[.ca] Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any ... (ISBN 1931009015)

Untrustworthy, sometimes even erroneous:
I was a mediocre swimmer last year. I have now significantly improved my technique but NOT thanks to this book. I read advices from Internet forums dedicated to swimming. And also read serious books including "Swimming fastest" and "The swim coaching bible". Unfortunately, this book was the first I read. I have discovered some techniques about drills and balance. I got annoyed by many repetitions of the author self pictched advertisement of his other products and especially when he bashes other coaches to elevate his own merit. Total Immersion (TI) method is just good for making you an average swimmer. All you know will be mostly gliding drills. You'll need to do a lot of guess work to take your strokes and kicks. Because there are very few mention of these, if not at all. The efficieny of the "easy" techniques that the author describes as TI methods reamins to be proven: "swimming on the side like a fish", the low importance of kicking, free speed from the glide, etc. After patiently checking the internet and forums, it turns out that these TI's methods are not efficient at best and even erroneous. Trust me, I've tried and gave up the ridiculous "fish like, swimming on the side". The "need shape, arm extended side glide" will favour a shoulder tendonitis if you are not careful. You can Google on "swimming" and "TI" keywords on newsgroup archive to check by yourself. As a matter of fact, the author didn't produce any world class swimmer. Some of the "other" coaches the author seems to ignore, produce top class swimmers. You'd better to listen to these real coaches. The subtitle "Achieve Fluency, Ease, & Speed in Any Stroke" is way overstated. Applied to me, it was just not true. Even I am NOT a competitive swimmer, I have reached a pleateau after 6 months. I had to switch to other books and forums to go further. Sometimes to undo some of the erroneous ideas learnt from this book. The writing style of this book is confusing. The pictures are unclear (fade and only black & white) and some time the same picture is repeated several times. Some of its technical values are diluted in controversal and unproven techniques. No words on workout plans, warm up and strectching. The drills proposed in this book can be found plenty on the Internet. Register to some swimming forums or newsgroups (they are free). And the knowledgable people there will give you more valuable advices. Good luck.

The NEW bible of swimming:
Having read this book cover to cover I can say, hand on heart, it is the most useful book on swimming I've ever read. If you are a novice or an elite, or if you are a lane coach or the coach of a large squad, there's a lot in this book that's going to be of real use to you. Indeed you will find things here that may well change your approach to swimming forever. The real beauty of this book is in it's simplicity: Laughlin has a saying, "It isn't rocket science", and that philosophy comes across in this book. As for value for money, it's near half the price of the weighty tome that many regard as the swimming bible and I can tell you there's nothing in that book that will improve your swimming as quickly and easily as SME will. Yes for me it's the new bible. PS. I coach 100% this way and my swimmers believe in it

Total Immersion keeps getting better & better !:
I bought this book cause I had to see what was next in making swimming more enjoyable for me and the swimmers I help improve there technique. I have to give the credit to Total Immersion for giving me the gift of swimming when almost giving up due to a limited disability. TI's products have also made me a better Technique Instructor (who cares about winning when what really matters to me is to see someone swimming with grace and ease).I bought this book from the office but I had write about this book just to let people know it means what it says... Enjoy, Ronnie

Swim like a fish and enjoy it:
I am so glad I bought this book. Learning to balance the body in water and reduce drag creates a new experience of swimming. The system really works. I also purchased the videos which demonstrate the drills very well. It is the kind of book which you read again and again.

Good book, must have DVD:
I am 40 year old and I have started swimming consistently at the beginning of 2004 but after more than one year, of slow improvement, I hit my limits. I mean my technical limit considering that people being in worse shape than me were still swimming faster. At this point I decided that I need some technical training and after few weeks of research I decided to buy this book. Though before having the DVD it was hard for me to visualize some of the drills. I decide to practice each type of stroke few weeks more, after I've thought I master it. My efficiency increased far beyond my initial dreams. One important idea is to be patient and to give yourself time before jumping to the next drill. I've spent more time practicing the drills of triple switches, which are the closest of the final swimming. After the first 6 weeks I've dropped the number of strokes per 25 meters from 27 to 15. I've also dropped the 50 meters freestyle time from 55 to 44 seconds without flip turns. Now I've just started the zipper-switch drills. My final advice to you would be to give yourself time and to also buy the DVD if you buy the book. The DVD will teach you a lot about how the drills should be executed. The good part about DVD is that you have the chance to see different level of swimmers and that speak about how important is insisting with the drills.