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ADVANTAGES OF THE BUDDY SYSTEM
Learning to control our bodies in a horizontal position in the water presents some
unique challenges:
(1) We lack visual feedback on our own position.
(2) We are not accustomed to actively controlling torso muscles to stay horizontally
balanced.
On land we stand on our balance; in the water we hang from it.
(3) We aren’t yet tuned in to sensations that we must learn to recognize over time in
the water – for example: Is our head aligned? Is the lead hand as deep as it should be?
Are our shoulders stacked?
(4) Using the Buddy System, students:
(5) Experience perfect balance without struggling to achieve it,
(6) Learn better by helping and observing others solve the same problems,
(7) Develop a cooperative, we’re all in this together attitude, and
(8) Can focus on what good balance position feels like, and how little effort it takes
to maintain it.
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LESSON TWO:
UNDERSWITCH
EFFORTLESS POWER FROM YOUR CORE
The UnderSwitch drills will teach you how to use rotation of your balanced and slip-
pery core body to generate effortless power for propulsion. These will be the most
dynamic and powerful movements you have yet practiced.
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LESSON THREE:
ZIPPERSWITCH
FOR MASTERING A COMPACT, RELAXED RECOVERY
From Lesson Two, you’ve learned to generate effortless propulsion by using your
hand to simply hold on to a spot in the water while dynamic body-roll takes you past
that spot and how to travel farther as you do by keeping your bodyline long during
switches. ZipperSwitch drills will improve your sense of balance and teach you a
compact, relaxed recovery. Having painstakingly developed a balanced, aligned foun-
dation, we don’t want an arm-swinging recovery to hurt that. So Lesson Three will
teach you an energy-saving, alignment-preserving, drag-reducing recovery.
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DRILL #12: MULTI ZIPPERSWITCHES (ZS2+)
ZS2+ introduces swimming rhythms to recovery and entry skills taught above. When
you do three or more switches (relaxed and rhythmic swimmers can do as many as
six) this is the most transforming drill in the entire TI sequence. ZS2+ primes you to
transition from skillful drilling to beautiful swimming.
On the video, please pay particular attention to:
(1) How far Joe travels in the course of five switches – his head just keeps travel-
ing past lane markers. This is from maintaining a long sleek bodyline as he switches
rhythmically.
(2) How controlled and unhurried Kathryn’s switches are – with Fistgloves
(3) How utterly relaxed – yet impeccably consistent in her timing – Jennifer remains
through five switches.
(4) The angle of Terry’s entry and extension, easily seen from underwater in the
Endless Pool.
In your solo practice of ZS2+, use these focal points:
HIDE YOUR HEAD… Water should flow over the back of your head much of the
time… Look straight down and watch yourself slide effortlessly past tiles on the
pool bottom.
KEEP A LOW PROFILE… Hug the surface, as if swimming under a very low ceiling.
SOFTEN YOUR ARMS AND HANDS… Feel the water resist your hand, but try to
recover without splash or turbulence.
DRIVE THE HAND DEEP! Keep aiming for the “clock position;” on each switch, the
hand should “replace” the hand that was there.
FEEL THE COMPLETE SUPPORT OF THE WATER and recover with as much “leisure”
as possible.
AND FINALLY DRILL WITHOUT MAKING A SOUND.
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LESSON FOUR:
LEARN TO SWIM
AS WELL AS YOU DRILL
Lesson Four will teach you precisely how your stroke will feel for the rest of your
life. For some, Drill 13 is “swimming,” at least for a while. The great value of Drill 13 is
that it gives almost anyone, even someone in the very early learning stages, an easy
way to practice Fishlike Swimming.
MOMENTUM/PUSHOFF DRILLS
Momentum drills help you experience speed and balance, in a slippery position. This
provides two major benefits: (1) Once you learn a balanced, streamlined pushoff, you
can start every length with momentum and in good balance. (2) If you have felt as if
you needed to kick a lot during drills up to this point, these drills will teach you to
use your core body to achieve balance, rather than your legs. The video of Joe doing
these drills should be most instructive. As someone who is very lean with very long
legs, he is the very definition of someone for whom balance ought to be a great
challenge – and it was as he was learning TI. In the underwater segments, you’ll
notice that he minimizes his kick as much as possible in order to force himself to
get balanced by using weight distribution and his extended hand to stay horizontal.
Here are some additional hints on how to master these drills. If you can practice
with a TI Buddy as Joe and Ian demonstrate, you’ll gain an amazing sense of effort-
less balance – with just a slight assist from your partner.
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DRILL #13: OVERSWITCHES (OS2+)
This drill teaches you how your new “Fishlike” stroke will feel. In fact, you’ll be swim-
ming with your new stroke between pauses in Sweet Spot. OS2+ reinforces the FQ
switch timing that helps you swim taller. It also strongly imprints a deft, knifelike
entry to reduce turbulence and drag. Finally, it teaches you to drive your hand to a
solid anchoring position, to hold a LOT of water, and connect your arm to effortless
power from core-body rotation.
The video segments show you how to practice four key skills: (1) Ear Hops, (2)
Holding water at the beginning of the stroke, (3) releasing and relaxing at the end of
the stroke, and (4) seamless breathing. Let’s examine the importance of each:
Ear Hops: In Zswitches we imprinted an entry position alongside the ear. We’re not
aiming to have you continue swimming this way, but to use purposeful exaggeration
to overcome the common “human-swimming” instinct to over-reach on entry. Here’s
the full process:
(1) Zipper drills teach you to “switch” while your hand is directly alongside your ear.
This is actually too early for “swimming” but helps make a strong break from prior
habit.
(2) On OverSwitches, practice “Ear Hops” (so named by TI Coach Gary Fahey) in
which you take your hand barely out of the water and immediately reinsert. The
segments of Terry in the Endless Pool and in a regular pool will give you the best
understanding. Watch them at slow motion.
(3) Continue to practice Ear Hops on disciplined, mindful Superslow whole-stroke
repeats, to allow this new movement to become imprinted.
(4) As you swim faster, don’t attempt to restrict your hand to the same entry
position. Instead allow it to move freely as feels natural (not “old-natural” but “new
natural”). Simply swim without overt inhibition. Your entry position will adjust with
speed – but should end up closer to your head at all speeds.
Holding Water: When you enter your hand at the deeper, steeper angle, we’ve been
reinforcing since the “clock position” in Skating, you put your hand and forearm in
position to act as a “big paddle” for holding a lot of water. Aim to trap as much
water volume inside your hand and forearm as possible, then be patient about feel-
ing the water give back some pressure to your hand before stroking. Some ways to
improve your feel for this:
(1) Practice with Fistgloves as Kathryn demonstrates. After 15 or 20 minutes with
them on, your bare hand will feel like a big paddle that can hold a LOT of water.
(2) A moment of patience on the catch, as shown by Terry in the underwater
Endless Pool view. This lets you feel some water pressure – and eliminate air bubbles
– before you stroke.
(3) Heighten your feel for creating water pressure by doing the partnered exercise
demonstrated by Mark and Terry. Take turns with a TI Buddy on loosely holding
ankles, then releasing after about six strokes.
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Release and Relax: We began to learn the skill of relaxing your arm by focusing on a
“soft” arm and yielding to water pressure on ZipperSwitches. Reinforce it here by:
(1) Learning not to push back at the end of your stroke, but to release in a “C-
shaped” finish as shown in the 3-swimmer underwater views. It’s shown in slo-
motion already, but study this in even slower motion, perhaps frame-by-frame to
see how all three swimmers finish the stroke and exit the water – by rounding off,
not pushing back.
(2) To get an even stronger sense of a completely relaxed “dead weight” hand and
forearm during recovery, practice the recovery/entry exercise demonstrated by
Joe Novak, standing in shallow water on the video.
When practicing OS2+ solo, do as many switches as you can without feeling breath-
less, using them to imprint the same focal points as in Drill #12, plus these:
(1) When you take your hand out, try to have it out of the water for the briefest
possible time and have your fingertips clear the water by the minimum possible
clearance.
(2) Slice your hand back into the water just in front of your goggles. Cut a hole
with your fingers and slip your arm cleanly through that hole.
(3) Be “patient” on your switches: Start the next stroke as your fingertips enter
the water.
(4) Gradually shift focus from your switch-timing to your core-body-rolling rhythm.
Once you feel body rhythm, adjust body roll to allow for fluid, rhythmic, and seamless
movement with no hesitation or interruptions.
BREATHING 101
Your swimming movements are all in place now. The transition from drilling to swim-
ming is accomplished by replacing the Sweet Spot pauses with rhythmic breathing.
For some students this can be the most challenging part of the entire process, but
with patience anyone can master the art of the “Seamless Breath,” which means to
fit breathing into your body-rolling rhythm with no interruption. Start with
Overswitches to establish your core-body rotation rhythm then fit a breath into
that rhythm:
Fit Breathing into Your Rhythm
Start each lap with at least four switches – to imprint your core-body-rolling
rhythm. Then try one seamless rhythmic breath like this:
(1) Breathe by rolling right to where the air is and immediately back in the other
direction.
(2) Try to do that with no interruption of the rolling rhythm you established with
your switches.
(3) Roll as far as necessary. Keep your head in line as you roll your head and torso
as one unit to air. If you don’t get air easily, roll farther. Fiona in the Endless Pool
illustrates this well. 18
(4) If that breath goes smoothly, do another the same way, several strokes later. If
you sensed a slight interruption in your rhythm, try to smooth it out on the next
breath.
(5) If you lose control, go back to Sweet Spot on the next breath and think about
how to regain control on the next 25. Slow everything down. Be quieter and more
gentle. Don’t let yourself feel hurried. Fistgloves® can be a big help.
You’re now ready to view the video, and to send your swimming – and your experi-
ence of swimming – into a new dimension. Be patient, swim with great thought and
precision, and we guarantee you’ll see dramatic improvement and continue improving
for life.
Happy laps!
Terry Laughlin
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