Swim Smoothly–Total Immersion 1.0

Swimming smoothly has been my objective ever since I started this Triathlon business. Swim so I don’t panic, so I don’t exhaust myself before I even get out of the water onto the bike, so I don’t drown…swim with ease & confidence.

 

Well, I managed to get through the last couple of Tri’s without having a panic attack, but it still was just downright exhausting.

 

Then Ninteen69 said she had heard about Total Immersion Swimming and send me over to some video’s on the Tube of the You. Recall this for my post – TOTAL Immersion:

Well, then I got to dishing on the phone with Nineteen69 about this triathlon business and how we could improve on our swim. She had been looking into this concept of Total Immersion Swimming and looking for a coach. She hipped me to some video clips from the inventor of the Total Immersion Swimming technique - Terry Laughlin – and I was immediately impressed. I watched over an hour of a seminar he gave at MIT on the technique, made them a favorite on my iphone (YouTube app), watched 2 clips again at my gym and decided to give it a try.

As my soror and fellow triathlete, Roz would say – LIFE CHANGING!

Did I master the technique by watching over an hour of video? NO. But I changed my whole way of swimming and did my best to imitate the stroke, relaxation, hand position and NO KICKING and I felt like I was slicing through the water effortlessly. I did 70 laps – 1750 meters - pretty much NON-STOP – and was not winded.

He had me at the 20th lap w/o stopping. SOLD. DONE. Put a fork in me.

Like I said…SOLD! LIFE CHANGING!

 

Nineteen69 hooked us up with a coach (William Lang) for an all day Total Immersion 1.0 Clinic earlier this month. We were in the pool with him for 8 hours…Team Diva (Rosalyn, Nineteen69, and myself)…drilling, drilling & drilling. We were transformed. Bill was awesome! Patient & thorough, he got us through the basics in one day with a list of drills & workouts that we could do on our own.

 

I highly recommend that if you want to improve you swimming, learn to swim effortlessly or, as Bill Lang puts it, “ with a combination of grace, efficiency, and mindfulness that is unique to this practice”  – especially if you are a newbie triathlete – that you HAVE take one of clinics.

 

As triathletes, we spend a lot of money on equipment, race entries and other miscellaneous stuff. Total Immersion was some of the best money I’ve spent to improve performance. Oh, and if you are going to spend the moolah…make sure you have a CERTIFIED coach that knows the technique COLD. Seriously. (Easy Freestyle does not necessarily = Total Immersion just like Hot Yoga does not = Bikram) Just Sayin’.

 

For grins & giggles, enclosed is a video of our before and after. Watch carefully…not to learn the technique, but to see the differences. We went from:

• Furiously kicking w/churning water TO Less/No Kicking w/no water displacement
• Windmill arms TO “Hand in the mail chute” – ie. placing hand in water, not slapping the water
• Lifting head out of water TO Head down, rotating to breath
• Butt dragging TO Swimming balanced, even, flat
• Splashing on top of water TO Smooth on top of water

You can see that we were gliding, swimming smoothly. Were we suddenly experts? NO. Drill, baby, drill. Practice, Practice, Practice. What I do know is that I am confident that I can swim better & longer without feeling like I am doing a gazillion sprints. WOO HOO!

Before & After.

 

Have you tied Total Immersion Swimming? What do you think?