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Summary: this book IS revolutionary!
Review: I started swimming as a way to stay active while recovering from a serious knee injury, and I picked up this book to help me learn more so I could stay challenged and interested in the water. I had splashed along and really enjoyed swimming for years, but I'd never had any formal training whatsoever.This book completely changed the way I think about swimming, and my ability has increased tremendously in the time I've been using the Total Immersion concepts. Just today, I counted how many strokes it took me to cross the 25 yard pool. TWELVE. How many did it take when I started six months ago? TWENTY-SIX. Even better, from my vantage point in the "medium" lane, I took a moment to count the strokes of a big, speedy muscle guy splashing his way across the pool in the "fast" lane next to me. TWENTY-FOUR. And I proceeded to easily out-pace him on every lap, which was kind of a thrill for someone who doesn't really consider herself to be a serious athlete. This book is a great resource -- I have read various chapters over and over again. Some of the writing is a bit awkward -- but the main points are clear. Your body is a vessel, and your goal is to get through the water in the most streamlined, energy-effective way possible. When you "get" the technique, it's amazing to feel yourself travel through the water -- IN BETWEEN STROKES. I like to think of my hands as the prow of a ship, my hips as a rotor, and my feet working together as a propellor. Just think how impossible ships would have it if they were built as rectangles or squares -- there's no sense trying to push a square across a body of water, is there? Once you learn the Total Immersion technique, "ordinary" swimming seems nonsensical. One side point I'd like to share is that I trained for the first few months months with a pull buoy, because of my injury. I wasn't able to do the exact training exercises described in the book -- I couldn't kick at all. But by using the pull buoy and focusing on the concepts in the book, I learned balance, arm work, and how to breathe on both sides - which I *never* thought I'd be able to do. This might be a helpful alternative for other novices who find the balance exercises kind of intimidating. "Swimming Made Easy" gave me what I needed -- a set of concepts which radically changed my swimming style. This is a great book, and will change your swims in an amazing way.
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Summary: Excellent Swimming Just Got Easier
Review: I've been teaching swimming for nearly 30 years. I thought I had a pretty good handle on what makes for better swimmers. Then I met Terry Laughlin and was introduced to the Total Immersion philosophy. My thinking about movement in the water and how to improve it changed dramatically. His methods have proven time and again to be enlightening and effective for swimmers of ANY ability level. With this book, Laughlin makes the effortless grace of elite swimmers accessible to 'average' swimmers with simple, logical, proven steps that make fluid, powerful swimming a HABIT rather than a chance encounter. Buy it, read it, apply it. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: READ it, DO it, FEEL the difference in your strokes
Review: If you can't make it to a TOTAL IMMERSION weekend workshop--this book is the "in print" version of the step-by-step process to fluent, easy and faster swimming! I have had the opportunity to participate in several weekend workshops and use this book as a blueprint for my pool sessions. Other swimmers (of all ages and abilities) have picked up my copy, paged through it and ordered a copy for themselves. Part one lays out the process of making swimming effortless: stroke length, balance, making the body tall and slippery in the water AND linking all the above to the kinetic chain. Subsequent chapters tell the improvement minded swimmer exactly HOW to do this in simple, sequential and DO-ABLE steps. Any swimmer who reads this book and practices these steps will experience swimming made easy.
Rating:
Summary: READ it, DO it, FEEL the difference in your strokes
Review: If you can't make it to a TOTAL IMMERSION weekend workshop--this book is the "in print" version of the step-by-step process to fluent, easy and faster swimming! I have had the opportunity to participate in several weekend workshops and use this book as a blueprint for my pool sessions. Other swimmers (of all ages and abilities) have picked up my copy, paged through it and ordered a copy for themselves. Part one lays out the process of making swimming effortless: stroke length, balance, making the body tall and slippery in the water AND linking all the above to the kinetic chain. Subsequent chapters tell the improvement minded swimmer exactly HOW to do this in simple, sequential and DO-ABLE steps. Any swimmer who reads this book and practices these steps will experience swimming made easy.
Rating:
Summary: READ it, DO it, FEEL the difference in your strokes
Review: If you can't make it to a TOTAL IMMERSION weekend workshop--this book is the "in print" version of the step-by-step process to fluent, easy and faster swimming! I have had the opportunity to participate in several weekend workshops and use this book as a blueprint for my pool sessions. Other swimmers (of all ages and abilities) have picked up my copy, paged through it and ordered a copy for themselves. Part one lays out the process of making swimming effortless: stroke length, balance, making the body tall and slippery in the water AND linking all the above to the kinetic chain. Subsequent chapters tell the improvement minded swimmer exactly HOW to do this in simple, sequential and DO-ABLE steps. Any swimmer who reads this book and practices these steps will experience swimming made easy.
Rating:
Summary: Great Stuff!
Review: If you liked his Total Immersion book for freestyle you'll LOVE this book for all 4 strokes! If you've learned stuff from his articles in Fitness Swimmer and Swim Magazine you'll LOVE this book! If you are simply starting to probe the depths of excellent swimming you'll LOVE this book. If you've been swimming a long time and think there's nothing more for you to learn, you'll LOVE this book! Whatever, you'll LOVE this book! PS - I'm a coach and this is the way I run my whole program!
Rating:
Summary: Wet Will Never Feel The Same Again
Review: Just put on your bathing suit, sit down and read this book. Then jump in the water everytime you get to a part you like. You'll be in the water a lot. It's 200 or so pages keep you excited about your potential, connected to the subject matter, and entertained at the prospect of faster, more efficient swimming. It's a book for people who are tired of swimming the hard way and want to get more out of their time in the pool. It's the perfect combination of paperback psychologist, coach, and instruction manual. And, it's cheaper than subscribing to the swim magazines. Buy it and get wet a whole new way.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding book and awesome learning tool!
Review: Once you get past the feeling that Terry is trying to sell you the book after you've already bought it, you'll realize what a valuable tool this book can be. (I'm sorry, he may be good and know his stuff, but his arrogance is somewhat of a put-off.) Regardless, this book is for anyone who feels that swimming is either their weak-point or for people who avoid it all together due to frustration experienced when actually trying to swim. Terry is the foremost expert in swimming efficiency and knows what he's talking about.
Rating:
Summary: Swimming Made Easy improves on last book!
Review: Swimming Made Easy improves on Terry Laughlin's last book with more photo explanations, easier to read descriptions and easier "flow" of the book. I presently coach a small, but growing Masters group and I credit Terry's techniques to the explosion in our membership! Everyone can do them no matter what level, and everyone notices improvement quickly, if not immediately. Even our lifeguards have noticed the "quiet" swimming recently taking over our group! Having the book and videos to loan out to interested swimmers, as well as his photo-packed Pool Primer is very helpful. Getting the Swimming Made Easy book is a must, I can't recommend it enough! Whenever I need a refresher, I just pick up the book and read the pertinent chapter(s).
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding book and awesome learning tool!
Review: Terry spends many pages hyping his technique, but after about 6 months with the book and videos and doing the drills, I can justify the hype. I have never swum competitively, going to the water only for fitness, but it always irritated me that some pudgy guys could easily cruise through the water as I frenetically splashed to keep up, exhausted after only 15-20 minutes. I read the first book which only covered freestyle, but jumped when this book came out. When I first got this book, I rushed through all the drills hoping to swim faster in less than a week, but accomplished very little. Not quite the results as the reviewer who dropped his 50 yd time by 7 seconds in his first session. Over the last 5 months, I have spent at least 70% of my pool time practicing the drills, learning balance, breathing on both sides, gliding and streamlining my body. Before the book/videos, I couldn't keep interested for 20 minutes in the water. Now, as I drill my way to each goal & concentrate on form, I still have energy after 45-60 minutes. I swim some laps and feel much faster, smoother and quieter. I swam a 50 freestyle in about 43 secs, but in June 2003 did it in about 34.5 (push start from the wall with flip turn)--and in July 2003 in 30 secs. The drills helped me by improving my form and increasing my level of fitness. By the measure of other swimmers here, I still move like a barge, but personal goals override all such comparisons. The book definitely helped me and I think I underpaid when I compare the cost of the book/video package to the expense of going to one of Terry Laughlin's weekend clinics. I doubt I would get out of a weekend what it took 6 months to accomplish. If you can't buy the book at Amazon, Terry has his own website.
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