What is TI Swimming?

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What is TI Swimming?

Postby Elfric » Mon Mar 31, 2003 11:52 am

Following some postings from Dan, I've been reading about Total Immersion swimming.

My understanding of TI is that you take fewer strokes to cover a given distance by "gliding" through the water with a graceful, fluid style. The emphasis is on efficiency rather than speed. Is this correct?

My breaststroke is relatively graceful and consists of long gliding strokes, while my crawl is a choppy thrash--I can swim both further and faster doing breaststroke (yes, my crawl really is that bad). If my understanding of TI is correct, then my breaststroke tends to conform to that style, and my crawl is the antithesis of TI.

[I'm not planning on doing tri (I can't run to save my shin splints)--I'd just like an another aerobic sport to cross-train in occaisonally].
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Postby AodanH » Mon Mar 31, 2003 1:25 pm

I could stand corrected by a real swimmer but this is my understanding of TI.

It applies some basic principles of naval architecture to swimmimg. ie comparing yacths and ships to the a body at the water surface.

The main emphasis is to reduce friction to a minimum rather than increase the power/propulsion.

Balancing weight and buoyancy so that the body lies horizontal from fingers to toes. This reduces the frontal area by stopping the legs/feet dropping.

Spending as much time as possible on your side which reduces drag by lenghting the body.

The book is very readable and I'd strongly recommend anybody interested in swimming to read it (not just competitive swimmers). Its aimed at adults learners. (Competitive swimmers would most likely have got taught much of the principles by a school coach or learned it by feel/experience over a number of years.)

It relates mostly to frontcrawl but backstroke is also mentioned. Breaststroke and fly are a bit more involved because for a signifcant amount of the stroke the body is underwater (and so the ship/yacht analogy is not valid). Also a lot of the propulsion comes from manipulating the back/legs rather than the arms. For this you start looking at dolphins or sharks for inspiration.
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TI

Postby Dan B » Tue Apr 01, 2003 2:22 pm

Simon Leila will be getting his certification in TI teaching soon and is approaching people at Crystal Palace about getting a weekend to have a workshop. More on that soon ...

As far as TI goes, Aodan's not far off. TI is about balance in the water and reducing drag - but the focus is on mindful swimming, not, as they are wont to say, 'practicing struggle'. If you watch the great swimmers (Thorpe, Popov, Perkins, Price, Cooke) they're all incredibly efficient at using their arms to anchor them in the water and then slipping through as small a space as possible.

The trap many people fall into is the idea that faster swimming requires more effort, so they thrash and splash through the pool. They are getting a good aerobic workout and leave the pool knackered, but they're not getting any faster because they create more drag in the effort.

I've been taking a look at the technique myself, and as a former competitive swimmer, now triathlete, I have to say being efficient makes good sense - especially when you come out of the water with two more events to go!

In just a couple of weeks of mindful technique work my crawl stroke has smoothed out (to the point where I'm using 14-16 strokes per 25 instead of 20-22) and I'm getting compliments on my stroke. People have actually asked me to coach them!

I encourage folks to read about TI ([url]http://www.totalimmersion.net[/url]) as Terry Laughlin goes into quite a lot of detail about the physics involved, while at the same time making it very accessible. That way you can decide about the technique for yourself.

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Postby Jon H » Tue Apr 01, 2003 2:56 pm

I reckon the key to a fast swim is some of those trunks like on the Smirnoff advert.
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Postby Gavin » Fri Nov 21, 2003 2:14 pm

Just finished the second Addiscombe TI swimming course at crystal palace.

I found the course very useful it certainly showed me that using your body to move through the water is the key.

I took 56 strokes to do 50m at the start however at the end it only took me 26. I hope to practice the drills and my breathing so I can consistently do that in 25. Still a long way to go yet.

There is talk of a review session in feburary for the two groups.

It might be an idea for people just meeting up at CP to give advice on other peoples stroke.
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Postby Rory » Fri Nov 21, 2003 3:11 pm

I did the first course and I've only been swimming five times since it finished. At the moment I'm trying to get down to CP every wednesday evening.
Still trying to get to grips with the stroke/correct breathing. The drills seem to have gone right out the window - already getting into bad habits.
Getting a group of us down there for a weekly swim would certainly increase the motivation and probably sort the stroke out too.
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