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 article is excerpted from Terry Laughlin’s book “Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body: A Guide To Swimming Better Than You Ever Imagined.”

Unless you have all the air you need, you’ll be too distracted to concentrate on other skills during drill practice or whole stroke swimming. Being mindful of the following will be helpful as you rotate from nose-up to nose-down and back again:

• Don’t Hold Your Breath

Begin exhaling immediately. Exhaling with slow quiet nose bubbles is a good way to regulate your breathing and to avoid inhaling water or choking as you breathe. 

• Relax Into the Water

If you lift your head, it will be harder to get to air. If you keep your head low, it will be easier. And stay relaxed whenever you are rolling up to get air or back down. Moving abruptly in either direction will make your body position less stable.

Rhythmic Breathing

Three tips for fitting a seamless rhythmic breath into your stroke, while maintaining good balance and a patient catch:

• Follow Your Shoulder

As you spear one arm forward, the opposite shoulder moves back. Just follow this shoulder with your chin and the rotational energy of spearing will make it easier to get air.

• Stay Low

Practice this in three ways: (1) Relax into the water as you breathe; (2) Keep the top of your head as close to the surface as possible, while rolling to breathe; (3) Look back slightly over your shoulder as you breathe.

• Stay Tall

Give extra care to keeping the lead hand “patient” as you breathe, stroking only after you inhale. And if you keep your fingers tipped down, your next stroke will be far stronger.

Breathe Two Ways

Alternate-side or bilateral breathing promotes symmetry better than single side breathing. If you breathe only to one side, it’s likely that you’ll veer off the “tracks” in that direction. I try to breathe as often to one side in practice and when racing. Breathing to your unfamiliar side may feel awkward at first, but patient practice will gradually reduce that awkwardness. As well, all the T.I. drills improve symmetry and build a better foundation for efficient bilateral breathing. 

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 Get The Air You Need: A Focal Point Checklist for Breathing appeared first on Total Immersion.

The following post is adapted from a 2006 article written by Terry Laughlin.

Richard Quick, the six-time U.S. Olympic team coach who directed 12 teams to NCAA titles, once said while giving a butterfly stroke clinic: “Don’t hide your breathing mistakes by not breathing; fix them instead.” That’s good advice, not only for butterfly, but for freestyle as well.

About 30 years ago, “hypoxic training” came into vogue. The idea was that by restricting breathing frequency—breathing every five, seven or nine freestyle strokes—swimmers might simulate the effects of high-altitude training at sea level.

Researchers long ago debunked the idea that breath-holding produces any physiological adaptation, but “hypoxic” sets are still popular, in part to help swimmers adjust to the discomfort produced when you reduce breathing frequency.

One reason for making that adjustment is the very real concern that in a sprint race, breathing can slow a swimmer down. If each breath might cost you slightly in stroke efficiency, the less of them you take, the faster you might go.

Holding your breath—perhaps breathing only twice or less—in a 50-yard freestyle undoubtedly helps your speed, particularly because that race is short enough that your muscles mainly consume oxygen already in your bloodstream.

But when racing for, say, 45 seconds to over a minute, you need to get fresh oxygen to your muscles. Because of this, holding your breath could restrict your ability to finish such races strongly. The ideal would be to be able to breathe as often as you want, without sacrificing any speed.

The key to maximizing both air and speed is to breathe as seamlessly as possible. Let’s start with the mechanics of getting air into your lungs:

• Inhale through your mouth; exhale through your mouth 70 percent and nose 30 percent. Are these figures exact? No, just keep enough air pressure coming from your nose to keep the water out, especially as you roll to the surface and then return face-down.

• Never hold your breath—even if you’ll swim three to five strokes between breaths. To avoid an uncomfortable build-up of CO2, begin exhaling as soon as you finish inhaling—just exhale in a more steady, controlled way if you’ll take more strokes before your next breath. You’ll need to manage your release of air with slow bubbles to sustain you comfortably until your next inhale.

• As you roll to air, exhale the final 20 percent of air more forcefully than the first 80 percent. This should make the inhale which follows almost effortless by creating a vacuum in your lungs. It also helps clear the water away from your mouth for the next breath. Also, the force of your exhale should be proportionate to your effort. The next time you swim a descending set, experiment with consciously adding some force to your exhale as you go faster.

Breathe Efficiently

The second key to breathing with high frequency and high efficiency lies in how you roll to the side to take that breath. Poor breathing mechanics can increase drag and reduce the effectiveness of your stroke, during the breath. Here are several ways to remain efficient while breathing:

• Roll your whole body to the air. Rather than breathing with a head turn—which is awkward and can cause muscle tension—think of rolling your body to the air, as if you were going to breathe with your belly button. This will also help encourage core-body rotation, which is the source of your stroking power.

• Stay balanced as you roll to the air. Lifting your head as you breathe will cause your hips and legs to sink, increasing drag and slowing you down. Consciously keep the crown of your head and forehead pressed to the surface as you roll to breathe.

• Stay aligned as you roll to the air. Picture a line that runs from your toes, along your spine and out the top of your head as a laser beam. Keep that laser cutting straight ahead through the water as you breathe—or think of slicing through the water like an arrow through the air, at all times but especially while breathing.

• Stay tall as you roll to the air. Many swimmers lose the front end of their stroke on each breath. During each breath, focus on keeping the opposite hand stretched forward—with fingertips angled down to hold an “armful of water”—for just a moment longer during the breath. This timing will help connect that armstroke to the powerful rotation of your body in the other direction following the breath.

• Drive the top hip down. After breathing, focus on driving that hip (i.e. the right hip after a right side breath and vice versa) down strongly. That will help you get all the power out of the extra rotation that occurs when you roll to breathe. If you do all of the above right, you can make each breath an asset to your stroke, not an interruption.

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 Freestyle Breathing 101: Master the Mechanics 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.

Mark Fromberg coaching an open water swim clinic at Okanagan Lake, Jun. 2012

Guest blogger and T.I. Swimmer Dr. Mark Fromberg lives in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia and first learned to swim in 2004 at the age of 49, through practicing exercises in the learn-to-swim sequence in Total Immersion’s “Happy Laps” video. Since then, he has swum in many long-distance open water events and raced in triathlons, including some world championship events. Most notably, Mark has become the longest term director of Kelowna’s “Across The Lake Swim,” Canada’s largest open water swim event, and recognized in 2015 as one of the “World’s Top 100 Open Water Swims” by openwaterpedia.com. As a retired physician, he has also provided medical support for dozens of triathlons, including the Kona Ironman World Championships. From October to May, he swims with his local triathlon club twice a week and enjoys trying to keep up with club members half his age. From May to September, he swims in the Okanagan Lake 2-3 times a week, mostly for fitness and relaxation, and often accompanies novice swimmers who need to build their open water swim confidence. He’s recently started to kiteboard and hopes to get good enough to travel to some fantastic kiteboarding meccas—in addition, he also plans to pursue scuba diving certification, something he could never have considered when he was younger!

Mark pausing during a swim at at Gellatly Bay, Okanagan Lake, Sept. 2016

I just read the T.I. blog posted today regarding the common theme of how swimming changes people’s lives, so I thought I would respond to share the story of how swimming changed my life. For me, it was one of Terry Laughlin’s older T.I. DVDs—“Happy Laps”—that changed everything for me. In early September of 2004, I was playing an extended game of squash with a younger and fitter opponent, when I had an awkward twisting injury to my back as I lunged into a corner to try to return a ball. Fatigued and dehydrated by that point, I had to stop due to the acute spasms and my sudden inability to even walk normally, or get into and out of my car. For 3 weeks I couldn’t do anything physical at all—even walking, sitting, and rolling over in bed caused sharp back spasms. After just a week of this, with no ability to exercise, I was going into some kind of exercise withdrawal—I had to do something. So, even though I didn’t swim, I thought I would find some rehab value in just walking chest deep in a pool, since I used to work in a rehab center where this was a common strategy. I discovered I could walk easily in the pool and both floating and doing basic breast strokes were pain-free, as well. So learning to swim became my salvation to recovering from my back injury.

But even before I had started lessons, I found myself asking what it was about me that kept me a non-swimmer all this time. I recalled having a couple of YMCA-sponsored free swimming lessons when I was 7 or 8 years old, in a public, unheated outdoor pool in Vancouver, in a group situation that really didn’t allow for much individual coaching.  Needless to say, I didn’t get far, and only remember how afraid I was of being asked to go into the deep end. The one time I was asked to tread water there for just a minute, I was all but exhausted as a result of how frantically I was moving, afraid I would sink to the bottom if I didn’t. Although nothing bad happened, I never learned to relax in the water and, as a skinny kid, I never enjoyed the coldness of the water either. And deep water? Not me! When I decided to learn to swim as an adult, I remember thinking how embarrassed I often felt about my non-ability to swim, and since my own kids were both in early adolescence then, about to start their Bronze Cross training to become pool lifeguards, I wondered how it was possible that they could be such naturals in the water, while I was not. Since I have always prided myself on being able to learn anything I put my mind to, I decided to take on this challenge to learn to swim: for rehab for my back pain, to end my chronic embarrassment, and to not be the “weak link” of the family in the water.

  [Click HERE to check out this video Mark used to learn to swim– click HERE to download the free user’s manual]

So before I showed up for the first day of lessons at the local community center, I resolved to find some kind of easy-to-understand study guide for beginners like me. That is how I came across Total Immersion’s learn-to-swim DVD called “Happy Laps”—I actually no longer have it because I lent it out to other beginners a few times too many and lost track of it years ago! However, what I still remember in the video was a sequence with a middle-aged, non-athletic-looking African-American woman who followed a very simple and logical progression over what appeared to be only a single session in the pool, and then she was swimming by the end. Seeing that was very inspiring for me– despite my 49 years of age at the time, and despite my successes in health and fitness in a variety of milieus, I was still completely stumped by swimming. It was a sport that I just had not been able to master, or even feel comfortable with, for no explicable reason I could discern. I thought I was smart enough, fit enough, competent enough, and still young enough to learn something that kids could do, and yet… something was missing.

Mark enjoying a midsummer swim in Okanagan Lake, Jul. 2016

When I watched the practice sequence in the “Happy Laps” video over and over again, I recall saying to myself, with each progressive drill, “I can do that”… “I can do that”… “I can do that…” and “I can do that”… all the way to the end of the sequence. When I signed up for some local learn-to-swim lessons at the community center, armed with what I had learned from Terry’s instructional video, I became a swimmer very quickly! I went from maxing out after a gasping, frantic, anxiety-provoking 25 meters to 400 meters of calm stroking just a half hour later.  I was a swimmer!!  Something I could never have said for the previous 5 decades of my life. I did my first sustained, relaxed swim around my 49th birthday, but in the year following, by joining the local masters swim club, I really learned the finer details of swim strokes to the point that I could do a triathlon just a few months shy of my 50th birthday.

Thinking back to my university years in an undergraduate kinesiology program, there were a couple of occasions where I did ask swimmer-classmates to teach me how to swim. And although they were happy to oblige, they would focus just on the arm strokes, without any discussion of how to integrate breathing—so my frustrations continued back then. I find that adult swimmers who learned to swim as kids do not recall what they learned way back when— for example, forcefully and completely exhaling in the water eventually feels natural as a kid, but it sure doesn’t for an adult swimmer. Thanks to the exercise hiatus that was forced upon me when I strained my back, I finally wanted to get to the bottom of what I was not understanding about swimming, so I decided to read about it, and then watch instructional videos about it, both courtesy of Terry’s T.I. teachings.

I must say that, for me anyway, successfully learning how to swim has first and foremost been a conceptual exercise, much of which can be done as a thought exercise without being anywhere near water. In fact, in recent years, I have conceptually “taught” swimming to people who were interested in learning, even while chatting with them socially—by simply telling them the sequence that appeared in “Happy Laps,” combined with what wound up being a similar process in my community pool lessons. I would ask them, “Do you think you could blow bubbles into water, for 5 minutes, while standing in chest deep water and holding on to the edge of a pool? Where the only rule is, every exhalation has to be in water?”  Then I’d ask, “Okay, if you can do that, can you do the same, but not hanging on to the edge of the pool?”  “Can you do it while walking in the shallow end of the pool?” “Can you do it while floating on your side/back with flippers on for easy propulsion, with one arm extended, in the shallow end of the pool?”  And so on.  Most beginners, like I did when I saw the video, would embrace the baby steps of progression, responding “Yes, I can do that.” Prior to even getting in the pool, I had watched the steps on the DVD again and again, and then, while in the pool, the consistent instruction made it easier to believe in it as the right way of doing it—so I progressed very quickly.

  Mark savoring the open water near Tulum, Mexico, Jan. 2016

A major epiphany I had when first learning to swim was realizing that my breathing rate and pattern would dictate my arm stroke frequency, and not the other way around—a simple lesson that took 4 decades to understand! Once again, learning to swim was actually conceptual for me, much more so than physical, although I did need to get comfortable with being more forceful in breath exhalation when my face was in the water than when it was in the air. In my experience, once you shore up and believe in a principle that makes sense, it is easy to progress, even rapidly. My first “aha!” moments were:

• that breathing control is of paramount importance—these days, I teach that it is the only thing that matters—if you do not have breath control, you can’t swim

• that breath control can be quickly lost if you are not fully committed to full and complete, forceful exhalations (lest you build up CO2, which quickly gets you short of breath)

• that breath control can be quickly lost with the shock of cold water, so ease into it, and do some easy strokes to get used to the cold and establish your breathing

• that swimming is probably the only sport where breathing matters—a lot—and cannot be taken for granted

• to manage a sustained (especially open water) swim, you must stay relaxed, so that your breathing stays under control

Learn about breathing in our video “O2 in H2O: A Self-Help Course on Breathing in Swimming” 

After learning to swim, I went on to tackle things that I had previously thought would be impossible for me–swimming in distance open water swim events (I have swum across Okanagan Lake in B.C. about 20 times, and I swim along its shores for exercise every summer), and racing in triathlons, including some world championship events. Learning to swim, and feel comfortable swimming in open water has been one of the most liberating experiences I have ever had—swimming was once a challenge that for so long seemed insurmountable, and now it is a part of my life, a great exercise, and a great reminder of what you can attain if you believe you can succeed.

Mark at the finish of Beijing ITU Aquathon World Championships, Sept. 2011

When I swim in the lake now, even when I am with others, I am really swimming by myself—I feel embraced by the water, one with the water. I do not feel it is my enemy, or that it is out to get me; instead, I feel for what it wants to show me, what it is doing that day, whether with waves, swells, or currents. I give myself to it freely, since I have confidence in my abilities now that I never had before. Just like the Japanese concept of “shinrin-yoku,” [which means “forest-bathing” — see link here: http://www.shinrin-yoku.org/] I think swimming in open water has a remarkably meditative quality, allowing you to connect with the primordial soup from which we all evolved. Just like the intangible, calming experience of communing with nature within a forest canopy, regular open water swimming has a profound effect on people that is hard to describe in words. But I am sure every one of the T.I. instructors, and certainly Terry himself, would have been intimately acquainted with this experience.

Since my transcendent experience 15 years ago, I have become deeply involved in nurturing Kelowna’s “Across the Lake Swim,” becoming its longest term director, while growing it from about 250 swimmers, to now over 1200 per year–and becoming Canada’s largest open water swim in the process.  Because of the many unique attributes we have incorporated into the event, most especially our obsession with safety, a de-emphasis on racing (we call it an event, not a race), a 6 week training period in open water, unparalleled swag, and an inclusive, supportive environment, we were recognized in 2015 as one of the “World’s Top 100 Open Water Swims” by openwaterpedia.com. In addition, all of our proceeds go toward supporting swimming lessons for kids in our area.  Last year, we sent 3000 3rd and 4th grade kids in our region for a series of lessons, as our way of both: 1) drown-proofing a generation of kids in our community– Okanagan Lake, being a tourist town, is the most-drowned-in lake in British Columbia; and 2) exposing everyone here to the gift of swimming from a young age, a sport and experience they can enjoy for life. We consider swimming as a life skill. As a primary care physician, I frequently counseled older people to consider swimming as a great exercise for those with chronic health problems, but I was always dismayed when I would hear the retort similar to, “I could never do that.  I am petrified of water.” So we want to change that too.

In fact, in June 2015, the Doctors of British Columbia’s Council on Health Promotion advised us that our Across The Lake Swim Society was selected as the 2015 recipient of the Doctors of British Columbia’s Excellence in Health Promotion Award – Nonprofit category. They stated that, “We felt your program is of great importance to youth growing up in the Central Okanagan, and ensures prevention of needless fatalities in your region. This program also empowers children to live healthier lifestyles and experience the benefits of regular activity that will hopefully continue into their adult life. We consider you a very deserving recipient of the award and would be honoured to present it to you at the Doctors of B.C. Awards ceremony and banquet…”

Mark directing the start line of Kelowna’s “Across The Lake Swim” in 2016

I especially enjoy the teaching aspect of open water swimming to the many adults that, like me, need to get over a mental hump to become a competent swimmer, and they use our event as the “bucket list” item to prove that they can do it. Last year, I even wrote a book on how to become less anxious and more confident when swimming in open water, and stated several times throughout it how learning to swim in open water will change your life [link to book in blogger bio below]. Since I am a recently retired physician, I have also taken a medical interest in swimming, and especially open water swimming. I have provided medical support for dozens of triathlons, including the Kona Ironman World Championships, Ironman Canada for three years, and Kelowna Apple Triathlon Canadian National Championships. In that time, I became aware of the unsettling trend of triathletes dying in the swim portion of their event, well before fatigue or dehydration would normally be expected to occur. I personally reviewed virtually every one of these cases in the hope to gain a better understanding of these deaths, so we could take the necessary steps to reduce risk at our open water event. I eventually wrote about this in another book as well, to reassure aspiring open water swimmers that most risks are preventable [link to book link in blogger bio below].

Here are some further insights I’ve had in more recent years:

1) Recognizing just how many adults have never learned this life skill of swimming because they never understood the breathing aspects that I think are pivotal. I always get excited hearing of someone who has reached the same barrier that I did 15 years ago, since I know how to fix them!

2) Discovering just how liberating learning to swim is—I am more willing to take on learning challenges, I enjoy the water like never before, and I find extended open water swims pure meditation, which is a stress-releaser I never knew existed previous to learning to swim.

3) I have come to realize how important it is for all of our communities to get committed to getting every child to learn how to swim—an inexpensive exercise for a lifetime, a drowning prevention strategy, and a confidence and self-esteem builder.  Unfortunately, fears get hardened with age, yet deep down, most people who have had a history of bad swimming experiences or fear really know that they could learn swimming if they really wanted to. The mental game of swimming is the most important aspect of successful learning.

Anyone can learn to swim, whether young, old, weak, strong, big, small– even paraplegics and amputees.  Like most skills, it is easier to learn as a kid, before you develop multiple fears or overthink it. To learn swimming as an adult, you have to accept some seemingly paradoxical messages—like learning to forcefully exhale into water, like prioritizing breath control over stroking your arms, like staying relaxed while doing something physical. And you have to have the courage to face your fears, and revisit them as just a mental barrier to overcome. Do not compare your swim progress to someone else’s—we all learn at our own rate. If you really want to learn to swim, you can, especially if you are doing it in a reliably safe environment.

Given the interest I have developed in promoting open water swimming, it should be pretty obvious that learning to swim, and particularly, learning to swim in open water, has changed my life.  I have thrived on my swim event volunteering, open water swim coaching, and have become an impassioned author and website designer as well. I am now starting to write my third book– it will be a race director’s guide to running a successful open water swim event, a treatise to inspire more people to take the plunge. And I have recently organized the first swim-run event in British Columbia (kelownaswimrun.com).

For me, learning to swim was certainly about proving to myself what I could finally do, but now it has really become more about “sharing the wealth” afforded by swimming– the riches of self-discovery, self-efficacy and personal growth, and the joy that fulfills you once you learn how to swim competently.  After a long career of helping people mostly return to their normal state of health, I find tremendous satisfaction mentoring people to become something more than they ever were, helping non-swimming adults (like I was) overcome what is often a large hurdle (and vulnerability) in their lives—doing so within the context of our bucket-list signature open water swim event. Despite Terry Laughlin’s many amazing personal swimming accomplishments, I really think Terry’s greatest contribution to the swimming world was his loving embrace of this sport, and one that he shared in earnest every way he could, helping all of us T.I. followers to become swimmers. For me, he deconstructed my most daunting hurdle into simple components, and led me to a promised land I never thought I could reach. And I am certain he and Total Immersion have done this for many thousands of others.

 Mark finishing a summer swim in Okanagan Lake, Jul. 2016

Guest Blogger and T.I. Swimmer Mark Fromberg is a recently retired physician from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia who only learned how to swim at age 49, primarily with the help of one of Total Immersion’s dvds:  the learn-to-swim “Happy Laps” video.  Since then, Mark has been making up for lost time, having completed innumerable open water swim events and almost 50 triathlons, and has become deeply involved in providing race support for a variety of triathlons and swim events, most notably Canada’s largest and longest running open water swim event, Kelowna’s Across The Lake Swim. This event is now on the “World’s Top 100 Open Water Swim” events, due to its commitment to safety, its great swag, its unique pre-event training program, its financial support of swimming lessons of every grade 3 and 4 child in the community, and its remarkable growth in the last decade, now over 1000 participants per year. In 2018, Dr. Fromberg published two books on open water swimming (linked here): one to help get over open water anxiety and develop confidence, and the other to better understand some important physiological principles that can affect open water swimmers. Mark’s wife is also an open water swimmer and former lifeguard, and they have two grown children in their late twenties, one of whom worked as a lifeguard for many years at their local YMCA.

Do YOU have a personal Total Immersion success story that you’d like to share with us? We LOVE hearing about the positive impact– both in and out of the water– that learning to swim with T.I. has had on those of you who have experienced transformation using our approach. If you’d like to send us your success story, please email blog editor Carrie Loveland at carrie@totalimmersion.net — we look forward to reading your stories!

The post Guest Blog: This T.I. Swimmer Learned to Swim at 49– Now He Directs One of The “World’s Top 100 Open Water Swims” appeared first on Total Immersion.

In a blog post last month, we released the first excerpt– on “Deliberate Practice”– from the unpublished draft of Terry’s final book (which is 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 “seamless breathing.” This article is adapted from a section of the book entitled, “Stroke School: Effortless Endurance Freestyle in 8 Lessons,” which Terry worked on last summer. In the opening of this piece, Terry first discusses the unique breathing challenges inherent in swimming; then he offers a detailed tactical approach to developing a smooth, rhythmic breath in freestyle.

             (Terry demonstrating a seamless rhythmic breath while swimming freestyle)

Breathing in freestyle is the most complex and challenging skill in all of swimming. Breathing—regardless of the stroke—is much more than a skill. Breathing has panic-inducing potential for many beginners and is the main reason why fewer than 30% of American adults can swim 25 meters. Even after dozens of traditional lessons, Tim Ferriss and Vik Malhotra [TI students referenced earlier in the book] could swim no further than 15 meters, because they could not get the air needed to swim farther.

But significant breathing errors in freestyle persist even among elite swimmers. In 1997, I analyzed stroke videos for the US National Team at training camp prior to the World Championships. While reviewing underwater video with one swimmer, I pointed out that her lead hand scooped upward on each freestyle breath. This put her out of balance for an instant—something none of her coaches had caught or corrected in all her years of advanced training. In that instant, she increased her kick to compensate for the momentary loss of body position. It also put her hand in a less effective position for trapping water.

How is it possible that some of the world’s fastest swimmers still display such a fundamental weakness in their stroke? Very likely, they developed poor habits as young and unskilled swimmers—lifting the head because of poor balance. And because they were probably faster than peers at every stage, their coaches overlooked errors that only become apparent when studying underwater video, one frame at a time.

Small improvements in breathing technique can add up quickly– and it’s likely your improvement opportunities are much greater than those of champion swimmers. By learning the techniques described below, you can maintain a sleeker bodyline while you breathe.

Two Universal Breathing Challenges

 1.) Breathing has Panic Potential

Running is often referred to as primal—something for which evolution has prepared us well. The only thing primal about swimming is a healthy respect for water’s perils– a respect that rises to the level of phobia, or even panic, in some.

Those perils—choking and sinking—are mutually reinforcing. Fear of choking causes us to lift or lunge as we breathe . . . which makes us more vulnerable to sinking . . . and thus more likely to choke. No wonder beginners have such a hard time of it.

 The very first Focal Point in the TI learning sequence instructs you to release your head to feel the water’s support. This improves balance. It also helps quiet “lift-and-lunge” breathing instincts.

2.) Breathing is a Skill

The primary reason that people who hardly break a sweat while running a 10K can become exhausted in as little as 25 meters of swimming is the difference in the seemingly simple act of getting air. On land, air is there for the taking. But while swimming—particularly in freestyle—it’s an exacting skill.

To get a breath, we must move the head (nearly 10% of body mass) to the air. The moment we start lifting and turning the head toward the air, every other skill we’ve worked hard to learn breaks down. Drag increases and arms and legs get diverted from propulsion into “sinking-avoidance.”

In experienced swimmers, this moment of breathing passes in a fraction of a second—but is repeated 30 times a minute.  In a newer swimmer, such as an aspiring triathlete, it is often the main barrier to progressing from short repeats to a continuous—and easy—mile. Solving these problems will allow you to swim almost any distance with the ease of “conversational” running.

Here’s the good news: As with the other essential skills of efficient swimming, a series of proven steps will teach you the skill of seamless breathing. These mini-skills fall into two categories—how to exchange fresh for stale air, and how to keep stroking efficiently as you do.

Mini-Skill #1 Get Fresh Air In

It may surprise you that simply getting air into and out of your lungs is a skill. But, in the water, we encounter two unique complications:

• You face resistance from water pressure while exhaling.
• You exhale for much longer than you inhale—a bit like a singer holding a note, then taking a “bite” of air between phrases.

Improve your air exchange with 4 Focal Points:

1. Push air out. Exhaling should be an intentional and energetic action. When you emphasize the exhale, the resulting inhale happens as air rushes to ‘fill a vacuum’ in your lungs.
2. Keep it moving. Never hold your breath or interrupt your air exchange—not even for a nanosecond. Breath-holding causes tension . . . and does nothing for buoyancy. Begin exhaling as soon as you finish inhaling.
3. Finish strong. Exhale forcefully as your mouth reaches the surface—as if trying to blow the water away from your mouth.
4. Get just enough. There’s no need to completely fill–nor empty–your lungs. Get “just enough” air. Inhaling and exhaling in swimming should feel much the same as singing.

Mini-Skill #2 Maintain Stroke Efficiency

Having spent countless hours “shaping your vessel,” learning to hold your place as you stroke, and connecting your kick to body rotation, you’ve now come to a challenge with the potential to undermine everything you’ve done thus far to improve stroke efficiency.

Rhythmic breathing in freestyle is the most exacting of all skills because:

• You must fit the breath into an alternating-arm rhythm; and
• Nearly 10% of your body mass (your head) is moving to the side, while the rest of you is moving forward.

Cut these challenges down to size by imprinting 3 habits:

1. Breathe with head and spine aligned: Don’t lift your head.
2. Breathe with body roll: Don’t turn your head.
3. Maintain the shape of your vessel. Keep bodyline long and balanced—and lead arm positioned to hold the water—as you breathe.

Focal Point #1: Keep Head Aligned.

Progress patiently through three ways of thinking about, and experiencing, a weightless, aligned head:

1. Weightless Does your head feel as weightless during the breath as it does on non-breathing strokes?
2. Cushioned: Do you feel the water ‘cushion’ the side of your head as you breathe—just as it cushions your face before breathing?
3. One-Goggle: As an exercise, try to breathe with only one goggle above the surface.

Focal Point #2: Follow Your Shoulder.

Your pull and kick are most efficient when they’re part of a whole-body action. This is true for breathing as well. Never move your head on its own. Always fit breathing seamlessly with the action of the body. Here’s how to do this when breathing to the left:

As your right hand enters the Mail Slot, your left shoulder rotates up and back. To breathe, simply let your chin follow your shoulder. This integrates the breath with body movement and minimizes the chance of your head moving by itself.

Focal Point #3 Stay Tall

Staying with the example of taking a left-side breath:

• Continue extending your right hand as you rotate (follow your shoulder) to air.
• Keep that arm extended—below your body with palm back—for as much of the inhale as possible.
• Start the right-hand stroke only as your head begins to return to neutral.

Both Sides Now

In August 1972, in the first 10 minutes of the first workout I ever coached, I noticed that every swimmer on the team I’d just begun coaching had asymmetrical strokes. Those who breathed to the left torqued noticeably in that direction; right-side breathers did the same to the other side.

While I had no formal knowledge of stroke mechanics at the time, instinct told me that these excessive sideways motions probably hurt efficiency. When I instructed the team to breathe to the “wrong” side the next day, their lack of symmetry disappeared. Before long, I made it a standard requirement for the swimmers I coached to breathe bilaterally during practice.

Earlier, I wrote that a primary reason breathing in freestyle is such a frequent occasion for stroke errors is the difficulty of keeping the body aligned, stable, and traveling forward when 8% of body mass (the head) repeatedly moves to the side. When we move the head only to one side, it’s inevitable that, over time, the body accommodates these uneven forces in various ways—none of which promote efficiency.

Though I required my swimmers to breathe bilaterally as early as the 1970s, when I got serious about improving my own efficiency in the early 1990s, I was still a unilateral breather—breathing almost exclusively to the left, as I’d done since 1964.

One day in March 1992, I decided to breathe to the right for an entire 800-meter swim. I was swimming in Los Banos del Mar, a 50-meter pool in Santa Barbara. For some time, I’d made it a habit to count my strokes. It really got my attention that my stroke count improved from 41 SPL (strokes per length) breathing to my habitual left side to 39 breathing to my unfamiliar right side. Though breathing to the right felt awkward, that measurable improvement in efficiency motivated me to continue. For several months, I breathed more to the right than to the left, which helped me adapt more quickly. I’ve been a bilateral breather ever since.

If you’ve always breathed to one side, it will feel awkward for a time. There will be a learning curve. But if you apply the series of Focal Points above to breathing on your weak side as well, you’ll soon feel much more comfortable.

Don’t be surprised if eventually your awkward side feels smoother and more comfortable than your natural side. That’s been true for me for 10 years.  And because of insights and awareness gained from my more-efficient right side, my natural left side is strikingly more efficient today than it was when I only breathed one way.

Your primary goal is to make your left and right sides identical in every regard. I guarantee that the effort to do so will make you a far more efficient swimmer.

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

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