Swimming made easy

by Terry Laughlin

  Swimming Made Easy

  Also by Terry Laughlin:

  Books:

  The Swimmer's Bible

  The Swiminar Workbook

  The Guide to Fishlike Swimming

  Total Immersion:

  The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier

  Triathlon Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Anyone to Master Open-Water Swimming

  Videos/DVDs:

  Freestyle Made Easy - DVD

  Four Strokes Made Easy - DVD (Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle)

  Happy Laps - Video and DVD

  Drill Cards:

  Freestyle Made Easy Waterproof Drill Cards

  This book is dedicated to all of those Total Immersion swimmers who have welcomed our books and videos, and particularly those who have attended our clinics, camps, and workshops since 1989. They have taught me far more about swimming than I ever imagined possible, and their curiosity and eagerness to learn have been a constant source of inspiration, allowing me to spend countless fulfilling hours working on deck at what I consider to be the best swim-coaching job in the world. Thank you.

  Foreword

  Total Immersion: The Next Step

  Total Immersion has been publishing guidebooks for swimmers since 1991. We started with a slim book, immodestly titled The Swimmer's Bible, followed in 1994 by the Swiminar Workbook, which in 1997 was updated as The Guide to Fishlike Swimming. In 1996, Simon and Schuster published Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier. The reaction by readers to each of these books has been the same: "Thanks for writing about swimming IN A WAY THAT MAKES SENSE!" It has been my constant goal to do just that. After reading far too many books and articles (and hearing countless coaching-clinic presentations) that portrayed swimming excellence as rocket science, I really hoped to provide a swimming-improvement method that anyone could understand and follow.

  Feedback from countless "TI fans" has confirmed that we're on the right track. Enthusiasm for the TI approach - from all manner of swimmers, from novices to elites (and coaches and teachers, too) - has been greater than I've ever witnessed in 30-plus years as swimmer, coach, and student of the sport. There is only one reason for this: OUR METHODS WORK. It doesn't matter if the swimmer is age 3 or 43 or 73 — or whether they've never swum before or have swum their way to the Olympics. What we teach — and the simple, clear way in which we teach it — can turn anyone into a swimmer or make them a better swimmer than they are now.

  TI for Every Stroke

  Our previous books have focused exclusively on freestyle - though many of their lessons could be applied to any swimming style. This book is our first comprehensive written guide for becoming "fishlike" in all four strokes. The learning process that produced it is precisely the same as the one that preceded our books about swimming a fishlike freestyle: We went to the pool and taught hundreds of swimmers of all types. Since 1997, we have taught summer camps for swimmers age 8 to 17 and have added four-stroke weekend workshops. In all cases, we've had to get across the essentials of fluent swimming - the techniques that really matter - in just a few days while also preparing our students to coach themselves, and we had to do so for four strokes, not just one. So the need to streamline and simplify (and eliminate steps that are not truly essential and productive) has been even greater for the other strokes than it has been for freestyle.

  At the same time, dozens of coaches who have adopted TI methods in their own age-group, high school, college, and Masters programs have shared their insights and discoveries to help us refine what we developed in the workshops. And finally, from 1996 to 1999,1 coached Division I collegiate swimmers at the US Military Academy - West Point. I worked primarily with the sprinters, coaching and teaching all four strokes, and found that the TI approach was equally effective with already accomplished college swimmers who needed to compete on the highest level.

  One of the best rewards of teaching the other strokes is that our understanding of how to teach a fishlike freestyle has also improved, both generally and specifically. The exercise of teaching four strokes, rather than one, has shown us many additional ways to teach swimmers to be fluent. It has also brought an unexpected benefit: We have found that improved awareness of how to flow with and through the water can help any swimmer learn to swim any stroke better.

  So, the good news is that if you've already learned to swim a better freestyle with our previous books and videos, this book - and the accompanying Four Strokes Made Easy DVD — will bring you a whole new series of methods and approaches that can make you a more complete swimmer and make your freestyle faster, easier, and more fluent.

  Finally, our thanks for allowing us the opportunity to help you improve your swimming. Without the thousands of faithful TI followers coming to us for instruction and providing invaluable feedback, we certainly would not have been able to learn all we have about how to make swimming a more joyful and satisfying experience.

  Acknowledgments

  To my family -- Alice, Fiona, Cari, and Betsy -- for their patience, support, and love.

  To my dozens of TI coaching colleagues for contributing priceless ideas and insights and for sharing in the spirit of exploration of how coaching can be done.

  To John Delves for acting, once again, as my "surrogate reader" and in helping the text in this book flow like the strokes we are teaching.

  To the swimmers I coached at West Point from 1996 to 1999 for helping me to demonstrate that TI works just as well with fast and accomplished swimmers as it does with novices, and for helping refine its application to all four strokes.

  To Brian Williams, head coach of the SUNY New Paltz swim team, for generously allowing us to use the SUNY facilities for our filming.

  Introduction

  Swimming Reinvented: What Makes Total Immersion Totally Different

  What sets Total Immersion apart from all other swim-improvement methods? Just about everything. Our instruction is unlike any other you may have experienced, and it's different from the ground up. From the very beginning, we actually ask you to go against your most basic, inbred instincts to get the results you want. That's because whatever humankind's evolutionary origins (they say we're evolved from aquatic creatures), Homo sapiens today are designed to move around comfortably on land. We've lost our aquatic instincts and replaced them with the ones we need on land. But it is possible to relearn aquatic instincts with the right training. And when you do, you'll be astonished at what happens next.

  In the process, you'll be joining the thousands of improvement-minded swimmers we've had the good fortune to teach over the past 10 years. Working closely with so many highly motivated students has led us to a series of rare and unexpected insights that have gradually strengthened the core principles of our instruction. The result? A thoroughly unconventional way of teaching swimming that is different not because we like being different, but because it works. Our unique approach lets people improve far more quickly and easily, and turns them into swimmers who are not only faster and more efficient, but also satisfying to watch. TI swimmers are instantly recognized— and envied — for their grace in the water, whether they are children or adults new to the sport, or elite-level athletes, or Navy SEALS, or SCUBA divers.

  More than anything else, that's because we teach "fishlike" swimming TM, which focuses on learning to be comfortable, slippery, and fluent in the water. Others teach "human" swimming, which means you laboriously muscle your way through the water by pulling and kicking, and do it over and over again for endless laps that are supposed to condition you for—more pulling and kicking.

  A few lucky people are born with an inner "water sense" that tips them off right away that muscling through the
water is not the smart way to swim. But this kind of inner water sense is rare. In fact, experience with thousands of students has led us to formulate "The Rule of Two Percent," which says that only about one person in fifty has the native ability to swim fluently without unlearning bad habits or instincts. The other 98 percent of us (counting only those who can swim well enough to do at least a few laps nonstop) follow our instincts and struggle along unnecessarily, working hard mainly to make our bad habits more permanent. To swim well, we first need to forget everything we "know" about swimming, because virtually everything you do by instinct in the water tends to be clumsy, inefficient, and exhausting. And the more you swim instinctively, the more you perfect your "struggling skills." It didn't take us long, as we initially developed our program of fishlike swimming, to realize we were teaching people to do things that they would never do on their own. We had to find ways to let students replace clumsy human swimming instincts with graceful, fishlike habits.

  Soon, we came to understand that we were teaching what you might call "martial-arts swimming." That's because moving through the water like a fish is a fine, subtle, and — in the beginning — elusive skill. It is a "movement art" that requires you to cultivate body awareness, balance, and flow. And just as in martial-arts training, or in yoga or dance, the skills are learned much more quickly and easily when broken down into a series of simple, easily mastered moves. Every Total Immersion student, novice to elite, begins by learning a series of positions that are extremely basic, yet establish a profound "connection" with the water. None of the positions is difficult. Yet mastering these simple moves in a logical progression can make such a powerful difference that within the first hour, you'll be flowing through the water with more ease and less effort than you ever thought possible.

  As a beginning TI student, your hardest assignment may be developing the patience to slow down to master the art of swimming, before you train for it as a sport. Yes, those early, on-the-spot improvements are a thrill. But it's absolutely essential not to rush the program. Allow yourself to take as long as necessary' to become completely comfortable with each of the simple movements we teach. For that 98-percent group in which most all of us find ourselves, piling on laps and more laps inevitably leads to struggle and more struggle as we fall back into old habits — certainly not the progress we had hoped for. But every swimmer who takes the time to first master the basic positions, and then the entire "form" or sequence of moves, will be able to swim with comfort no matter what, and will be able to advance through each of the more advanced skills with almost ridiculous ease and speed.

  That's not a boast, it's a simple statement of fact. We've seen it happen with thousands of swimmers, regardless of their age, strength, physical condition, or level of coordination.

  I hope you'll decide to join them.

  Terry Laughlin

  New Paltz, NY

  Part 1

  The Secrets of Fishlike Swimming TM

  Chapter 1

  How To Make Your Swimming Feel Good Again

  So you want to become a better swimmer, but you're a bit bewildered by all the complicated and often conflicting advice on how to do that? Well, you have plenty of company. Welcome to what I call The Great Paradox of Swimming: One of the most popular fitness sports is also one of the most frustrating.

  The popularity of swimming is well documented. Fitness surveys regularly place it among the top three choices along with walking and running. And why not? It's aerobic for healthful conditioning, it's nearly weightless for injury prevention, it works all the major muscle groups for completeness, and it's suitable for people of all ages throughout their lifetimes. It's also a necessary safety skill for anyone on or around the water. On top of all that, it's comfortable on both the hottest and coldest days of the year, since a pool is a controlled environment.

  But swimming's frustration factor is also well documented. For unlike running and walking, which most people can do efficiently and effectively without instruction or practice, swimming well takes lots of both. In fact, as ideal as swimming is for health and fitness, only a tiny fraction of the population can swim well enough to enjoy all of its benefits. Both the American Swimming Coaches Association and the National Swim School Association estimate that only two of every 100 Americans are able to swim well enough to complete even a quarter mile without stopping. Thousands who can run mile after effortless mile find themselves panting and exhausted after just a few laps in the pool. "How can this be," they wonder, "since I'm in such good shape?" Lacking an answer, too many simply towel off, get dressed, and walk out of the pool forever, losing the opportunity for a lifetime of effective conditioning and steady improvement.

  Swimming can frustrate even experienced athletes who can comfortably swim a mile or more, but who have trained religiously for years without much progress. Many have sought help, only to receive instruction that produces no lasting improvement. Many of these athletes eventually perceive swimming to be so complicated and mysterious that they don't know what to work on, or how to work on it. A dedicated swimmer can easily receive hundreds of "stroke tips" over the course of several years, each tip focused on different aspects of the stroke, many tips in outright conflict with each other, and all given with equal emphasis. So when improvement does occur, it's often fleeting and hard to reproduce.

  And just in case drowning you in stroke technicalities doesn't take all the fun out of the sport, there are always the aquatic drill sergeants to remind you that swimming must also be hard work Coaches and competitive swimmers embrace a boot-camp belief that only grueling and agonizing training will enable you to swim your very best, and few ever question this philosophy. The unfortunate result? Years of competitive swim training degrade an activity that many of us first experienced as joyful play into tiresome drudgery. Small wonder so many competitive swimmers are relieved to "retire" in their early teens.

  That was my story. As a kid I spent most of my summers playing baseball or basketball each morning, and "playing" at swimming each afternoon. In the pool 1 was weightless and free, and it fast became my favorite playground. By exploring what I could do in water that wasn't possible on land, I learned spontaneously how to move easily through water. I may not have been terribly efficient or fast, but being completely comfortable and confident in the water was a great starting point.

  The best pan of that experience ended abruptly at age 15 when I joined a swim team. Now I had a coach to tell me the "right" way to swim, and warn me that 1 would have to work very hard to improve. I enjoyed hard work then as I do now, so I loved testing myself in workouts and meets and did well as a distance swimmer. But in the process 1 also lost the pure joy of being weightless and free in the water. I was way too busy pushing through pain barriers and thousands of laps to have any fun, and when I reached 21,1 realized swimming had long ago become a chore, and happily retired.

  But I never got over what I'd lost, and as I began coaching others and "learned from their learning," I began to see ways to make swimming — theirs and mine—pleasurable and satisfying again. It took until my late 30s, after 17 years away from traditional training and competition and free to spend my pool time exactly as I wanted, to rediscover the intensely satisfying, sensual side of swimming well, and to use that style of swimming to become fit, and fast.

  Ten years later, my regular swim training is still mainly focused on doing what feels best. And I've discovered to my great happiness that doing what feels best also helps me swim the best. Never before has swimming been this satisfying. Every pool session is enjoyable, stimulating, and interesting. Every stroke I take feels smoother, more effortless, more in harmony with the water than did the millions of yards I thrashed out in college 30 years ago. I have seen my stroke efficiency, and my understanding of what works to increase it, grow without interruption for 10 years.

  If continuing to improve into your 40s and beyond in a sport as "frustrating" as swimming seems too good to be true, remember this: Swimming integrates
so many subtle skills that you can continue making new discoveries for years and years. That's why I consciously swim in a way that is designed to produce greater awareness. Like you, I'm motivated to increase my mastery of the sport and also like you — I hope — I expect to continue to get great pleasure and satisfaction from my swimming for decades to come.

  My own story of burning out on the "old way" before coming to my senses and seeing the "new way," explains why the Total Immersion system enjoys such an enthusiastic following. Thousands of swimmers have found that TI has a solution for nearly every frustrating experience they've ever had in swimming. We explain the challenges and common problems of swimming in a simple way that makes sense. We've developed solutions to most of those common problems that anyone can understand and use without any advanced training. We've made the path to efficient swimming clear enough that swimmers can now confidently practice in a way that they know will really make a difference. In doing that, we've unlocked the secret of continuous improvement and showed how to accelerate that improvement. And, finally, we've replaced boring workouts with purposeful, interesting, and engaging practice.

  The result is a style of swimming that, among its many virtues, always feels good It looks good, too. Fluent and graceful TI swimmers are instantly recognizable to a growing number of other swimmers. Whether it's a 70-plus fitness swimmer flowing so effortlessly up and down the pool that strangers stop to ask whether he or she is "swimming TI," or whether it's an entire team of age groupers that has been coached "the TI way," our alumni are in a class by themselves.