Product Description

Swimming improves your flexibility, tones your body and can help to boost your self-esteem and produce a sense of well-being. It is the nation's most popular sporting activity with 11.9 million people swimming regularly. However, most people don't know how to swim properly. This book is based on a 35-year voyage of discovery into the art of swimming. Steven Shaw's method takes the Alexander Technique into the swimming pool - focusing on releasing tension from the head, neck and back. Steven has evolved a unique way of breaking down strokes into a series of therapeutic movements, which can be practised individually or with a partner, in a pool or on dry land. These provide the building blocks, which combine to make it possible for anyone to recraft their own strokes in a way that promote good body use and avoid injuries. Instead of performing physical actions in an automatic way, you begin to learn body awareness. This way of swimming not only feels freer and more open, it is graceful and has a sense of flow, often absent from the way many people swim. Shaw looks at the most popular strokes - front crawl, back stroke, breast stroke and butterfly - focusing on maximum efficiency and minimum strain.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #252029 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Steven Shaw learned to swim at an early age and soon became a competitive swimmer. In 1990 he started the three-year Alexander Technique teacher training course and during this time he explored his relationship with the water which has led to his new and very successful teaching approach: The Shaw method. This method has had huge acclaim over the past 10 years and Steven holds workshops and courses all over the world. He lives in North London.

Customer Reviews

It works!
After several years of unpleasant struggle to learn to learn front crawl as an adult, this book has brought me the success that I have been looking for and much more besides.

I work as a professional in ski teaching in the mountains in France and so I am very aware of many aspects of learning and teaching physical activity. 20 years in full time teaching has demonstrated to me that about 90% taught in any subject is guaranteed to be wrong information and that if a person is struggling and suffering then the fault is nearly always in the approach taken in either the learning or the coaching.

Swimming seems to be the same as in skiing in that instinctive movements cause a great deal of trouble and only learned movements work properly. Shaw bases his approach on this principle by directly relating it to Alexander Technique - which is about awareness of the body.

Swimming is also similar to skiing in that much is normally left down to natural selection. Awareness and understanding in both cases can circumvent this issue and bring amazing results with both adults and children - who would otherwise be sidelined. I was personally in the process of being sidelined as a swimmer and no friend or coach could really get me close to where I wanted to be. Shaw's book did the trick 100%. Suddenly I'm really enjoying my swimming. A kilometre of crawl isn't long enough or tiring when before I started the book 100m was my comfort zone limit.

It's a whole new universe of excellent experiences being just given to you. I was already a competent swimmer in general and a qualified open water diver - but was always reduced to zero by the crawl. I can also see now how incredibly inefficient most of the other swimmers are around me. How they strain their necks and their shoulders. All this was invisible to me before reading the book. The feelings of gliding and how all the actions coordinate are just great. I never thought I'd discover that water could be so much enjoyment and that it could be related to in this way.

I think there are very few swimmers at any level who would not get something out of this book.

UPDATE 20 Nov 2008
I've been using this material for almost 6 month's now and I still stand by all that I wrote before. However to go further I bought "Swimming Faster" by Maglischo. Swimming Faster is a massive text book and it is packed full of really useful information. I have found this necessary to add to my understanding. Without the foundation built on Steven Shaw's book I would not be able to make use of the detailed technical information in "Swimming Faster". Swimming Faster gives essential additional information and I'm sure there is no other book on the market that comes close to it - but the difference is that it doesn't teach you how to swim when you are at a fearful or demoralizing stage - and Shaw's book really does. Once you have passed the difficult stage then I strongly recommend Swimming Faster.

The book's good ... the real thing is better
Steven Shaw is an inspiring swimming teacher, who applies the Alexander Technique to his methods. I bought the book after a one-day workshop on the crawl with Steven, which was really good. The book's useful for reinforcing some of the ideas, but it's no substitute for proper, real, in the water tuition. Trying to understand the different elements and stages of a swimming stroke is very, very difficult from a book.

Excellent guide, even without session with author
To criticise a book because it's no substitute for a session with the author is about as helpful as rating the Bible account of the Sermon on the Mount two stars because it's not as good as having been there to hear it. Shaw's book has been a great help to me. Teaching muscles the right kind of movement on land before entering water makes sense. And breaking down the strokes - all the main styles, by the way - into separte steps is immeasurably better than being thrown in the deep end. The book has helped me improve my swimming, and without any other training. What else can you ask of it? Well, it falls short of five stars for me because some of the instruction is confusing and writing is ploddy in parts. I hope it returns to print soon. I've been recommending it to friends. Come on, publisher!