Total Immersion is an approach to the coaching of swimming which concentrates on the hydrodynamics of the human body. Swimming is the movement by humans or animals through Water, usually without artificial assistance The human body is the entire physical and mental structure of a Human Organism. Its chief proponent is American swimming coach, Terry Laughlin. The aim is to use the whole body to move in a streamlined, balanced way, like a fish, unlike the usual way of mainly using the muscles of the arms and the legs.
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Principles
Total Immersion claims to be a new way of swimming, to make the experience easier as the surest way to improve skill, endurance and even speed.
Swimming is a beneficial skill to have, and is acknowledged as among the healthiest of all activities[1], it is thought that few people have the skill necessary to reap the benefits of swimming. This is said to be because humans, being land animals, are known to swim inefficiently and this instinctive inefficiency is said to be reinforced by traditional instruction and coaching. Traditional instruction and coaching focuses on getting the swimmer through the water as fast as possible. On the other hand, the total immersion approach is based on efficiency, leading to the ability to swim for longer periods of time without tiring.
Although few people do swimming as a sport, the paradigms of competitive swimmers and coaches have been highly influential in how recreational or fitness swimmers develop their swimming, leading to a focus on power and conditioning.
According to Terry Laughlin, the primary impediment to swimming better is neither lack of fitness nor lack of power, but the unique problems presented by the medium of water to a human body travelling through it. Water offers poor support, poor traction and is 880 times denser than air. Thus an emphasis on pulling, kicking and conditioning will lead to frustration and stagnation for most people.
The Total Immersion way is to focus on four essential skills:
- balance: turns swimming from survival into a skill;
- active streamlining: reducing drag will always yield greater benefits than trying to increase power;
- rhythmic weight shifts: the combination of gravity and mass is a virtually effortless source of power; and
- traction: water is so elusive that it is easier to “hold onto your place in the water” than to push forward.
Because these four skills that make humans more efficient in the water are non-instinctive and counter-intuitive, Total Immersion swimmers focus on swimming as a mindful practice done in the spirit of yoga or tai chi, rather than the endurance-and-power-focused workouts done by competitive swimmers. Yoga ( Sanskrit: योग, IAST: yóga, joːgə refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India, to the Tai chi chuan (is an internal Chinese martial art often practiced for Health reasons The aim is to become more self-aware and to feel “one with the water. ” Lap counts and pace times are considered less important than improving one's economy, grace, attention and awareness.
It seems that Total Immersion also increased a greater awareness for Sealmasks and fistgloves because these equipment are often seen in the self-help videos sold - the former for a greater angle of view while swimming, the latter to increase a swimmer's "feel" for the water. Fistgloves are latex Gloves that does not have individual sheaths for individual fingers but rather a larger volume that is meant to take the hand in the shape of a fist
Technique
The technique for front crawl:
- Achieve balance by "cooperating with gravity" - relaxing the head into an aligned position and using the leading arm like a "trim tab" (fingers down and wrist below elbow from the moment of entry). The front crawl, or forward crawl, is a Swimming style usually regarded as the fastest of all the styles developed This helps bring the legs into a horizontal position with minimal kicking.
- "Actively streamline" the body throughout the stroke cycle through a focus on rhythmically alternating "streamlined right side" and "streamlined left side" positions and consciously keeping the bodyline longer and sleeker than is typical for human swimmers.
- Use body rotation to minimize disturbance to the water flow and to minimize turbulence and drag. Rotating enough so each shoulder clears the water is sufficient to achieve these benefits.
- Create propulsion by using the extended hand and arm to "hold your place" in the water then spearing the entering hand past your gripping hand. Produce energy and power by driving down the "high side" of the body rather than using arm muscles to push water back.
- Emphasis is placed on developing balance and awareness of the dynamics of swimming, over and above the development of simple strength and power.
For butterfly and breaststroke the body undulates up and down, so that the movement of the torso contributes to the power of the kick. The butterfly, ( fly for short is a swimming stroke swum on the breast with both arms moving simultaneously Breaststroke is a Swimming style swum on the Breast. It is the most popular recreational style due to its stability and the ability to keep the head out of the
Debate
The approach has critics, who oppose what they see as a movement away from the essential primacy of cultivating strength and endurance.
These critics maintain that Total Immersion is most suited to beginning, older or casual swimmers, who need a style which emphasizes technique over speed.
Swimmers who have been training competitively since their pre-teen years may benefit less from Total Immersion techniques than unskilled novices because their stroke style is already ingrained and automatic. To swim faster, they focus more on stroke speed and intensity of interval workouts. Detractors believe Total Immersion techniques alone won't enable swimmers to progress to top-level competition standards.
Advantages
Terry Laughlin replies to these criticisms by noting that any human body is subject to the same unyielding physical forces in water. The faster that body is moving, the more resistance the water provides, since drag resistance increases as the square of speed. The opportunity to improve one's efficiency by streamlining thus varies exponentially. However, the ability to increase efficiency by boosting power or fitness is more limited and less effective.
Laughlin also notes that DARPA engineers have estimated that human swimmers are only 3 percent mechanically efficient - meaning only 3 percent of energy expenditures are converted directly into forward motion. (For comparison's sake dolphins are estimated to be 80% energy efficient. ) Thus, he says, a focus on reducing energy waste will always result in greater improvement than a focus on increasing energy or power.
The emphasis on balance and streamlining[3] removes the need for a strong leg kick (so often needed to prevent the feet from sinking) and directs more of the force from the kick to forward propulsion. The stroke is thus less tiring, and can be sustained for long distances. Many triathletes use Total Immersion methods because a triathlon is very endurance based,so that they can conserve their legs for the cycling and running stages of a competition. A triathlon is an endurance sports event consisting of Swimming, cycling and Running over various distances Cycling is the use of Bicycles or - less commonly - Unicycles Tricycles Quadricycles and other similar wheeled Human powered vehicles Running is a means for an animal to move on Foot. It is defined in Sporting terms as a Gait in which at some point all feet are off the ground
References
Kassinger, Ruth (Jun2005), “Strokes of a Genius”, Health 19 (5): 78-84, <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=9&sid=4002619b-8109-4470-87f9-34f9ea96848f%40sessionmgr108>. Retrieved on 4 December 2007.
“There's a Right Way to Freestyle”, Running & FitNews 22 (4): 3-7, Jul/Aug 2004, <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=109&sid=4002619b-8109-4470-87f9-34f9ea96848f%40sessionmgr108>. Retrieved on 4 December 2007.
- Laughlin, Terry; John Delves (2004). Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier. Fireside. ISBN 0-7432-5343-4.
- Laughlin, Terry (2004). Triathlon Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Anyone to Master Open-Water Swimming. Total Immersion Inc. ISBN 1-931009-07-4.
- Laughlin, Terry (2001). Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any Stroke. Total Immersion Inc. ISBN 1-931009-01-5.
- Sanders, Prof. Ross. Total Immersion Strategies - A Closer Look. coaches' infoservice: sports science information for coaches. Retrieved on 2006-11-12. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 764 - Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days
External links
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