Opinions on Total Immersion seem to be all over the board.
Has anyone been through a Total Immersion swim clinic? If so, what did you think?
I was thinking about it but my friend took one and said it was a mind bender as you have to relearn swimming from their perspective. While he liked the clinic a lot and fel tit would ultuimately be benficial, he suggested it was best taken in the off season when you have a ton of time to devote to swimming alot. Other than that it’s gotten great reviews.
Do actually learn how to fully swim by the end of the clinic, or are you left doing underswitches and overswitches drills???
Yes you do quite a bit of swimming for the second day. I did a weekend clinic about 2 yrs ago. I was a “novice” swimmer at best and now feel like I could swim forever. I might not be fast, but I am comfortable in the water. You start out very very basic with how to float and it really does build on itself from there. Also, with the way they teach it, you become VERY comfortable breathing on both sides…I highly recommend it.
I have the Total Immersion DVD, Open Water Swim book, and pool drill cards. I have spend a fair amount of time looking at this stuff and it has done me no good. In general I don’t like to post negative things about Tri oriented products, but I feel that I have wasted my time and money on these. Tim
I’ve tried the clinics, the video and the book. The problem for me is, as they will admit, until you really get the hang of it, you’re going to be slower. This can take a lot of time. My race schedule hasn’t given me that luxury, so I always default back to what I know best - the standard front crawl.
I am sure I could benefit from one-on-one instruction, too, but for some reason, the local instructor here won’t return my e-mails or phone calls.
The big question is: Where are you at now? And what’s your background?
There are certain concepts that tend to be problems for newer swimmers that TI is very good addressing.
If you’ve got a fish background, or otherwise have a decent stroke, that’s where it can get kind of hit or miss. With that group, there are some people who will get some benefits from a Clinic, and another type of swimmer that can screw up their stroke horribly with TI.
Thanks for all of the quick replies.
I have very little swimming experience, and am a VERY slow swimmer with poor balance. As an example, I swam the FL HIM in about an hour…
I’m doing IM Fla in Nov and would love to post at least a respectable swim time, e.g. 1:30 or so.
I’ve made a lot of progress swimming a few times a week with a masters group over the last couple of months, although am always looking for ways to improve.
The big question is: Where are you at now? And what’s your background?
There are certain concepts that tend to be problems for newer swimmers that TI is very good addressing.
If you’ve got a fish background, or otherwise have a decent stroke, that’s where it can get kind of hit or miss. With that group, there are some people who will get some benefits from a Clinic, and another type of swimmer that can screw up their stroke horribly with TI.
Been to the clinic and to the studio. Went from not being able to swim to being able to swim ok to being FOP swimmer with their methods. (Assuming FOP means top sixth of the field in my AG).
Just remember there are no quick fixes but TI will set you on the right path.
How slow do you want to swim?
I took a TI clinic during the offseason, this past winter. It helped me a lot.
(I had looked at a DVD previously, but the DVD didn’t help me much because there was nobody there to look at my stroke.)
A lot depends on the QUALITY OF THE INSTRUCTOR. My TI instructor was really good. She noticed, and corrected a lot of things about my stroke that two different coaches on my Masters swim team had failed to notice.
I definitely got faster. And the “faster” was the result of 2 months of purely swim-technique focus (I was doing LESS yardage than usual and NO intervals during this time). I can “feel” the greater efficiency of my stroke now, the glide, the properly timed hip rotation and two-beat kick.
But I am a relative novice, and slow. I am not at all sure how the faster/more experienced swimmers in my TI class would have rated it.
Take it in the off-season. To get the most out of it, you’ll be doing a LOT of drills and relatively slow swimming, for about 2 months, before your new form feels totally natural and you can use it to swim fast.
Maybe you were good to begin with?
I was a train wreck. The book and DVD have been a godsend. In a few months my stroke changed so much that my closest friend didn’t even recognize me in the pool one day.
The clinic is VERY expensive thought. Can’t imagine it’s worth that much money. I could but better wheels.
Here’s the video if anyone wants to try-before-you-buy: http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3589519/Total_Immersion_Freestyle_[xvid].avi
The clinic is VERY expensive thought. Can’t imagine it’s worth that much money. I could but better wheels.
Very good point. I’d do the clinic if it came with a free aero helmet or aero front wheel. 
I’d say the clinic may well be worth it because TI is good at helping people figure out balance issues and getting you through a swim without panicing.
Just keep in mind that they offer one perspective on how to get to the other side of the pool, and that to go from MOP to FOP, there may come a time when you need to change things up in a way that seems to contradict some of what TI says to do.
Could you be more specific about how improving your stroke might contradict some of what TI recommends? I took a TI-based class, and it helped me improve my balance and form. I’m still quite slow, and so I took a one-hour coaching session with a non-TI expert while I was out of town. I’m particularly struggling with the TI’s advice about gliding. Do good swimmers glide at all after their hand entry, or do they just enter, anchor, and pull?
was able to increase my 20 x 100’s on 1:45 times by 5-7 secs per 100. just meant i had less time to recover. got rid of terry and his bs …glide, glide,glide while people smoke you on the swim.
I used the TI techniques to go from being a novice swimmer to someone who finishes ahead of 80% of my age group at IMC. Now the really fast guys in my age group are still about 10 minutes faster than me, which is quite a lot, but I’m still very pleased with what I have learned from TI (book and video).
It seems that in the past when this topic has come up here, the majority have supported the idea that TI is particularly good for novices and is debatable for fast swimmers.
Also, FLA Jill"s swim advice on this forum has consistently made sense to me.
I went to a TI clinic in February. I felt that it improved my stroke quite a bit. However, as some of the other posters mentioned, I was actually quite a bit slower for the first couple months after the clinic, until I got the hang of the new technique. Therefore, I would definitely recommend doing it in the off-season.
My only disappointment with the clinic was that we didn’t do any actual swimming – just two full days of drills. The drills were helpful, but I would have liked to get some coaching on my actual swimming technique. Overall, I felt like it was a worthwhile investment, and I was glad I went.
Where do I signup for Total Slowash***? I really want to learn how to swim that slow. As a matter of fact, I want someone to teach me how to hang my elbow in the air for 3 seconds so I can lose time before the catch. Then I want to learn how to tuck my chin at my chest to stair at the black line. Nevermind the old rule about the water hittin’ at the edge of my swimcap. Where is this? How do I sign up for Total Slowash*** because I have 500.00 dollars to blow on a clinic this month.
It looks, to me, that there is variation (maybe quite a bit) between one TI clinic and the next.
I lucked out with,
- A very talented coach,
- A small group (5 people),
- Affordability (less than $200 for 5 long lessons), and
- We did actually swim towards the end - to incorporate all the drills.
So, in evaluating a clinic I would ask some questions (and maybe for some references for the coach) to see what you are getting.