Terry Laughlin - Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any Stroke

Swimming Made Easy

Also by Terry Laughlin:

Books:

The Swimmer's Bible

The Swiminar Workbook

The Guide to Fishlike Swimming

Total Immersion:

The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier

Triathlon Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Anyone to Master Open-Water Swimming

Videos/DVDs:

Freestyle Made Easy - DVD

Four Strokes Made Easy - DVD (Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle)

Happy Laps - Video and DVD

Drill Cards:

Freestyle Made Easy Waterproof Drill Cards

This book is dedicated to all of those Total Immersion swimmers who have welcomed our books and videos, and particularly those who have attended our clinics, camps, and workshops since 1989. They have taught me far more about swimming than I ever imagined possible, and their curiosity and eagerness to learn have been a constant source of inspiration, allowing me to spend countless fulfilling hours working on deck at what I consider to be the best swim-coaching job in the world. Thank you.

TI for Every Stroke

Our previous books have focused exclusively on freestyle - though many of their lessons could be applied to any swimming style. This book is our first comprehensive written guide for becoming "fishlike" in all four strokes. The learning process that produced it is precisely the same as the one that preceded our books about swimming a fishlike freestyle: We went to the pool and taught hundreds of swimmers of all types. Since 1997, we have taught summer camps for swimmers age 8 to 17 and have added four-stroke weekend workshops. In all cases, we've had to get across the essentials of fluent swimming - the techniques that really matter - in just a few days while also preparing our students to coach themselves, and we had to do so for four strokes, not just one. So the need to streamline and simplify (and eliminate steps that are not truly essential and productive) has been even greater for the other strokes than it has been for freestyle.

At the same time, dozens of coaches who have adopted TI methods in their own age-group, high school, college, and Masters programs have shared their insights and discoveries to help us refine what we developed in the workshops. And finally, from 1996 to 1999,1 coached Division I collegiate swimmers at the US Military Academy - West Point. I worked primarily with the sprinters, coaching and teaching all four strokes, and found that the TI approach was equally effective with already accomplished college swimmers who needed to compete on the highest level.

One of the best rewards of teaching the other strokes is that our understanding of how to teach a fishlike freestyle has also improved, both generally and specifically. The exercise of teaching four strokes, rather than one, has shown us many additional ways to teach swimmers to be fluent. It has also brought an unexpected benefit: We have found that improved awareness of how to flow with and through the water can help any swimmer learn to swim any stroke better.

So, the good news is that if you've already learned to swim a better freestyle with our previous books and videos, this book - and the accompanying Four Strokes Made Easy DVD will bring you a whole new series of methods and approaches that can make you a more complete swimmer and make your freestyle faster, easier, and more fluent.

Finally, our thanks for allowing us the opportunity to help you improve your swimming. Without the thousands of faithful TI followers coming to us for instruction and providing invaluable feedback, we certainly would not have been able to learn all we have about how to make swimming a more joyful and satisfying experience.