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Summary: Could be a pamphlet
Review: The book has 5 or 6 good drills, but to use 286 pages on explaining that if you balance your swimming you will swim better is too much. The book gets boring after a few pages of repeating its self.
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Summary: I couldn't swim, now I can!
Review: The book is very detail oriented about the science and technique of the freestyle. That is exactly what I needed. Prior to reading the book, I would sink like an anchor. Now I have my balance in the water and am thoroughly enjoying swimming. I now plan to train for a triathlon using the drills and advice that are in the book. They DO work. My stamina, speed, and, most importantly, my efficiency in the water are greatly improved.
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Summary: the book and its drills are obsolete
Review: The total immersion website explains why. There is also a review dated May 12, 2003 which indicates the same. Don't buy this book.
There is a new book (it has new drills).
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Summary: Total Immersion
Review: This book completely changed the way I swim. It is a bit wordy, but once you understand the concepts and do a few drills you'll see. I breath better and the laps just fly by. It took almost 2 minutes off my 500 meter freestyle time. I hadn't been coached in 20 years and this was perfect. Well worth it. It may even be at your local library.
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Summary: I learned to swim with lessons by following this book
Review: This book explains a swimming technique based on science and years of observation of top swimmers by a very gifted professional coach. This technique is about balance, active streamlining, gliding on your side between strokes and using your whole body to swim, not simply focusing on kicking, stroking and endless laps. It is based on proprioceptive training and learning to relax in the water, not swimming workouts. You will train your nervous system first, then you will get the strength and endurance training for free. Water is 1000 times denser than air, thus good technique will out-perform raw strength. You will not find many swim workouts in this book; you can learn at your own pace. This book is an easy and fun read and the technique is easy to learn.I'm 34 years old and I began training for my first triathlon 6 months ago; I could not swim 25 yards. I dreaded doing the pool workouts and was a bit afraid of deep, open water. Now I'm swimming over 1600 yards a session and I can sprint 50 yards in under 48 seconds. I learned to swim without lessons by following this book. I like swimming now more than cycling, which I've been doing very often for almost 15 years. I am a beginner swimmer, yet people at the pool and beach regularly ask me why my stroke looks so different and easy. You can explain and demonstrate the basics of this technique in 5 minutes. I'm convinced that anyone can learn it; it's common sense and fun to learn. I recommend this book to anyone who asks. If you want to learn efficient, relaxed, fish-like swimming, using the least number of heart beats and strokes, this is the book. If you want to slap and churn water for hours like a "pool robot", kicking furiously to keep your legs from dragging or just looking a workout, don't read this book. If you've never swam freestyle before, get this book. If you are looking for a swimming coach, make sure s/he is familiar with this book. I'm looking forward to doing a Total Immersion clinic as soon as possible!
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Summary: Physics makes sense!
Review: This book gives me so much more insight into swimming than any other book I've ever read about it. And the best part is; it makes sense! Mr. Laughlin taught me something someone should have taught me long time before, and he gives a sound, scientific reasoning behind it. For example, why we should swim like a fish (well, isn't it a common sense, but someone have never told me about that before..) on our side instead on our stomach.
If you are like me, wondering why does the pro swim so effortlessly and with so much speed, this book tells you all about it.
The drills are easy eoungh to follow without a coach. I get in and out of the pool with minimum fatique and maximum result.
This is a book for someone, mainly, who knows how to swim already, not a total beginner. Also, Mr. Laughlin deals mostly with freestyle and how to improve your stroke efficiency (i.e. how to swim faster without moving your arms and legs more). I look forward on how he applies his techniques on other swimming strokes.
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Summary: Tremendous Influence
Review: This book has had a tremendous influence on my swimming. The drill, particularly the balance drills in chapter 8, have transformed the way I swim. I cut my strokes from 28 to 20 in a very short period of time. This version is the updated book with the updated drills and they are fantastic. They will make you understand the necessity of balance in the water. As some others have noted there is a lot of discussion on why things should be done this way and the author spends a great deal of the book "on the soapbox." But this is because of the need for convincing others. Really use the exercises in this book and you will fly through the water. An outstanding effort that is the swimming equivalent of the Brawn books.
Rating:
Summary: Great book but... too wordy.
Review: This book is a must for any swimmer that wants to improve. The only problem I saw was that it was too wordy. It takes the author for ever to get to the point and alot of the concepts are repeated over and over and over again. Great drills. Great workout tips. Great overall training tips. Great racing tips. Great book but... to wordy.
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Summary: be a fish
Review: This book is fantastic! In the month I've been doing the drills, I have gone from no fewer than 26 strokes a length down to 16-18. Plus, my swimming feels more fluid. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Swimming Philosophy
Review: This book is more than a guide to swimming. It's a guide to understanding how teach your body swimming as if it were a language. I used it myself and found a pleasure in swimming that I previously had not found, the result has been a quick transition from beginner to intermediate freestyle swimmer. The book is not perfect, it repeats itself (in fact this may be the mantra that makes the book so appealing), also I found the drills difficult to interpret from print. Even so, I found the book everything I needed to make me realise that swimming is an endless search for a beautiful perfection.
Andy Fallows
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