Triathlon swimming made easy Read Free Page B

human DNA, combined with your history of "practicing struggle," makesyou incredibly vulnerable to regressing. The great advantage of the TI process is that it starts with simple movements and positions and progresses in small steps. At every step, you have the opportunity to eliminate struggle and let fluency replace it as a habit. When you master basic balance, and move on to active balance and beyond, remember that the qualities of fluent movement you will be practicing are just as important as the mechanics of drills and skills.
    3. Learn to roll effortlessly. Human swimming propulsion instinctively starts with arm-and-leg-churning. What that does best is make waves and create turbulence. Fish propel by undulating their bodies. Scientists have yet to puzzle out how, with little "horsepower" and resisted by drag, fish can reach speeds of 50 mph and beyond, without ever seeming to try. That effortless power is produced by core-based propulsion. You'll learn to tap effortless power when your rhythms and movements originate in your core body, not in your arms and legs. Those core-body rhythms release the energyand power that subsequently become a strong, economical rwimming stroke. You learn them by advancing from static to active (rolling) balance drills.
    4. Learn to pierce the water. Torpedoes, submarines, and racing boats are sleekly shaped for the same reason fish are: to avoid drag. Because drag increases exponentially as speed goes up (twice the speed equals/owr times the drag), drag reduction pays off exponentially as you swim faster. That's why humans who learn to slip through the smallest possible hole in the water see such rapid and dramatic improvement. Slippery swimmers need far less power or effort to swim at any speed. Awareness of slipping through the smallest possible hole in the water is maintained at every step of our skill-building sequence.
    5. Learn fluent, coordinated propelling movements. To most swimmers, technique means "how you use your hands to push water toward your feet." That's the starting point and remains the primary focus of conventional instruction and stroke drills. In the TI approach, arm stroking is among the last things we teach: First, you acquire a long, balanced, needle-shaped, and effortlessly rotating core body. Then you link your pull and kick to the body's movements and rhythms. As your propelling actions, practiced first in "switch" drills, gradually grow into "strokes," we maintain a focus on keeping them coordinated and integrated with core-body rhythm. Our slogan is "swim with your body, not your arms and legs." And the moment your speed, effort, or fatigue causes you to feel "disconnected," it's time to slow down and regain your flow. Never... ever... "practice struggle."

    But remember: None of these positions or skills is natural or instinctive. You must apply yourself to learning them. The clear and logical course of instruction in the chapters that follow should put you on the path to better swimming immediately. But first I'll ask you to forget everything you "know" about swimming so you can learn a completely fresh way to move through the water, a way I guarantee will make more sense, feel better and make improvement easier than anything you've tried before.
    Dear Terry,
    Early last year I started competing in sprint triathlons. I trained my proverbials off to become physically the fittest 1 have ever been, but remain a dreadful swimmer. Fortunately I came across your web site and purchased your book and video. Where I have been going wrong is so clearly described in the book that I instantly felt optimistic for the first time that I could actually start to enjoy swimming instead of dreading it and, perhaps, make some gains in my competition times.
    I'm only 3 weeks into practice working on hand-lead drills but already feel so much more relaxed and controlled; all that arm/neck pressure I used to exert to get my head out of the water to breathe has disappeared since I