THE COULD ETF
Swimming should be as satisfying as any physical activity, a completely enjoyable way to stay
fit.
This other movement allows you to experience weightlessness or move so freely.
But those sensations are possible only if you're comfortable and relaxed while swimming.
If you feel insecure, if you struggle or tire easily, then the benefits and pleasure of
swimming will elude you.
Since 1989, Total Immersion has become the world's most popular swimming improvement
program because our unique methods can teach anyone to swim with the grace and flow of
fish.
Total Immersion self-help lessons will teach you to swim better than you ever dreamed possible
through a series of learning games that connect you with yourself and the water.
These games teach you what children learn spontaneously through play, how to be completely
at home in the water.
As you practice these exercises, you'll experience flow, ease, and real joy in the water.
There's no right or wrong, only movement and what it teaches you.
Best of all, this is a self-help program with no instructor or class schedule.
Just you and a partner helping each other discover the joy of swimming like a fish,
anytime, anywhere it's convenient.
You don't have to be young, strong, or fit to become a beautiful swimmer.
All it takes is a curious mind and spirit.
Your learning partner can be an experienced swimmer or a novice.
We promise you'll both learn to be more at home in the water and experience all the satisfaction
that fish-like swimming can bring.
Happy Laps will guide you through three sequential lessons.
Lesson one will show you how to help each other be completely comfortable in and under
the water.
Feeling safe and secure will allow you to progress more easily through every step of
our learning process.
Lesson two will teach you how your body naturally behaves in the water.
You'll learn to maximize balance and minimize drag to move through water with an ease you
never thought possible.
And in lesson three, you'll learn to swim as fish do, with balanced, slippery, whole
body movement.
Once you experience that, swimming will never be the same.
If you thought you'd never learn to swim, Total Immersion will teach you how.
We guarantee it.
In lesson one, you and your partner will help each other develop a relationship with the
water.
Our guided discovery exercises will help you examine and overcome the natural fears that
many people have about water.
Then we'll show you how to breathe comfortably while in the water.
And finally, we'll help you build the confidence to begin gliding short distances effortlessly.
Follow these steps at your own pace, moving from one to the next as you feel safe and
secure doing so.
Start by sitting where you feel safe and comfortable as Rosa and Alice do here.
Next, wash your face and hair.
How do you feel here?
Are you breathing normally?
Rosa will do this until she feels completely ready to go further.
Next, sit with your chin in the water and blow bubbles.
Then close your mouth and hum, blowing bubbles with your nose.
Alice helps Rosa feel safe and secure as she bubbles out and experiences buoyancy for the
first time in her life.
This exercise will build confidence by teaching that you can breathe without swallowing water.
Here, Rosa is breathing in through her nose while bubbling out through her mouth.
Breathing small, steady bubbles is the best way to improve your breath control.
Rosa and Alice are also breathing in through the mouth while holding a bit of water on
the palate.
They're learning that they can block water from coming in but still permit the air to
pass.
Advanced swimmers do this without thinking, but new swimmers like Rosa need to learn this
skill consciously.
Here Rosa puts her face in fully and exhales slowly, making smaller, quieter bubbles.
As she follows Alice a bit away from the steps, she practices inhaling for two counts and
bubbling out for four counts.
Taking longer to exhale than inhale is good practice for breathing while you swim.
Next we'll combine easy breathing with rhythmic body movements.
Here Alice shows Rosa how to bob rhythmically, first dipping her goggles, then to the top
of her head.
Rosa tries it keeping a hand on the stairs for security.
Rosa's a confidence builder to dip her goggles as she bubbles out.
Next Alice shows Rosa how to dip and bubble rhythmically.
Then Alice and Rosa do it together, with Alice setting the rhythm for Rosa to follow.
At first they just dip the mouth and bubble.
Then Rosa follows Alice in dipping fully under, as Alice helps Rosa find a steady rhythm.
When she feels ready, Rosa bubbles rhythmically on her own, just dipping her goggles at first.
Next Alice guides Rosa to bubble in a horizontal position, just a bit closer to a swimming
sensation.
Alice will try to help Rosa experience relaxation like Diane shows here.
First Rosa supports herself on her hands while Alice helps keep her stable.
Alice's gentle touch, staying in a safe place and bubbling slowly help Rosa gain confidence.
Diane is a beginner too, but has learned to relax fully.
The more she relaxes, the lighter she feels.
First experience how lightly your fingers touch the stairs, then let your hands float
free.
This is a wonderful confidence builder.
By bubbling gently, Diane can enjoy this feeling for quite a long time.
Next Alice and Rosa move a few feet from the stairs.
Here Rosa experiences effortless, supported movement for the first time, doing the last
few feet on her own.
For the first time in 58 years, Rosa knows how it feels to glide weightlessly and discovers
how joyful swimming the total immersion way can be.
The next step is to be launched from your feet and extend your glide as Vic does for
Diane.
This kind of relaxed, effortless travel through water is the essence of total immersion style
swimming.
Vic and Diane finish lesson one with a relaxation exercise similar to those at the end of a
yoga class.
They help each other sink to the bottom in shallow water.
They each bubble lightly from the nose, just enough to keep the water out.
Once on the bottom, Vic wraps his arms around his head as if he were in bed.
The peace and serenity he experiences there can truly transform a new swimmer's relationship
with the water.
And here Diane learns a remarkable lesson.
In water, you fall up, not down.
This is a transcendent moment for a new swimmer.
How you rise to the surface can be a lesson itself, reinforcing the realization that sinking
won't be a problem for you.
When you trade places and help your partner submerge, you'll feel just how much the water
pushes back as you try to press them down.
Like Vic and Diane, lesson one will help you feel truly at home in the water.
With this comfort and familiarity, you're ready to learn how weightlessness can make
your swimming truly blissful.
In lesson two, our next series of discovery exercises will show you how it feels to be
weightless in the water.
These will show you how easy it is to get the water to support you completely, and once
it does, how to move around easily.
You'll experience that weightlessness and master each exercise faster by continuing
to work with a partner.
Using our buddy system method, you learn just as much while helping your partner as when
you do the exercises yourself.
And sharing the thrill of accomplishment with your partner will make it more satisfying
for both of you.
After watching the video together, Alice and Nancy plan their next exercise before Nancy
helps Alice ease into it and checks her position.
We start lesson two with an exercise you've probably done often on land, touching your
toes.
Standing waist deep, Marcia takes a deep breath and bends forward.
As she reaches toward her toes, she feels her feet come right off the bottom.
Without even trying, she's floating.
Relax and enjoy the water's support.
Repeat this several times until you're just floating like a jellyfish.
If you've never felt you could float, this will prove that you can.
While most swimmers will enjoy the weightless feeling of the jellyfish float, some flounder
uncomfortably when they try to stand again.
So we'll show you how to regain your feet.
This will help you feel secure, but it's also a coordination exercise.
To stand again, keep your head down and reach forward with one leg.
Then pull both arms back as you put that foot down.
Why did you choose to do it with that leg?
Because it felt most natural.
But swimming is a bilateral skill.
Whatever you do with one side of your body, you also do with the other.
We'll make this your first bilateral skill exercise.
Do the same exercise with your other leg.
Notice how it feels different.
Many aspects of swimming will be this way.
One side will feel more natural.
The other will need some thoughtful education.
Do the standing up exercise several times, alternating one leg and the other.
This will help prepare your nervous system for bilateral coordination.
We'll do the egg float next.
When you float like a jellyfish, your arms and legs stabilize you.
Now we'll take away the stabilizers.
Roll forward into jellyfish float, then tuck yourself into an egg shape.
In the tucked position, you'll feel your body roll around gently until it achieves equilibrium.
Don't react.
Just bob around, letting the water move you gently.
Once again, simply enjoy being weightless.
This exercise is useful for awareness and mindfulness.
Tune into all the sensations you feel.
Being weightless, feeling the water on your skin, and relaxing as you let the water move
you around.
In the egg position, we can learn more about using the buoyancy created by the air in your
lungs.
First, tuck into the egg float.
Then your partner can press you down gently, almost like dribbling a basketball.
This exercise will show you how different bodies have different buoyancy characteristics.
Richard bobs back to the surface quickly.
Marcia takes a bit longer.
Linda presses some barely under the surface, then lets him bob back up.
Do this gently and slowly to avoid forcing water up your partner's nose.
Just notice how quickly they bob up again.
Compare this to how your own body reacts.
A swimmer who bobs up quickly will balance more easily.
One who comes up slowly will need a bit more support in less than three exercises.
Next we'll do our first exercise in self-propulsion.
We call it spinning.
Tuck into an egg with your arms free.
Then use your arms to turn in circles.
Keep spinning for as long as you like.
Spinning teaches you about good resistance and bad resistance.
The bad resistance holds your body back.
The good resistance is what you use to propel.
Minimizing the bad resistance while maximizing the good will help you spin farther, faster,
with less effort.
A tighter body tuck will make it easier to spin.
A sprawling body position will make it harder.
Smooth arm movements move you effectively.
Hurried arm movements don't.
The book that accompanies this video gives instructions for many spinner games, each
of which will teach you a different navigating skill.
Spin in one direction, then in the other.
Spin with your left arm only, then with your right arm only.
These will teach you about bilateral skill and coordination.
Find the lowest number of arm skulls you can use with each arm in each direction.
Spin exactly one circle to the right, then exactly one to the left.
These two exercises will teach you about movement efficiency.
Spinning will be fun to do, but it will also teach you how to use and avoid water resistance.
Next we'll do exercises with an extended body line as we learn the awareness that lets you
slip through the water like a fish.
The longer and more balanced your body line, the faster and easier you'll travel through
the water.
As Richard does here, tuck into an egg float.
Once he feels stable and supported, he slowly extends his arms and legs as Marcia assists
him in reaching a more horizontal position.
Linda reaches balance with such ease that Sam doesn't need to help.
Imagine your body as a seesaw.
The fulcrum is just below your breastbone.
If you can add weight to the front end, you'll raise the back end.
Your partner can intervene at any time to help you balance and to hide your head, but
you should do as much on your own as you can.
How does it feel to be perfectly balanced?
Tune into and enjoy the relaxing feeling of being supported by the water.
Because she balances so effortlessly, Linda can glide a long way with no kick at all.
In helping Marcia, Richard holds her feet as lightly as possible and launches her gently.
Women are generally better than men at getting close to full balance on their own.
How much help your partner needs will influence how we'll do the prone glide drill coming
soon.
The next exercise, which we call IYX, will give you more understanding of how you can
affect your equilibrium with your arms and legs.
Richard starts in the egg float, then extends his body line.
When he feels stable, he gently opens his arms to form a Y.
Then he returns to the I position and opens his legs to form an upside down Y.
Then he spreads his arms again to form an X.
And finally, he closes his arms and legs to return to the I position once more.
When you open your arms or legs, how does that affect your sense of being supported
by the water?
Can you improve your balance in a Y or X position, then maintain that sense of better balance
when you extend yourself into the I position again?
How can this exercise improve your control over your body position?
You and your partner should help each other as needed as you work toward awareness of
how to stay balanced with the least effort.
On our final series of Lesson 2 exercises, Prone Glides, we'll sense how effortless
and enjoyable swimming will be when you learn to be fish-like.
Start by extending yourself from egg position to a long, balanced body line.
Your partner can help shape your body into a long, tight line from fingertips to toes.
Sit directly down so your head will travel through the same space as your torso.
Here, Marsha checks to be sure that no more than a sliver of the back of Richard's head
is above the surface.
Because Linda can extend into a balanced line with no help, Sam knows that even the lightest
push should provide enough momentum to travel a good distance.
Richard gives Marsha a bit more thrust because she needed some assistance to balance.
On your first few glides, see how far you can travel without kicking.
You're learning how it will feel to swim in balance.
Each time your partner launches you, try to travel a bit farther by using weight distribution
and streamlining more effectively.
These are incredibly valuable lessons.
When you're traveling as far as possible without kicking, you can begin including a kick.
Sam glides until he feels his legs begin to sink, then kicks barely enough to counter
that and to maintain momentum.
Kick quietly and gently and keep your legs inside your body cylinder.
When you're fish-like, you'll spend little energy on kicking.
You can also practice effortless glides without a partner.
Push off the wall, balance and streamline, and see how far you can glide without kicking.
Your goal is to travel a bit farther each time.
You can also push from the bottom into a lazy glide.
The less effort or kick you need now to glide in balance, the less you'll need later to
drill or swim.
Can you travel as far as Richard without moving a muscle?
Finally, here's one more gliding exercise you can try with your partner.
This is a rolling glide.
As your partner moves you along, roll to one side, then the other.
Your partner can help you roll from your feet.
Do it with help first, then try it solo while gliding on your own.
If you enjoyed prone glides, try this.
Just take a few easy strokes, as Nancy does with Alice's help.
Look as gently and quietly as possible for an advanced preview of how relaxing TI swimming
will be.
Now that you've experienced the freedom of weightless, effortless movement, lesson three
will teach you to swim as fish do.
Instead of tiring, ineffective arm and leg churning, you'll learn balanced, slippery
whole body movement.
We'll start lesson three by learning to balance on your back.
The first step is to learn the right head position for good balance.
Jennifer lays back with the water touching the corners of her goggles and the tip of
her chin.
We call this hiding your head.
Let your partner position your head.
Toby also helps Jennifer feel secure in this new position.
She stays close to give more help if it's needed.
The best way to quickly achieve comfort and ease is by towing your partner with a light
touch.
Kick by flicking your toes lightly toward the surface, as you see Mark doing.
When Alice sees that Mark is relaxed and balanced, she releases him while staying watchfully
nearby.
As Alice walks backward, her draft helps Mark keep moving with a light kick so he can practice
ease while he learns balance.
Taking tow and release over and over will help make relaxation a habit.
Your goal is to maintain momentum for gradually longer periods on your own.
Alice takes great care to position Mark's head and observe his balance before she releases
him to go a short distance on his own.
When your partner feels at home with back balance, you can also launch them from the
feet as we did in lesson two's prone glide.
Without your draft, this will test their ability to solo successfully.
Continue practicing until you can move along on your own just as easily as Toby does here.
When you feel relaxed and comfortable on your back, move on to sweet spot.
When you rotate slightly to your side, your balance should feel a bit better and, because
you're more slippery on your side, you should glide along with even less effort.
Your head position should be exactly as it was on your back.
Alice and Mark show you how to begin.
She starts towing while hiding his head, then gently tips him to one side while using her
other hand to keep his head stable.
You can also begin towing from the shoulders, then fix head position as Jennifer does for
Toby.
When she sees that Toby is balanced on her back, she tips her with both hands.
Finally, she provides very light assistance to ensure that Toby feels completely at ease.
When they change places, Jennifer allows Toby to guide her, then focuses on staying long,
slippery and relaxed after release.
Notice how quiet the water is around Mark's face and how relaxed his left hand is.
He simply maintains this calm composure when he's kicking on his own.
His goal is to feel complete ease when he practices independently.
If you can't move steadily on your own, fins can be a great help in maintaining the ease
and control that are our primary goal.
A good way to improve your feel for your sweet spot is by practicing active balance in which
your goal is to hit your sweet spot while rotating.
Your partner's help in keeping your head stable as you roll can really make a difference.
Alice watches Mark's alignment while he focuses on rolling gently and rhythmically.
Your goal is to rotate without help from your hands or extra effort on your kick.
Her gentle toe makes it much easier for Mark to do that.
In solo practice, keep working on rotating only with relaxed weight shifts.
Your partner's draft can make this easier to do.
Pegene's next focus should be laying her head back a bit more and keeping it stable.
Mark's head is very still and he keeps his ears underwater at all times.
Practice until your head position is as stable as Mark's.
In our next drill, Lengthen Your Vessel, you'll learn that you move faster and more easily
when you extend an arm overhead.
Practicing your flutter kick in this position will teach you far more about efficient travel
through the water than kicking on a board.
Balance in sweet spot and when you're comfortable, sneak one arm overhead.
Because Alice's balance and alignment are so good, Mark can toe lightly on a single
fingertip.
Pegene begins towing only after Jennifer finds her sweet spot and sneaks her hand.
Even a light pull on her hand heightens Jennifer's sense of being a long, sleek vessel.
Once Alice clearly has this sense of slipping easily through the water with a completely
relaxed kick, Mark can release her while continuing to provide a bit of draft and an educated
eye to monitor her position and streamline.
And Alice, after release, stays relaxed while trying to slip through the smallest possible
hole in the water and maintaining a long line from fingertips to toes.
Use the lightest kick you can and keep your feet inside your body cylinder.
As you can see from Jennifer's example, the goal isn't effort or speed but perfect ease
and a long, slippery body line.
Aim to feel this way on both sides.
And if you don't feel as effortless as Jennifer looked, just slip on a pair of fins.
They'll help you achieve the relaxation that's so important in balance drills.
In our second active balance drill, called fish drill, you'll learn to balance while
looking down at the bottom.
You'll also learn to breathe by rolling your body to the air rather than lifting or turning
your head.
If your partner is already comfortable in sweet spot, you can let them start out on
their own then offer help only after they rotate nose down.
Jennifer tips Toby's head a bit and stacks her shoulders.
Launching from underwater, we see Jennifer gently but firmly put Toby's head directly
in line with her spine and hold it there until Toby has a clear sense of how to do it on
her own.
You can see here how much Mark's balance improves when he tips his head down until it's directly
in line with his spine.
It can also help imprint the right position if you rehearse a couple of times before launch.
Jennifer rotates nose down twice while Toby provides the lightest assistance.
Toby checks that Jennifer's head is in line and her shoulders stacked before launching
her to go solo.
Watching the same exercise from underwater, you can see how easily Mark can maintain a
horizontal position allowing his kick to go entirely to propulsion.
It will be a simple transition from fish to our next balance skill which we call skating.
The skating position will give you the clearest sense of how balance will feel when swimming,
nose down and extending your body line on each stroke.
It will also reinforce that you breathe by rolling a balanced sleek body line to the
air.
Your goal is to be able to move from the nose up long vessel position into a balanced nose
down position as Alice does here with gentle correction from Mark.
In the skating position, we're trying to create a long slippery side balanced position with
a dry arm lying easily on the side.
The line from Alice's fingertips to toes is long and clean.
The key to effortless balance is to position your head exactly as it was in fish and to
extend your arm below your head.
Alice is nicely balanced with her hand in a three o'clock position, but a leaner or
more muscular swimmer may need to angle the hand down to four or five o'clock.
Mark's help is valuable here in drawing Alice's fingertips down below her head while providing
a bit of forward assistance.
After Alice travels on her own, Mark helps her roll back to sweet spot to breathe.
If your partner stays close by, they can observe you closely and provide just the right assistance
at just the right time.
Before long, you'll be skating on your own as easily as Toby is here.
He started from fish, then was able to return to the same skating position after a breath.
And once again, if you feel even a bit of struggle with kicking, just put on fins to
practice effortlessness.
Alice's supple right hand shows us how relaxed she is.
In the under skate drill, you'll add one simple movement to the skating position.
After arriving in the skating position, check that your head is in line and your hand below
your head, then sneak your other hand forward until you see it under your nose.
Pause to check that your shoulders are still stacked, then slide your hand back and roll
up to breathe.
On every cycle, rotate to the same nose down position and the same nose up position, taking
three slow breaths before you go nose down again.
For new swimmers, our final step, the under switch drill, will be your first true experience
in swimming the total immersion way.
Under switch will teach you to propel effortlessly by connecting your arm stroke to core body
rotation and reinforce that you'll swim best when you move through the water like an arrow
through the air.
In the skating position, check that your head is in line and your hand at three or four
o'clock before you sneak your hand.
When you see your hand, you should still be side balanced, then switch directly to sweet
spot on the other side.
From the surface, Jennifer shows the same timing, perfect balance in skating position,
still side balanced when she sees her hand, then rolling her whole body as a unit as she
switches.
Toby shows patience and moves her arm and body together.
Next, she'll work on getting her head in line with her spine.
Watching Jennifer again, this time notice how her hand and hip move in perfect synchronization.
This allows powerful torso muscles to do most of the work of propulsion.
To improve at this drill, practice doing just one thing very well at a time.
For timing, switch only when you see your hand under your nose.
For power, switch all the way to sweet spot as if taking your belly button to the air.
Your head just goes along for the ride.
For efficiency, switch through the smallest possible hole in the water.
And finally, do the drill silently.
The quieter you are, the more efficient you'll be.
When you master under switch, you'll have a skill that will let you swim many laps with
beautiful, fluent, efficient movements.
This will allow you to enjoy all the physical and psychological benefits of swimming and
give you a foundation for learning any other swimming skill.
You are a total immersion fish-like swimmer.
You've made the water your friend and learned to move through it with flow and grace.
But that's just the first step.
Total immersion swimmers are lifelong learners, and we have many ways to help you get even
more satisfaction and enjoyment from swimming.
The video that follows Happylapse, Freestyle Made Easy, guides you through 12 simple steps
that will teach you to swim freestyle as beautifully as the best swimmers in the world.
Freestyle Made Easy builds seamlessly upon the foundation you started here and guides
you through a series of sequential skills.
You'll learn how to continue working with your practice partner, how to further develop
your balance skills, how to create rhythmic propelling movement in advanced under switch
drills, the most effective stroke timing, zipper switch drills, and how to transition
seamlessly from drills to a beautiful stroke with over switch drills.
You can also get instruction from expert total immersion teachers in a workshop setting with
other swimmers like you or in private one-on-one classes.
Find information about all the ways total immersion can help you become a complete swimmer
at our website, www.totalimmersion.net.
Now get to the pool and start working on becoming the beautiful swimmer you were meant to be.
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