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Chi Running / Total Immersion

TRIumphantTRIumphant Posts: 850
in General Chat
I'm currently in the process of reading Chi running by Danny Dreyer, and just about at the point of starting the exercises. Having been swayed by the marketing hype, I thought I'd try this over the winter, with Total Immersion simming as well. Then come next season I'd be super efficient at two of the disciplines.

Has anyone actually had any suscess with these?

Comments

  • FlavadaveFlavadave Posts: 749
    Bought the TI book a couple of years ago... The principles are good, but there's no substitute for having a coach. I thought I had a half decent stroke until I got filmed last year. It was embarrassing.

    You also get instant feedback on drills. Its too easy to think you're doing something right when you're not. If you then spend 3 months practising a drill incorrectly, you're not doing yourself any favours and becoming good at doing something wrong.

    Definitely read TI, but make sure you combine it with some form of hands on (oo-er misses) coaching as well, however often you can afford it!
  • TRIumphantTRIumphant Posts: 850
    I was planning on getting some coaching over the autumn, and then fine tune everything during winter / spring. I know what you mean about impementing what you've read, it does feel better, but I'm sure it's not right, so coaching will help.
  • ashthetashashthetash Posts: 164
    I bought the TI book a couple of years ago. At the time I struggled to swim 300m freestyle and if I did manage it, I was completely knackered. I followed all the drills working up to the full stroke and found that I could cover the distance easily. My time came down from about 2:30 per 100 to about 2:00 per 100 and my stroke count from 30 to 16 per length.

    That all happened within about 3 months. Since then I have struggled to make any significant progress. Looking around at several forums it would seem that this is not uncommon. Self-taught TI will get you down to 2:00 per 100m and then you need to move on. Flavadave is right in suggesting that at some point a coach is needed to enable further progress. The big question is when?

    Whether self-taught TI will work for you I suspect depends largely on your start point. If you know your form is appalling and your stroke count is way too high then it is worth trying. If you do try then don't forget a benchmark session before you start, be diligent about progressing through the drills and accept that you may not actually swim for a few sessions. When you get to a point that progress has stopped then it is time to look at what you do next.
  • durhamvamdurhamvam Posts: 246
    I learnt front crawl by a total immersion approach and it was brilliant for me although I am now having problems speeding it up (I know, I know more pool golf ). However, the sessions were coached and also worked on general fitness and endurance. I don't think I could have got it on my own, certainly not without someone on the side to make sure I was doing it right because it feels so alien at first.

    VAM
  • ministryofsoundministryofsound Posts: 28
    Ive learnt TI. Its really helped me. I bought the DVD, the book didn't work for me. Ive knocked 1min off my 400m swim time from 7:20 to 6:20. Also reduced my stroke count per 25 metres to 13, from 18-20. I also find it keeps the heart rate lower as your putting in less effort.
  • ironkavironkav Posts: 259
    lol its funny that in the last 2 days I have been researching these two fields and looking to get some more info..always someone on the same wavelength here.

    Dublin has the TI weekend course in November, and also has a chi running club near me.

    Pricey though.

    IK
  • jmurt71jmurt71 Posts: 46
    I've tried both TI and Chi Running. TI was a complete disaster, wasted eighteen months on it and it made me about 25-30% SLOWER. Finally gave it up, went to a swim coach for some one on ones and after four lessons working on standard good technique, stroke,etc took over ten minutes off my Olympic distance swims. There's some good stuff in there but nothing you won't get elsewhere and some stuff that isn't good at all.
    Chi running on the other hand I found brilliant, coming from being essentially very slow and hating running because of knee/shin problems took me to being an average runner and still improving without any running related injuries since I started.
    So I'd recommend Chi running, but as for TI? BIG bargepole
  • ShaggyShaggy Posts: 140
    I went to Swimshack for TI coaching one-to-one in the endless pool.

    Ian is very clear in his instruction and the video works well. The process definitely helped me at the start, but I didn't perservere with the TI method. This is because it took me a long time to get my kick sorted, and I didn't dedicate enough time to learning the TI drills. If you do go TI be prepared to completely re-learn FC almost as if you've never swum before. It won't necessarily fix you up straight away.

    I had an awful swim stroke, it is a bit better now. Is it better than any other instruction with a video? Don't know. But a lot of swim advice seems very similar in terms of the end result, I think the difference is in how you re-program the brain.

    Ade
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