Total Immersion Technique in the Endless Pool

By Terry Laughlin
(Part 1 of 2)

When I first met the Endless Pools people, I realized that while they had every reason to be proud of the modern pool they designed, even they didn’t fully appreciate what a marvelous swimming space they had created for learning to swim beautifully. What they thought of as a good solution to an intriguing engineering problem – how to create a recirculating smooth water flow in an enclosure – I found to be a swimming teacher’s – and student’s -- Nirvana.

Total Immersion (TI) has achieved an enthusiastic global following for a uniquely satisfying approach to swimming that we call "Fishlike." We’ve been teaching it to improvement-minded adults for 15 years, through private and group classes as well as with self-help tools – books, videos and DVD’s. The Total Immersion method is the first to show humans how to swim much like fish – concentrating on balance, “slippery” positions and fluent propelling movements. More succinctly it’s about learning to work with the water, rather than battling your way through it. Those who master it feel transformed by the experience of becoming one with the water and the mind-body connection created by focusing on the quality, fluency and subtlety of each movement…all of which I discovered could be markedly heightened in an Endless Pool.

Traditional swimming focuses mainly on laps and more laps, on going harder and longer, pushing yourself to build endurance. Total Immersion creates endurance effortlessly by eliminating the energy wasted in making waves and creating turbulence. I found it far easier to eliminate energy waste in an environment that eliminates such distractions as lap counts, the pace clock or artificial aids like buoys and kickboards – all the accoutrements of a regular lap pool. In the Endless Pool, all that’s left are you, the water and the quality of your movements. It's the perfect sanctuary for practice of intelligent, purposeful, economical swimming.

Mastering Balance
The starting point for the Total Immersion learning process is a series of balance exercises. Once mastered, they help a swimmer become more comfortable and more self-aware than they’ve ever been before. The key to mastering balance is learning to position the head, torso and legs in rather exacting ways. Subtle departures from these positions usually result in the swimmer being noticeably less comfortable and somewhat more inhibited.

During my first experiences teaching Total Immersion balance basics in an Endless Pool I was in the pool, at my student’s side, occasionally reaching to tweak the flow control. I immediately noticed two tremendous advantages for teacher and student:

1. Because of my constant proximity – i.e. the student remains in the current just inches away from me at all times – I was able to give my student a far greater sense of comfort and security than would be the case if they were moving away from me. They, in turn, would allow me to move them far more easily into the best position.

2. Also because of that proximity, I could manually position the head, shoulder, legs or extended hand exactly where I wanted it. I could also manually sense tension or inhibition and touch that spot with encouragement to let go. The best way I can describe the experience is that I felt like a chiropractor in the pool.

Learning Movement
The second stage of Total Immersion instruction, following mastery of the balance drills, is a thoughtfully choreographed sequence of linked movements –- called “Switch drills” -- that teach the swimmer how to rotate the body as a source of rhythm and power, and to connect carefully timed arm movements to that body rotation. Again, the Endless Pool offered unique advantages. Because these movements are non-instinctive, a major goal of the lesson series is to use repetition to imprint timing and consistency on muscle-memory. Repeating cycles of the Total Immersion Switch drills, without needing to stop and turn around every 25 yards, allowed my student to find the right rhythm and then continue repeating – and imprinting – for as long as they liked. Uninterrupted imprinting of the desired movement greatly accelerates the learning process. More cycles of correct movement, while eliminating practice of incorrect movements, has always been a key to successful skill acquisition.

Pure Practice
While at the Ironman World Championship last October in Kailua-Kona Hawaii, I spent an hour or more each day practicing Total Immersion drills and whole-stroke swimming in the Endless Pool. While I have long been in the habit of “mindful” swimming practice, I found I achieved a higher level of concentrated attention to what really matters than I ever had in a conventional lap pool. Both in repeating drill cycles and whole-stroke practice, all of the following were helpful to my focus:

1. The mirror. The Endless Pool in Kona had two mirrors, one propped at an angle against the front wall, the other flat on the bottom under my head and torso. I ignored the front mirror and watched the floor mirror without distraction. Constant observation and feedback on my movements kept me riveted and allowed me to make my own tweaks “in real time.” It was better than having a coach watching me because the feedback was constant and direct.

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