Sad news - RIP Terry

[aydonald]

I just learned this sad news. My condolences to his family, to his colleagues, to the TI community. What a superb teacher and coach and what a lovely person.

[tomoy]

Another nice article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/o...on-method.html

[Streak]

Nice. Thanks tomoy.
I braved the much cooler water temps Friday, I was one of 2 of a field of 13 not wearing a wet suit. We swam a mile in the Ocean N of San Diego. I dedicated every stroke of the swim to Terry and all the fine folks here who played such a big role in taking me from what looked drowning when I swam to where I am now.

[s.sciame]

Here's another story I liked much reading:

http://www.seahiker.com/a-tribute-to...7fe0-338770521

Really missed,
Salvo

[CoachStuartMcDougal]

Originally Posted by s.sciame

Here's another story I liked much reading:

http://www.seahiker.com/a-tribute-to...7fe0-338770521

Really missed,
Salvo

Thanks Salvo for sharing Sea Hiker's "Tribute to Terry" - very touching piece. I had a very similar experience at coach training as Sea Hiker, both Terry and Shinji were coaching. A transformative week, one of the best weeks of my life. Terry not only develops the swimmer and coach, but the person too. He removed filters and perceptions that prevented us from becoming our best, gave us permission to view swimming and life through a much, much larger lens and invited the water and its happiness into our very soul. As Sea Hiker notes, those that felt threatened of Terry's philosophy, principles and methods - really refused to look through the larger lens of life thinking that it might somehow diminish prior accomplishments - our human and coaching insecurities.

Here's an awesome podcast from Tim Ferris who interviewed Terry in early October. It's a little over two hours but a treat and well worth your time. The last 15 mins or so are Terry's last words and thoughts while he was in the hospital - always the thoughtful, deep thinking, experimenting, solving optimist. Select this link: https://tim.blog/2017/10/29/terry-laughlin/

66 years seems just way to young, but Terry *lived* every minute in his life. Terry touched, influenced, taught, changed, improved tens of thousands swimmers and coaches around the globe, changed the sport in such a positive and lasting way from such humble beginnings. What he accomplished in his life is far more than most of us could do in two, maybe three or more lifetimes - really incredible. Terry will be sorely missed, but his legacy will live on and continue to improve in all of us. Kaizen!

I believe TI Central will post a tribute to Terry in TI blogs soon where we will be able to share our thoughts and condolences - keep an eye out for it.

Happy laps - always

Stu

[Tom Pamperin]

Very sad--I've been off the forum for some months and returned to find this unwelcome news.

I feel very privileged to have had Terry for a teacher--the best teacher I've ever had, though I never met him in person.

I'm off to the pool to swim, and to be grateful for the gift of mindful appreciation I've learned from him. A sad day. My condolences to his friends and family.

So sad😢, I read through his two books and DVD in 2011. RIP Terry.

[dougalt]

I was told that today was to be a Celebration of Terry's life, so....

LET’S CELEBRATE: Never being bored during a swim session.

LET’S CELEBRATE HOW, by becoming Totally Immersed in the thought processes of swimming, one is able to experience the often vaunted, but seldom achieved, “In the Zone” experience.

LET’S CELEBRATE: Sharing a Cerebral Environment, as fostered by Terry, where Questioning, Examining and Looking for Root Causes are the “Modus Operandi.”

LET’S CELEBRATE: Deriving Values from swimming in addition to, or instead of, just the numbers on a stop watch.

LET’S CELEBRATE: The Values Derived from TI swimming that benefit other areas of life.

In this vein, I Personally Celebrate: how the calming effect of the TI approach to swimming, with its Zen-like focus, has had a large positive effect on my singing, which I do for a living. Applying the concepts of Relaxation, Total Focus and the “Cocoon of Calm” has enabled me to improve my vocal technique to the extent that audiences have actually questioned me after performances to find out what I had done to improve. I posted a piece about this on the TI Forum, which Terry subsequently circulated more widely.

I Personally Celebrate: how the “Cocoon of Calm” approach enabled me to handle some tricky, dangerous situations in the ocean, which, prior to TI, would have induced high levels of panic.

My Wife Celebrates: that the calming effect of a swim session lingers with me for several hours into my other daily activities, countering my usual over-the-top, Type A personality style, to the extent that she now cheers most times when I head for the water, knowing that a much mellower husband will be returning to the house in a few hours.

I Celebrate How, learning to caress the water, instead of bashing through it, carried over to improve my Piano Playing (which I also do professionally.)
After six decades of attempting to master difficult piano pieces by beating them into submission, with all the power and intensity I could muster, I finally learned, by applying the “Less Is More” concept, to explore the subtleties of musical passages, and I found that I could back off from the muscular violence, and take the time and mindfulness to explore, and enjoy, the feel of each individual key stroke, thus enabling a completely new level of artistic, sensuous, more musical piano performance.

LET’S ALL CELEBRATE: the TI Forum, where we can meet and exchange ideas with others who are pursuing the Holy Grail of the Perfect Stroke, and, where I, for one, was able to interact memorably with Terry on an occasion when we took delight in picking apart a “scientific study” which was being ballyhooed by certain proponents of other swimming philosophies. The “study” in question purported to demonstrate that swimming with a low stroke rate, á la Total Immersion, consumes more energy than swimming at high stroke rates!

LET’S CELEBRATE: the people around Terry who helped get the TI message out - the book editors, the video technicians, and, in particular, the web-savvy folks who helped get those TI ads inserted in so many places around the internet... the ads that, without which, many of us might have sailed (or swum) right past the S.S. Laughlin, in the dark of night, never having become aware of the world of pleasure and fulfillment that can be derived from mindful swimming.

LET’S CELEBRATE: Terry Laughlin, and the great positive impact he continues to have on a very large number of people.

LET’S CELEBRATE: Terry Laughlin - a rare human being, indeed!

[Danny]

dougalt, thanks for posting your celebration. I like what you said and it reflects many of my feelings about the contributions Terry made to my life. You might want to think about getting a copy of it to Terry's family.

Such profound words by dougalt, I think all of us can share all that he had to say (or have written actually). Thank you so much for expressing what we may not have expressed yet regarding Terry and his life. Terry lives on in our every stroke, and perhaps in how we even approach life and learning.