Swim Coach Yoda

When Luke Skywalker went looking for the great Jedi Master to learn the way of The Force he didn’t expect to find the shriveled mini-martian Yoda. But what Luke learned from this offensive little back-planet specimen was that it did not matter what kind of body The Force flowed through, but what kind of mind. [...]

Help For Sinkers

This is a re-post of a response I gave on the TI Coach Forums. I thought it may be helpful to some of you who have a friend or personally experience problems with planing too low in the water while swimming- making breathing and stroking much more difficult. Without giving the previous coaches story for [...]

Change Is Risk

I’ve heard of this scenario a few times now- a swimmer comes to a TI course, realizes the physics and physiology behind the concepts, surrenders to the learning process, then begins to practice a new stroke skill with some success and growing excitement. Then she returns to her regular coach to show off the new [...]

Balance- On Land vs. In Water

I have been helping many of my swim students recognize the critical role that a firm core muscles (think spine held firm like an arrow, from tail bone to crown of your head) play in holding balance in the water. How can I, the teacher, hold Skate Position (rotated to about 30 degrees) indefinitely without [...]

Cross-Cultural Coaching Pt 1- HOPE

By invitation I’ve started to work with a local age-group swim club here in Antalya. It’s all in Turkish of course, which places me in a great language learning (stretching) situation. I am excited at this opportunity for many reasons, but most of all I am confident that the simple TI foundation of Balance, Streamline, [...]

Train Like Michaelangelo

What has been so helpful to me in TI is that it provides a framework for examining a swimmer’s stroke and making corrections in the right order. The 3 TI Principles: (% emphasis is my interpretation) BALANCE – 60% of excellent swimming STREAMLINE – 30% of excellent swimming PROPULSION – 10% of excellent swimming – [...]

Swim Like You Kayak

By invitation, I spent 2 hours in the pool last night observing my Turkish swim coach friends 15 swimmers, all around 9-12 yrs old. While all were working just as hard, stroking away madly, the most remarkable difference between the best swimmers in the lane and the worst was how straight and long they kept [...]

What Is Total Immersion Swimming?

I’ve written a brief 3-part introduction, from my perspective, as to what TI offers as a technique for shaping a swimmer’s form, and as a technique for training a swimmer to acheive optimal performance. I’ve posted these on our Mediterra International Swimming site: TI As A Technique For Swimming TI For Training 101 TI For [...]

Coaching in Portland Oregon USA

I am back in the Pacific Northwest USA for 3 weeks. I have been joined by TI coaches Shane Eversfield and Ryan Chapman to lead TI 1.0 and 2.0 workshops this weekend at Allstar Fitness in Portland, Oregon. We had two students today, and with such a small group we could give totally customized lessons. [...]

Louganis Got Me Started

It was the summer of 1988. I was an active, but small, skinny 15-year-old high school boy without a sport I felt a passion for. Greg Louganis was a highlight of the Olympics that year, so I was naturally drawn to watch him during that famous 5 Gold Medal summer of his. The first thing [...]