Where Does Your Breath Come From?
What do you do when you have done your best to solve your breathlessness problem in the pool and it is still not enough? You followed the Checklist For Easier Breathing: You’ve worked hard on your fundamental stroke skills. You’ve worked hard on the...Tim Terriss Interview With Terry
It has been just over two months now since Coach Terry passed away from this realm we are conscious of. I’d been waiting carefully until I felt I could listen to his voice again. Early this morning, preparing for a long run in the dark, I felt it was time to...
What Gets You Out The Door?
Let me explain what motivates me to keep training, day after day, month after month, year after year – and perhaps this will resonate with you as well. When Fitness Must Be Earned It was somewhere around 1987. I was a freshman in high school, and it was...
Relax Into Easier Breathing
I was working with ‘Ray’ in a private lesson. He presented a good example of how we could use the Checklist For Easier Breathing to diagnose his breathing complaint and pinpoint the possible solutions. To review, here are the four main features of easier...
Does Swimming Burn Fat? 2
As well as being asked about this from time to time, I’ve learned that this is a common online search phrase so I should get some extra hits on this post. Previously, I’ve written some thoughts on body fat in relation to swimming: Does Swimming Burn Fat? 1...
Do What Works For You (?)
“Just do what works for you.” I have heard some version of this phrase spoken or written by coaches or pundits many times, in many different sports. It can be alarming to me because: I doubt the average (citizen) athlete understands the context of...
You Must Use Momentum – Part 2
This discussion is continued from Part 1… If body shape, stroke pattern and stroke length were equal between two swimmers, but one swimmer is sending her recovery arm forward with better momentum and directing that into her sleek Skate Position, she would be...
You Must Use Momentum – Part 1
Here is something I explain to my swimmers when we’re building (or re-building) the freestyle stroke for the first time. This is meant to help students on each extreme: those who are too anxious to start moving faster, and those who are too reluctant to add more...