Fitness Swimming, Second Edition

I have never written a book review before. But this book has been so incredibly helpful that I am compelled to write a review for it. The Book: The bulk of the book contains balance drills -- static balance drills (no arms, no rotation), and dynamic balance drills (integrating arms and rotation). Most swimmers, according to the book, don't know how to position and balance their bodies in the water, and the book lays out specific drills that teaches you how. With each drill, the book tells you exactly what to focus on, and the visual images that would help you. It is extremely clearly written, with helpful pictures. The book contains different levels of workouts containing drills and regular swimming. The novice plans contain mostly drills for 600-800 yds, and the intense workouts contain some drills and a lot of interval swimming, for around 3000+ yds. For each type of workout, the book tells you the focus of the workout. In addition to having lots of good information, this book is well layed out. All the important points are enclosed in boxes of a different background color so that visually, it gives you a queue that these are what you should focus on. The book also has no fluff! I skimmed through other swimming books, such as the Total Immersion book. All those books make you read through a whole chapter to get one bullet point out of it. This book, however, is concisely written, with no unnecessary stories about the author's Thanksgiving dinner. I read it the first time through in a only 2-3 hours. The Result: I am a novice swimmer. I took one 8-week course on the basic strokes, and have been swimming 3/4 mile, 3-4x a week for the past few months. My times are embarrassing -- it takes me 3 minutes to do 100 yards! I read this book and couldn't *wait* to take it to the pool and practice the drills. I did my first practice yesterday. All I did was the very first workout, which is 600yds of static balance drills, and learn how to use my upper body, the "buoy", so that I float better. Then I did some lap swimming, incorporating the swimming "downhill" technique talked about in the book. I shaved 15 seconds off of my 100yd time, and decreased my stroke count from 25 to 21! My time is still slow, and my stroke count high. But that's quite an improvement after ONE practice! But more importantly, I feel so much more efficient in the water! I felt like I could swim forever. I am psyched! I can't wait to go back to the pool and practice the drills some more! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to improve their swimming technique.

This book has been extrodinarily helpful to me. I am a former beach lifeguard and thought that my freestyle was pretty good until I read the author's extremely clear, detailed descriptions of how it feels to swim correctly. I now realize that I what I used to do was really akin to stabbing through the water, rather than gliding over it as I do now. I've been using the drills and workouts in the book for only about 2 months and already I've brought my stroke count (on 25 meters) from 22 when I started to 10-11 now. I expect that this improvement will continue as I progress farther into the drill sequence. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to swim for fun, fitness, or competition, regardless of their current ability. Swimming is one of those sports where one's technique can always be improved further.

Being a long-time runner, I recently got interested in triathlon, but my swimming technique was way below average. After searching without success for a good book on swimming technique, I found this one and highly recommend it. The author analyzes the dynamics of swimming technique in an easy to understand way and then decomposes the movements of swimming, so that even people with little experience can follow on a regular schedule. I think the book is a great example how a sports training book should be. Congratulations!

Fitness Swimming is a teriffic book for swimmers of all abilities- It's the kind of book that will get you in the pool while actually enjoying your swim practices. Emmett Hines is an excellent coach & author who understands how to get the reader motivated to swim smarter rather than harder- The self-paced drills and various workout organization are easy to follow and with consistency, make stroke & time improvements attainable for all levels of swimming abilities. The best part of this book is that improving your swimming doesn't have to be a terrible grind! As a former AAU swimmer, I know the "no pain, no gain" theory of my former coaches all too well- As a result,I was reluctant to pursue swimming again as regular excersize- Fortunately the Author's self stated mission in life is to "save the swimming part of the world", and he definitely succeeds. Thanks to Emmett Hines, I look forward to my 3-4x weekly swims and am always refreshed and energized after my workouts. If you are interested in swimming, get this book, set aside time for consistent practice and enjoy yourself while getting fit.

There's an old saying about paradigms--"If you continue to do what you've always done, you'll continue to get what you've always got." I have been a "triathlete" for the past ten years. Well, at least that's what I told people. Trouble was, I couldn't swim the length of a 25-yard pool. However, every year I was determined to learn how to swim and finally become a "real triathlete." And every year I continued to give up after struggling to do it on my own. Finally, two months ago I was fortunate enough to attend a "Total Immersion" workshop which was coached by Emmett Hines. I couldn't believe it when the first thing he said he wanted me to do was swim the length of the pool, let alone the fact that he was going to videotape it. I skipped the warm-up laps everyone else was doing just so I could have enough energy to swim the entire twenty-five yards! Well, when my turn came, I took a big deep breath and swam to the other side...barely. Next came the fun (ha-ha) part--evaluating the video. The way Emmett was talking about the others, who were mostly experienced swimmers, I hoped he forgot to turn the camera on for my turn. But then this swimmer came on the monitor who made me start laughing...yeah, it was me. It took me 21 strokes to swim the length of the pool. Although I prayed that Emmett would just give me a book to read and I would learn to swim by the end of weekend, I found out we were actually going to have to swim in the pool! We began in the classroom, where Emmett instructed us on proper "fishlike-swimming" before we returned to the pool to practice the techniques. I found out after I bought "Fitness Swimming" the next day that everything Emmett taught came right from his book. Less than 24 hours from the first day's videotaping session, Emmett videotaped us again. Although we hadn't spent much time actually swimming, Emmett just said to concentrate on the drills we had practiced the day before. The results...12 strokes! And I wasn't even tired! However, as we sat in the classroom for the last time, I had just one question for our instructor, "How was I going to keep improving when I returned to Sicily (the workshop was in Dallas) and what was I supposed to do next?" It was at this point that Emmett brought out a little box containing copies of "Fitness Swimming." Needless to say I bought the book immediately and have read it and re-read it so many times the past two months that I need another copy. The book is very well organized and easily readable. In fact, in my library of several hundred fitness-related books, I can say without a doubt this book is by far the best in every category! One last thing, did I mention that by following Emmett's schedule in his book, I swam 1,500 meters this morning! So shift your paradigm, buy this book!!!