Teacher and Student: A TI Lesson from Two Points of View
- by Laurie Roberts and Kevin Millerick
Laurie’s Account:
I returned to competitive swimming two years ago at age 26, following a 13-year break. I discovered TI and was soon knocking chunks off my swim times. Then disaster struck. Last year I got tendinitis in my left shoulder and didn't manage a proper training session for the next six months, and four months of that I didn't enter the pool at all. It was so frustrating I considered giving up. At the start of the year I thought I'd give it one last go. I began swimming again, taking it easy, but could still feel some soreness in my shoulder. I concluded there must be something about my technique causing the problem and contacted Kevin Millerick of TI UK for some instruction. When we met, Kevin asked me to swim a 200 meter free and assessed my stroke.
Muscling my way through Swimming
- by Deborah Georges
Slither-slipping for the first time was novel, fresh, exhilarating, compelling! The ecstasy that washed over me was one of the joyous moments I’ve had since beginning TI this year. And it certainly trumps muscling as an experience.
Athletic since childhood, my greatest joy came from running. In high school, my muscular legs were a favorite target of neighborhood bullies. Rather than proudly embrace the genes I had inherited, I spent my adolescence trying to soften or hide my muscular build.
In my mid-20s, I ran my first marathon and became completely hooked. A decade later, with 21 well-performed marathons to my credit (two of them first place wins), I couldn’t have been more thankful for, or appreciative of, my muscular endowment.
A Beginner's Tale Test
- by Kevin Roman
I am not a triathlete. Nor am I a Master swimmer, and I only swam competitively until around age 13. What brought me to Total Immersion is that I’m a middle-aged guy with a desk job and a family history of heart disease, who needs more exercise and would like to enjoy it enough to stay with it.
I’ve always been a swimmer. I liked the rhythm of the laps. I liked losing myself in the water. I liked the way it made me feel. But my swimming was a fairly hit-or-miss deal. I would swim two or three times a week for 30 minutes, just back-and-forth. I enjoyed it, but often felt tired and sore after a workout. And I swam erratically: I’d swim regularly for a year or so, but then would irritate my back or shoulder and need to give it a rest. Or I’d simply lose interest, fall out of my routine, and stop swimming, often for a year or more.
Previous issues:
Help Create the next TI DVD!
Friends: For the first time, we're asking your input on an important question: What new products development should we prioritize? More importantly what new TI learning tools would address your greatest need or interest? While we’ve made these decisions via intuition for the last 16 years, when you enjoy the good fortune of a following as loyal and caring as ours, it simply makes sense to ask for advice.
Q & A
Kicking for the right reasons
I'd suggest that all TI swimmers should think of the primary value of what the rest of the world might refer to as "Kicking Sets" (We call it Balance Practice) as being a very revealing way to examine how "slippery" your bodyline is.
Swimming my way to a healthy back
- by Bruce Benning
I sacrificed a bit of convenience in switching from running to swimming as my primary sport. I could run anywhere – just head out my front door and turn right or left, while swimming requires a trip to the pool. But I’m delighted with an unexpected benefit – a stronger, straighter back than I’ve had in ages.
Rehab swimming continued: Fine muscle tuning
- by Terry Laughlin
I turn each set into a quest to wring as much stroke length and speed as I can from minimum muscle. At times I feel like an automotive engineer tirelessly tuning an engine to tease out a bit more horsepower while still increasing fuel efficiency.