Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any Stroke

I started swimming as a way to stay active while recovering from a serious knee injury, and I picked up this book to help me learn more so I could stay challenged and interested in the water. I had splashed along and really enjoyed swimming for years, but I'd never had any formal training whatsoever.This book completely changed the way I think about swimming, and my ability has increased tremendously in the time I've been using the Total Immersion concepts. Just today, I counted how many strokes it took me to cross the 25 yard pool. TWELVE. How many did it take when I started six months ago? TWENTY-SIX.Even better, from my vantage point in the "medium" lane, I took a moment to count the strokes of a big, speedy muscle guy splashing his way across the pool in the "fast" lane next to me. TWENTY-FOUR. And I proceeded to easily out-pace him on every lap, which was kind of a thrill for someone who doesn't really consider herself to be a serious athlete.This book is a great resource -- I have read various chapters over and over again. Some of the writing is a bit awkward -- but the main points are clear. Your body is a vessel, and your goal is to get through the water in the most streamlined, energy-effective way possible. When you "get" the technique, it's amazing to feel yourself travel through the water -- IN BETWEEN STROKES. I like to think of my hands as the prow of a ship, my hips as a rotor, and my feet working together as a propellor. Just think how impossible ships would have it if they were built as rectangles or squares -- there's no sense trying to push a square across a body of water, is there? Once you learn the Total Immersion technique, "ordinary" swimming seems nonsensical.One side point I'd like to share is that I trained for the first few months months with a pull buoy, because of my injury. I wasn't able to do the exact training exercises described in the book -- I couldn't kick at all. But by using the pull buoy and focusing on the concepts in the book, I learned balance, arm work, and how to breathe on both sides - which I *never* thought I'd be able to do. This might be a helpful alternative for other novices who find the balance exercises kind of intimidating."Swimming Made Easy" gave me what I needed -- a set of concepts which radically changed my swimming style. This is a great book, and will change your swims in an amazing way.

I am so glad I bought this book. Learning to balance the body in water and reduce drag creates a new experience of swimming. The system really works. I also purchased the videos which demonstrate the drills very well. It is the kind of book which you read again and again.

Having read this book cover to cover I can say, hand on heart, it is the most useful book on swimming I've ever read. If you are a novice or an elite, or if you are a lane coach or the coach of a large squad, there's a lot in this book that's going to be of real use to you. Indeed you will find things here that may well change your approach to swimming forever. The real beauty of this book is in it's simplicity: Laughlin has a saying, "It isn't rocket science", and that philosophy comes across in this book. As for value for money, it's near half the price of the weighty tome that many regard as the swimming bible and I can tell you there's nothing in that book that will improve your swimming as quickly and easily as SME will. Yes for me it's the new bible.PS. I coach 100% this way and my swimmers believe in it

I've been teaching swimming for nearly 30 years. I thought I had a pretty good handle on what makes for better swimmers. Then I met Terry Laughlin and was introduced to the Total Immersion philosophy. My thinking about movement in the water and how to improve it changed dramatically. His methods have proven time and again to be enlightening and effective for swimmers of ANY ability level. With this book, Laughlin makes the effortless grace of elite swimmers accessible to 'average' swimmers with simple, logical, proven steps that make fluid, powerful swimming a HABIT rather than a chance encounter. Buy it, read it, apply it. You won't regret it.