Improvement is possible at any age! This can work for you!!

Just had to report this great success story from this mornings masters practice (5-6 am). The swimmer is a 73 year old male who has been swimming with my morning training group the past year or so. When we transitioned from short course yards to long course meters in April I conducted a timed 800 M swim to determine new tempo trainer settings for the next round of tempo trainer focused workouts for long course that I have been using and fine tuning over the last year. It is a series of workouts that cover approximately 30 workouts varying the use of the tempo trainer and non tempo trainer days. This swimmers time in April was 18:00 with an average stroke count of 55 (60 for calculting TT setting). My calculations put his pace per 100 at 2:15 with a TT setting of 1.12. Over the course of the next 30 plus workouts using the tempo trainer and slowing down and increasing tempo’s while focusing on SPL we repeated the 800 swim this morning. His time was 17:06 (56 sec improvement) with 50 SPL (5 spl/50) and a 2:08/100m pace (7 sec improvement) and a new tempo setting of 1.16. He mentioned that he can feel the difference in his swimming. He has had no formal TI instruction in the form of private or a clinic coaching. Only what he has been introduced to during masters swimming.

That’s right did you get that? He improved his time, spl and slowed his tempo. This is exactly what we talk about all the time with Total Immersion Swimming. This swimmer has really been focussing on imporving and mindful swimming and has commented more than once on how he feels the improvement and enjoys thinking about his swimming trying to constantly improve his technique now–something he has never done before in his swimming career. Experiencing anothers achievements through TI swimming is exhilerating.

You can do this as well with patient, mindful, purposeful, graceful swimming. Swimming is Life!!

emily.h.hartz@gmail.com

Dear Todd (and amazing 73-year old pupil). Great to hear about your amazing improvements. I just turned 40 and just started swimming. So your post is great encouragement (and reminded me that 40 is not at all old).
I hope you will be able to help me. I have studied the Perpetual Motion Freestyle video a lot and have already improved my swimming (both time wise anf un wise). But the video does not say anything about how the arm moves through the water in the pull. It is as if there is one lesson missing.
Thus my question is: Once the arm is streached in the skate postion what then? SOmeone told me to keep the arm straight at least until it reaches 90 degrees and then bend at the albow so the elbow stays in place while the hand turns to cross the belly and finally pulls across the belly and up… is this correct?
Thank you for a great blog.
Emily
CoachBillL

Emily, have you gotten any feedback about this? Terry, in my understanding, defers thinking about this to “advanced” TI, since balance and streamline are so important. When you do start to think about propulsion, we like the term “catch,” since what you are trying to do is catch and hold the water as firmly as possible. You start by making your arm “slightly C-shaped” or by “reaching down over the hood of a Volkswagen Beetle,” with a relaxed hand and backward-facing palm. I like the thought that you are planting that hand in the water and moving past it, like an oarswoman planting her oar in the water. Don’t worry about the path of your hand — just catch patiently and try to focus on how firm your grip is. It takes quite a while to get better at this! (Other coaches will have more technical advice; this is a start. Personally, I have never found the idea of “keeping the elbow high” very helpful or doable, but it must work for some people.)