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2004-04-16 12:29 AM


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Subject: A swimming question for Total Immersion folks.
I bought and read Total Immersion a few months ago, loved it, and immediately started doing the drills. I am very happy with the results. I feel more comfortable in the water, have gotten faster, and am swimming farther than ever.

At this point in the evolution of my new stroke I've developed a question and I am hoping that some of you could help me out. I went swimming with a friend who is a very good swimmer. He was a part of his high school swim team and has continued to swim these ten years since high school. I asked him to check out my stroke and he said that he thought I was rotating too much; that my body role was too exaggurated.

Here's the question. How do you find the right amount of body role? How do you balance the feeling you get during the drills when you are encouraged to "point your belly button toward the wall", and the feeling that you should have when you are performing your stroke? How much body role should you actually be executing?

Thanks for the help!

P.S. I know you guys love to hear about mile stones, so I'll share a small victory with you. In December I could only swim the crawl for 50 consecutive meeters. My workouts consisted of 10 50's. Two weeks ago I swam 2000 meters (a 400 warm-up, and a 1600 meter swim).


2004-04-16 9:42 AM
in reply to: #18771

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Subject: RE: A swimming question for Total Immersion folks.
Take this for what it's worth, because I have been swimming for less time than you... My understanding from reading Triathlon Swimming Made Easy and watching the DVD is that you want to get your body vertical during each glide - should be the same position that you hit in underskate. He also talks a lot about driving each hip all the way down, so that would lead me to believe that vertical is the target. Finally, remember that he says that fish move faster through the water in part because their bodies are vertical... So your question to your friend should be, "how far am I rolling?"
2004-04-16 10:07 AM
in reply to: #18771

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Subject: RE: A swimming question for Total Immersion folks.
I think your fine. I was on the swim team in high school and we never rolled our bodies. It just never came up. When I asked my old coach what he thought about some of these new drills and techniques he didn't care for them. If your concerned about your stroke technique hire a swim coach for an hour to evaluate your stroke. I did and he showed me how to do a few things differently that I learned on the swim team and I feel more comfortable now. It only cost me $60.00 bucks and it was well worth it.

Mike
2004-04-17 6:58 PM
in reply to: #18771


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Subject: RE: A swimming question for Total Immersion folks.
Thanks for the advice. I was thinking that verticle was the goal. If I go to a coach for a session should I make sure it's one that likes the TI drills?
2004-04-18 4:13 PM
in reply to: #18771

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Subject: RE: A swimming question for Total Immersion folks.
I took a TI class recently, and, from what I recall, here's the direction the class received from the instructors: They taught that the hip rotation was critical to power, and used a corksrcew spiralling through the water as an image. At the same time, they also admitted that getting the shoulders totally vertical while actually swimming (as opposed to drilling) was difficult and would slow the stroke too much.

My caveat: Swimming is by far my weakest link, so I speak here only by rote. I'm still in the process of re-learning swimming as a whole after taking the class, and my progress is not pretty. I hope I have it right.
2004-04-18 5:28 PM
in reply to: #18771

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Northern IL
Subject: RE: A swimming question for Total Immersion folks.
The coach I found was familiar with the TI system so it was pretty easy for us. I found her at www.usatriathlon.org They have an area where they list coaches and their years of experience. I corresponded with a few coaches before choosing the one I did.

Mike


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