Triathlon swimming made easy

This is for Alice, th
e most generous and c
aring person I know a
nd my precious partne
r in life. She makes
it all possible.

Acknowledgments

Joe Friel and Lew Kidder shared priceless insights into the sport of triathlon.

All my Total Immersion coaching colleagues helped build "buzz" for TI among triathletes.

Bill Russell allowed us to use the Moriello Pool in New Paltz for photos used herein.

Thanks to Barbara Tomchin, Kermit Hummel and Rob Lias for demonstrating drills and open water techniques.

Thanks to TI coaches, Danielle Sepulveda and Theresa Tolbert on page 72, and Keith Woodburn on page 91 for buddy system and ZipperSkate demonstrations.

Thanks to Joshua Gold, Carol Charbono and Bob Wiskera for demonstrating the exercises in Chapter 19.

Barbara Tomchin, Tara Laughlin and John Delves turned my words into a book. Thanks to all.

And, as ever, thanks to Fiona, Cari and Betsy for humoring — and occasionally sharing — my lifelong swimming immersion.

Introduction

Why You Are About to Become a Transformed Swimmer!

In 1989, I began teaching adult swimmers at Total Immersion summer camps and was soon teaching a few hundred improvement-minded swimmers each year. Early on, few were triathletes; we were teaching all four strokes and triathletes were mainly interested in freestyle. In 19911 began writing for Triathlon Today magazine (now called Inside Triathlon) and began to see so many triathletes at my swim camps that, in 1993, we began offering freestyle-only programs. Triathletes flocked to these workshops and I recognized their powerful hunger for instruction in swimming technique.

In 1995 I published a book called
Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier,
which quickly became the best-selling book on swimming. Though I didn't write this book specifically for triathletes, thousands of multi-sporters made it their swimming bible and the number of triathletes attending TI workshops exploded.

Teaching thousands of triathletes has convinced me that
swimming for triathlon
(and swimming in open water) is a significantly different sport than competitive swimming (as in age-group, high-school, college, and Masters meets). While most triathletes copy the training programs of competitive swimmers, they shouldn't. Here's why:

• Competitive swimming is done mostly in pools;
triathlon swimming
is done mainly in open water.

• Competitive swimmers have spent years gaining specialized skill and experience; more than 90 percent of
triathlon swimmers
are relatively unskilled and inexperienced in swimming, but still need to swim well now.

• Competitive swimming events are primarily 200 meters or less;
triathlon swimming
happens mainly at distances greater than 400 meters, often much greater.

• Competitive swimmers need to swim with intensity;
triathlon swimmers
need to swim effortlessly.

• Competitive swimmers can be specialists;
triathlon swimmers
have to train seriously in two other sports.

Triathlon swimming
truly is a unique sport with unique challenges. This book focuses precisely on how to meet them, whether you are a first-timer seeking the confidence to tackle a long swim in open water, or an experienced competitor wanting to turn swimming into the best part of your triathlon.

The good news is that success at swimming for triathlon is far less dependent on "swimming talent" than you might imagine, and is actually within reach of every athlete. By mastering a finite set of easily learned skills, any smart and diligent athlete can swim dramatically better. I will guide you through that process in the pages to follow. By following this special Total Immersion
triathlon swimming
program, you'll learn to coach yourself so effectively that, within a short time, you will:

• Stand on shore at the beginning of any race and KNOW you can make the swim distance — and make it with ease.

• Know that you don't have to train as long or as hard in the pool as you thought.

• Know you really CAN master this sport that makes so many otherwise successful athletes feel unfit and uncoordinated.

Happy laps,

Tern' Laughlin
New Paltz NY

Terry,

I just got your book, Swimming Made Easy, read it in one sitting and got so excited I dashed off to the pool. I have never spent better time in the water. The first couple of drills felt really awkward at first; I couldn't breath without using my arms to stabilize. Then the balance started to come. So I just merrily floated backwards and forwards for over an hour. For the first time in my life, I had a pretty good idea of how the body should feel in the water. At the end I just couldn't wait to start doing a bit of freestyle and was blown away. So this is what swimming is supposed to be like. B
efore my balance practice, I'd done 25 meters in 23 strokes and 35 seconds. Afterwards, I did it in 15 strokes and 28 seconds with much less effort. I couldn't believe it, I was just gliding and my arm movements felt as though they were almost incidental to what was going on. After one session I can imagine how much energy I'll have for the bike and run. YEAH!

Every triathlete should experience what
77
swimming is like!! Kind Regards

Craig Abrahamson—Sunshine Coast Australia

The lesson: As with any learning process, you'll have ups and downs, experience moments when you wonder if you're doing the right thing, if you really have the ability to improve your swimming. But the value of swimming in an examined way is that your body is a marvelous learning machine and it WILL learn new skills whenever you focus on swimming as a learning experience, instead of as a training regimen. So just get started and trust the value of immersing yourself in a learning experience.