If you had just 30 minutes to work with a friend who has asked you for help with their swimming, what would you do with that time? What would be the most important things you would focus on in order to give them the most dramatic improvement in the shortest amount of time?
You might ask what the swimmer’s particular needs are, but let’s say he/she sees himself somewhere below your skill level- that’s why they are asking you.
This is a great quiz for any coach- and it will tell a lot about what they think is most important in swimming quality and likely what they focus their practices on.
But I want to challenge you as a TI Swimmer- to be a self-coaching swimmer. This is ultimately what Total Immersion Coaching intends to accomplish. We want swimmers to be as smart as coaches. So these TI principles and priorities are things we intend for you to know well and use to keep your stroke technique continually improving, when others around you settle for status quo.
And then you are ready to turn and help someone else when they ask you for help, and get amazing results.
So what would you focus on?
I will give you a clue:
More to follow… but I hope you’ll leave some comments or send me an email with your ideas.
© 2012, Mediterra International, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mediterra International, LLC and Mediterraswim.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
I think the biggest problem is that it’s in the human nature to want to run before you can walk properly, ie. everyone wants to concentrate on propulsion before they’re good enough on balance and streamlining. So, the biggest challenge will probably be in trying to slow people down.
If the concept of “balance” is not even known, then certainly all there is left to do is push the water hard enough with legs and arms to stay at the surface. No one without balance can afford to slow down!
So what would be one major problem in the balance and streamline of a typical (non-TI trained) swimmer? And what would be one focus point you would give them that you think would make a big improvement in their ease of swimming?