Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier

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Throw me into the category of folks who've swum, on and off, for decades, with unimpressive results. I lost interest in triathlons because my swimming was frustrating/disastrous, and I rarely, if ever, saw improvement. (Swimming was great for cardio and injury recovery, bad for ego and self-esteem.) But, having decided to give swimming another try, a little bit of research led me to this book (now in its 22nd printing), and I'm glad I bought it. Surprisingly (seriously - as in, wow, I didn't expect that) gratifying and effective, with the Goodreads caveat that this is a how-to, instructional book (again, to be clear, it's not literature and there's no real story going on here), and I wouldn't recommend for anyone who isn't looking for some help with their (duh) swimming. Conversely, I can't remember ever having read a how-to book that generated such immediate results (which, frankly, is kind of cool). No, it's not for absolute beginners. There's no way I could have done a weekend like this when I first started learning to swim, though you can learn to swim from scratch with this method too. They have coaches all over the country who'll give you a one-to-one session if you do want to start from nothing, but the target audience does seem to be those who can swim a bit and would like to swim more effectively – for a triathlon, for example. If like me you've learned enough to be able to manage a scrappy length of rubbish crawl, then the drills are very doable and can vastly improve your swimming.

He based Total Immersion Swimming on the idea that swimming should be effortless and natural, like “swimming downhill.” When you’re “swimming downhill,” you should feel weightless and relaxed in the water, allowing you to swim faster and for longer distances with less effort. Press your “buoy”Body rotation is another important aspect of Total Immersion Swimming. By rotating your body as you swim, you create a more efficient and natural stroke.

When I first began learning to swim the Total Immersion way, I counted the number of strokes it took me to swim the length of the pool as a reference point. The following example is four strokes: left, right, left, right. Basically every time an arm strokes from the extended position it is counted. My thrashing down the lane technique required 26 strokes to get from one end of the pool to the other.

What is Total Immersion?

The one big issue is that I’m a horrible swimmer — I never learned properly. Earlier tonight my wife and I were at the bookstore and I started looking through books on triathlons to get a sense of what I’m in for. On the way home I was describing the whole thing to my wife and we began talking about my biggest weakness — the swimming part. Imagine my surprise to discover your post on exactly this issue. Thanks for the pointers. I’ve already requested Terry’s book from our local library and, if it’s helpful, will buy a copy of it and the DVD. I had an epiphany many years ago, when teaching one of my daughters to swim. Swimming Lesson number 1 must be to sit in a shallow pool wearing a mask, take a breath, then put your face in the water, repeatedly. After a few minutes, I tell the learner : “When you swim, you WILL get water on your face”. Harder swimming doesn’t always result in faster swimming. In most cases, this will result in slower swim times. Terry’s approach underscores a crucial paradigm shift in athlete’s thinking, especially beginner swimmers who have a tendency to push harder to go faster. The real question that needs to be asked is not “How do we create more Super Teachers?” because we have all the Super Teachers we are going to get. Deming shows that rewards and punishments do not create heros. The question we should be asking is “How do we create an education system that allows mediocre teachers to teach students at a high level?” Clearly not by doing what we are doing today.