The 5-Day Swimming Makeover

By Guy Ward

I am a keen swimmer and a 3-year TI veteran. I attended a Freestyle Workshop in my home town of Melbourne Australia in 2004 and a Four Stroke Camp in Ohio in 2005. I swim nearly every day at my local pool and compete in open water swims.

I’d been feeling stagnant in recent months and felt I should be swimming faster than the 55-second “cruise speed” repeats I’d been recording for 50 meter laps. My strokes per lap had also plateaued at around 40 for 50 meters.

My wife and I took a holiday in Europe this year and I decided to stop for a week in New Paltz on the way home for intensive coaching at the TI Swim Studio. I booked five days, two hours per day of private coaching – four sessions with TI Coach Mike Trunkes and a session with Terry Laughlin on the final day.

Mike began by videotaping my freestyle from above and below the water. As we reviewed the video, Mike pointed out the following:

1. I over-reached on entry causing my hands to scoop toward the surface and my elbows to drop;
2. My right hand tended to sweep across to the left side; my left hand crossover was less pronounced but was not staying on track either;
3. My head was lifting as I breathed – which contributed to the scooping up of my hand.

We spent our initial two hours working on fixing my catch, by getting the elbow up and fingers down before stroking, using the Underskate and Underswitch drills. We also focused on getting my arms on their respective tracks.

By the second session I
was feeling much better and
Mike confirmed that he could see
major improvement. He suggested we use ZipperSwitch to add the
2-beat kick that provides effortless power for distance swimming. I worked on spreading my legs
slightly while drawing my Zipper-
arm forward, then snapping them together as I drove that arm into the water. This took a bit of concentration but once I got it,
I could feel an instant surge of power from my core that I’d never experienced before. My notes from that session read: “My swimming is really feeling good – clean and powerful.” In terms of measured improvement: My Stroke Length was 35 percent greater at the end of day two compared to when I arrived at the Studio.

Having five days allowed us to proceed through the drills at an unhurried pace, taking all the time we wished to fine tune each. As Mike is a bit of a perfectionist this meant we stayed on each drill until he was satisfied I was doing it flawlessly. On Day Three we transitioned from ZipperSwitch to OverSwitch. In Zswitch we’d worked on initiating each recovery by “hinging” the arms outward from the body. When I imported that subtle change into whole stroke, for the first time I experienced really clean hand entry with absolutely no sign of turbulence or bubbles around the hands and arms. I couldn’t believe how clean it looked when replayed on the monitor. Was that really me? Mike suggested I drive my left hand a bit farther forward – and less steep – when I went to breathe and this helped as well.

By the fourth day, Mike was satisfied that my drilling at low speeds was good enough to begin to work on increasing my swimming speed. Mike turned up the current speed and almost immediately my improvements disappeared and the old stroke returned. So Mike backed off the current until I regained my efficiency.

Mike suggested I do two things to keep my strokes leisurely: (1) Watch my
hand speed in the bottom mirror and concentrate on keeping it as slow as possible as he increased the current gradually, and (2) use the hip/leg drive I’d learned the previous day to add power without speeding up the stroke. This felt really good and for the first time I had the sense of deriving power from spearing my arm forward.

I was concerned I might fall back into old habits when I returned to my regular pool sessions back home. To address this Mike designed a typical practice which I road tested with him in the pool.

My final session was with Terry. For the first hour we focused on backstroke drills, which I’d not done with Mike. For the second hour Terry reviewed my freestyle – he couldn’t find anything to fault, so Mike had obviously done a great job. He then suggested we work further on testing my ability to maintain control as the current sped up and offered to demonstrate while I observed.

I worked the current control while he swam. It was instructive to see how as the current got faster, his stroke never changed tempo. What did change was the power in each stroke, but it was
so well synchronized, that it looked relaxed. Following my session the previous day with Mike I found I was now better able to increase the power of my stroke and also my swim speed, as Terry did, without reverting to my old habit of increasing cadence.
For the last part of the session Terry demonstrated techniques for sighting and navigating during open water swims.

I left the Swim Studio at the end of the week really thrilled with the progress I had made. After attending a TI workshop and camp, I had not expected to make anywhere near this level of improvement. The intensive coaching in the unique environment of the Swim Studio really did make for an amazingly effective way to hone swim techniques.

As I put the finishing touches on this article, I’ve just returned from the pool. I’ve swum every day this week, and today in the final 15 minutes I somehow entered a “Flow State” in freestyle beyond anything I’d experienced before – hands entering cleanly, catch light yet firm, and hip drive propelling me like a “perpetual motion machine,” as someone phrased it on the Discussion Forum. Though I was focused on stroke thoughts, not speed, I was passing swimmers that I normally have trouble staying with – and drawing some surprised looks! I’d never really known how amazing swimming can feel when it all comes together!” If you’d like to boost your swimming similarly, I recommend a stroke makeover at the Swim Studio.

Guy Ward is an electronics engineer who more recently has been involved in several startup businesses. He took up swimming regularly about eight years ago mainly to stay fit; however has gradually developed a keen interest in swimming and Continuous Improvement – Kaizen Swimming, as Terry calls it.. Guy has been married to Trudy for 32 years and they have two adult sons who have both been indoctrinated in TI techniques. Guy’s other hobbies include hiking, bike riding and investment and he has recently written a book on stock market investment techniques.

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