Naji Ali is a Level 1 Total Immersion Coach, and aspiring marathon swimmer based in San Francisco, CA, where he lives with his wife, Chrissy, and their cat, Mrs. Chippy. He works as an essential worker feeding the homeless and marginalized poor.

As I write this we are in day 60 of the “stay in place” order that was issued since the pandemic began here in California. For a week prior to this order, I was in Kona, Hawaii, swimming with pods of dolphins, meeting amazing people, and teaching TI technique at an open water swim camp.

What a different world we’re living in now.

Every day brings new challenges, hardships, and fears. People are dying, others lost their jobs, health care workers are doing a job without proper personal protective equipment (PPE). Businesses are shuttered, schools are closed, and, of course, pools and beaches are off limits.

But in the midst of all this doom and gloom, I have seen truly selfless acts of compassion and generosity. I’ve seen friends post videos making PPE’s for healthcare workers; others buying groceries for elderly neighborhoods whom they never spoke to and having them delivered to their home; incredible musicians serenading the entire world via Zoom.

But, despite how in many ways this pandemic has brought out the best in us, I have a confession to make; I miss swimming really bad. I really miss open water swimming. It was always my release when I was having a difficult time, but now, that’s not possible.

I get it. I do. Social distancing is essential to “flattening the curve” of this virus. I get that wearing a mask and only going out to get food helps stop this contagion from moving further, but goodness I miss the salty water.

I miss the exhilarating feeling of stepping into 55F wetness with only my swimsuit, goggles, and earplugs, and swimming amongst the seals and jellies; swimming against, and with the current; Enjoying the swell and chop; Being mindful of my lead arm staying put till the fingertips of my recovery arm re-enter the water.

I really miss swimming.

But even though I can’t get to the water at the moment, I have a huge community of TI folk that I can connect with on our FB page, and a weekly coach’s zoom meeting. I get too meet coaches from all over the world that I had only heard about, or saw swim in YouTube videos. I still have the opportunity to offer up advice on someone’s practice when they post video on the TI FB page, and celebrate with them when they experience that “aha” moment in cyber space.

Is it the same as being in the pool, or open water and physically assisting them? No, of course not! But just being able to connect is so vital.

One of the reasons why I wanted to be a TI coach was seeing how the ones who taught me TI, invested so much time into making me the best swimmer I could possibly be. Back before we had a FB page, we had the forum on the TI website, I would constantly go on the forum and ask questions about technique. It never took long to get a response. Often coaches would send me a personal note to email them directly, and send along a video, if I had it, so they could offer up suggestions for improvement.

That for me is where I see the correlation between the generosity of folks helping their neighbors and complete strangers during this pandemic, and TI. You see TI is not just about technique. It’s about community and the willingness to offer up something valuable to others simply because they want to help them get better.

That, too me, is one of the many reasons that I love TI, and I love being a TI coach, but I still miss swimming in the open water.

The post [Guest Post] Naji Ali, Marathon Swimmer and TI Coach appeared first on Total Immersion.

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This post was previously published by Terry Laughlin on Aug. 7, 2015.

At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Stany Kempompo Ngangola gained a measure of fame for swimming the 100-meter freestyle.

Not for his speed, but simply for surviving.

Stany was among a small group of athletes—mostly from small underdeveloped nations–who are invited to the Olympics in hopes that the exposure will encourage sports development in their homeland. These athletes are exempted from Olympic qualifying times.

Stany was selected for this honor a year in advance and given assistance with preparation by coaches from advanced swimming nations. Unfortunately the training he was given focused mostly on conditioning with little attention to technique.

Swimming in the first heat, Stany relied on youth and strength to get through his first 50-meter length, but hadn’t gone far on the second length before the commentators began to express concern—shared by everyone watching–about whether he could make it safely to the far wall.

Here’s a picture of Stany—looking very athletic—in the air.

And here is Stany in the water, struggling to complete 100 meters.

What’s remarkable about Stany is how utterly unremarkable he is. I estimate that 95 percent of the millions who watched his struggles on TV would fare no better if put in that position themselves. You see, swimming, as an aquatic skill, is an ‘alien’ activity for land-adapted humans. Do you recognize the swimmer below? 

John Lennon… Human Swimmer!

Energy Wasting Machines

That’s why we say that it’s critical to recognize that—as inheritors of millions of years of adapting to life on terra firma—it is simply human nature to be an ‘energy-wasting machine’ in the water.

This was confirmed by a study done by DARPA in 2005 while designing a swim foil for the Navy Seals. They found that dolphins convert 80 percent of energy into forward motion. The humans they studied (lap and fitness swimmers—people who thought they swam ‘okay’) were only 3 percent energy efficient.

This bring us to Swimming Principle #1: Always focus on saving energy before increasing fitness. 

To apply this principle, do the following:

• When developing technique, master Vessel-Shaping skills (Balance, Core Stability, Alignment, and Streamlining, before propulsion skills (pulling and kicking.) Vessel-Shaping skills take little energy to perform and provide significant payback in energy savings. Propulsion skills require much more energy and power to perform.

• Propulsion A: When you focus on your pull and kick, pay attention first to how you use the arms and legs to minimize drag, before focusing on how you apply pressure to the water.

 • Job One for your arms is to lengthen your bodyline, since that reduces wave drag.

 • Job One for your legs is to draft behind your upper body—not to churn the water into a froth.

• Propulsion B: Strive to replace forces generated by your muscles with ‘available’ forces from nature—gravity and buoyancy.

• Swim farther by learning to swim a shorter distance almost effortlessly—rather than pushing to add another length.

• Swim faster by learning to swim at your current speed as easily as possible. Faster times will then come as a matter of course.

• Indeed, for any swimming set, task, or challenge, always start out with the intention to find the easiest possible way to complete it—rather than testing your ability to push through fatigue or discomfort.

Learn energy-saving techniques with our downloadable Ultra-Efficient Freestyle Self-Coaching Toolkit. The drills and skills are illustrated in 15 short videos. Guidance on how to learn and practice each drill effectively is provided in the companion Workbook.

The post Swimming Principle #1: Always Save Energy Before You Spend It appeared first on Total Immersion.

This post was previously published by Terry Laughlin on Apr. 12, 2011. The forum post mentioned is archived.

Few swimmers really pay attention. Opening – or closing – your eyes can change everything.

John shared an exciting discovery about breathing on the TI Discussion Forum:

I’m a bit reluctant to admit it took me a year to come to this insight, but perhaps it will help others. I’ve always struggled to find the right head position for breathing. Sometimes I feel I need to nearly submerge my head to feel balanced, but in that position I feel I can’t get air. I had an ‘aha’ moment last week, when I finally noticed that I close my eyes while breathing.  I began to consciously keep my eyes focused through the breath and it has made a world of difference. Now I can see precisely how far to rotate, when to inhale and when to stop. With my eyes closed, I would turn my head too far, lose balance and then need to recover.

Now, as I rotate toward air, I see the tint of the water change, watch one goggle clear the surface, begin inhaling and close my mouth just as the water closes over it. Suddenly I feel as if I have far more time to breathe and I stay better aligned and balanced. With eyes closed, I didn’t know what I was missing. Too bad it took me a year to figure out. Doh!

John, congratulations, on your invaluable insight – which came over 30 years quicker than it did to me! I can precisely recall the day I had a similar discovery. I was swimming at Lake Minnewaska on Labor Day weekend around 2003. It was chilly – about 54 degrees – and raining steadily. My friend Dave Barra and I were the only two people swimming.

After we’d been swimming about 10 minutes, looking for diversion, I began “scanning” with my eyes as I rotated to breathe. First I noticed that the underside of the surface was dimpled by the rain and found that almost mesmerizing.  Then I kept my gaze keen as my eyes and mouth broke the surface. Like you, I immediately realized this helped me sharpen the timing of the breath and make small adjustments to head position. That has stayed with me ever since.

While your insight will be of value to many, I think you also make a larger point  — The Value of Being Observant.  Paying attention, and consequently noticing things that usually escape your attention is relatively rare among swimmers. This is a result of the common focus on yardage totals, repeat times, intervals, etc. Tuning out to get through it also results when workouts are tedious or lack a clear purpose beyond “getting the yards in.” The fact that it took me 30 years to notice what you noticed after one year is evidence of how pervasive inattention can be.

Be Observant is just another way of saying Swim Mindfully.

And here’s the flip side to your discovery of the value of keeping your eyes open. Have you ever noticed yourself closing your eyes when trying to intensify your focus, usually on a subtle or elusive aspect of technique?

After I began swimming more mindfully, I noticed that during moments of especially keen focus I would instinctively close my eyes. It’s well known that people who lose their sight become far more attuned to sound and feel. For the rest of us, taking away visual input has the effect of making your sense of feel a lot keener. In water — which is literally a sea of sensation — anything that sharpens kinesthetic awareness is invaluable. You can experiment with brief periods of swimming with your eyes closed (when it’s safe to do so) to heighten your sensitivity to sensory input and increase your awareness of the subtleties in your stroke, including how you breathe.

In a previous post on breathing, I also wrote that many people have found it much easier to breathe when they realized they could both inhale and exhale just enough air, and didn’t need to either fill or empty their lungs. The point is really to notice things you may have ignored before. 

To learn more in-depth detail about the breathing mechanics of efficient swimming, check out our video “O2 in H2O: A Self Help Course on Breathing in Swimming”– available as a digital download or on dvd.
Nothing is more essential to a swimmer than air. Yet few swimmers truly understand how to breathe efficiently… not just to get air, but to integrate breathing seamlessly with the stroke. Breathing is sometimes viewed as a liability or inconvenience, but when you do it right, breathing can actually make your stroke better. This video shows you how, using water bowl exercises, shallow water exercises, skills in drills, and whole stroke breathing skills. Detailed studies with focal points for practice cover these three major strokes: Freestyle, Breaststroke, and Butterfly.

The post Sharpen Your Breathing Skills: Open– Or Close– Your Eyes To Heighten Awareness appeared first on Total Immersion.

The following guest post by TI Master Coach Gary Fahey was originally published on Mar. 16, 2014. 

A blog post discussing kick strategies landed in my inbox a couple of weeks ago, much of it advocating a six-beat kick (6BK) for all but the most skilled of swimmers.

While I disagree with this premise and the example presented through the .gif in that blog post, I agree with the writer that long distance and open water swimmers should use their legs primarily for stability rather than propulsion. The energy cost of propulsive kicking is simply unsustainable.

Total Immersion advocates for increasing speed through smarter choices rather than greater effort. Among the most fundamental of those choices is to improve core stabilization—which is a critical foundation for a mastering 2-Beat Kick (2BK) skill.

One adjustment, I suggest to my swimmers is to experiment with the depth of the extended arm.  When they do, they learn that a very shallow extension causes the legs to sink.  But so does reaching too deep.

Reaching too deep breaks the body line where arm and torso connect. Picture a see-saw plank with a collapsible hinge: applying pressure at one end would not exert any influence at the other end.  But when you open that hinge to establish a single, structurally sound plank, then adjustments at one end affect what happens at the other.

Sinking legs can be counter balanced by finding the optimal angle or depth at which to ‘spear’ your arm forward. Spearing 12 to 15 inches below the surface tends to shape the body into a balanced, stable and sleek line. Adding a moderate forward stretch (eliminating laxity) will bring tone to the core, strengthening the connection between front and rear.

In the blog post, the coach suggested the swimmer had improperly matched a 2-beat kick to his overall mechanics, which explains the dropped legs. His suggested fix was a 6BK.

This misdiagnoses the problem and offers an energy-wasting solution.

My view: By extending too deep, the swimmer breaks the connection from extended hand in front through legs at the rear. Like the plank with a broken-hinge, balancing forces in front cannot act upon the rear.

If he ‘speared’ a few inches shallower (which would also direct more energy forward) he would increase structural integrity in his aquatic posture and bring his legs into balance.

Once he corrects his balance problem, the 2BK would not only be an appropriate match for his swimming style, he could likely scale back on his current degree of knee bend and further reduce drag. More stability = lower energy cost.

Compare the red lines in the still frame image at top (taken from the other writer’s post) to the  image from TI Coach Shinji Takeuchi’s top-ranked YouTube video.  Shinji extends to a shallower end point, which draws his body into a sleek line. His legs draft cleanly behind him and the energy cost of his 2BK approaches zero.

This illustrates a simple solution to sinking legs—one which results in kicking less, not more.

Besides this misdiagnosis, this blog post also drew a distinction between two styles of 2BK.  TI advocates the Shinji 2-beat kick  which connects the kick downbeat to the spearing arm.

The other writer advocates a style used by very high tempo swimmers like Brooke Bennett in this clip  in which the downbeat of the kick connects to the catch phase of the stroke.

The high tempo 2BK style is an extremely challenging configuration that can be done successfully by high-mileage, experienced swimmers, but is too exhausting and difficult for the vast majority.

The blog writer rejects the efficacy of the TI 2BK, which he calls a “kick-start” that compensates for what he calls “over-gliding.” I think the “kick-start” 2-beat kick is just fine for most purposes, certainly at tempos of 1 stroke per second and up.

There are legitimate pros and cons to selecting any kicking pattern, and not room here to discuss them all.  My primary goal is to show improvement-minded swimmers that they can opt for efficiency rather than effort.

If you want a more effective kick, you can achieve it through balance and stability—a choice that conserves energy rather than wastes it. Most swimmers already do far too much of the latter.

Editorial Note– For a step-by-step breakdown of the mechanics of the 2-beat kick, see this related post:

DEMO: Master the 2-Beat Kick– Connect Your Legs to the Power of Core Rotation for Maximal Speed and Efficiency

Gary Fahey has been a Total Immersion Certified Coach since 1998.  He teaches swimming full time through his Fort Lauderdale-based company, Stroke Doctor Swimming. In 25 years coaching competitive swimmers, he has qualified athletes up to the US Olympic Trials level. Contact Gary at gary@strokedocswim.com

The post Which Kick Is Best for YOU… 2-Beat or 6-Beat? appeared first on Total Immersion.

A version of this article by Terry Laughlin was previously published on ivillage.com in Dec. 2011.

Total Immersion teaches swimming as a practice—in the spirit of yoga and Tai Chi– rather than a workout. The first principle of swimming as a practice is to let go of the usual goal of “Getting to the Other End.” Your new goal is to Be Aware of Every Stroke.  Another word for mindful swimming is intentional swimming. It works best when you target a single, highly specific element in your stroke. The foundation skill of effortless and enjoyable swimming is Balance–or feeling “weightless” in the water. This series of three focal points are designed to improve Balance in the crawl stroke.

Hang Your Head

While stroking “hang” your head– release its weight –until it feels weightless. Neither hold it up, nor press it down; just let it go.  When you release it, concentrate on feeling that it’s cushioned by the water.  Finally, notice if you feel a new relaxation— and maybe freedom of movement —in neck and shoulders.

Float Your Arm Forward . . . Slowly

Next focus intently on the extending arm. Feel the same “cushion” supporting your arm as you extend. Watch for— and eliminate –bubbles in your stroke (looking down, not forward.) Finally, explore how slowly you can float your arm forward . . . and try to extend slightly farther than usual.

Calm Your Legs

Your weightless upper body should help your lower body feel lighter than usual. Take advantage by “calming” and relaxing your legs. Instead of churning them busily and noisily, let them “draft behind” your upper body, in a slipstream. Strive for the easiest, quietest, and most streamlined movement possible.

Practice Tips:

1.) Before practicing the three focal points, swim a few lengths as you usually do. Count your strokes and rate your effort from 1 (Effortless) to 5 (Exhausting).  Repeat this exercise after each focal point to measure how they affect your ease and efficiency.

2.) Practice each focal point by doing a series of learning/familiarizing repeats followed by a series of practicing/memorizing repeats.

• Learning/Familiarizing  Swim a series of short (4 to 6 strokes, or 10 yards or less) repeats. Push off the wall, swim a short distance. Catch your breath and return to where you started. These repeats serve two purposes: (i) to break the habit of feeling obliged to complete every length you start; and (ii) to form a new habit of keen and undistracted attention.  Do at least four of these, but continue as long as you feel yourself discovering new sensations or nuances.

• Practicing/Memorizing Once you feel familiar with the new intention and sensation, swim farther— perhaps one, not more than two, pool lengths. Rest for 3 to 5 cleansing breaths after each. Continue visualizing your modified stroke as you do. Continue swimming the longer repeats as long as they feel as good or better than the shorter ones. If they don’t feel as good, resume shorter repeats to better imprint the new habit. Before progressing to the next focal point, count strokes and rate your effort. How do they compare to your former way of swimming?

This lesson is based entirely on whole-stroke practice. But most new swimmers experience find it much easier to learn Balance by mixing skill drills, like Superman Glide and Skate, with the short whole-stroke repeats described above. The next best thing to learning TI from a Certified Coach is to become your own best coach with the aid of our self-teaching tools.

Transform Your Stroke!

Learn guaranteed skill-builders with our downloadable Total Immersion Effortless Endurance Self Coaching Course! The drills and skills are illustrated in 15 short videos. Guidance on how to learn and practice each drill effectively, illustrated by clear pictures, are contained in the companion Workbook.

The post Your First TI Lesson Is Learning To Be “Weightless” in the Water appeared first on Total Immersion.

 

The following post was previously published by Terry Laughlin on May 10, 2010. 

There’s a saying (perhaps from statisticians?): “What gets measured gets improved.” Because I aim to improve my swimming in every practice, I plan them with metrics that tell me – empirically – how I did. In most sets I use the first repeat or two to establish a “baseline,” which I try to improve upon as I go.  My metrics include:

• Distance of repeats and/or the set
• Strokes Per Length [SPL]
• Time for the repeats, and/or
• Stroke Tempo (in strokes per second) from the Tempo Trainer.

In addition to the objective numbers above, I also include a subjective rating, for effort level or “mojo.” I’ll describe how I use subjective ratings in another post. Here, I’ll focus on how and why I use hard data, with examples from 3 different practices.

Last week I traveled to Pittsburgh, Thurs through Sat, to conduct a clinic for the Allegheny Mountain LMSC. While traveling, I try to swim as regularly as possible, though sometimes I can only squeeze in 30 minutes or less, as was true two of the three days I’ll recount here. As you’ll see, even 20 minutes can constitute a great practice when you aim for measurable improvement.

Thursday May 6 1000 yards at Bucknell University

While driving from New Paltz to State College, PA, I stopped in Lewisburg for a swim and lunch with Jeannie Zappe, a TI Coach. We had only 20 minutes to swim. I suggested 20 x 50 on a minute, trying to gradually increase pace, while maintaining a constant SPL.
On the first 50, swimming with consummate ease, I took 25 strokes (12 down, 13 back) and 46 seconds. My goal would be to continue taking 25 strokes per 50 for as long as possible while gradually swimming faster. This is a common set for me; I always try to let the seconds “melt away” (swim faster without trying) initially. When I succeed, it’s because my nervous system gets progressively more “tuned” to the task.
Over the first 10 x 50, I improved gradually from :46 to :42 with no perceptible increase in effort.  My primary focus was to feel a longer, more slippery bodyline. When the effortless improvements no longer came, I increased effort in highly specific ways:

• More sense of hold with my hand and forearm.
• More snap in my 2-beat kick “toe flick” – yet keeping it streamlined within the “shadow” of my upper legs.

Over 6 x 50, I improved to 39 seconds. During my final 4 x 50 I allowed myself 1 more stroke on each length, for 27 total, and improved to 38 seconds, trying to feel a bit more ease at that higher count and faster speed. I felt great at the end.

What happened? To maintain the same SPL for an extended series of repeats, I have to travel a constant distance on each stroke. To improve pace, I have to propel myself over that distance faster. That means the frequency of my strokes also increases – though I never consciously tried to stroke faster. So Stroke Length was constant. Stroke Rate increased . . . because Velocity increased. This is different – and easier – than trying to stroke faster . . . which is the most common way to try to swim faster.

Friday May 7 4200 yards at JCC in Pittsburgh

Suzanne Atkinson brought me to the JCC where she’s a member. We swam for about 90 minutes. For warmup, I swam 400 easy, alternating 25s of FR, BK and BR. I held 13 SPL for FR, 16 for BK and 8 for BR. I can take fewer strokes on back and breast if I focus in an exacting way, but preferred to stay relaxed.

Main Set: 6 rounds of 4 x 50 + 2 x 100 + 1 x 200 with Tempo Trainer. Increase tempo by .02 sec on each round, progressing from 1.10 sec/stroke on 1^st round to 1.00 sec/stroke on 6^th round. I rested 10 beeps between 50s, 15 beeps between 100s, 20 beeps before the 200 and gave myself a minute between rounds to reset the TT.

My SPL on the 4 x 50 @ 1.10 was 14+15. My goal was to progress through all distances and rounds to the final 200 @ 1.00 with as little change in SPL as I could manage. I was able to keep my SPL at 16 or lower for rounds 1 through 4. In round 5 (1.02 sec/stroke) I had perhaps 3 lengths (of 24 total) at 17 SPL. In round 6 (1.00 sec/stroke), I took 17 SPL on about 6 lengths.

Suzanne and I finished with twelve 25s of Butterfly. 

What happened? The goal of this set is to swim constant pace within each round — as repeat distance goes from 50 to 200 – and to improve pace with each successive round. If Tempo and SPL stay constant, so must pace. If Tempo increases and SPL stays the same (or increases very modestly), then pace improves. If SPL increases too much as Tempo increases, then pace will stay the same, or possibly even get slower.

I only checked the pace clock after the 200s. My 200 time improved an average of 2 seconds in each round. That means a tempo increase of .02 sec for one stroke created an improvement of 2 seconds (100 times as much) for 200 yards. This is a decent “trade” of tempo for speed so I ingrained good efficiency habits during this set.

Saturday May 8 2200 yards at Duquesne University

Duquesne Coach Dave Sheets opened the pool so Suzanne and I could swim prior to our clinic. He also joined us for the swim (and was impressively fast; in fact, his backstroke repeats were as fast as or faster than my crawl.)

We had only 30 minutes, so I planned a set similar to Friday’s, but with a varying pace emphasis with each round, in place of Saturday’s constant pace emphasis.

Main Set: (1 x 200 + 8 x 25) – (1 x 200 + 4 x 50) – (1 x 200 + 2 x 100) – (1 x 200 + 4 x 50) – (1 x 200 + 8 x 25) The 200s were to be swum at “Cruise” pace and the 25s, 50s and 100s at “Brisk” pace. I aimed to hold ALL repeats @ 14 SPL.

I didn’t time the 200s, focusing instead on a Stroke Thought of Superslow Recovery without sacrificing balance or stability. I swam the 25s in an average of 17 sec, the 50s in 37 sec and the 100s in 1:14-1:15.

What happened? SPL remained constant, but – as on Thursday’s 50-yd repeats – pace varied. I swam significantly faster on the 25s, 50s and 100s, than on the 200s. In this case, I did put a good deal more effort into them. But SAME SPL combined with FASTER Pace also means higher Stroke Rate. This time I accomplished faster pace by shortening repeat distance and adding a bit of effort.

Summary: 

In all 3 practices I created nervous system adaptation by varying the task, while keeping at least one variable constant.

• On Thurs, repeat distance and SPL stayed constant, SR (and consequently, pace) increased.
• On Fri, I tried to keep SPL constant, and succeeded in minimizing change as repeat distance and tempo increased.
• On Sat, I kept SPL constant while repeat distance varied. Pace and SR changed as repeat distance got shorter.

When I describe my practices, I’m often asked how I can remember so many details to record them in my log later. Part of the reason is years of “data collection and recording” have trained my brain for this kind of memory capacity (which is highly specialized; outside the pool, I’m known for being absent-minded and forgetful). But recall is also made easier by the fact that I have a context or framework for the numbers I track. I use my first repeat or two to set a baseline or benchmark– then I decide, based on experience, what sort of improvement goal I’ll pursue. Since thousands of hours of practice have improved my ability to execute what I intend, I usually need only to take note of where I’ve diverged from the plan.

Transform Your Stroke!

Learn guaranteed skill-builders with our downloadable Total Immersion Effortless Endurance Self Coaching Course! The drills and skills are illustrated in 15 short videos. Guidance on how to learn and practice each drill effectively, illustrated by clear pictures, are contained in the companion Workbook.

The post Metrics That Matter: A Model For How You Can Measure Swimming Improvement appeared first on Total Immersion.

Last week’s post described the proven principles of swimming faster, using a specific algorithm for speed– if you’re wondering what this looks like in practice, this entry from Terry Laughlin’s 2015 training log models that algorithm in a practice set. Enjoy… and Happy Laps!

This article is an adaptation of an archived TI forum post from Terry Laughlin’s training log on Nov. 5, 2015.

On Tuesday (Nov 3.) I read “The New Yorker” magazine article, WHAT WE THINK ABOUT WHEN WE RUN. In part, it was of “Poverty Creek Journal,” a collection of 51 brief reflections on a year’s worth of runs. The article also included a summary of a study published earlier this year in the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Sports psychologists gave clip-on microphones to 10 distance runners and asked them to narrate their thought process during a run.

What did these runners think about?
How hard it was to move at their desired speed: “Come on, keep the stride going, bro.”
How soon they could stop: “Come on, you have enough energy for a mile and a half.”
And, quite often, about how miserable they felt while running.

The researchers summarized: “Pain and discomfort were never far from their thoughts.”

It made me wonder why people carry on with such a masochistic exercise. If they knew how it feels to practice Kaizen Swimming, would they give up running? Or would they run differently–the way it’s taught in ChiRunning?

In any case, the contrast between the runners in this study and the practice I’d done just one day earlier could not be more stark.

Before I describe my practice, I’ll review several principles of TI Fast Forward training methodology:
1.) Always focus on improving your swimming.
2.) Create a feedback loop– either subjective (Focal Points) or objective (Strokes Per Length/SPL, Tempo, Time). If the latter, use two metrics. Tempo+SPL or Tempo+Time or SPL+Time.
3.) To swim faster, design problem-solving exercises that strengthen your ability to hold Stroke Length, while increasing Stroke Rate. We call this the “Algorithm of Swimming Success.”

 Mon 2 Nov Approx. 3500 meters at Hampton Lido, London

Sean Haywood (he was among 27 members of a TI-UK training group who went to Ironman Mallorca the previous month) invited me to swim with him at the Hampton Lido, an outdoor 36-meter pool. We swam from 6:45 to 8:00 AM. Having never swum in a 36m pool, I went in with no idea what my SPL or pace might be. But that’s never a problem. I can “create meaning” in any pool, just by counting strokes during my tune-up, which I swam in the “medium speed” lane.

Swimming with a feather-light catch and barely-there kick, I took 24 strokes the first length, then added one stroke on each of the next three laps–reaching 27 SPL on the 4th. (I later did a calculation and found that the “Green Zone” for my 6-foot height in a 36-meter pool should be between 24 and about 28 strokes.) Then the tune-up effect began to take hold, and I shaved a stroke, bringing me to 26 SPL. I swam continuously for another 10 to 12 minutes, holding 26SPL pretty steadily (except when I overtook another swimmer and sped up to pass).

Feeling ready for a challenge, I moved into the “fast” lane and turned on my Tempo Trainer. It was set to 1.17 sec/stroke. I figured that was as good a place as any to start. I swam 4 lengths (144m) continuously and averaged 27 SPL. Armed with that information, I decided to swim a Tempo Pyramid, slowing tempo by .02 each 100 until my SPL returned to 26–or 104 strokes for the 4-lap swim. I reached that at 1.23– taking 25 strokes on the 1st length, 26 strokes on the 2nd and 3rd, and 27 strokes on the 4th.

Next, I would test how long I could hold this stroke count, while increasing tempo by .01 sec after each 144m rep. With a brief exception, I held this stroke count for 11 reps–to a tempo of 1.13 sec/stroke.

I missed my intended count on only one length, taking 27 instead of 26 strokes on the 2nd lap at 1.15 tempo. Because I was a bit too slow on flip turn and pushoff, I had to rush a bit to synchronize the hand entry of my first stroke to the 4th beep. I knew in that instant that the cost of the momentary lapse would be an extra stroke. This happens commonly because while each stroke must be only .01 faster, each turn must be .05 faster (.01 x 5 beeps from final stroke on one length and first stroke on the next).

I made my approach to the wall a little stronger and somersault a little faster on the next two turns and regained my target stroke count on the final two lengths, then held it for one more rep, at 1.14. At 1.13 I exceeded my target count again and knew I’d reached my limit. I then dropped down to 3-length (98m) reps and held my 26 SPL average (25-26-27 strokes) until I reached 1.09.

At 1.08 my SPL rose again, so I cut another length from my repeats, carrying on with 2-length (72m) repeats, holding 26 SPL to 1.06. Then I cut another length and finished my practice by holding 26 strokes from 1.05 to 1.02 sec/stroke. My final length was 27 strokes at 1.01.

If a researcher had given me a waterproof mic and asked me to record my thoughts between repeats, I’d have said that I was having the time of my life. I spent over an hour focusing on every single stroke–the definition of mindfulness–and consequently remaining completely absorbed.

As I solved the challenge of holding SPL as Tempo increased, I swam almost exactly one second faster on each rep (104 strokes x .01 sec). But the experience of swimming faster was enormously pleasurable. As I progressed through the set, my movement through the water felt better and better–more integrated, more fluent. And the overall effect produced a highly satisfying Flow State. Does it get any better than that?

Take Your Swimming to the Next Level!

Learn the Habits of Mastery and develop expert-level skills with Total Immersion’s 2.0 Freestyle Mastery Complete Self-Coaching Course. Do you love learning, practicing, and swimming the TI Way? Are you excited about attaining personal mastery in the most efficient and exacting skills available in freestyle? Have you mastered the TI Foundations in prior videos or the Effortless Endurance (formerly Ultra Efficient Freestyle) Self-Coaching Course? If yes, the 2.0 Freestyle Mastery Course is for you.

The post Terry’s Practice Log: A Detailed Sample Set of Strategic Speedwork appeared first on Total Immersion.

This post was originally published by Terry Laughlin on May 20, 2016.

There are two ways to try to swim faster. One way is what I call the “Limbs, Lungs, and Muscles” approach: Move your limbs as fast as you can. Put more muscle into your stroke. Hope that your fitness will outlast failing muscles and that you can “push through pain barriers” as coaches often say. For most, this approach is a path to failure and frustration.

Total Immersion teaches a second way— speed as a problem-solving exercise. The fact that you’re solving the most exacting problems in swimming can also transform this into a Mastery pursuit. The TI way to swim faster is based on three well-proven principles.  Although the success of these principles is widely-documented, I refer to them as the “secrets” of swimming faster because so few people take advantage of them.

1. Start with Stroke Length. The foundation for fast swimming is Stroke Length. For over 60 years, every authoritative study of factors that correlate with speed found that longer strokes matter most. This has proven true in all strokes and all ages—from 10 and under to 80 and up!

How far should you travel? For freestyle, from 55% to 65% or more of your height. We’ve converted that into Strokes Per Length (SPL), recorded on our Green Zone charts of height-indexed efficient stroke counts in any standard distance pool, available as a free download here.

When stroking at the lowest SPL for your height, your hand leaves the water– at the end of the stroke –pretty close to where it entered. In other words, most of your energy is converted into forward motion. When your stroke count is above the highest in your Green Zone, too much of your energy is moving water back.

Once you can swim your Green Zone counts with ease and consistency, strive to patiently increase the distance and/or speed at which you can maintain those counts. If you’ve been swimming at higher counts, try this simple exercise: Compare the speed of your arm moving back with the speed of your body moving forward. Slow your stroke until they match.

2. Train your Nervous–not Aerobic–System.

In 2005, just before I turned 55, I set several goals that were far more ambitious than any I’d contemplated before. I asked Jonty Skinner, Director of Performance Science for USA Swimming’s Olympic program, for training advice. Jonty said: “It’s neural conditioning, not aerobic conditioning, that wins races.”

Jonty meant that swimmers who trained to maintain a long stroke as they swam farther and faster would be much more successful those who simply focused on swimming longer or harder. Rather than train for the capacity to work harder, focus on creating and encoding the highest quality muscle memories—to make it easier to maintain longer strokes at faster rates. Not only will it require less oxygen to swim any pace, but cardiovascular conditioning still “happens.” Only it’s now specific to the stroke length and rate to which your nervous system is highly adapted— rather than to non-specific hard efforts.

3. Master the “Swimming Success Algorithm”

The term algorithm was coined in mathematics over 1000 years ago and has become widely familiar in the last 20 years due to its use in computer science. Its use in modern technology suggests something complicated, but it’s definition is pretty simple: An algorithm is “a process that solves a recurrent problem.”

A recurrent— indeed, nearly universal —problem in swimming is how to swim the fastest of which you are physically capable. The overwhelming majority of swimmers fall far short of their true potential (I was a prime example in high school and college) because they choose ineffective means to solve the problem— stroke faster and swim harder. This is what I did in high school and college. It led to frustration and a feeling that I lacked the “right stuff” to swim fast, whatever that might be.

Stroking faster isn’t so much a choice as a primal instinct, which is why so many do it. Fortunately there is a solution for this problem that is so foolproof– I call it the Algorithm for Swimming Success. It comes from 40 years of data collected by USA Swimming on their very best swimmers.

Since 1976, USA-Swimming has assigned staffers to sit in the stands and record the stroke count and stroke rate of every swimmer, in every heat, of every event at Olympic Trials— the most competitive meet in the US, and sometimes, the world. Every swimmer at this meet is hightly talented and supremely fit, but in each event only two competitors— of 60 to 70 entrants –will come away with the most precious prize of a slot on the Olympic Team.

USA Swimming collected this data to learn if there was some stroking or pacing pattern which maximizes a swimmer’s chances of being among the fortunate few.

After 40 years, the data shows most clearly that a rare and completely counter-intuitive skill is the key to success in swimming.  That skill is the ability to maintain Stroke Length while increasing Stroke Rate.

Why counter-intuitive? Well, what does everyone do naturally when trying to swim faster? Work harder and stroke faster— while ignoring Stroke Length! No wonder this virtually always leads to failure and frustration: They have it exactly backwards!

With this information, you can ensure that your efforts to swim faster will have a vastly greater chance of success. To do this, plan sets which:

1. Reveal your current ability to maintain one stroke count (say 18 SPL), while increasing Tempo.
2. Make a tiny increase in tempo (as little as a hundredth of a second) and count strokes. If your SPL holds, increase tempo and count strokes again.
3. Continue until your SPL increases.

When your SPL increases, you’ve discovered your current level of Conscious Incompetence at this combination of SPL and Tempo. Work at this level until you can easily and consistently swim this Tempo+SPL combo. Then raise tempo again until you find the tempo at which it’s a struggle to maintain your SPL.

Learn to swim with greater ease and speed in your “Green Zone” with our downloadable Ultra-Efficient Freestyle Complete Self-Coaching Toolkit.

Want to master the Swimming Success Algorithm? A Tempo Trainer is the essential tool. 

The post The Algorithm of Speed: 3 Proven Principles for Swimming Faster appeared first on Total Immersion.

Terry demos the “Skating” drill to hone balance and streamlining

This post was originally published by Terry Laughlin on Nov. 4, 2016.

Stroke drills have been an important part of TI methodology since our first adult swim camp in June 1989. The drills we teach have undergone continuous evolution since then, as have the ways we practice drills. Thus, it will probably surprise you to learn that I rarely do drills myself. Other than demonstrating them when I teach, I’d estimate that drills currently make up no more than 1% of my overall practice volume.

If they are so central to TI methodology, why are they such a small part of my own practice? It comes down to understanding the purpose of drills, when it’s right to do them, and when whole stroke is more valuable.

Why Do Drills

Stroke drills are ideal when your priorities or opportunities include any of the following:

1. To Break Habits When Bill Boomer taught me my first balance drill, I’d been swimming unbalanced for nearly 25 years. Since I’d never experienced balance, heavy legs felt ‘normal’ and I’d developed several habits to compensate for that. It would have been difficult to tweak my deeply ingrained stroke to make a difference. But in about 10 seconds performing a balance drill, my legs felt so thrillingly different, that I could soon maintain that in whole stroke for a short distance. Not perfectly or permanently, but the new sensation was so welcome I knew I wanted to make it permanent. That small taste was all it took to commit me to intensive drill practice for the next 10 years.
2. To Deconstruct and Pinpoint An efficient stroke—especially freestyle—is one of the most complex movements in sport, compounded by the difficulty of executing a high level skill in water. TI makes learning easier by deconstructing the whole stroke into critical mini-skills. Drills pinpoint those deconstructed mini-skills in the way Torpedo highlights head position, allowing you to detect and correct errors far more quickly.
3. To Heighten Perception In the example above, Torpedo drill dramatically enhances your perception of head position. Is it slightly elevated, slightly depressed, or neutral and weightless? You quickly become aware of the difference in Torpedo—and should just as quickly take that heightened perception into whole stroke.

How to Maximize

Want to get more out of your drill practice? To use the right drill in the most effective way for precisely the skill that needs improving? Want to avoid wasted time and effort? Do the following:

1. Start with the End in Mind Before deciding to practice a drill, consider the kind of stroke you wish to end up with. Any drill you choose should imprint an aspect or quality you hope to see in the whole stroke. If it imprints any position, movement, or quality you don’t wish to see in whole stroke, you’re better off not doing it. For instance, you should neither practice flutter kicking flat on the breast, flat on the back, nor on your side (with shoulders and hips stacked) unless you intend to swim in those inefficient positions.
2. Clear Purpose Similar to the above, be crystal clear on the purpose of any drill you practice—because the main point of the drill is to imprint an efficient quality, position, or movement in the whole stroke. I often observe competitive swimmers (including Masters) and triathletes going through the motions in drill practice, seemingly more concerned with getting it done, than getting it right. Any time spent practicing a drill that fails to imprint a high quality, high efficiency movement is wasted time.
3. Find Right Sequence When you plan to combine several drills, practicing them in the right sequence makes all the difference. If working on propulsion, using a drill designed to improve the Catch-and-Press, or 2-Beat Kick, the propulsion-oriented drill will work better if you precede it with drills to balance the body and stabilize the core—so arms or legs are not occupied with correcting body position errors. This principle and application is covered in detail in the 2.0 Freestyle Mastery Self-Coaching Course.

What to Avoid

1. Unfocused Practice Swim teams often fit in drills as a part of sets like this (often given as part of warmup): 200 Swim 200 Pull 200 Kick 200 Drill. Apart from the fact that I don’t favor sets that isolate the kick or pull, there’s this: How much clear-eyed focus do you suppose the swimmers will bring to the 200s of kick or pull? Not much. They’ll be more focused on getting them done, not getting them right. And when it comes to the 200 Drill, is it likely they’ll suddenly find focus. Not very. If you do even a single length of a drill without complete clarity on what it’s designed to improve, and what sensations will affirm that it’s accomplishing its purpose, you’re wasting your time.
2. Too Much/Too Long Never do a drill by rote. Never do it simply out of habit, or as part of an ‘autopilot’ routine. (See above.) And don’t continue doing a drill which targets a skill you already perform at a high level in whole stroke. You’ll be wasting time if you do. Also never continue a drill to the point where (a) it’s become more of a kicking exercise, or (b) you’re more focused on getting to the other end of the pool than on super-high quality movement. You’ll be imprinting the wrong thing if you do. This is why most TI drills are now designed to be done in repeats of 10 yards or less. Including all those in our Self Coaching Courses.
3. No Closure Never follow a drill with something unrelated. Always follow a drill with some short repeats of whole-stroke–and same focal point–to immediately bring the new position/movement/sensation into the stroke. This ensures closure of the stroke-improvement loop.

How TI Drills Have Evolved

1. Drills we’ve dropped and why

These three drills were formerly an essential part of the TI freestyle sequence (with the approx. date they were replaced in parentheses).

Press the Buoy (1994) I learned this drill from Bill Boomer. In fact, it was the one that rocked my world by showing me I could have light legs. Unfortunately, its leg-lifting effect only worked flat on the breast, and became quite elusive when you rotated—as in whole stroke. Through experimentation we learned that a weightless head (1995) and slicing the hand below the bodyline after entry (1999) were even more successful at lifting the legs, and maintained that effect as you rotated.

Balance on Back (1998) This drill was very good at helping a student experience the support of the water, without interrupting that balance to take a breath. But it taught a body and breathing position that had no application to freestyle. We replaced it first with Sweet Spot, then by separating breathing exercises from those for body position (2008).

‘Zipper’ Drills (2008)  These drills were part of the recovery sequence. We instructed students to draw the thumb up the side, as if pulling up a zipper. They produced a compact, even elegant recovery. But they also tended to cause over-rotation and instability in the core. Consequently, we replaced them with Rag Doll and Paint a Line drills which teach a more relaxed recovery, while preserving a stable core and promoting healthy shoulders.

2. Fewer Drills, More Rehearsals

In every stroke, we strive to teach the foundational skills (Balance, Stability, Streamlining, Integrated Propulsive Movements) in just three to four steps. For two reasons: (1) Fewer drills allow for more clarity on their purpose and essentials, and more quality and consistency in execution. (2) We want to prepare the student to swim a smoothly integrated, comfortable whole stroke—one well suited to further refinement–as quickly as possible. Our 1.0 Effortless Endurance Self-Coaching Course applies this principle as will our soon-to-be released Self Coaching Courses for Butterfly, Backstroke, and Breaststroke.

3. More Whole Stroke

In the 1990s, it was typical at a TI workshop to do some 6 hours of stroke drills before putting it all together in whole stroke for perhaps 10 minutes. Now we do several short reps of whole stroke within 10 to 15 minutes of the start of a workshop or lesson. Why? To immediately apply a new mini-skill (in this case a weightless head) as soon as possible after heightening awareness of that skill (in Torpedo.) And we continue with that approach throughout the workshop. Five to 10 minutes of a drill to heighten a sensation, followed by a similar amount of time testing that sensation in whole stroke. The proportion of drill to whole stroke is pretty close to 50:50.

This brings me to why I barely ever do stroke drills any more. I did intensive drill practice (and sometimes a full hour or more of nothing but drills) for most of the 1990s. During that time, I completely remade my stroke, dramatically increasing my efficiency. This followed a 25-year period in which there was virtually no change in my swimming.

However several things changed in the early 2000’s that led me to gradually reduce the stroke drill portion of my practice:

1. My improvement opportunities changed. Following 10 years focus on the vessel-shaping aspects of technique, there remained relatively little upside. I consequently shifted my focus to skills I’d relatively neglected during the 90s–Catch-and-Press and 2-Beat Kick. While there are several drills with value in learning them, most of the refinement potential comes from whole stroke practice with focal points.
2. I adopted new training aids. During this period I was introduced to Fistgloves and the Tempo Trainer. While the Fistgloves can be useful in some drill practice, both tools yield their greatest value in whole stroke practice. I discovered many new stroke refinement, and awareness-heightening, opportunities in whole stroke practice with one or the other.
3. I began racing more. Training for a certain level of speed can only be done with whole stroke. You acquire a high efficiency stroke at lower speeds, and with a mix of drill and whole stroke. You must then learn to maintain it while swimming at higher tempos, muscle loads, and heart rates. That’s whole stroke.

If you’ve been doing the same stroke drills for more than three years, it may be time to evaluate whether they are still creating improvement or simply ingraining a kind of status quo in your stroke. Is it time to change to drills for more advanced skills? Perhaps you’re ready for Mastery Skills. A visit to a TI Coach, or a video analysis by an expert TI coach can help determine.

Take Your Swimming to the Next Level!

Learn the Habits of Mastery and develop expert-level skills with Total Immersion’s 2.0 Freestyle Mastery Complete Self-Coaching Course. Do you love learning, practicing, and swimming the TI Way? Are you excited about attaining personal mastery in the most efficient and exacting skills available in freestyle? Have you mastered the TI Foundations in prior videos or the Effortless Endurance (formerly Ultra Efficient Freestyle) Self-Coaching Course? If yes, the 2.0 Freestyle Mastery Course is for you.

The post PRACTICE STRATEGY: Why Drill, How To Maximize Practice, and What To Avoid appeared first on Total Immersion.