Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1244 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-21
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
Even though swimming is the closest thing to a perfect exercise you can name, too few people experience its full benefits. That's because most find themselves fighting to stay afloat, struggling for air, and feeling exhausted after just a lap or two, all of which makes this perfect exercise frustrating, laborious, and complicated. For the past fifteen years, veteran swim coach Terry Laughlin has been teaching adults how to swim better - and enjoy it more - by using his simple and original techniques. Laughlin turns traditional swimming beliefs inside out as he explains that it's technique - not athletic ability - that makes a strong swimmer. Laughlin teaches 'Fishlike Swimming,' focusing on slipping through the water rather than using muscle to overpower it. The key is working with the water, not against it - learning to swim ever faster and farther without losing a sense of flow, grace, economy, and balance.

From the Author
Master swimming as an art before training for it as a sport.
I've been swimming (in training and competition) for 32 years, since the age of 15, and coaching for 26 years. In particular, I've spent the last 10 years intensively teaching improvement-minded adult swimmers in weekend workshops. I've distilled all those experiences into the guidance included in this book. If I had one goal in mind in writing this it was to make Total Immersion the most immediately useful how-to book available for swimmers. My promise to my readers is that I'll provide real, practical, detailed, complete and -- most of all -- clear and simple how-to information. I've been delighted to hear from so many readers that this book has been their favorite road map to achieving greater satisfaction with their swimming than they had thought possible. Happy laps, Terry Laughlin

Customer Reviews

Strung out and waffly - hoping it has potential
I'm sure this book has potential, as the reviews suggest, but it is very waffly and there is a lot of hype in the book. The first few chapters kept talking about how revolutionary the idea is and how it really works. After a few chapters of this, I got bored and impatient and put the book down. I hope that once I've overcome these frustrations, I'll try to reference the necessary information, which I'm sure is very useful.

Persist with the book please!
If you are like me - a cheap student who likes to teach themselves everything, this book is perfect! yes it can be alot to get through, especially the 1st 100 pages! But the drills are excellent, I have made such and improvement in only a few days. Not only that but i enjoy swimming now! and manage to find the time to go everyday! where before I used to dread it!

for 5.99 what have you got to loose? you will not be dissappointed!

Excellent instructions on how to swim freestyle
A few months ago I was unable to do a couple of laps of a 25m swimming pool without much puffing and panting. I am 48 years old.
Having bought the book in June 07, based on good feedback from this site, I am delighted to report that I can now swim with much more ease and my stroke is very different from what it was.
I've deligently followed the drills suggested, on my own, and I can now swim a lap with 18 strokes (i.e 9 arm cycles), which is a huge improvement for me. The drills show you how to balance in the water, how to create a streamlined shape, and how to generate propulsion to move forward. Some of the drills do not look or feel like 'swimming' but they are all relevant and are important for the final result.
The author goes into much theoretical and technical detail to back up his method and it all make sense but you can skip much of it. Chapter 8, which has detailed information on how to do the drills is the one to read, re-read and understand fully.

Highly recommended.