The Dojo Blog
Exclusive training insights for our Dojo Members and Alumni
New Video Tutorials
If you haven't seen them yet, you may appreciate some new tutorials talking about... Hip Mobility and Counter Balanced Foot Position Improving The Parallel Leg Position in Freestyle
Practice Of The Week
This is a practice I designed for a swimmer who is doing very well with technique but is having some challenges with training his exhale from nose and inhale from mouth, keeping the airways clear of water. In order to not let the breathing troubles restrict his...
Practice Of The Week
This is a practice I designed for a swimmer with excellent control over form up to cruising speeds, who is preparing for his upcoming Ironman. He has not done much work with tempo before so I have been introducing him to the Tempo Trainer and how to prepare the...
Check Out Newest Video Tutorials
Have you viewed the Video Tutorials page yet? Because freestyle is by far the most popular stroke to study, our videos there tend to focus on that stroke. We have some new additions: Improving the Timing of the Breath in Freestyle Maintaining the Elbow Orientation in...
What About Your General Strength and Conditioning?
Since you are a member of the Dojo, you are certainly interested in doing the specialized training you need to become a better swimmer, in both skills and fitness. But what about your general strength and conditioning that is the foundation for your specialized...
What Happens At The End Of The Catch/Pull?
In traditional swimming lingo the underwater part of the freestyle stroke is called the pull, as in pulling back on the water, as in pulling the body forward, and this is regarded as the most important part of the whole stroke. In Total Immersion we call this the...
Should You Use Longer Strokes?
Once you come into the TI training world, you realize that stroke count (stroke length) is an important indicator your improvement in efficiency (but not the only). You may wonder what stroke count you should be using. You may wonder how to make your stroke count...
Are You Breathing Deep Enough?
Do you feel you've got a decent stroke and are practicing the main breathing skills but still unusually out of breath after short distances? This appears to be a more significant problem and solution for some swimmers than I realized previously. So I am adding some...
Can You Just Swim Without Doing Drills?
For someone who is brand new at swimming doing various drills, and drills with a few strokes may be more than enough challenge on the body and attention. But for some who've already been swimming, or perhaps in the middle of the tri or swim season, and have been...
How To Plan Your First Self-Guided Practice
Here is an article in our library that breaks down the basic steps to planning your own practice, when working on the fundamental stroke skills. https://dojo.mediterraswim.com/forums/topic/instr-plan-first-self-guided-practice/ *** One of the main objectives of the...
Why Keep The Entry So Close?
One of our Dojo swimmers received a video analysis report recently, and one of the improvement opportunities I gave him was to make his entry closer to the shoulder. He was ready to accept this but still wondered why this was more advantageous than extending a bit...
Learn More About Using Tempo
Just as a musician may use a metronome to practice playing a song at a consistent speed, or a dancer may practice the moves to the beat of music, in our swimming too, we want to practice moving with precision through the stroke cycle over and over again and perfect...
Interpreting Stroke Examples In Context
When we are viewing swimmers who are suppose to be examples for how we are to swim, we need to make sure we understand the context in which that person is swimming. Among the features that we may imitate, some features of the stroke might be suitable only for that...
A Good Warm Up = A Better Swim
There is a basic training principle you need to keep in mind: The better your warm up, the better your swim will be - a practice, a race, or a long recreational cruise. It does not fail - when I am disciplined to swim gently and quietly for a certain number of...
Fine Tune Your Synchronization
By the end of a series of live lessons in Level 1 I hope to have a chance to introduce you to the synchronization of the propulsive pieces of your stroke. Up to that point you have worked on shaping the individual sections of body position and movement patterns, and...
Emphasize The Exhale
To improve your capabilities and comfort with breathing, here are a few more encouragements and ideas for you... Make sure you emphasize the exhale in your non-breathing moments of the stroke. Contrary to instincts, this urgency and 'breathlessness' you feel while...
Competition Between Skill Projects
I should address this concern I have heard from several lately when working on breathing skills... You start investing your practice time on breathing skills and you notice other skills (like kick, recovery, and catch) that still require your focus seem to degrade....
Learning The 2 Beat Kick
Some of you have been drawn to develop your 2 Beat Kick lately. I would like to call your attention to some resources that may help you. First, if you are new to this kicking style called the 2 Beat Kick, then you may first want to view some of our stroke...
Improve It By Feel
Coincidentally, this topic has come up several times in the last week, and so I will offer some encouragement on it. When practicing a body position or skill on your own, without the coach present... How do you know if you are doing it correctly? The short, simple,...
Solutions For Breathing Easier
Let's continue the discussion on how to solve breathing problems... Solution: Improve Technique Among those reading this post it may be readily understood how improving your body control and your breathing technique will make breathing easier - investing time...