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.

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.

Over past couple weeks, we’ve shared excerpts from a companion instructional manual that Terry Laughlin created for T.I. workshop attendees, adapted from his 2006 book, “Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body.” The purpose of the supplementary material in this manual was to provide practical suggestions to guide T.I. swimmers through the first several weeks or months following a T.I. workshop (or after learning with T.I. self-teaching tools). This week’s post is another excerpt from that manual, focused on the first phase of Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) Training: Energy Conservation. In this article, Terry details the importance of spending time on balance, comfort, and relaxation. From this solid foundation, one can build a stable, fluid, and efficient stroke… and be well-positioned to then cultivate advanced stroke mastery, increase distance, and increase speed. We’ll go in-depth on those latter topics next week, when we’ll share another post in this continuing series of excerpts from Terry’s workshop manual on Kaizen Swimming. Enjoy… and Happy Laps! 

SELECTED EXCERPT FROM:

“KAIZEN SWIMMING: HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TOTAL IMMERSION WORKSHOP” 

This part of the Workshop Manual will guide you through the first several weeks or months of training after your T.I. workshop (or after beginning T.I. practice with self-teaching tools). Pages 136-164 of the T.I. book Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body (“ES4EB”) also includes detailed guidance on how to plan a Kaizen Training program for the long term. Here’s an overview of what do in the first few weeks or months of your T.I. practice.

PHASE I: ENERGY CONSERVATION

Every workshop alum (or self-taught T.I. swimmer) should devote at least 10 to 20 hrs of practice to balance, comfort, and relaxation. (Some swimmers have remained at this level for a year or two without stagnating.) Your goals are to eliminate discomfort and tension and develop basic habits of efficient, fluent movement. For many swimmers, drills are essential for this, but whole-stroke can be helpful too. The specific foundations you should form include:

(1) Make breathing routine so it doesn’t distract you while working on other foundations.

(2) Create effortless support or balance by imprinting a neutral head position and the right position on the “track” for your relaxed extended hand.

(3) Make long, “slippery” bodylines a habit by learning to “pierce the water” with your spearing arm and follow the “track” with your bodyline.

(4) Make whole-body propelling movements a habit.

TOOLS

30% Balance Drills to learn balance and imprint sleek bodylines

40% Switch Drills- Focus on minimizing drag and turbulence, and becoming “patient” in trapping water

20% Mindful Swimming (whole stroke with focal points) to transfer awareness gained in drills into whole stroke

10% Stroke Counting to measure your improvements in efficiency and compare the effectiveness of various focal points

PRACTICE TIPS (for more guidance, read pgs. 115-135 of Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body)

Efficient, fluent swimming starts with exploring basic movements and positions with a sense of curiosity– and no sense of urgency. Whenever you feel discomfort during a drill, your natural reaction will be some kind of compensation– craning your neck, sculling, kicking too hard. These unconscious reactions imprint energy-wasting movements on our nervous system. 

Patience in mastering basic skills may be natural to martial artists and dancers, but not to most swimmers. I only came to appreciate its value after a few years of regular yoga practice. The most beneficial goal for your first 10 to 20 hours of pool time following the workshop (or after first working with T.I. self-teaching tools) might be to make mindful, examined movement a habit. Don’t count laps or watch the pace clock; focus purely on sensation and awareness– aiming to reduce effort and increase flow. Your period of concentrated drill practice may last a few weeks for some students, several months for others. Your drill practice will benefit greatly if you follow these guidelines:

• Short repeats. 25s or less for the first week or two, and seldom longer than 50s.

• Short sets. To maintain acute attention, change your focus regularly. Alternate tasks that require intense focus, with less exacting ones.

• Clear focus. Think about doing just one thing well on each length. Break it down finely. (e.g. on Switch Drills, you could divide your focal points into soft arms on recovery, recovering arm deep and slow, leading with your elbow, slicing your hand to your target, and tipping your fingers down.

• Ignore the clock. Use “yoga breaths” to regulate your rest interval between repeats. 3 to 5 breaths should be sufficient. 

* To continue reading about the progression of Kaizen Training, click here for the blog post on “Phase 2: Develop Your Stroke”

Advance beyond the basic T.I. skills with this comprehensive guide on pursuing the kaizen path of swimming to the highest levels of swimming mastery: 

Terry Laughlin’s book– Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body– shows you how!

The post Kaizen Training: Priority #1– Conserve Energy appeared first on Total Immersion.

                                     Terry keeping his head low while breathing to the left

This week’s blog is a look back at a Nov. 2010 post from T.I. founder Terry Laughlin on the ever-popular topic of breathing in freestyle: an essential component of swimming with ease and confidence, no matter the distance. Being able to breathe comfortably is the very foundation of being able to swim comfortably– can’t do anything without air! And yet, this primary skill of swimming mystifies and confounds many swim students because our instinctive human impulses to get to the air (lifting the head up, pushing down on the water with the arm as a “brace” to stay aloft during a breath, etc.) contradict the elements of efficient breathing that characterize T.I. swimming. Terry often remarked that virtually every skill of efficient swimming (as opposed to “survival swimming”) is counter-intuitive and he referred to this dilemma as the “Universal Human Swimming Problem” or “UHSP.” Swimmers who struggle are not outliers, he observed, once writing: “Indeed, swimming poorly–or swimming ‘okay’ without realizing you could be swimming much better–is so common we call it the ‘Universal Human Swimming Problem.’” Fortunately, we can transform our reflexively inefficient “survival swimming” through conscious practice of the counter-intuitive skills of efficient swimming. Learning to breathe in balance is a huge piece of solving the “UHSP” and this article addresses that specific issue, offering insights and practical suggestions for how to develop and refine this crucial skill. Enjoy… and Happy Laps!

Editor’s Note:  The discussion thread Terry mentions below is now archived as a “read-only” thread in the old discussion forum.

November 24, 2010

A focus on Balance shows up virtually every day in one or more threads on the TI Discussion Forum. Today, in a thread titled Back to the Roots, forum member Haschu reported: 

This morning I practiced in a  15-meter hotel pool. I watched Shinji’s video of holding Superman Glide for 12.5 m. I wondered how he could glide such a long distance and tried to match that. So I did SG repeats for about 20 minutes, finally reaching 10, perhaps even 12 m.

Haschu continued: 

After that, I did a few laps of full-stroke breathing to my left, which is my ‘bad’ breathing side. I’m deeper in the water and always lift my head when breathing left. I could never figure out why. I tried to adjust my right spearing arm and other things, but nothing seemed to work. Yet after that extended period of SG [Superman Glide] my mouth was clear of water as I breathed. I find it quite amazing how much benefit one can gain from very ‘basic’ drills like SG and core balance. I can only encourage everybody to use those drills intensively. They make everything else so much easier.

I’m not at all surprised that extending one’s practice of Superman Glide far beyond what most people would consider resulted in finding the solution to a long-term “breathing puzzle.”

Once you’ve practiced T.I. for several years, most of your Kaizen – continuing improvement – opportunities will be rather subtle. You can swim as far as you like. On the whole you feel pretty good when swimming – perhaps even experience “flow states” (aka: feeling “in the zone”) at times.

Yet – because you tirelessly seek small flaws to improve – you find them. Your “symptom”– feeling a bit lower in the water, and that you lift your head slightly when breathing to the left — is clearly balance-related. But it’s difficult to correct because (to quote Sting) every breath you take reinforces the error.

If you analyze a bit, you realize:

1) Lifting your head causes the “sinking feeling”

2) It probably also means that your right hand is “bracing” rather than extend-and-catch

3) All of this happens because you don’t feel as well supported as you roll to your left

Nothing deepens sense-of-support (and emotional security) like Superman Glide. As well, no drill is quite as good at helping you really, really, really release your head. At first just when looking down. It takes greater focus to keep really, really, really releasing your head as you roll to breathe.

“Really, really, really release your head” while breathing

One way to develop this skill is to repeat SG (Superman Glide) until you feel yourself really, really, really releasing your head while gliding.

Then add some strokes and really, really, really release your head while stroking.

Finally, take a few breaths to evaluate whether you’re still really, really, really releasing your head while breathing.  I look for a feeling that the side of my head is floating on a cushion as I breathe.  I don’t mind doing 20 minutes of very short, intensely-focused repeats in pursuit of it.

That kind of practice will often look something like this:
4 x SG (7 to 8 yds)
4 x SG + 3-5 strokes (10-15 yds)
4 x SG + 2-3 breaths (15-18 yds)
4 x SG
4 x SG + 3-5 strokes
4 x SG + 3-5 breaths
4 x SG
4 x SG + 3-5 strokes
4 x SG + 4-6 breaths

As I’ve said previously, just because there’s a convention to make pools 25y/m doesn’t mean we always have to swim that far without stopping. I stop in mid-pool regularly when working on an elusive skill or sensation. As I feel it improve, I  keep adding one more successful cycle at a time.

15m hotel pools are not so good for lap swimming, but they’re perfect for refining subtle skills, as is extended practice of the more basic drills.

Blog Comment– Troubleshooting Question for Terry

Blog reader Craig: I have tried to find this kind of balance for years, but haven’t [gotten it]! I am 6′ 1″ and 165 lbs. so floating is difficult and my legs are very “heavy” in the water. Is this possible for my bodytype? Thanks for all your great info/videos!

Terry: When you say you’re 6-1 and 165 and so floating is difficult I don’t understand, because many elite swimmers have similar body type. Please don’t confuse “balance” with “floating.” The human body is intended to sink to some extent – i.e. only 5% of body mass will typically be above the surface. Balance means to “sink in a horizontal position.” It’s a skill acquired by specific changes in head and limb position and redistribution of body weight.

Craig: I have tried everything to achieve the “Superman glide,” but still end up with my feet about 3 feet under water as soon as my forward speed is lost. If I blow out my air, then I will sink level, but go straight to the bottom of the pool? I can’t find leverage to keep my chest down and legs up? Thanks.

Terry: Mine sink too . . . at some point. Start stroking while you still have a bit of momentum. Start with 3 to 5 strokes and just one thought.

Learn all skills and drills described in this post– and the other elements of efficient freestyle– in our downloadable product: Effortless Endurance Freestyle Complete Self-Coaching Toolkit

The post VIDEO: How Balance Improves Breathing– And A Practice Set for This Skill appeared first on Total Immersion.

In our last blog post, we released the second excerpt– on “Seamless Breathing”– from the unpublished draft of Terry Laughlin’s final book (currently being edited, for anticipated release sometime in 2019). This week’s post is another exclusive excerpt from his final book, on the topic of “Balance.” Like the previous excerpt, this article is adapted from a section of the book entitled, “Stroke School: Effortless Endurance Freestyle in 8 Lessons”– below, Terry outlines 3 specific steps (or “mini-skills”) to achieve better balance. To introduce this chapter on balance, we’ve included a quote from one of Terry’s private, audio-recorded conversations with his family during his last days in October 2017. Here, he speaks passionately about what he most hoped to convey about swimming in this final book:

“The T.I. approach to swimming is unique in recognizing that, as human beings, we naturally approach the water in the posture of a survivor. It’s a primal thing. That’s a fundamental insight to understand what’s different about T.I.–  and that’s the reason for our success. If an instructor doesn’t take the step of helping a swim student overcome that fear, the swimmer will always be surviving rather than swimming. You have to help the student feel safe and secure before they can become a swimmer. Otherwise, they will always be swimming as a survivor.  That’s what balance does– it makes you feel safe, secure, and in control. What makes Total Immersion distinctive is teaching balance as the keystone skill of swimming. No one else even recognizes balance as a skill let alone the keystone skill of swimming efficiently. And not just swimming efficiently, but being able to enjoy swimming– being able to swim with ease, grace, and enjoyment.” — Terry Laughlin, 10/13/17

Balance: The Essential Foundation of Efficiency  

To swim efficiently, you must master Balance first. I’d go so far as to call it “non-negotiable.” But the effect of learning Balance can be much more far-reaching. It certainly was for me.

In September 1988, I met Coach Bill Boomer at a coaching clinic and learned that “the shape of the vessel matters more than the size of the engine.” Boomer also said that Balance is the foundation of vessel-shaping– his term for streamlining your body. Though I’d been swimming for nearly 25 years, and coaching successfully for 16 years, prior to that day I’d never heard a single mention of Balance as a swimming skill—much less the most important one.

Soon after, I visited Boomer in Rochester, NY to learn more about “vessel-shaping” and watch him coach his University of Rochester swimmers. While there, I asked Boomer to show me how to balance. He had me perform a drill, while kicking lightly in a prone position with my arms at my sides. When I aligned my head and hips, as instructed, and shifted weight forward to my chest, my hips instantly rose to the surface and my legs felt light. I was moving just as fast, but with a noticeably easier kick.

I repeated the drill several times, memorizing these new sensations, then swam a length of whole-stroke. My stroke felt stunningly different. For 25 years, my legs had felt “heavy.”  But after just a few minutes of practicing a simple drill, they felt light!

While the new ease I felt was exciting, the effect of the experience of swimming in balance would be much more far reaching. It changed my whole sense of what was possible—for me and all swimmers: 

1.) I’d swum only sporadically, and without real enthusiasm, for nearly 20 years since college, with no purpose other than to get exercise. Since that day, I’ve become a passionate swimmer, and my passion for swimming has only grown.

2.) Prior to that day, the only changes I’d experienced in my swimming had been marginal and temporary. After months of hard training, I could swim longer and faster— but that effect disappeared as soon as I stopped training. The change I experienced through Balance was more dramatic than anything I’d ever known, and has become permanent. Not only do I now feel positively brilliant every time I swim but—even after missing practice for several weeks—I recapture that feeling upon my return.

3.) Experiencing such a fundamental and striking change made me realize that, though I’d swum for almost 25 years that day, I still had much to learn. And in fact, I’ve continued to learn new skills and discover new insights (kaizen-style!) for over 25 years since.

4.) At age 37 (when I was introduced to Balance), I thought my best swimming was 20 years behind me. In reality, the best was yet to come! As a result of learning Balance, and many other discoveries that followed, I’ve improved continuously through my 40s, 50s, and 60s.

No More Struggle

The most limiting aspect of swimming is the sinking sensation. When your hips and legs drag below the surface, it’s impossible to feel comfort or ease, your endurance and speed are sapped, and your arms and legs are so preoccupied with fighting the sinking sensation, they’re limited in their ability to aid in streamlining or propulsion.

Poor balance is the reason only 30 percent of us can swim 25 meters. Besides the fact that “survival swimming” is exhausting, the sinking sensation makes it impossible to enjoy swimming—or to anticipate a brighter future in swimming. That constant sense of lacking control in the water also blocks the calm focus needed to learn new skills.

However, if you can solve such profound problems, you should also gain a sense of confidence in dealing with future challenges that you may face.

When you eliminate the sinking sensation—and feel a sense of control over your body—you immediately feel much more “at home” in the water. You also achieve the foundation for every skill that follows.

Three Steps to Balance

As you’ll see, none of these “mini-skills” are instinctive. To learn them, patiently give your full attention to just one skill at a time. The first two of these steps apply to all strokes and are universal requirements to achieve efficiency as a swimmer. The third step is particular to freestyle.

Focal Point #1: Release and align your head

Terry demos releasing a “weightless head” (Photo credit: Robert Fagan/usiavideo)

Releasing your head to a “weightless” position that aligns with your spine is the most immediately impactful and fundamental Focal Point among all the efficiency skills taught by Total Immersion. To allow your head to find its most natural position, just let it go! Relax your neck and upper back muscles until you feel your head’s weight resting fully upon the water. While this action seems fairly simple, our head-lifting instinct is so deep-rooted that it may take months to overcome.

Having done this, check that the crown of your head and spine feel connected by a straight line. When head, spine, and hips are aligned, the head’s 10-lb weight helps counter the downward pull of gravity on your dense lower body.

As you’ll learn in a later chapter, keeping your head aligned and weightless while breathing is even more challenging, because the “survival” instinct to lift the head to breathe is primal.

Make these head-position skills your first “efficiency checkpoint” for the rest of your swimming life. Thirty years after I first focused on aligning my head and spine, I still re-check it regularly and often find room for improvement.

Focal Point #2: Reach below your body

Terry demos reaching below the body, fingertips-down (Photo credit: Robert Fagan/usiavideo)

Before extending your arm in freestyle, enter it cleanly (eliminate noise and splash) and earlier than you think you should. Then reach on a moderate (not steep) downward slope as you extend forward. Reach full extension with the hand below the body-line. Extending your arms at a slight downward angle helps lift your legs closer to the surface, reducing drag and freeing up leg muscles to help with propulsion (as opposed to kicking reflexively, to combat sinking).

Focal Point #3: Minimize your kick

Terry demos Balance w/relaxed legs– arm extension not pictured (Photo credit: Robert Fagan/usiavideo)

Recall that Tim Ferriss’s and Vik Malhotra’s [mentioned earlier in the book] instructors handed them kickboards to “strengthen their legs” in an utterly futile effort to improve their body position. The action of balancing the body does exactly the opposite: by making your legs lighter, being in balance allows you to significantly calm and relax your kick—as I discovered when doing Boomer’s balance drill.

Complement this by relaxing your legs as much as possible.  This will also help prepare you for the highly efficient 2-Beat Kick (2BK), which we explain in a later chapter.

Balanced Body, Focused Mind

The effects of balance practice on your mind and psyche are as profound as those on your body. Total Immersion’s balance learning sequence—in combination with structured use of balance-oriented Focal Points—has been designed to prepare you cognitively, as well as physically, for a successful learning experience.

A combination of targeted mental focus, with unhurried movements, and moderate heart and respiration rate, puts the brain into a state of relaxed alertness known as the Alpha brainwave pattern (8 to 12 cycles per second.) Cognitive scientists call this state “the super-learning zone.”

Learning, practicing, and feeling Balance creates a “virtuous loop.” You feel good physically and mentally while Swimming in Balance. That motivates you to do it more–which results in improvement to those positive feelings. Thus, you spend even more time Swimming in Balance.

Learn the skills of balance and the other elements of efficient freestyle with the Total Immersion Effortless Endurance Self Coaching Course.

The post Balance: The Essential Foundation of Efficient Swimming appeared first on Total Immersion.