Total Immersion

This weekend, Husband and I attended a Total Immersion workshop in Queens. It was great! We talked about our swim goals, did many different drills, and critiqued videos of ourselves swimming. As an added bonus, the regularly scheduled swim coach ended up getting sick, so Terry Laughlin, the master himself, led the clinic with his daughter Fiona, who is also a swim coach.

I learned so much. We were videotaped several times, and let me tell you, the camera doesn't lie. I have read a little about Total Immersion, and watched some video before the class. Basically, I knew I should be swimming more on my side. Anyway, the first video showed that I was totally overcompensating and twisting the top half of my body way back. It wasn't pretty. The first time we were filmed, after a few drills, it took me 20 strokes to get across the pool (25 yards). On Sunday we were filmed again, and I got it down to 12! Husband also saw a significant improvement, from 14 to 10.

There were 12-13 people in the class. We were pretty advanced, compared to other classes. Most of us were triathletes. I was the only woman in the class. A couple people claimed to have swam (swum?) over 2 miles in open water. Many of the problems were the same - balance issues, anxiety/not relaxed, nervous kicking legs.

My shoulders are sore today, but I feel really good. Am actually looking forward to getting in the pool again. I really felt relaxed and comfortable in the water -- BIG change for me, as I am generally kind of a spaz and DNF's two triathlons because of my "swim issues".

I highly recommend the weekend classes to anyone who has ever considered it. www.totalimmersion.net. If you can't do that, there are several books and videos which are also quite helpful.