Product Description

This work is a reference on competitive swimming, including information on stroke technique and training methods for swimming. This updated edition includes new photographs of world-class swimmers that make it easy to visualize proper techniques. It provides technique analysis of the four primary strokes: front crawl; backstroke; breaststroke; and butterfly. It also provides the physiology behind the most effective training methods, detailed sample workouts and training programmes for each event.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34468 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 800 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent reference for efficient swimming
I bought this book because I was after a book on swimming technique. This book was just what I was looking for. It goes through technique for each of the competitive strokes and explains all of the subtleties of how to swim most efficiently and why you need to do each of the different things mentioned. It has references to scientific studies that back up the recommendations on technique in the book.

The book covers in great detail the areas of technique, training (including it's effect on your body and how to maximise it's effects) and racing.

It's the 3rd book by the same author written over a span of 20 years as a swimming coach. It includes updates of things he's learnt over this time and comments on things that he's changed from the previous books and why he changed them.

This isn't an idiot's guide to swimming, but it's a great reference for anyone who wants to learn how to swim well.

The definitive book on swimming?
Swimming Fastest seemed like a rather expensive book - at least until it arrived and I realized that it was the size of an encyclopaedia! But it is not just in terms of quantity that it represents excellent value; the quality of the book is outstanding too.

Everything the swimmer could possibly need is contained in this book. It covers the technical aspects of each stroke in great detail. The physiology of exercise, design of training programs and competing are all covered in depth.

Maglischo is very candid about errors in his thinking about swimming which he presented in previous editions of the book. For me it was a mark of his authority that he has the confidence and humility to admit to past mistakes.

Reading some swimming books it is easy to get the impression that there is only one way to swim correctly and that swimming in the `right way' is the be-all and end-all of swimming. Maglischo not only tackles the errors which are put forward by some of these swimming methods but also highlights how some of the great swimmers have diverged from orthodoxy. In comparison with Maglischo, other authors often come across as rather dogmatic and rigid. He seems to have found a middle way that allows for technical improvement whilst retaining the individuality of the swimmer.

It may be a bit too detailed for any but the most serious lap swimmer but for any competitive swimmer or coach this book has to be at the top of the list.

Swimming Fastest
This is the only book you will ever need to read. It has everything from technique to psychological preparation. There is not another book that could possibly inform you on any more, on any subject. It includes case studies of elite performers to illustrate specific points and provides an in depth scientific insight to explain how and why biomechanical and physiological elements work. It is more than 5 stars.