Total Immersion Swim Coaching in Dublin

too_sleepy

Hello
I'm very new to triathlon and am really suffering in the swim. After doing some research I decided on the Total Immersion (TI) system of coaching as the fastest way of getting a decent stroke. Unfortunately the TI swim workshops are run at weekends, almost impossible for me to get a weekend off work and there aren't many in Ireland.
As a long shot I've contacted the guys at TI and they're willing to endevour to organize a mid-week freestyle workshop.

There's three of us from my work going to attend. We'd need eight to get this to work. If anyone is interested please let me know.

What's on offer is a freestyle workshop from the TI coaches, some great info here:
http://www.totalimmersion.co.uk/
It will be mid-week over two days.
It will be in a pool in DUblin.

No prices yet buy imagine it will be in line with the normal workshops.

Regards

Murraythree

I would definitely be interested.

tunney

Emmmmmm, emmmmmmm, emmmmmm.

Alot of the principals of TI don't stand up to scrutiny.

dario28

I dont know who to believe

Read the TI book watched the dvd - then went for a technique lesson and he told me the opposite

Head is melted

TI is supposed to be very expensive - but I am interested.....

Actually close to giving up swimming as I feel im getting no where so maybe thise may help

tunney

dario28 wrote: »

I dont know who to believe

Read the TI book watched the dvd - then went for a technique lesson and he told me the opposite

Head is melted

TI is supposed to be very expensive - but I am interested.....

Actually close to giving up swimming as I feel im getting no where so maybe thise may help

Interested will be along soon I am sure and is more experienced.

TI is expensive and most of the techniques to be honest are pretty suspect, they might make sense but then don't work.

In a nutshell show me an ITU or IM pro that swims anyway like them?
Or even a pool swimmer - thorpe, phelps, hackett???

griffin100

These guys are supposed to be good judging by some of the reviews, but its hard to know. The free dvd they did for 220 was good though and has certainly helped me.

http://www.swimfortri.co.uk/

They do weekends in Dublin.

dario28

griffin100 wrote: »

These guys are supposed to be good judging by some of the reviews, but its hard to know. The free dvd they did for 220 was good though and has certainly helped me.

http://www.swimfortri.co.uk/

They do weekends in Dublin.

Has anyone got a rip or torrent for that DVD ?

interested

tunney wrote: »

Interested will be along soon I am sure and is more experienced.

Id noticed your reply earlier and happen to agree with it so ...

Ive never seen the TI book but someone gave me a copy of their freestyle vid recently ... 30 seconds in I stopped watching it and then deleted the file. Up to yourself what you guys read from that.

If you cant do weekends due to work commitments you might be stuck. Although I know Swim for tri do workshops ... and offer a service at any time in their endless pool ... problem is - thats in England.

From a bit of light reading recently, I noticed that the new wheelworx shop is intending to open an endless pool facility in April / May so ... Im sure Rob Cummins has thought of offer stroke analysis sessions etc ... (Im in no way connected with them but its the only one of its kind I know about in Ireland)

In a nutshell show me an ITU or IM pro that swims anyway like them?
Or even a pool swimmer - thorpe, phelps, hackett???

A very fair point - leaving phelps and thorpe aside - Grant Hackett and Kieran Perkins dominated distance swimming for a long long time. Their strokes underwater are probably the most efficient you'll see.

Back to the OP -
What are you hoping to get from a total immersion course ?
To get you started ?
Is it to kick start your tri season ? is it to help you swim faster ?
To put you on the right path to practice good stroke whilst swimming ?


Im sure theres already a tonne of personal swim coaches with lane time mid week to help out people .... again, similar to another thread there recently - getting access to a good coach that understands your objectives (which may be 'help me go faster in the sea' and not 'make my stroke luck purty')

Anyhow - good luck with the swimming.

dario28

Back to the OP -
What are you hoping to get from a total immersion course ?
To get you started ?


Personally I'd like to be able to swim more than 3 lengths in a row without being wrecked and I'd like consistent info - I can swim 1km in 30 mins but no more than 3 in a row

This site looks good
http://www.swimsmooth.com/catch_adv.html

But I went for a lesson and the guy told me the stuff from the "misconceptions" sections is what I should be doing

tunguska

Id be interested in that myself. I use the TI techniques but I only have ever worked from Terry Loughlins book. So would be good to get some coaching

jonnyfingers

I'd like to play Devil's Advocate to both tunney and interested's views.

I started triathlons three years ago. I had swam competitively from age 6 up to 14. Then took a break from swimming until age 25 (three year's ago when starting triathlon training).

So I had the classic swimmer's foundation of being taught by a club coach in the traditional way, s-shape pull and all, and had plenty of years to drill the fundamentals into me.

My girlfriend bought me the Total Immersion book for Christmas during my first tri training season. I "aquired" the dvd also! I read the book and was curious about what it had to say as it went against the way I was traditionally trained how to swim. As I had not done any swimming training for over 10 years I decided it would be a good time to give the TI method a go.

For me, swimming is like riding a bike, you never really forget how to do it. So I worked hard for a couple of months to forget my old habits and try and learn the TI ones. Yes I looked stupid in the pool swimming very slowly and doing a wierd underwater stroke, as is one of the steps in the book, and every now and again I'd do a fast length in my old style just to stop the other swimmers laughing! But I stuck with it and got most of the TI technique down.

The result? I felt much more efficient in the water, rolled much more from side to side with each stroke, used far less strokes to cover the same distance as before, and as a result I didn't feel as tired after a long distance swim.

So is TI the holy grail of swimming technique? Far from it. I found it limiting to swim fast using the technique, especially sprinting. The "head down" position is also tough to keep in open water as you have to lift your head quite often to sight. Also in a pool you could swim straight into someone and not even see them.

For those reasons that's why I think you'll never see a Phelps, or someone similar, using the TI technique.

As for an example of an Ironman swimmer using TI technique, again most would have come from a traditionaly swimming background and are happy with what they have rather than spend good training time starting from scratch with a new technique.

However as a method for teaching a complete novice how to swim efficiently I think it's very good.

I now used a sort of mix between TI technique and the traditional technique. In triathlons I do use the TI technique in the middle of the swim to save energy for the bike and run and still keep my speed relatively up. At the start and finish I may use my old sprinter's technique to get position. It works for me, personally, and it's usually good for the top 50 in most sprint triathlons.

As for spending the money on an expensive TI training course, I'm not so sure. If you have years of swimming behind you I don't think it will help. If you're brand new to swimming and only want to be able to swim reasonably well and efficiently then have a look at the book first and see if you like what you see. If so, and you have the money, do the TI course. Then get back to us to see if it was worth it!

too_sleepy

Hi
Great to see some discussion about the TI method.
Anyone interested please send me a PM with some contact details and I'll update you as soon as I hear back from the TI coaches.

For me I want a course to kick start my swimming. I'm certainly a beginner, I started training for triathlon last year and read too much about swim technique. Rather than improving over the summer I got worse. in the end I couldn't swim 4 lengths. I know it's not the holy grail but it beats splashing around in the pool for another year.

tyler71

I was in a similar boat in that I had started triathlon and TI seemed to be the way to go to get a faster swim - well it's not. Persevered for over twelve months with all the drills and end result? 25-30% SLOWER than with my previous rubbish technique. If you want to swim long distances slowly with minimal effort it's probably ok but it will not make you faster.
After finally giving up on it, I went to a qualified swim coach and did some one-on-ones and went with a standard swim technique - my OD swim times dropped ten minutes. So my advice would be just to get a session or two with a good swim coach

too_sleepy

Hi

Just in case anyone has an interest. Were probably off to Belfast on April 7 and 8 (or maybe 14 and 15) for the freestyle workshop. There will be video analysis of your stroke before and after the two days of coaching. If anyone would like a place please let me know.