Backstroke for Every Body
Better Fly for Every Body
Breaststroke for Every Body
Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body
Outside the Box:
Triathlon Swimming: Made EasyThis week I take a temporary detour from the relatively narrow focus of the past few weeks on the history, purpose, and effective use of drills to look, through a wider lens, at the process for learning new swimming skills. Today’s post was prompted by an email from an attendee at a Smart Speed workshop […]
Stroke Drills: A Personal History, Part Two–Vessel Shaping
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on May 26th, 2015
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on May 26th, 2015
In 1988-89, after nearly two decades of coaching young club and college swimmers, I had three life-changing experiences I resumed swimming after a 16-year hiatus. I met Bill Boomer—a coach who saw things as no one else had. I began to coach adults–most of them new to swimming. Born-Again Swimmer In August 1988, despite only […]
Stroke Drills: A Personal History, Part One 1971-1983
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on May 19th, 2015
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on May 19th, 2015
I swam in high school and college from 1965 to 1972. In high school, our primitive one-hour weekly workouts consisted mainly of short sprints. In college, pulling and kicking sets became part of the daily training diet, but no drills. I first learned about drills in a swimming magazine and experimented with single-arm and catchup […]
A Primer on Stroke Drills
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on May 12th, 2015
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on May 12th, 2015
I’ve published blogs infrequently and erratically for the past year, in part because of preoccupation with a family matter. I am now ready to resume regular publication. I promise a new post each Tuesday. I hope you find them interesting and valuable reading, and that you look forward to receiving them in your inbox each […]
Ultra-Efficient Freestyle: New Book–First Look
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on January 24th, 2015
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on January 24th, 2015
On January 30, on the iTunes/iBooks store we’ll release my latest book Swim Ultra-Efficient Freestyle. While the original TI book has become the most popular swimming book in history, I believe Ultra-Efficient Freestyle is my best effort, as an author (and ‘explainer-of-swimming’) to date. But I’ll leave that to readers to judge, and I hope you’ll […]
When We’re Mindful, We’re Alive.
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on October 30th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on October 30th, 2014
Ellen Langer, at age 67, is the longest-serving psychology prof at Harvard. What she is best known for is studies which have shown that people can make marked physical changes, improving health, reversing aging effects, etc. in response to mental suggestions, which she calls primes. The New York Times Magazine just published an article about […]
How to Swim Faster . . . and Pain Free
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on October 11th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on October 11th, 2014
Is there a technique that allows you to swim much faster–while also minimizing the potential for shoulder pain? There is! And it’s one that nearly all coaches and swimmers overlook. Most people treat the recovery portion of the crawl stroke as incidental. Since it’s not involved in propulsion, they figure, it serves only to get […]
How a Swim Can Make You Happy
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on September 25th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on September 25th, 2014
I’ve often said that the purpose of swimming is the pursuit of happiness. (If you haven’t had the same thought, consider that the Dalai Lama has written that the purpose of life is the pursuit of happiness.) Indeed, my main reason for swimming open water events is anticipation of the happiness they’ll bring. My latest […]
Marilyn Bell Gets Her Mojo Back
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on September 10th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on September 10th, 2014
On Sept 9, 1954, Marilyn Bell. a 16-year old Toronto schoolgirl, entered the annals of marathon swimming, and left an enduring mark on Canadian sporting history by becoming the first person to swim across Lake Ontario. On January 28 of this year, I had the good fortune to meet Marilyn and, since then, the privilege of helping her return […]
Why Swimming Can Be More Beautiful Than Golf
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on August 12th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on August 12th, 2014
At the recent PGA Championship—one of golf’s four major championships—Tom Watson came within two strokes of making the cut to play to two final days. He did this less than a month shy of his 65th birthday. Watson, who was the top ranked player in the world for 5 consecutive years in the late 70s […]