Anyone read Swim Speed Secrets by Sheila Taormina?

I read it and posted a review on Amazon and have one in the can for publication on my full time writing gig.

In short, I liked it because it was a book of "layers". It has quick fix insights to improve your next swim- start at page 45.

Then, as you delve into it you'll find additional resources like her discussion on page 13 of how to get faster in the water.

It's a book I think you'll find valuable not only as a quick-fix tool but also as a deeper resource. It can serve as a reference as well.

I like it and I have been a fan (and friend) of Sheila for years. She is the consummate "student/coach/athlete"; a person who understands how to learn and teach a sport. You see that ability in this book.

I'll suggest it is not only worthwhile, but the leading title in the category.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=436808&start=1

and

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=448097&start=1

I'm a very very big fan of this book.   I think she tells it like it is, but there are some knocks on the total immersion approach in there that have caused some debates.

Wow, I respect that review for sure. I"m already half way through in one day. I think it will help me greatly. thanks for taking time to review.

Just got it off Amazon.  The gist of the book is:

1. It's the exact opposite of the Total Immersion approach (all about pull, trivializes position).

2. High elbow pull.

3. High elbow pull.

4. Keep up your stroke rate, don't glide.

5. High elbow pull.

I've read it almost 2/3 through now and I don't think it and TI are mutually exclusive, She's just saying that there were other techniques in history with fast swimmers and the ONE thing they ALL had in common was good pull regardless of wide ranges of body position.  In other words, TI type body position is not the be all end all to swimming with speed,power, and distance.

So, the moment of truth in swim stroke is below surface and is the catch/pull action. Most good swimmers do this alike she says.

I definitely think she's taking shots at TI.  She basically says forget about body position (in her words any beach goer floating in the ocean has a position as good as Olympic swimmers).  TI is all about position.  She rails against having any glide, and trying to reduce stroke count (TI is all about getting stoke count down).  The digs are frequent and not subtle.  She doen't call out TI by name, but says triathletes focus on the wrong things (i.e. what TI teaches).

I do agree that they are not mutually exclusive.  Both emphasize one aspect and tend to trivialize the other (TI focuses on reducing resistance vs. generating power).

I think that last sentence nails it.  The book seems to neglect that some of the differences between Olympians and MOP swimmers is that the Olympians have world class engines.  She points to the faster stroke rates of world class swimmers vs. average triathletes.  To look at a non form-based sport; I can match the stride rate of the best marathoners OR their distance per stride....just  not both at the same time.  The limiter is not my form, but my aerobic engine (watts/kg).

I think Shelia's book is best for good swimmers looking to perfect their pull.  A struggling BOP swimmer is much better off with TI imo.

I have it bought haven't gotten to it yet.  I'm butt deep in economic research right now.

It seems the more I learn about swimming the more complicated it is.  I'm going to be so concentrated on form, I'll end up drowning.  Thus far I'm swimming 1/2 mile in 12 minutes without any classes.  As I bumped up my distance to Oly and soon my first HIM, I figured I'd learn how to improve things, thus the books.  Like I said, now it's all complicated.  Almost like Golf, the more you think about your swim, the more likely you are to kill somebody sitting on the patio watching you tee off.  

*Like*

(although fyi, there are some professionals who show up from time to time, or did you mean something besides pro triathlete with that?)

No, you don't.

Gracious as they are, you see less and less posts from Mr Gerlach, none from Mr Dunn (ahem!) - who races AG, not Pro if I remember correctly -  and fewer and fewer from Mr Fry, who I'm not even sure still competes. Asking for permission from a bunch of amateurs to learn something isn't going to attract them to spend more time here, either.

One does not beget the other. If you're in academia, I'm not saying you're narrow minded. But IF you're narrow minded, there are plenty of people IN academia you'll find company with, you'd have to afford me that.

Yes, but we don't need any more.  Send them somewhere else, like maybe politics.

I still compete. Just not every weekend. My last 2 races were buffalo springs 70.3, and Kona before that. Anyway...to the OP

I haven't read the book, but agree with the points that she presents and that are brought up here. Its all about a good pull. If someone has a good pull, the lift created from that will largely correct the body position. The opposite is not true. Fix someone's body position and they do not get better at the pull.

For what it's worth, when I do a swim session with someone, it takes about 25 yards to fix body position. Sometimes a 50. It takes many, many sessions to fix their pull.

In reading some of the posts here on bt, some might read my posts and think, "well he doesn't have the problems I do b/c he's already a good swimmer and so what he does won't really apply to me". You might think the same about this book too, and it's the wrong way to look at this. Think of it this way, I've already been in your shoes and have come out the other side. I'm hear to tell you what works.

The book for me was a Godsend.  Been listening to my coach telling me all this stuff for a while but buying this book gave me some visual pointers that worked for me.  It's all about different learning styles, not teaching styles.  We all respond to different things.  I have noticed a marked improvement in the feel of my propulsion through the water, more pushing myself forward rather than upwards!

If you like TI there is nothing to lose in also buying this book.  And also a coach doesn't hurt!

I love you, Mr. Hotter-than-Phelps Fry

I couldn't agree with the above more.

First of all, I agree with you and Sheila on this, and not from MY personal experience with ME, but from working with others who are struggling with it: good body position doesn't take all that long to put in place.

However, even assuming one doesn't focus on body position at all ...

I'm going to re-quote something because it's something I've wanted to say for a long time (but somehow always forgot or couldn't put it so succinctly):

If someone has a good pull, the lift created from that will largely correct the body position.

Furthermore, putting in a really good pull forces you to move and hold your body in the ways you need to have a good body position. It's a natural extension of a solid, well-executed pull.

And once you're pulling well and therefore propelling yourself well in the water, the Bernoulli effect* causes any dragging parts (usually legs, sometimes even lower torso) to lift up and remain on top of the water.

It's not that you "bully" or "force" a pull that's strong enough to overcome drag. It's that doing the pull well a) helps eliminate body positioning that causes drag, and b) moving the body forward well in the water means that the water pressure "lifts" the lower body up and further eliminates drag.

* Get two long strips of paper. Blow down between them. The strips of paper move TOGETHER, not apart. When still, the air pressure on either sides of the paper keeps it in a neutral, non-moving position. When you blow down the middle, you've reduced the pressure in the middle, and thus the air pressure on the outside pushes the paper inward.

If you're moving forward in the water, you've reduced the pressure that your body is causing downward on the water. Thus the greater water pressure from below lifts the body.

N.B. This is not to be confused with arguments about Bernoulli's principle as it applies (or as the case is, doesn't apply) to PROPULSION. Only to body position and sinking/drag. Newton's principles can also be used to explain why, in the case of swimming, good forward movement causes lifting of the body. The takeaway message for any wannabe geeks or good swimmers is that, one way or another for one reason/another/many, if you move forward well, your sinking parts will float and eliminate drag.

TJ, do you coach as well? I can't remember.