Triathlon swimming made easy by Terry Laughlin Read Free Book Online

happening under your body) to lengthening your body (concentrating on what's happening in front of your body). And that shift in focus will reduce your level of perceived effort. If you imagine you're sliding your arm through the sleeve of a jacket, you'll have it about right.
    3. Reach through, not over, the water. Slice your hand into the water fairly close to your head, then extend it just below the surface. Reaching over the water is more natural, but a hand in the air is a weighted object that makes balance more difficult. Moreover, it does nothing to increase the length of your vessel at the waterline (remember Froude). But extending your hand just below the surface gives you that extra length. To get this right, practice this while doing your TI freestyle "overswitch" drills, and later while swimming:
    • Have your hand barely clear the water on recovery.
    • Slide your hand back into the water almost directly in front of your nose.
    • Re-enter the water as if trying to cut a hole in the water with your fingertips and slip the rest of your arm cleanly through that hole.
    4. Reach with a "weightless" arm. If all your brain cells are shouting "Reach!" as your hand enters the water, but your hand still plunges toward the bottom as it enters, there are two possible reasons: either you haven't solved your balance problem (in which case, see #1 or review Chapter 5), or the force of habit is still too powerful. If it's the latter, you can correct it by a little creative self-deception: Pretend each stroke is your last of the lap, and reach forward as if for the wall before you begin the stroke. This will help you form a new habit of extending your hand weightlessly, effortlessly, and unhurriedly before stroking, as if it was just floating out in front of you.

    5. Use shoulder roll to extend your hand. Though you may feel as if your arm is weightless, don't feel as if it's disembodied. Use your arm as an extension of your torso. Work on this by extending each arm until you feel that shoulder touch your jaw; men with a bit of chin stubble should finish each practice with a small red spot inside each shoulder. An added dividend: More body roll will add an inch or two to your reach — and to the length of your vessel.
    6. Learn the "Switch," and practice "FQS." Swimming taller means you should always have one hand in front of your head —particularly at slower speeds — which also means that for a brief moment in each stroke cycle both hands should be in front of your head. This is known as FrontQuadrant Swimming (FQS), though many people confuse it with catchup swimming (a non-TI drill in which the recovering hand touches the extended hand before each stroke).
    As the photos show, our object is to learn to time strokes precisely so that one hand remains extended for slightly longer in each stroke, until the other hand is just about to enter the water. The quickest and easiest way to learn this is with our series of "Switch" drills, found on the Freestyle Made Easy DVD and in Chapter 10.
    7. Master one skill at a time. Swimming taller in freestyle involves more coordination than in other strokes. Avoid mental overload by learning the six stroke modifications just one at a time, in the order listed. Mastery of one will lead naturally tothe next. Spend 10 to 20 minutes of each practice on one skill, and focus on only one or two skills in each session. Allow yourself at least two to three weeks to incorporate each skill. Most important, don't rush to practice them in whole-stroke swimming. Star t with drills, then a mix of drill and swim. When you do begin wholestroke practice, focus on only one point a time. Whenever you swim, never push off a wall without knowing what skill you are really trying to do well.
    A Note on Front-Quadrant Swimming
    Among the many non-traditional recommendations in the first Total Immersion book, the most-debated was for Front-Quadrant Swimming mainly with regard to sprint swimming. Some critics