Total Immersion Workshops? Swim Coach in San Diego?

Triathlon Forum
1

Does anyone have any feedback on the Total Immersion Workshops? I don’t care about the money, I just don’t want to waste my time if it’s not going to help. I’ve read the book and watched the tapes and I’ve been working on my technique for close to a year now. I need to drop a couple of minutes off my mile swim time (24 minutes) and I don’t think I’m going to get there with effort alone. Is the workshop geared toward beginners or is it tailored for each individual? Is there a lot of individual attention?

Another question, does anybody know a good swim coach in San Diego (preferably in North County)? Are there any swim coaches in San Diego that teach the TI program?

PLEASE DON’T TURN THIS INTO A DISCUSSION ON THE MERITS OF THE TI PROGRAM. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN TI THEN MOVE TO THE NEXT THREAD. THANKS.

3

I would say that TI is increasingly more helpful the worse you are. I think getting a coach is the way to go, you can probably pass on the seminar. Even if you take the seminar, it’s not going to miraculously improve your swim times - you’ll need follow-up coaching.

4

I would think that with a 24 minute 1500 swim time, Total Immersion might not be the best thing for you. I would imagine that you already have a decent stroke that maybe just needs a bit of tweaking if anything.

In North County, one of the best coaches around is Jeff Pease. He coaches the Carlsbad Masters program. A lot of pro’s go there, which in itself doesn’t mean much, except that they go there for two reasons, there are other fast swimmers there and Jeff can help them get even faster.

With your swim time, you would probably be in lane 4, maybe lane 3, which means that there is plenty of other faster people around you to watch, and train with.

5

Mike,

Thanks for the input. I’ve actually gone to several of Jeff’s Masters swim sessions but I got no feedback from him on my technique. Do you know if Jeff will do individual training sessions?

Thanks

6

Bones,

You are already a very fast swimmer. Spend your time more efficiently and train your running and riding.

7

Bones,

Just ask Jeff for that feedback. I originally had a short conversation with him to introduce myself and was open about the fact that I wanted him to analyze my stroke. He won’t say anything unless you ask…

8

Kevin Koskella is based in San Diego (more towards the central city than North County) and he uses a program very heavily influenced by TI. His website is http://www.triswimcoach.com/. There is contact information on the site.

9

TI has really helped me. But, I was a poor swimmer and it has helped me improve greatly. I trained with a good friend of mine who looked at the TI material with me a few years back. He is always one of the first 15 out of the water in any event he’s in. He was number 3 our at GFT a few year back. If you’re that good already, it’s probably not going to give you a great amount of improvement. It may help some, but you won’t get the big jump I did.