Feedback from TI swimmers:
"Thanks heaps for the help before my Xterra race. Ended up having a great day – my swim out performed all the other disciplines – the bubble approach worked superbly and in fact I never have been so relaxed before an event – 5 minutes before the start my hr was only 65!
23 minutes for the swim (2 x 750m) including a 500m sand run and run up to transition was not too bad and I was coming out of the water with quite a few pros!
The whole race for me went amazingly well physically and mentally – just unfortunate that I ended up with 2 flats (one quite major) which cost me around 13 – 15 minutes. Saying that though, the 'bubble approach' I used in the swim was very usefully while changing my flats and seeing the rest of the field go by!
It was great to finish and ending up 14th in my age group out of 69 was very pleasing. Even more rewarding was knowing that without the flats I WOULD have finished in the top three. So now I have an excuse to go and do it again!
Given I swam only 2 – 3 times a week (often only 2) for an hour at a time I believe my return on investment was huge."
Patrick Harvey - November 2007
"I have completed 10 Ironman events in New Zealand, the most recent one being in March 2007. It was my best swim ever! It wasn't my fastest, but it was the most enjoyable and relaxing.
On the Friday before the event, Dunstan Bertschinger from Total Immersion Swimming gave a very informative and inspirational speech. He mentioned things like - relaxing, gliding, balance and most important to me was, he said to imagine my self enclosed in a "Pod"; and this was the secret for me.
Along with relaxing and gliding I got through the 3.8km swim with great ease and surprised myself with my time, as I don't train with a squad so most of my training is done alone. I swam 1hr 16mins.
I am 56 years of age and work a full time job, so it is never too late to learn something new and I totally recommend the Total Immersion way."
Phil Taiapa - October 2007
"The workshop was very rewarding. It was anything but generic as all participants were taught at their level. Now I use the TI concept to guide my own pool sessions where I concentrate on some aspect of my stroke whenever I swim.
Since the workshop I use the concepts of TI whenever I swim. The small suggestions from the instructors pop into my head as I do my laps and I try to have a real sense of my body as I move through the water.
I competed in a long course tri early 2007 and swam the 2k in 32mins. I felt amazing as I ran up the stairs from the beach to transition.
And so to Ironman. My 3.8k swim, that day was the best I have ever felt in the water. No shoulders screaming as I used my TI hints to move through the water. I got out with 57mins on the clock.
I have often thought that perhaps it was my increased fitness that produced these results. However I do not train to excess. I train smart and I think that my emphasis on technique (even though I am not always "drilling") has been the base for my improvement.
I had my first swim leg win on the weekend. A short corporate triathlon. First out of the water and did not get overtaken for the rest of the day. TI gives you the mental approach to swim smooth and efficently and FAST."
Andrew James - April 2007
"Two years ago swimming a length of a 50m pool in freestyle left me panicked and gasping for breath at the end of it. I'd never been a good swimmer because I'd never learnt the skill properly.
I remember my first "TI" swimming lesson vividly. I swam / struggled about 25m after which time Dunstan said "ok, let's go over to one of the other pools and have a chat". So we went from the "big pool" to the "baby pool" where we paracticed backfloating. I remember thinking that I must be an even worse swimmer than I thought if I had to go back to backfloating and wondering what on earth backfloating had to do with freestyle anyway!
I knew absolutely noting of TI before that first lesson and had even less of an appreciation of just how different my life would be as a swimmer. Fastforward about four months where I find myself in a TI weekend workshop. We started in a classroom and it was interesting to hear the variety of reasons why people were there. That weekend workshop changed my swimming and my life in ways that it's difficult to explain now. It was one weekend but it's made the world of difference to me. Now, an ocean swim is something to enjoy rather than to fear.
Shortly before IM 2007 I was watching the sun rise over Balmoral Beach and was struck with the realisation of just how far I'd come in such a short period of time. The girl who couldn't swim was swimming happily at dawn, all by herself, about to race her first ever Ironman with a 3.8km swim. And I wasn't even worried about whether I'd make it. Of course I would. Now that was something to smile about and smile I did."
Wendy Andrews - March 2007