On Becoming a Mighty Fish

By Talis Apud-Martinez

* Pan-American Duathlon Champion
* USA Duathlon National Champion
* Mexican U-23 Triathlon Champion


Do you ever wonder whether you’re on the right path; whether you’re doing what you should? This year I’ve pondered that more
than once. My name is Talis Apud-Martinez and
I’m a 23-year old elite triathlete from Mexico.

My moment of self-examination was prompted by frustrations with swim-ming, a common enough experience among triathletes. Unlike most triathletes, I had swum competitively since the age of six, though not with any great distinction. Running was another matter. I walked on to the University of Texas at Austin’s cross-country running team as an unrecruited freshman and graduated as an All-American. So it appeared that while I lacked the “talent” (however that may be defined) to excel as a swimmer, it appeared I was fortunate to have it as a runner. Still I believe in discipline and smart/hard work over genetics and talent.

Since becoming a professional triathlete in early 2004, my coaches and I knew it was essential to improve my swimming. I began swimming with a new coach, and committed heart and soul to flexibility sessions, medicine ball workouts, more and harder miles than I’d ever done and a lot of technique work. In eight months I improved my 1500-meter time from 23 min. to 21:20. Yet despite hours of technique work, I felt awkward and mechanical. When other swimmers talked about feeling so smooth and relaxed in the water with such confidence and joy, I knew I was missing something and was feeling anxious from the knowledge that in just three years I want to be on the Olympic podium.

At the end of May the Mexican Triathlon Federation invited me to represent Mexico in the Pan-American Duathlon Championships. After juggling my race calendar with my head coach – also my dad – we decided to give it a shot. Three weeks later I won the USA Duathlon National Championships and the following week the Pan-American Duathlon Championship as well. I returned home with a medal and a check; and a realization that all that stood between me and racing with the fastest triathletes in the world was a much improved swim. We decided to dedicate my prize money toward that goal. The Mexican Triathlon Federation recommended Total Immersion. And the second week of July I was headed to New Paltz, NY to train with Terry Laughlin and his TI coaches for a week!

A gracious host, Terry lent me a bike for the week and on Monday morning we rode together to my first practice with the Hawks swim team at the Ulster County Pool. Terry had me begin by counting my strokes on a set of eight 50-meter repeats; my best count was 46. Then he gave some funky Fistgloves and a focus point for a 400-meter swim: “Slice your hands into the water close to your head and keep your knuckles down as you extend.” And so I did. When I finished, Terry had me remove the gloves and repeat the first set. Immediately, I felt as if my hands had doubled in size and become super sensitive to their trajectory through the water. I finished the first 50 in just 41 strokes, and stayed near that count the rest of the set. Terry rewarded my improved efficiency by putting me in a lane with the better Hawks swimmers for some faster repeats and I immediately saw my times drop from 39 to 35 seconds per 50.

Inside of my first 30 minutes I realized this would be no ordinary week. For the rest of the week, I swam twice a day, once in the Endless Pool at the new Total Immersion Swim Studio and a second time either at the County Pool or in the beautiful lakes of the Shawangunk Ridge, 15 minutes west of town.

The Endless Pool became a “transformation machine” for me as the current made me keenly aware of every change in technique, and the mirrors on the bottom allowed me to observe myself as I adjusted to each change. It also allowed the coaches to stop me in an instant for correction. I felt blessed to have Terry, along with Hash Al-Mashat, TI’s director of performance swimming, and Celeste St. Pierre, TI’s director of triathlon teaching, watching, correcting and videotaping every detail of my stroke with a
passion and enthusiasm that was contagious.

We rebuilt my technique from the ground up, starting with my head and body position. Terry’s first instruction was to look into the bottom mirror and watch air bubbles come from my nose, while practicing the Fish and Skating drills. Instantly it became much easier to balance and rotate.

Next we worked on UnderSwitches with a focus on aligning my body behind each arm extension. Immediately I found myself hanging effortlessly in position over the mirror as if I was somehow “hiding” from the current. As we ended the first day Terry told me “I bet this isn’t what you expected.” I replied,” This is exactly what I expected, to take it all apart and build it back up from scratch; either that or a magic spell.” We laughed a little and were glad to be on the same page.

The next morning, we continued with UnderSwitches, and whole-stroke, focused on slicing my extending arm to create a “sleeve” for my body to travel thru in the water and creating propulsion with the energy released by driving my high hip and shoulder down. We also focused on keeping my catch engaged while breathing. And so on.

In hindsight I understand that my rapid progress was possible because every minute of our pool time was focused on learning to swim according to a stunningly simple principle. As Terry explained it, most people focus on propelling by using the upper body to pull and the lower to kick but the TI way is to “spear” the water, first with the right side of the body, then the left side and to imagine yourself following parallel railroad tracks forward of each shoulder. This way of understanding my stroke made each adjustment come much easier! Several even seemed to happen naturally and without trying, such as kicking less, rotating more and “rounding off” the end of my stroke.

As we continued, Terry and Hash introduced me to ZipperSwitches for a relaxed, compact recovery. They also had me wear Fistgloves for most of each session, to rely less on pushing water back and more on core-body rotation. I saw my rapid improvements over and over on video. It was amazing how smooth and relaxed I felt by the second day. I finally understood the sensations good swimmers had described.

Starting with the third day we conducted a few tests at the end of each Endless Pool session: I would swim for one to three minutes at a particular current speed with a particular focal point, and the coaches would check my stroke rate, heart rate, and speed. Then we’d repeat it at two or three slightly faster current speeds. By Friday, it was evident that my stroke was far more controlled, allowing me to swim at higher speeds with a lower heart rate. And my stroke count at the 50-meter pool had improved from 46 to 36! Efficiency!! I was so happy to experience such control and the coaches were as excited as I was!

At Lake Awosting and Lake Minnewaska we worked on open-water techniques such as navigation, sighting, drafting, etc. Terry gave me advice from his own racing experience on how to keep focused on efficiency and resist fighting the water when the waves get rough, or when swimming in a pack of furiously-stroking rivals.

It was a mentally-demanding week, swimming for 3 to 5 hours a day with intense focus and concentration. The third day, after a not-so-good pool practice I was more exhausted mentally than physically. Habits are created by strong neuron connections in the brain after many repetitions of the same action. After 17 years of swimming inefficiently, I have many bad habits to unlearn, and new mind-muscle connections to make. The Endless Pool helped me create neuromuscular memory faster, and so to be able to transfer my new technique to the pool sooner.

One day at the County pool, Terry was explaining the importance of focusing on technique and perfect swimming at workouts. Not yet convinced, I replied, “But what about conditioning and the energy systems that need to be trained in order to improve? The bottom line is still how fast you can swim.” But I saw the light when Terry asked whether my running stride became rough and choppy when I trained at high speed, compared to how my stroke felt at similar levels of effort. That question helped me understand that movement quality must be the foundation for high performance in all disciplines.

Phase I of my development as a swimmer would be to master technique sufficiently to swim efficiently at 1500-meter race pace. And in fact Phase I training doesn’t neglect energy systems; it strengthens those that serve as foundations for more intense work in Phase II. The main distinction, as Terry explained, was that in Phase I your focus is on how you feel rather than on watching the clock. I realized that at this stage, too much focus on holding a certain pace is likely to undermine your efforts to imprint the new habits in your nervous system. After you develop the skill and habits of the new technique, then phase II begins. During which it becomes more appropriate to train for specific paces because your new habits have gained an endurance of their own.

There are two more things that struck me from the trip: The first is that it was not the first time a coach told me about the things I needed to correct, but I always felt lost in a sea of details; at Total Immersion, they became unified by the focus on working from the core. The second was the pleasure I took from watching the Hawks team at practice. I saw kids, ages eight to 17, swimming with such uniformly beautiful technique, and their coaches tirelessly engaged in correcting every detail. It made me so happy to see kids learning the basics so well at such an early age. This will prepare them for Phase II and higher levels of performance earlier. It will also allow kids for whom, like me, swimming may not come with ease, to go much farther in swimming than I had.

I’m writing this at the airport, recapping the lessons of the week, and excited to get back in the water. After so many years of swimming with no improvement I had lost the capacity to enjoy swimming. And on my final lake swim with Hash, I told him how for the first time in a long time, I was able to not only swim efficiently, but to feel joy while doing it.

I head for home ready to re-wire swimming in my brain and to patiently see speed come around with my technique. And I look forward to begin improving my 1500-meter times and getting out of the water with the fastest swimmers. But most importantly, I head home with a renewed passion for swimming, with a humble heart ready to keep working hard, and the confidence that one day soon, I will be able to join the top triathletes in the world. It’s a long road to the top, but I am blessed and grateful to have my family, coaches and friends on board, working as smart and hard as we know. I love the road. Once again, here we go.

To be continued…

On August 20, five weeks after her sojourn in New Paltz, Talis swam a 1500-meter time trial in 20 minutes and 30 seconds, nearly a minute faster than her previous best.

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