Total Immersion
Focus on Both Outcome-Oriented and Behavior-Oriented Goals
Erin writes: During the dog days of August, I thought this might be a good time to encourage swimmers to think about their goals for the season.
As many of you sporty types know, goal-setting is essential towards development in any sport or other endeavor. It can help us as coaches shape and monitor each […]
What to do at Your First Swim Meet in Years?
Adrien writes: I’m signing up for my first swim meet in 24 years!! In response, I’m finally working on stroke length (SL) exercises to sustain my SL over longer distances, and then focusing on working on my gears. I am wondering how I’ll react the first time there is someone next to me. Will I […]
Are Supplements the Answer to Not Breaking Down in Practice?
Jordan writes: I am 17 years old and I currently practice 9 times a week for 2-3 hours each session. I was wondering what kind of supplements (legal of course) or anything for that matter would help my body recover faster from practices because near the end of each week, my body is so broken […]
How To Prepare For the 100 Butterfly
Angus writes: In about 6 weeks I’ve got a short course meet coming up. As part of a long term plan to swim 400 IM one day, I’ve entered myself into the 100m fly. I can do 50m fly reasonably comfortably, however, it’s not the first 50m that I’m overly concerned about. I was […]
How to Keep the Focus on Swimming While in Cold Water
Kiwi Kiwi writes: As a new half Iron is in a couple of weeks in a local lake, I took a few of my tri swimmers out into a small lake for their first dip outside the lines! Usually at this time it is ‘dippable’, however even with more cloudy days and lower temperatures I […]
How to Recover Faster From Your Swim Races
Anne writes: I recently attended the Australian Masters Nationals in Darwin. Had a Wonderful time and am already looking forward to next year. One disappointment was that I pulled out of the 800M swim, I have never done that, but I was exhausted. I’d like to understand how I can recover more quickly and […]
Training for Triathlon Swimming - Frequency or Duration?
Ryan B Says: I’m a triathlete seeking feedback on training. My training plan now calls for four hours per week of swimming. Which would be better: 4 times per week at 1 hour each or 5 times per week say 1hr/1hr/:45/:45/:30. 4 x per week would allow more recovery time between training, and also more […]
What is Important to Focus on When Swimming Butterfly?
Mark Y asks: I had a question about butterfly and chest strength. How much weight would you give to strengthening chest muscles to swim a better butterfly? I am a TI swimmer in all 4 strokes and have been practicing all the short axis drills for some time now. I can do body, and […]
How to Swim With Your Body - Not With Your Arms
Jim Sanders writes: Here is my take on the two beat kick - As TI swimmers we have learned first hand that the vast majority of our propulsion comes from a rotating core. This is evidenced by swimming with fist gloves. Another way to demonstrate core propulsion is to not catch and pull, but, […]
Tone - Finding the Balance Between Tension and Relaxation
RO’C writes: If you really elongate your body from head to toe — even on your side — you are stretching out your midsection. It feels good to be in that position, but part of me wants to be somewhat slack. I relate engaging the core to crunches and other exercises that involve bending […]
Race Training For Swimming Sprints
Freddi Writes: Today, after a 600 warm up and a 1000 build set, I did 10 x 50 free’s on 45 seconds, getting 3 seconds rest. I feel this was poor pace for the amount of effort I was putting in. Then I did a set of 10 x 50’s on 50, I put in […]
Connecting to a Deeper Source of Power - The Kinetic Chain
CS writes: Recent discussion about hip rotation and the 2-beat kick led to a wonderful ah-ha moment in my practice last night. Here is the chain of events, or emphases which occurred over a series of 50-yard freestyle repeats:
Counted SPL by hip rotation instead of spears.
Visualized my body as a key, with hips being the […]
How to Get the Most Out of Your Breastroke Kicks
MT writes: You’ve said that time spent in the pool is better spent integrating, not isolating, muscle groups. But isolation does happen in weight lifting. Aren’t kick/pull sets a way of replicating that muscle isolation in the pool?
Two good topics. On the first, I do consider certain breast drills to be a sort of “kicking […]
Using Video to Create a Positive Impression on Your Swimming
AT writes: What I saw in the TI videos were very fast, powerful strokes and I thought they were very cool. “BAM” — one strokes and the swimmer moves 10 feet!
That’s less a result of great power and more of reduced drag and better-integrated propelling movements. If you watch those sections again, would I […]
Using a Focal Point to Create Mindful Swimming
AT writes: I found that my kick worked best when I think about kicking fast enough to keep my feet at the surface and feeling the water “boiling” at my toes. Whenever I think about knees locked, knees unlocked, hip-power, pointed toes, or any of that… it just doesn’t work.
So you’ve found a focal […]
Gold Medal Mel Mel Stewart
The Swimmers' Ear Mike Gustafson
Top 5 Tuesday David Cromwell
In My Mind Nathan Jendrick