I met Patrick Quinn poolside in May 1989. I was attending my first ‘short course’ U.S. Masters Nationals at Mission Bay Aquatic Center in Florida. Patrick and I were both waiting for our heats in the 1000-yard freestyle. I was 38 at the time; Patrick was 58. Today he is 84 and I’m 64, and […]

In my last post I suggested you perform an exercise in meta-consciousness: Bring to a conscious level your belief system about swimming—the ideas (often unconscious) that guide nearly every choice you make—and consider where they originated and whether your experience confirms them as true . . . or calls them into question. I then listed […]

Before he was a world-changing entrepreneur at Paypal, Tesla, and SpaceX, Elon Musk studied physics at Stanford University. When he switched from physics to tech startups, he brought along a conviction that “First Principles” thinking—drilling down to the foundations of a problem to view it in an entirely new way—should guide business decisions as well […]

On July 10, I had the pleasure of experiencing all my favorite aspects of swimming in just a bit over 20 minutes—perhaps the most concentrated swimming enjoyment I’ve had in 50 years. The occasion was the inaugural Mystic Sharkfest. (Several people recoiled when I told them the name of the event: Did it involve swimming […]

Would you like to make your stroke markedly, noticeably more efficient in as little as 10 minutes. Doing the right drill, in the right way, can achieve stroke transformation faster than any other means. Here’s a summary of ‘first principles’ of maximizing the value and efficacy of stroke drills from my recent series of posts […]

Each day, on Garrison Keillor’s brief daily NPR program, The Writer’s Almanac, he reads a poem. If you’re a regular listener, you may have heard the one I reprint below, about the first day of summer swim lessons for children. I missed it this morning, but fortunately TI enthusiast Cynthia Ford, a law professor at […]

From Terry: Trevor Robinson attended an 8-hour workshop I led in February. Two weeks later he sent me this in an email:  “Being a TI self taught rookie, it was invaluable to receive the support and coaching from yourself and staff.  Not only was I able to actually ‘feel’ how drills are supposed to feel when […]

In my last personal history installment of this series on stroke drills, I described three life-changing insights that have shaped my view of stroke drills, and how we use them in the Total Immersion Method. Introduction to my first balance drill by Bill Boomer. In less than 10 minutes, I was freed from a thought […]

I’ve been giving a weekly lesson for 11 years to Jeanne Safer, a prominent psychotherapist and author. You might wonder what Jeanne might have to learn after 400+ hours of lessons, and countless additional hours of practice. Jeanne swims for health and the pleasure of learning and self-mastery. Like me Jeanne feels that the promise of […]