Additional insight to the book Total Immersion, where Terry Laughlin and John Delves express ideas related to swimming more efficiently in an entertaining and effective manner. Chapter 2 in particular - entitled Swim Better Without Getting Any Stronger? Yes! - has great appeal. Additional insight can be gained by considering factors, from a biomechanical perspective, that might contribute to the success of the strategies applied in the Total Immersion program. Summary: The ideas expressed by Terry Laughlin and John Delves in their chapter 'Swim Better Without Getting any Stronger?Yes!' were discussed with reference to a mechanical model featuring resistive and propulsive impulse. In agreement with the authors, reduction of resistive force was viewed as the key to improving swimming technique. Reducing resistance enables a slower stroke rate at any given speed and a reduced rate of energy expenditure. Increased stroke length is a natural consequence of the reduced stroke rate. The question of how resistance can be reduced was then addressed. While consideration of a mechanical model led to explanations that differed in some ways from the explanations proposed by Terry Laughlin and John Delves, there was agreement that changing the stroke to a 'catch up' technique, by maintaining a streamlined reach of the arm and hand after entry, could reduce resistance. In this article it was proposed that the 'catch-up' technique reduced resistance by two main mechanisms: It reduces the torques that tend to 'sink the legs' by moving the centre of mass forward so that it coincided more closely with the centre of buoyancy. It encourages appropriate range and timing of body roll. Thus, the swimmer can readily adopt positions that minimise resistance during some phases of the stroke, particularly during exit and recovery.
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