Total Immersion: A Revolutionary Way To Swim Better And Faster by Terry Laughlin & John Delves
Several of my friend recommended the Total Immersion swimming technique so I jumped at a chance to pick the book up for cheap.
I am not a very good swimmer. I learned to swim front crawl about 18 months ago. I nearly drowned as a child and while I love being in the water I couldn’t do front crawl. I took swimming lessons because I wanted to do a triathlon. I can swim now but I’m really slow. The Total Immersion theory of swimming is all about how you can go really fast without straining. It sounds great. Relax, do less straining and actually go faster.
The book is all about efficiency and promoting Laughlin’s ideas about what the most efficient way to swim is. He backs his theory up with very plausible explanations. If boats that are longer go faster in the water then swimmers who are longer in the water will go faster. Moving your arms very quickly causes you to lose your form. Don’t move your arms faster than you can without losing your technique. All fairly easy to accept and implement.
Laughlin gets very preachy at points in the book. This is an tendency of many books that I have read on athletic technique. It is not sufficient to present your technique and let people decide if they want to try it. Authors have to convince readers that their way is the best way and that the reader must do it that way. I went out my next swim practice and tried to implement some aspects of the technique. Of course, in the book the author says that in order to break all the bad habits I have from years of crappy swimming technique I have to start completely at the beginning.
As I tried to swim the Total Immersion way I realized a couple of things. In order to really get to that style of swimming I would have to abandon my training and become a beginner again. I also realized that it would be way easier to learn with a coach familiar with the technique or even in a workshop dedicated to it. The book was really persuasive but I don’t think that it alone will be enough for me to learn the technique and determine if it is going to produce the results I am looking for.
If you’re into swimming this is a good book to read for a different view of technique. I have learned a lot from reading it but it’s going to take a lot of time and dedication if I decide to try and follow his prescribed course exactly.
-fh