just asking as i am not a good swimmer so I am thinking about taking some lessons regarding TI. any feedback?
Couple years ago a guy did TI…got slower.
I finally did a class earlier this and it has helped. I usually win or place high in my age group, but a horrible swimmer. I am talking about bottom 30% of swimmers. I am still not a fast swimmer, but swimming with my butt and legs out of the water. My legs used to sink and I now swim straight with little kicking. My form and rotation has greatly improved. My stroke count has dropped and I have improved on my times.
TI is not for everyone as I am sure someone will mention this this probably several times all you need is a master’s group or private lessons. A master’s group was not for me. I did the drills and workouts with a master’s group and got faster, but swim bad. Plus I am usually at work by 0530 when our area master’s groups are swimming. Worked with several coaches one on one and it did not help much.
You may want of buy the book and DVD. Be sure to get the revised book. TI is taught differently now that several years ago. I think at one time, the class was drills and some people never made it to swimming. The class I took was balance drill and swimming and ways to correct the issues.
I am sure by the time I post this, other will give you links to this topics. Say will say it hurt,others will say it helped, and most will say don’t waste your money unless you are a bad swimmer.
hope that wasn’t you!!! ha
actually, my legs and hips sink too. the only way i can keep them up is by keeping my head way down. I just want to get to a 1:40 pace, that’s all i want!
Just find a former college swimmer and work on your form. You probably need to get stronger so you need to do Vasa trainer and band workouts.
To get faster at swimming you just do a bunch of drills to keep your stroke mechanics correct and then you really need to get stronger and faster by doing broken sets that are timed. If you aren’t doing things for time, you won’t get faster.
I was a bad/slow swimmer and bought the book. Either it helped or lots of laps did. My swimming has changed a lot so I think it was both. At the time, 200 yards was not easily and I was exhausted. 3000 now is very do-able. Speed has not changed nearly as much as stamina.
It was a waste of money for me. Hard to beleive it’s still even out there to be honest.
Just find a former college swimmer and work on your form. You probably need to get stronger so you need to do Vasa trainer and band workouts.
To get faster at swimming you just do a bunch of drills to keep your stroke mechanics correct and then you really need to get stronger and faster by doing broken sets that are timed. If you aren’t doing things for time, you won’t get faster.
Damnit man. Facts, these facts you post are just to simple. Cant we all pay someone for something? 
At the time, 200 yards was not easily and I was exhausted. 3000 now is very do-able. Speed has not changed nearly as much as stamina.
Wait, wait, wait.
You’re swimming a lot more, but your speed hasn’t changed? That sounds to me like adaptation with crappy
form. The idea behind swim training is to get more endurance AND get faster. One or the other means
either your form isn’t getting better or it is and you’re not putting in enough swim time.
Maybe I’m just not understanding.
-Jot
For me, I cut 24% off my Sprint swim time at the same race over 2 years, but I increased my comfortable distance by 1400%. I’m much happier with a 1400% distance increase than a 24% time decrease. I should have been clearer, I was swimming 200 yards at the pace slightly slower than I now swim 3000 yards at.
So back to the original post, the book probably was worth the few dollars I paid, but the time invested in laps was worth much more.
TI isn’t a method of swimming, it’s a method of TEACHING swimming. The only thing that will help improve your times is improving your technique. If TI is the reference tool you use to do that, great, but… just get in the pool.
Ah. Ok, that makes more sense.
I was thinking of: I used to swim 100m in 02:00. Now I can swim 3000m in 60:00.
That didn’t make a lot of sense to me. 
-Jot
Just find a former college swimmer and work on your form. You probably need to get stronger so you need to do Vasa trainer and band workouts.
To get faster at swimming you just do a bunch of drills to keep your stroke mechanics correct and then you really need to get stronger and faster by doing broken sets that are timed. If you aren’t doing things for time, you won’t get faster.
hard to find a good swimmer. but you are right about doing correct stroke drill and the broken sets. the problem is that i am strong (i mean core strength etc) and have good endurance and stamina so doing broken sets with wrong technique does nothing for me. It is a bad feeling entering T1 at the last ten and then catching people on the bike and then burning out on the run, even though, i am a decent standalone runner. I wanna enter T1 somewhere in the middle!
I know, I know, it sucks. Heck, I’m a good swimmer and I hate swimming. It’s not thrilling getting out of the water first and then watching people gradually catch you in a race.
I really don’t get the affinity for the total immersion swimming lessons? It’s not hard to trouble shoot a swimming stroke if you are willing to take a few minutes out of your day to talk to someone else and ask them to watch you do a 50 or something. I’m betting you can stick a video camera on the deck and film yourself…it’s easy to see what you are doing wrong and would be a better use of your money. Post some videos here and me and others will comment.
Um, to the guy who thinks he’s strong but can’t get his stroke right… You might be strong, but there is strong and then there is swimming-strong. And dood, of course I don’t mean to encourage you to swim fast with bad technique. You must always practice swimming with good technique. For all three disciplines of the tri the key is to use proper form that looks effortless even when you are going all out. Remember that to swim properly you often have to start from square one. When kids get to college they usually get slower at first as the coaches rework their technique. It’s worth it because proper technique pays off.
This forum has a ton of threads on swimming technique. They have everything you need to know…for free.