

Laughlin had already become a successful high school and college coach when he founded Total Immersion in 1989, and seven years later, he released a book entitled Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier, which has become one of the most popular training books in swimming.

Laughlin’s system is designed to teach efficiency in the water through balance, streamline, reducing drag and conserving energy. His methods have been especially geared towards Masters swimmers and triathletes, who he argued would reap the benefits of getting through their swimming section with a low heart rate. While his system was somewhat controversial, Laughlin’s principles of efficiency have also been adopted by coaches of age group, collegiate and elite swimmers.

 

 

 

Swimming Icon Terry Laughlin Dies

Terry Laughlin could make anyone fall in love with swimming.

He talked about his sport as if it were art, like poetry or dance. The Total Immersion training method that he developed over his 45-year coaching career didn’t just hone swimmers’ technique; it also encouraged a way of thinking, an approach to life, whose basic principle was to move in harmony with the water, rather than fight it.

Other coaches counsel their swimmers to focus on pulling and kicking. Laughlin, on the other hand, contended that the shape of the body moving through the water was even more important. He’d noticed that swimmers who held a sleek profile during push off traveled farther and faster, with less effort than those who moved less aerodynamically. He wasn’t the first coach to pick up on this, but he was the one to popularize an approach to swimming that capitalized on it.

Laughlin called this approach “vessel-shaping,” a term he picked up in the late 1980s from Bill Boomer, then swim coach at the University of Rochester. Boomer’s mantra, which also became Laughlin’s, was that “the shape of the vessel matters more than the size of the engine.” He thought a swimmer could make greater gains by reducing drag than by increasing propulsion.

Laughlin began his coaching career in the early 1970s at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York. In 1989, after more than a decade of coaching college and club teams and producing 24 national champions, he founded the Total Immersion swim program to work with his most receptive and grateful audience: “adult-onset swimmers,” as he called them—people who’d taken up the sport in adulthood without any background or experience.

“His teaching methods opened up a whole new world to runners and cyclists who wanted to become triathletes,” says Ann Svenson, registrar for the Adirondack Masters.

In 1996, Laughlin published his philosophy of vessel-shaping and mindful practice in the book Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster and Easier. Sales were steady, and two decades after that first edition came out, the book’s 2004 update is Amazon’s number one top-seller in swimming titles. The Total Immersion swim clinics, which grew into a small empire of classes and licensed coaches, have reached thousands and thousands of people.

CONTINUE TO OUTSIDE OBITUARY

Terry Laughlin, The Master Who Changed My Life

This episode is special to me. While I didn’t know it at the time, this ended up being  Terry Laughlin’s final long-form interview. Terry passed away from cancer complications on October 20, just two weeks after we recorded this interview.

Terry was the founder of Total Immersion Swimming and co-author of Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier. He had a profound impact on me — teaching me to overcome a lifelong fear of water and swimming (read all about it here). But more than that, he’s been an inspiration for the way I’ve done anything since.

Terry coached three college and two USA Swimming club teams from 1973 to 1988, improving each team dramatically. In that time, he developed 24 national champions at all strokes and distances — the first national champions produced by four different teams.

In 1989, Terry founded Total Immersion Swimming and turned his focus from working with young, accomplished swimmers to adults with little experience or skill (like me). But it’s not just about swimming; Terry’s elegant method of deconstruction and logical progression is the epitome of what I strive to do when I’m talking about learning any skill — from investing to learning languages.

It’s with a heavy heart but much gratitude that I was able to interview Terry before he passed.  Please enjoy, savor, and digest what Terry had to impart.

http://www.totalimmersion.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/The-Tim-Ferriss-Show-Terry-Laughlin.mp3

 

 

 

 

Terry Laughlin Made the World a Better Place

Terry Laughlin was an American swim coach, marathon swimmer, aquapreneur, and the founder of Total Immersion.

At the age of 66, he passed away last week. His wife Alice and daughters Fiona, Carrie and Betsy announced his death today. “After living with metastatic prostate cancer for two years, Terry passed away on Friday, October 20th, 2017, of complications related to his condition. He displayed his characteristic optimism, wit, and passion for life — and swimming — until the very end. Our family is in mourning and we ask that we be given time and space to grieve a beloved husband and father privately.”

While he was a prolific marathon swimmer (2002 and 2006 Manhattan Island Marathon Swims, 2010 Tampa Bay Marathon Swim, 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim, and Strait of Gibraltar) between the ages of 51 and 62, he is best-known and left a legacy in the pool swimming, triathlon and open water swimming worlds with his Total Immersion concept, business model, books and DVDs.

Brian Suddeth commented on his passing, “A giant has passed from among us. My mentor and swimming fairy godfather is gone.”

David Barra, who swam with him in New Paltz, New York, said, “Terry was a good friend and a consistent swim buddy for many years. We have hundreds of miles logged together literally shoulder-to-shoulder, stroke-for-stroke. That was the game we played. That was the goal…to make every moment in the the water meaningful and challenging. A focused moving meditation in sync. Locations changed, conditions varied, as would swimmers in attendance, but it always ended the same way: A grinning Terry would sincerely declare, ‘That was the best swim I ever had.’ And it was … until the next one.”

“”He attracted, educated and inspired an untold number of people to the pool and open water. Many of these people may have not ventured beyond the shoreline without Total Immersion,” said Steven Munatones. “He gave these adult-onset swimmers as he called them, the tools in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement language that provided them a new-found confidence to swim comfortably.

Generations of triathletes and many others took his system, were energized by the information presented to become not only water-safe, but they also became very good swimmers in their own right. Of course, he also coached many competitive swimmers and collegiate swimmers to their career bests. He most definitely made the world, especially the aquatic community, a better place.”

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