Triathlon - Total Immersion to improve speed: fact or fad?

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tjspiel
07-14-08, 02:45 PM
I'm comfortable in the water but not particularly fast.

One of my brothers has taken a few swimming classes in hopes of making him a stronger swimmer for various reasons. He too has always been at least comfortable in the water.

The first year they had him working on a total immersion type technique. The following year after the coaches had been to some sort of seminar, they said: "Forget what we told you last year, here's what you should do".

So would any of the Total Immersion books/videos be of use or would I eventually hit a wall in terms of improvement and need to change technique again? Has it fallen from favor?


audiojan
07-31-08, 06:21 AM
My feeling is that TI is really useful if you're not comfortable in water, but for an experienced swimmer it doesn't help much (or at all). This is based on experiences from friends... one was a complete non-swimmer (think doggy paddle, but nothing else) and it helped him, the other friend qualified for Kona is a pretty strong swimmer, and for him it was a complete waste of money....

But as I said, no personal experience.

gervelo
08-11-08, 05:11 AM
Total Immersion works well for beginners but when you are training for longer distances and trying to have more speed, conventional swimming with a swim coach could be better.