Swim Speed Secrets by Sheila Taormina
The other day, someone asked me “what is your strongest discipline?” I didn’t know how to answer him. My first thought, none because all three are hard and to master all three feels impossible when you only have seven days in a week to train. However, out of the three, swimming is the most technical because there are so many elements to the freestyle stroke. This combination of stroke and technique helps get you faster.
In the new revised book, Swim Speed Secrets – Master the Freestyle Technique Used by the World’s Fastest Swimmers by Sheila Taormina, a four time Olympian and Triathlon World Champion, the author takes the freestyle stroke and breaks it into pieces. She talks about each piece of it to demonstrate to the reader where he/she can improve.
The book starts out with a brief history and theories about the freestyle stroke. The author then educates the reader on the freestyle stroke by breaking it into sections. Should you pull straight back? Does the “S-curve” work? Where is the power from the stroke coming from? Where is the power from the pull? These questions and more are answered in this short 165 page book.
Freestyle is based on technique and the author teaches the reader what to focus on when swimming. I love the photos that illustrates her point. She dedicates an entire chapter to developing the stroke through the use of drills and exercises. She offers a hand full of drills, some of which I never heard of. But they all look like viable drills that are different but gets the job done.
The out of the pool exercises look quite useful as well.
Sheila Taormina, author, is a four time Olympian and the only woman in the world to have competed in three different sports — swimming, triathlon and modern pentathlon.
