Very insightful article. Always a pleasure to read your intellectual blogs. It’s quite obvious your coaching experience and knowledge are reflective in this article.

From an adult swimmer’s perspective, I have had some negative experiences with several TRI/conventional swim coaches when it comes to Total Immersion. As a student swimmer, I try to have an open mind and want to learn as much as I can about the sport, but it makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to learn under this type of tutelage. Because of this tunnel- vision mentality, some coaches will advise you that you are swimming the wrong way and then try to completely confuse you by having you swim their way.

One example I experienced this past week was during a TRI swim class at the Y. I wasn’t enrolled in the class and was practicing in my own lane, observing the class and the coach teaching the class. She had one adult student swimmer who could barely swim and was really struggling to keep up with fast/power-driven clinic. The student was cast aside and put in another lane and told to swim on his own. I felt badly for the swimmer and I could picture him in open water trying to survive in the chaos (not pretty!). I quietly took him aside and showed him some balance and streamline drills. The TRI coach didn’t appreciate this and sent one of her assistants over to work with the gent and informed him to totally ignore what I just showed him. I know there are a lot of great coaches out there and a lot of bad ones, as in any craft, but I think to really be good at something you need to learn to adapt, be flexible, and open-minded to new ideas and changes.