Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book to improve your freestyle stroke
Review: This book made a major impact on my freestyle stroke and basic attitudes towards traditional swim training. I highly recommend this book to anyone; however, there a few minor shortcomings. First, the beginning of the book drags on a bit about the benefits of the "Total Immersion" swim program. If you can make throught the beginning, the later chapters are the big payoff. Second, I found Terry's ideas about head position a bit contradictory. Terry talks about looking towards the end of the pool; however, most people (including a Swimming Fitness article authored by Terry) talk about looking down. Once you look up, your hips start to sink -- The big problem Terry tries to cure. Finally, the book only talks about freestyle. Even though Terry has ways to improve the other strokes (check out his Web site for his videos), he doesn't mention them in this book. Despite those three minor flaws, the book is excellent and really works.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This book will help any level of swimmer, from beginner to advanced. Laughlin explains why swimming lap after lap will get you nowhere if you want to improve.Based upon his years of swimming himself and coaching experience, he explains really simply how we can swim faster and more efficiently with less effort. The book is filled with drills, breaking down different parts of swimming to easy and memorable chunks so that you can practice effectively. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve. After going through even just the first few chapters, my distance before I got tired increased tenfold, yet the effort I was putting in was half of what I had been doing. Buy this book, you won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: This is one of the best book I have come across. (The other was by Maglisho, Swimming even faster). Terry has rightly pointed out many things which we have taken for granted. I am glad that the book has brought me back to the basics - streamlining my body on the water.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginer or the nationaly competitive
Review: This swim book is a must for any swimmer. Whether you are a beginer or a nationally competitive swimmer, this book will make sure you know how to swim properly. I compete on the national level and this book continues to remind me what the most important part of swimming is, technique.
Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting and usefull book for freestyle swimmers
Review: Very interesting book, giving many usefull hints for how to swim faster, but more comfortable. It describes one different, as much I saw, not very often used approach on swimming technic. As the matter of fact, its about different swimming philosophy. Don't expect to many pictures and drawings, be prepared to read the stuff, and than try it in the water. Since only freestyle swimming technic is described I'm not giving 5 stars in my rate. However, I once more recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh gee, not buying this.
Review: Well lemme me say I have been swimming since I was 7. I am a teenager of 14 and what he says about injuries is not very much so true. Yes it is very true you use your muscles and joints but you can have an extremely high injury. I have gotten alot of injuries. I have extreme shoulder problems and my neck is horrible. He states that you have a minimal chance of getting injured and if you are you can hop right back in. I would like to inform you all that I was out of the pool for a year. A whole year and I swim for a USA team. You cannot just jump in and do what he says it takes strenght and agility. I love swimming always have yet I know that if I do not do things right I can get hurt. This goes for everyone I swim with. I do very much though think everyone should try it just do not work so hard that you get to be like me. I am young things heal but as I sit here and type I am in pain. But I would not stop swimming for the world.
Thanks a friendly swimmer.
Rating:
Summary: Bad technique = frustrated swimmer
Review: What a useful book! I was a swimmer in the 70's and decided to start swimming again to rehab my broken ankles. BEFORE I started doing the drills I swam for 15 minutes to test my fitness--I swam 6 laps. A month of drills and my lap counter reached 12. This is my second month of drills and I can tell that my body is gliding easier over the surface. It's still not a perfect technique but the drills have made for much more enjoyable workouts. The goal is to swim effortlessly. I wish they had color pictures with arrow indicators pointing to the key areas of the body to concentrate on a particular drill. I'd recommend that you get the Total Immersion video for freestyle to complement the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Midwest triathlete
Review: While I am a big fan of the Total Immersion technique, the improvements that Laughlin has made in later books renders this version very obsolete. I highly recommend "Triathlon Swimming Made Easy". In TSME, the author starts the drills by floating on the back, not the front. Starting on the front is difficult since the author does not address proper breathing technique until later in the book. Laughlin has an excellent technique, however the drills in TSME are much better than in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Midwest triathlete
Review: While I am a big fan of the Total Immersion technique, the improvements that Laughlin has made in later books renders this version very obsolete. I highly recommend "Triathlon Swimming Made Easy". In TSME, the author starts the drills by floating on the back, not the front. Starting on the front is difficult since the author does not address proper breathing technique until later in the book. Laughlin has an excellent technique, however the drills in TSME are much better than in this book.
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