This question comes up frequently. A recent exchange on the Discussion Forum at the TI web site provides a comprehensive answer.

Topic: Efficiency of great swimmers
Conf: Freestyle
From: Andrew Sweeny

There is a discussion amongst my Triathlon group about whether TI is the way to go. Having used TI learning tools for about a year now with great improvement, I am looking for some supporting arguments. Some of my fellow triathletes argue that on-line videos of swimmers like Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett and Alexander Popov show techniques that don’t match TI. They sometimes start pulling long before the second hand is out front, they rotate only about 45 degrees. What are we missing?

From: Brian Vande Krol

I don't recall TI pronouncing the exact degree to which one should rotate during whole stroke. Rather, the current thinking, as reflected on this Discussion Forum, is that one's body roll will vary based on two conditions:

1. Your breathing efficiency. The more you roll, the longer you have to get air. If breathing is difficult, or you need to more time, you may find yourself rolling more. If we were truly fishlike, we would breathe underwater with gills. Anything else has the potential to make us less efficient.

2. Your speed. Body roll is most effective for propulsion somewhere around that 45-degree mark, where energy from the “high side” can be applied to your stroke. Above 45 degrees, it begins to require more energy to initiate the roll, as energy is directed sideways. It also limits your stroke rate. Therefore in shorter races, one will typically rotate less.

At Master's practice last night, I found myself hanging out nearly on my side during the longer sets, luxuriating in a long, easy breath. On the shorter, faster sets, I reduced my roll, increased my stroke rate (which also increases my rate of respiration), and swam faster.

As to overlap of the arms, I have seen video of some of elite swimmers with lots of overlap, and the same swimmers with little overlap. I would guess that, once again, it has to do with how fast they want to go.

On a shorter race, one can achieve greater speed at the loss of efficiency by increasing one's stroke rate. This may – perhaps by choice, perhaps by consequence – reduce overlap.

From: Angus MacGowan

This is an interesting question, which I’ve seen posted frequently on various forums.

One point I'd make is that at Olympic level, a swimmer who "studied" with TI methods might not look that different to a swimmer who studied traditional methods. You're dealing with elite swimmers, so they will generally have good technique.

And my experience with TI, suggests that the emphasis is as much about how you get there as it is about a specific technique. I see the special quality of TI as being its methodology; it seems unique in how it breaks down the stroke into component parts and then allows you to rebuild it through mindful practice of drills and whole stroke. TI is more a philosophy of learning-while-training than a set of diktats about technique.

That said:

1) Thorpe was very much a TI swimmer
in terms of front quadrant style when he swam 400 and 800. In a video shot from overhead of him and Hackett in the World Championship 800-meter final, both have a pronounc-ed overlap. This has changed for Thorpe as he moved to sprints. On the other hand, Thorpe also looks forward a lot, which is not very TI, but, when you are a once-in-a-generation talent, you can
do things the rest of us can't do without affecting our balance.


2) Popov, on the other hand, in the videos I have seen, seems to swim more of a windmill style with less FQS, but his fluidity and patient catch are just magic to watch. These are TI qualities, rather than specific technical attributes, but are no less important.



3) Hackett may not have quite the technical attributes of either of the others but he's a 6'7" athlete with a massive VO2 max and an extraordinary will to win (hasn't been beaten at 1500 meters since 1996!).



The common ground is that all have been inquisitive athletes. Each has searched for new ideas and methodologies rather than relying just on "hard work" (although they all do that as well). This search for knowledge is very much what TI is about, and is evidenced by each and every post that appears on this Forum.


From: Terry Laughlin

We always welcome questions about TI philosophy and this question, based on video of one or more world-class swimmers, comes up repeatedly. Besides what Angus and Brian have said it’s important to consider the following when watching such videos:

1) They are always taken from races and it might be more instructive to study what elite swimmers do in training, where they do about 98 percent of their swimming. If you had the opportunity to study video taken during a training session, you might get a completely different impression.

I watched Popov train or warm up for a cumulative total of five or six hours. I watched him race for a cumulative total of a few minutes. In practice he swam every single stroke with a pronounced overlap between his arms with which he maintained an average SPL of 24 in a 50-meter pool, compared to his racing SPL of 32 in 50-meter races.

That intensive imprinting of efficient Stroke Length in training allowed him to race at a measurably higher level of efficiency than his rivals, and won many races for him. He won countless 100-meter races in the final 15 meters because he maintained his speed while everyone else was slowing down. Without seeing video of him in training – or comparative video of his stroke vs. others throughout an entire race, it would be impossible to appreciate this distinction.

If you watched underwater video of me during an intense open water race, you might snort "Terry doesn't even practice what he preaches." Whereas if you watched underwater video of me in training, you'd come to a different conclusion. On the other hand, if you watched surface video of one of my OW races (which you will soon have the opportunity to do on Youtube) and compared my form to that of virtually everyone around me, you'd see the obvious effects of how I train.

2) The video you've seen of those swimmers is a "snapshot" representing how they swam at that particular moment. What it doesn't tell you is whether they considered the snapshot you saw the best style they could aspire to.

Though he has been the most efficient middle distance swimmer of his generation, Thorpe has been less dominant recently because his rivals learned from him and have worked to emulate his efficiency. As a result he has recently added a "technician" to his coaching team to work with him exclusively on technique. That technician is a protege of Bill Boomer, the "father" of the technique paradigm that TI has popularized.

3) All three elite swimmers mentioned can RACE in a 50m pool at 30 to 33 SPL. I.E. The sum total of all the things they're doing are exceedingly efficient – though not every element may be "textbook." After all, in swimming, no human will ever be "perfect."

Anyone viewing such video should consider how closely they approach that level of efficiency. I'd venture to guess that if your triathlon team had the opportunity to train in a 50M pool the group's average stroke count might be closer to 60 SPL than 30. Can anyone taking that number of strokes afford to overlook examples of slight inefficiency that elite level swimmers can "get away with?" Lacking their talent, experience, height, and millions of meters of annual training, how much can the average swimmer afford to overlook or "tolerate" in their own form?

Comment on this article