Total Immersion

CarPark

I attended a recent Total Immersion weekend course in Dublin. I was asked to give a review of it, so here goes.

Background
I learned to swim when i was about 24 (I am now 30).
About three years ago, i completed a sprint distance triathlon.
I was happy overall, but i felt that my swim technique was poor. I was well able to get there, but it was more to do with brute force than any skill. I read up a bit online, and the focus seemed to be on reducing the number of strokes for a given distance. This equates with a more efficient stroke, which would i hope allow me to have at least the same speed, but with less energy.
I started counting my strokes, and i was doing 25-28 strokes for a length of a 25m pool. This is pretty poor. I went to three or four sets of lessons, but all we did was swim lengths. The focus was on building up our capacity (which i can do in my own time), and not on technique. Occassionally after swimming another ten lengths, the "instructor" might tell me to change one thing, but then he would forget about me for the rest of the "lesson", so it was very hard to improve.

I came across total immersion online. I bought the book and DVD (total immersion for triathletes - not the exact title, but something like that.). It was good, and i could see a difference, but while i could motivate myself to do laps on my own, i found it difficult to focus on technique week after week on my own. I suppose i really signed up for the course to give myself a kick start back into it.

Signing up.
The course is run by Total Immersion UK which is an offshoot of the "mother ship" in the US. It is expensive (~ €450). Signing up etc was straight forward and they posted me details, as well as a DVD of things to practice so that i could get the most from the course. All very professional.

The course.
The course was held in Ballymun swimming pool, which is a fine building. Underground car park looks a little dodge, but there is a security guard there and my car was fine all weekend.

It started around 9:30 on the first day. We had a brief classroom session and then into the pool. There were about 9/10 students and 3 instructors. One of these instructors is still competing his training, but you wouldn't notice much difference between him and the others.

They started off by videoing us swimming, both underwater and from above.
Next, they got into the pool with us. We started with the most basic steps, and the instructors were literally "hands-on" in moving us so that we were in the correct positions. They were patient, and we all mastered the basics before lunch.
After lunch, we watched the videos of our swimming, then back into the pool again.
It was a long day, with foru or five hours in the pool, but i learned a huge amount.

Sunday had an earlier start. It went well before lunch, but for me personally, we had learned so much all weekend, i really flagged after lunch. There were things that i just couldn't get and they seemed to race through a lot in the last portion, so that they could combine all of the drills into a proper swim.

Having said that, i still found it very useful, and a huge step forward from the book and video. Some changes have been made to the technique since the book and video, and these do seem to work a lot better. Also, it is very easy to missinterpret a book, and when you go to the course you can see exactly what is intended.

Overall, i am glad i went.
As for value for money? Well, the four sets of lessons which i mentioned above must have cost me about €240. I learned more or less nothing from these. I comparison, for €450 i learned a huge amount. It is a tight time for money, so the value-for-money threshold has gone up. I will only really know in a few months time if it has been value for money, but so far i am positive about it.

In particular, if any of the following applies to you, i think the course will appeal
- You HATE swimming courses where you swim endless laps every week with very little focus on technique.
- You have not gotten anything out of the use of pull bouys or boards.
- You think that your swimming uses up too much energy

I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions, post them here and i will try to answer.

liamo

Great report CarPark. Thanks for taking the time.

fade2che

Cheers for the review Carpark.

mickmc7

I'm trying to teach myself TI at the moment. I find the book very interesting(haven't got the dvd yet), but like anything its all about practice. The first couple of times in the pool I really felt like a pleb but I just hope it will be worth it in the long run. The most difficlut aspect so far is resisting the urge to swim a few lengths "the old way".

Ham Sandwich

Did you get much feedback during the course? How did the videos turn out? Was the quality high? When ye had the video session, was the feedback good? Did they target many issues with each persons video? Did they give out much material during the classroom session? Was it only F/C or all strokes? Sorry about all the questions, thinking of doing one and just wanna make sure its money well spent!