Book Review, Total Immersion Swimming
Posted by FLATOUT JIM in book review, Reading, swimming
This review is sure to spark debate. As far as Total Immersion goes, there are some who swear by it, and those who think it’s garbage. Personally I am the former, and In my opinion most of the naysayers are people who are fairly experienced swimmers to start with.
I’ll even go as far as to say that buying this book was probably the single most important step I made to becoming a triathlete. I could swim, but only as someone splashing in the pool at public swimming, not as a swimmer.
I had the same fears as everyone else starting in the sport. I could ride a bike, and run a little, but swimming 500m or 1000m or 1500m scared the bejebus out of me.
I did it totally on my own. I did the drills, and followed the program as it was set out in the book step by step. The end result for me was a 33 minute swim in Clearwater last November. The only time I solicited advice from an experienced coach, he criticised me for having my head to low in the water, and using a catch-up stroke, which is exactly how this swimming style works. And when I told him I was following the total immersion program, he hadn’t a clue what I was talking about.
The only criticism I had was that once the DVD
As for the book itself, it starts with drills that teach you to balance yourself by pressing your buoy into the water. Your buoy is the part of the body that includes the lungs, and if you can master getting this right, your hips come up, and your head is nearly totally submerged as you look straight down at the pool bottom. From there you progress to finger tip and zipper drills to front quadrant swimming and finally to a full stroke.
It’s not easy, and you have to work hard at it. When you go to the pool you have to resist the urge to jump into the lap lane and start banging out metres, and stay in the slow lane with the grannies and do the drills.
It’s also good to know that on the Total Immersion web site, there is a lot of information, as well as an interactive forum where you can solicit advice from qualified TI coaches. I used it a lot at the beginning.
If you are a beginner, and if you are thinking about trying a triathlon, but are nervous about the swim, get the book, start at page one, and follow it step by step. Do the drills, and use the DVD
