Backstroke for Every Body
Better Fly for Every Body
Breaststroke for Every Body
Extraordinary Swimming for Every Body
Outside the Box:
Triathlon Swimming: Made EasyLast weekend, Friday Feb 28 to Sunday Mar 2 I joined coaches from Total Immersion-UK at a Triathlon Show in Sandown Park near London. Each day, I spent an hour demonstrating TI teaching methodology in an Endless Pool, coaching five swimmers for only 10 minutes apiece in each hour–a total of 15 swimmers over three […]
‘Moneyball’ Swimming: Learn to Analyze Your Training
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 26th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 26th, 2014
In late 2011, the Chicago Cubs hired the ‘baseball genius’ Theo Epstein away from the Boston Red Sox, where—while still in his 20s—he’d led the Red Sox to two. Epstein instead of being a former player guy was an Ivy Leaguer strong in the analytical skills increasingly valued in building pro sports teams. Yet after […]
The (Re-) Education of a Competitive Swimmer
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 23rd, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 23rd, 2014
This is a guest post by TI Coach John Fitzpatrick, head coach of the Chicago Blue Dolphin swim instruction and fitness program. I’d been a swimmer since early childhood, but I don’t feel like I started to understand swimming until the fall of 2000 when someone recommended I read Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to […]
Lessons in Mastery from Mikaela Shiffrin
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 16th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 16th, 2014
This week, if you watch the Winter Olympics–and pay little attention to skiing between Olympiads–you’ll be introduced to a remarkable young woman named Mikaela Shiffrin. Last year at 17 she won the world slalom championship. This season she attained almost unprecedented dominance in her specialty in World Cup races. To give some perspective to Shiffrin’s […]
The Evolutionary Instinct to Efficiency
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 15th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 15th, 2014
What’s the connection between evolution, snow-shoveling, and swimming-improvement? The past few days brought a snow-storm of historic proportions–18 to 24 inches, atop 10 inches from a week earlier. For me, that meant opportunity for my own ‘Winter Games.’ I’ve been skiing on a rail trail for the past week, and was anxious yesterday to get […]
T.I. (‘Tee-Aye’) Chi
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 7th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 7th, 2014
Brian Suddeth, a TI enthusiast from Bowie MD. has been helping a blind friend and co-worker, named Mark, to learn efficiency the TI way. Mark had attempted a marathon run, but suffered an injury and had to drop out. So his new goal is to complete a mile in open water, at the Great Chesapeake […]
Why I Count Strokes the Conscious (‘Hard’) Way
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 1st, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on February 1st, 2014
Earlier this month, TI Coach (and ‘Head Librarian’ of the TI Swim Academy) Mat Hudson wrote a blog titled Why Count Strokes? I urge you to read it — all the way through. It’s packed with invaluable insight and clear, compelling explanation. At the top, Mat enumerates his reasons for counting strokes. My favorites include: Counting […]
I Don’t Want to Become a Stiff, Sore Old Person
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on January 22nd, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on January 22nd, 2014
This is the second guest post by noted writer and blogger Mariah Burton Nelson. It’s an honor to feature a respected author and thinker like Mariah. We’re delighted she’s thinking a lot about her swimming now, and making connections between her TI practice and how she goes about the rest of her day. In A Splash-Free Life, Mariah wrote […]
Meditation, Marines, and Mindful Swimming
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on January 16th, 2014
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on January 16th, 2014
In the NY Times Magazine piece, Breathing In Vs. Spacing Out writer Dan Hurley describes the importance of balancing two types of thinking for optimal brain health. Hurley reports that the psychologist Amishi Jha used meditation to train United States Marines for mental resilience in a combat zone. (Are you surprised to learn this? I’m […]
A Splash-Free Life?
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on December 20th, 2013
by Terry Laughlin
Posted on December 20th, 2013
I’m delighted and honored to present this guest post from noted writer and blogger—and recent convert to ‘splash-free’ swimming—Mariah Burton Nelson. What would it mean to lead a splash-free life? To splash is “to cause water or other liquid to move in a noisy or messy way.” In swimming, leading a splash-free life means gliding […]