Here are my notes from the Total Immersion book, which I would recommend reading after watching the Freestyle Made Easy DVD, as the drills are near-impossible to understand otherwise. I couldn’t - and still can’t - believe it. In fact, I felt better after leaving the pool than before getting in. In other words, I was covering more than twice the distance with the same number of strokes, with less than 1/2 the effort, and with no panic or stress. By the fourth workout, I had gone from 25+ strokes per 20-yard length to an average of 11 strokes per 20-yard length. In the first workout - I’ve never had a coach or supervision - I cut my drag and water resistance at least 50%, swimming more laps than ever before in my life. He introduced me to Total Immersion (TI), a method usually associated with coach Terry Laughlin, and I immediately ordered the book and freestyle DVD. Before I had a chance to finish, he cut me off: Then I met Chris Sacca, formerly of Google fame and now an investor and triathlete in training, at a BBQ and told him of my plight. It continued for months until I was prepared to concede defeat. Isn’t swimming supposed to be low-impact? Strike two. I barely moved at all and - as someone who is usually good at most sports - felt humiliated and left. So why is this post only coming out now, eight months later? Because I tried everything, read the “best” books, and still failed. In other words: of all the potential skills you could learn, swimming was one of the most fundamental. He had grown up a competitive swimmer and convinced me that - unlike my other self-destructive habits masquerading as exercise ( no-gi BJJ, etc.) - it was a life skill and a pleasure I needed to share with my future children.
Here’s how I did it after everything else failed, and how you can do the same…Īt the end of January, a kiwi friend issued a New Year’s resolution challenge: he would go all of 2008 without coffee or stimulants if I trained and finished an open-water 1-kilometer race in 2008. In the span of less than 10 days, I’ve gone from a 2-length (2 x 20 yards/18.39 meters) maximum to swimming more than 40 lengths per workout in sets of 2 and 4. It’s indescribably exhausting and unpleasant. I’ve tried to learn to swim almost a dozen times, and each time, my heart jumps to 180+ beats-per-minute after one or two pool lengths. This inability to swim well has always been one of my greatest insecurities and embarrassments. Swimming has always scared the hell out of me.ĭespite national titles in other sports, I’ve always fought to keep afloat. Is it possible to get good at swimming late in life? Yes.
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