Sad news, although I did not know him personally, he has been a part of the sport of triathlon and swimming for my entire sporting life. Seems like a lot of people liked the dude, what happened? I don't think he was more than a few years older than me. Always scary when people in your neighborhood die, sucks getting older..

Was fighting cancer the last two years.

Oh darn....what a bummer. First Doug Stern, now Terry?

Yep, a lot of us are getting older

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That is so sad. Effectively taught me to swim. Wasn't he in Kona?

Last Twitter post was on Thursday although might be the TI account is maintained by someone else.

"Setting out for a morning swim, armed with smiles and focal points. It’s a beautiful morning here in Kona, HI."

About eleven years ago I was in the lobby of our local pool waiting for my then 5-year-old to finish lessons. Someone had a pinned a newspaper article about TI onto a bulletin board. I was "taught" to swim in the mid-1960s in the classic Tarzan style. No wonder I'd always hated swimming. But here I was, past 40, starting to gain weight, and I thought "why not?"

So I bought the book, read it. Then I bought the video, watched it. Eee...ven...ually I mustered up the nerve to go to my work (university) pool and try it out. Within two weeks I could (slowly) swim half a mile without stopping. Within a month it was a mile. Last week in Louisville I completed my second Ironman and I've done the Chesapeake Bay Bridge swim and many many open water events.

Yes, eventually I had to move on from TI in order to get faster. But TI got me started and eventually led me to triathlons. Today at 54 I'm in vastly better shape than I was at 34. Terry Laughlin deserves a lot of credit for changing my life. RIP.

Also I can credit Terry for my first sub 60 min IM swim. I know Total Immersion gets slammed around here, but I think it was back around 1993, where I took getting more streamlined to heart and try to configure my body like a torpedo at all times. That made all the difference. I went from 62 min in Penticton the year before to 54 min in Roth (add 3 min to that Roth swim time to get a real Penticton time). Then I had neck and shoulder injuries form accidents and the perfectly honed streamline went to shit...largely back to over 60 min since then. Been working a lot on that again the last 4 months 20+ years later and it is all coming back. During an 8K lake crossing out and back swim, I hit the 3.8K point at 58 minutes again! Underwater streamline rules. Terry had a big part in that even though I did not meet him personally. Just applied what he was talking about.

Well that sucks. He was an industry mover for sure. I still can't figure out if Sun Yang's 1500m style is total immersion or not. Sure looks like it and was crazy fast.

Edit: Looked up an article and it totally is, but by accident.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

What your statement hits on is the vast number of people who came to swimming the way you did.

Not lessons, not a group, but in a bookstore reading something. A little scared to join the masters swim team, hell, a little scared to put on the bathing suit. You had a book and video that said, "If you do this, you will be able to swim very far with very little effort."

And mostly, it delivered. It wasn't a collection of disjointed tips, it was a "start here, then this, then that, and you'll be able to swim a long way." And that is unique in the popular swimming media. I haven't seen anything else that a new swimmer, who took swim lessons as a kid and that's it, could pick up and in 4ish weeks be swimming. Most everything else assumes you can already swim, or is aimed at people afraid of the water.

In the tri and swim community we often got wrapped up in pointing out where it came up short, but we forget the thousands of swimmers and hundreds of coaches for whom the base was the Total Immersion way of teaching. Yes we differed with it, but Terry Laughlin was the guy who established what we differed from, and that deserves a lot of respect.

I'm sure in this thread we will see lots of people who will say they got started with the Total Immersion book, maybe they moved past it - but it got lots of us in the water.

+1. Changed my life by opening up triathlon to me, turning me from an increasingly sedentary 40-year-old to a daily exerciser.

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<The Dew Abides>

Count me among those masses. It got me balanced, and comfortable with a rational stroke count, and feeling relaxed from one end of the pool to the other.

Now my wife wants to learn to be proficient. Not to be fast, just so that she can swim comfortably in the water. My immediate reaction to her was, "Here's my TI book."

Sun Yang looks like text book Total Immersion + massive propulsion layered on top of TI!

Yeah, Yang's one "fault" (I wish I had his speed) was arcing his head up so high to breathe. But his videos show him so far underwater, I'm not sure there was any other way for him to get air.

I once argued with Terry that TI was good for beginners only. Then I saw Yang swim and was blown away. I couldn't have been more wrong. Props to Terry!

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

Man that's a bummer. He wasn't even 'old' by my standards. Very sad, and I wish his family the best.

I credit Total Immersion with allowing me to start triathlon. I overall actually really don't like the book - I honestly felt like I was sold snake oil BIG-time in that I was supposed to 'swim fast, by going easy!' (he literally says that in his book, and hammers that theme throughout), and as a pretty decent bike/runner for my AG, I figured I'd at worst get to the MOP by following his book and recs to the T. Man, was that a ruuude awakening when I was bottom 10-20% of the AG for 1.5 years of really trying to improve swimming TI-style. It took me another 3 years to even get to 50% AG in the swim!

Still, I gotta credit that snake-oil for being what I needed to start triathlon. For sure, if someone told me the truth, that swimming can be SUPER hard for the not-talented, and that I'd be doomed to BOP status for 3 years despite my best efforts, no friggin way I would have started up triathlon/swimming. So big thanks to Terry, despite the TI not working out for me once I was past raw beginner.

As an aside, I'll also add again that friggin' love my Vasa erg. I used it a lot less this past season due to time constraints, using my limited swim time to go to the pool, but lately I've commited again to getting better at the swim over the winter and started doing hammering workouts on the Vasa again regularly. It totally trashed my arms (ouch!) but then I promptly went into the pool and outperformed my prior season swim benchmarks within the first week of busting tail on the Vasa again - it really pumps up those swim muscles! I def swim best when not doing all pool ,but by also doing HARD erg workouts (which can actually be <30 mins, but they've gotta be HARD!) in combo with pool swimming. I suspect I might even swim even better with 80% erg/20% pool for real...but it's hard to not swim at lunch when you're paying $1000+/yr for pool access...

The burying of his head almost feels like the underwater phase of the fly stroke. Basically with the head like the sharp point of the torpedo. The harder third kick of his 6 beat kick kind of pops the head up like the harder second kick of the fly (but in a more subtle way).....if does not seem like he is lifting his head much...it just kind of pops up as a counter to the hard kick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvM3JYC--hM

Other than that his underwater position looks exactly like TI

New Paltz, NY just got a little smaller, he will be missed. Rest well, Terry

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Sad news.

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Train safe & smart
Bob

Count me among that group. I bought the book, then the video, then took the clinic in the late 90's. To Terry's theory, I didn't get much faster, but I swam so much easier. That weekend was one of the best investments I've ever made toward my triathlon habit.

Always wanted to try one of his clinics just to see what I could learn (or not). The knowledge of different approaches is really what intrigues me with T.I. I won't have his clinic to check it out now--but RIP Terry. A man who worked to make the world a little better for swimmers through his belief he had something of value to teach, very commendable.

Definitely true for me.

I was super intimidated when I started, and it put me off the sport for years. I grew up in CDA and always saw the race; wanted to get involved for as long as I could remember, but it took me until after college to put my big boy pants on and learn to swim. Even then, just did a community adult learn-to-swim, and then a BUNCH of YouTube and the Ruth Kazez 0-700/0-1650. I'd *still* feel outclassed showing up to Master's, but yeah, point being: I feel like a decently strong-willed person, and lots of adults are really put off by admitting "I freaking SUCK at this, I need to change that." Same thing for running. YouTube and run clubs are popular, but Hal Higdon and Terry Laughlin are probably the people really advancing the sport.

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JustinDoesTriathlon

Owner, FuelRodz Endurance.

Well said Kevin in MD.

RIP Terry.

Sad to read this as I too read his book. RIP!

I'm very sorry to hear this news. I read the book and took a TI clinic as an AOS at age 49. Like most, I've moved beyond TI, but it sure helped back when I swam like I had been shot through the shoulder.

Sad indeed. My deepest sympathy and best wishes for his family.

I'll second a well said kevin in md.
given that he addressed what is likely the highest hurdle to the sport, (wonder if there's any good stats on that) his role in the big growth cycle of triathlon was invaluable.

RIP Terry Laughlin

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