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I am practicing myself on the Total Immersion style of swimming, as I am practicing for long distance triathlon.

After a lot of practice I am doing the 2 beat kicks with little difficulty.

Can someone tell me the optimum angle the body (core) should turn during the raise of an arm?
Sometimes I feel that I turn my core less and sometimes more.

Please let me know if more detail is required on this question.

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    There is no "optimum" angle, and this is something that is pretty impossible to describe/diagnose without video feedback. My best advice since you seem to have a ton of swimming questions is to find a qualified instructor. – JohnP♦ Mar 5 '13 at 14:32
  • Perhaps you can film your swimming, add it to coachseye.com and post the link here. The app is about 5 USD – FredrikD Mar 6 '13 at 8:27
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    Please note: Total Immersion is simply a style of teaching/learning swimming. It is entirely unrelated to triathlon. It is common for AOS (adult onset swimmers) to use TI for the purposes of triathlon, however it is not mandatory (And for those that swim to compete, rather than complete the swim portion, it is not that great a system). – JohnP♦ Mar 28 '13 at 21:31
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    @Freakyuser - Don't get me wrong, TI is a great system for teaching people to be comfortable in the water. It is the general opinion among competitive swimmers, though, that it does not necessarily teach a stroke for speed. For some people it really "clicks" and they can swim fast using it, but that is somewhat of a minority. For some really good insights on open water swimming, check out Gerry Rodrigues at tower26.com/t26-blog . He is an excellent coach, and does a lot with open water 5k and 10k competitors. – JohnP♦ Mar 29 '13 at 18:22
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While I can't suggest an optimum rotation angle for you without seeing you, I can suggest that it is hard to overdo it if you have good balance. For efficient distance swimming it is common to roll quite far and extend the shoulder forward, and many drills from Total Immersion encourage being completely on your side, such as kicking on your side and zipper switch. I also encourage my young swimmers to emphasize their roll while drilling to prevent long term injuries. It minimizes shoulder stress as their yardage increases, so it isn't something endeavor to do minimally. When sprinting, there is a trade off between the economies of efficiency, stroke rate, and power, so it is common to see less core roll in sprint events.

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  • Not exactly what I wanted but still the answer has something very useful in it. +1 for that. By the way are you a TI coach? – Freakyuser Mar 28 '13 at 13:09
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    I am a Masters and USA-S coach. I do utilize TI techniques for myself and my swimmers but am not affiliated. – Peter DeWeese Mar 29 '13 at 0:48

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