Swim Smooth: The Complete Coaching System for Swimmers and Triathletes

I am a recreational swimmer who tried to relearn to swim better back in 1998 from Terry Laughlin's book. I have never been on a swim team to get good coaching advice.

I have recently looked at a few new and old how-to-swim books. The newer advice is quite different from the older books which encouraged habits that can easily lead to shoulder injuries.

1)
A new book "Swim Smooth" has the most modern advice of all, along with a fine web site swimsmooth.com with a super free app you can download and watch from any angle and at very slow speed (esp from underneath to see the difference from the old S-shape recommended arm movement for the crawl). Looking through this book a few days ago already has led to a major revision of my freestyle.
You can get the essential info from this fun book by just looking at the numerous pictures and reading the captions.
My self-taught freestyle stroke has several major flaws, eg. I should not angle my hand sideways on entry which can injure the shoulder and I should not cross the center line on arm extension or pushback (some old books show the arm crossing horizontally under the body) which loses propulsion and leads to being off balance. The entry angle should be at a steep approx 45 degree angle and the hand should tip down for the catch right after full extension (instead of gliding more). And forget about a sideways scull and S-shape arm movement (update: I have added back a partial S movement which seems to flow better with increased speeds if you use fins, plus Olympic swimmers do that too).
Anyway, the book "Swim Smooth" and web site (with the downloaded MrSmooth app) is my top choice for a relearn-to-swim-freestyle book for amateurs who have no coach.

2)
Next in line is the excellent second edition of "Fitness Swimming", pages 1-69, page 86, and pages 119-120 (the rest is workout schedules). This book has by far the best compact explanation of the theory and guidelines for the modern injury-free freestyle . It finally explained to me exactly how to accomplish the 2-beat kick as well as the unfathomable (from other books) 6-beat kick.

3)
Then there's the other modern swim book that I re-learned to swim from in 1998. Too bad in that book (or even his latest one) there is no good description of the arc the hand travels (ie. S-shape or not) or fundamental principles like the hand must always be inside the elbow distance (otherwise .. injury) and the similar dangers of angling the hand on entry, or of the merits of a steeper hand entry (but see his DVD below). Terry Laughlin's books (latest best all-stroke intro is called "Extraordinary Swimming for every body") have been adopted widely and I still would recommend this book as one of the several must-have's for someone still learning to swim better. If I was teaching someone to swim from ground zero, I would use the exercises to lead up to the crawl in that book's freestyle chapter (which are easier to see/appreciate in the bigger format "Total Immersion Pool Primer", basically drills in balance and body rotation) or in Terry's DVD "Perpetual Motion Freestyle in 10 Lessons", which teaches how to swim by progressive enhancement of fundamental balance and propulsion skills. The graduated drills are clearly demonstrated and the progression to developing the complete stroke and 2-beat flick kick is logical.

4)
"Learn to Swim in a Weekend" is a super compact (90 pages), all-picture guide to the major strokes plus turning and diving, about 8 easy to look at pages per stroke type. This is a fun book to look through and the pictures are superb in showing the essentials of each stroke.

So those are the 4 most essential how-to-swim or how-to-relearn-to-swim-better books I've discovered.

Then there's the very old swimming book "Swimming: Steps to Success" which has some bad crawl advice (which was considered good advice in the 1960's), but includes a few non-major strokes such as the sidestroke and the Double Trudgen which I'll learn sometime to amaze folks - I mean, who really knows that stroke nowadays other than ocean lifeguards! The third edition of this book has not changed from the very old first edition, so do not expect modern swimming advice.

History: the first-ever "modern" swim book was "Complete Book of Swimming" by James Counsilman (1979) which authors since have liberally copied text from. This was "the" modern theory and how to swim book until the 1990's and has held up remarkably well, plus it's fun to see pictures of Mark Spitz's swim strokes.

Over the years I have read quite a few swim books and this is definitely in the top echelon.Both the material and the format are excellent.
The book is top quality, table size, printed on chromo paper and with excellent color graphics explaining and illustrating the text.
The book is organized into three parts - technique, training and open water. There are also appendices on drills and work out plans and references to the Swim Smooth web site.
I do not intend to summarize the contents of the book but I would like to point out two major themes:
a. the Swim Smooth method has certain fundamentals but is not a one-size-fits-all system. It modifies these fundamentals to different swim types that they identify.
b. Although never mentioned by name, the TI method is totally disputed and discredited by the authors. The Swim Smooth method is the antithesis of TI.

It should be pointed out that this book deals exclusively with freestyle and with an emphasis on open water swimming. This is reflected in the fact that the underwater dolphin (a major freestyle pool skill) is not covered. Having said that, I truly feel that Swim Smooth will become one of those iconic swim books and is an essential addition to any swim library.
Highly recommended.

The good: This is an excellent book, particularly for those of us who want to get better in open water. The take the middle ground in the debate about stroke rate. Although they don't specifically mention Total Immersion, they do criticize the approach of increasing stroke length just to increase stroke length. There is a lot of other good stuff in this book. I would have given it a five had it not been for the stuff below.

The not so good: 1) They clearly endorse multiple Finis products without saying if they get money from Finis for their endorsement. Then when I look at the ratings of these products on Amazon, several got poor reviews. 2) They get you to go on their website and then you get a lot of adds to subscribe to their "Swim guru" and various swim sessions offered by Swim Smooth coaches around the world.

Overall, I think this is an excellent book. I would have appreciated it if they mentioned that they were getting money from companies to recommend the company's products, if they are getting endorsement money.

A fantastic book; beautifully written and illustrated; great explanations; great drills. A wonderful resource for swimmers at any level who are committed to get better.

I started swimming about three years ago. So as someone without the best form, this book has made a huge difference in my efficiency.

This book is very useful for all levels, especially people looking to improve their form. I think the presentation of the materials is excellent. It is one thing to hear and read about good technic, but this book makes a difference with the great illustrations. I have changed my form and have a better 'feel' for the water now.

One of the local Masters clubs runs a video clinic every quarter. I plan on participating in the next one and comparing my video footage to the details in the book.

Highly recommend this book to swimmers and triathletes. This definitely gave me my 'ah-ha' moment where swim technic all kind of makes sense now.

The book is a very worthwhile supplement to the swimsmooth.com web site. This relatively new swim instruction system is the best of them all so far, and I have been studying them all for 40+ years. Their greatest innovation is rejection of a "one size fits all" stroke model. They very accurately pinpoint and illustrate stroke problems (freestyle only), including a whole chapter on shoulder problems. Excellent photo illustrations. Be sure to download the Mr. Smooth free app from the website, look at their illustrative videos, and use their Swim Types quiz to find out what type of swimmer you are and get suggestions for your type. (They also offer DVDs and live courses in Australia and UK - I can't comment.) Combining the book and website with an Intova Sports Utility video camera ($35-40 on Amazon; memory card as cheap as $5) you can very effectively self-coach. Unbeatable investments for any masters club.

I wish these guys had coaches in the USA. Really liked that they don't treat everyone the same. They do a great job describing the different types of swimmers and different ways to improve by type. It helped me recognize and overcome elbow issues. That alone made it worth it.

By far it is the best swim book I have. It breaks everything down into easy to understand parts. All other swim books have an one size fits all approach without taking into account the different body types. Swim Smooth analyzes the swim style based on the body type. Also it is the only swimming book which pays attention to the correct form to avoid injury. Great section on rotator cup injuries and how to avoid them. Their web site is very informative with additional information.

If there is only ONE swim book you ever buy, this should be it. I've made more improvements in the last month than in the past three years. This book is tailored to every swimmer and points out the weaknesses in your stroke. More importantly, it give concrete drills that help correct those stroke flaws. AND.. the drills work. The purpose for each drill is also pointed out. I can't recommend this enough. Better than any other swim instruction I've ever had. I swam a 7.5 mile swim last year...wish I had read this book prior to that!!!

This is a very good book that I would recommend to anyone interested in improving their freestyle stroke (and of course, speed and sense of comfort in the water). I have learned to swim later on in life, starting with fairly high difficulty around age 29. For those of you who have been there, it started with that feeling of being completely out of breath after a single length and resting a minute before doing the next length...and the continuous feeling/fear of being out of breath. Since then, I have put a lot of effort into becoming a better swimmer -- hard work in the pool, reading various books, and talking to more experienced swimmers about drills, techniques, and swim plans. But I still have struggled with my comfort level in the water. For example: the "sinking" feeling, always seemingly struggling to take in enough oxygen, and having a very hard time of incorporating flip turns. Most of the books I have read and people I have talked to aren't quite familiar perhaps on this part of the struggle to become a better swimmer -- from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't yet have an innate sense of comfort in the water. The SwimSmooth book has been a Godsend when it comes to this part of improving as a swimmer. The authors seem to be keenly aware and in tune with swimmers of all skill levels and experience...the explanations and drills are very well written and well-illustrated. For example, I identify with the "Arnie" swimmer archetype and based on this identification have been able to follow specific drills and techniques to improve my comfort in the water. It's also printed on very high quality, gloss paper - I definitely recommend it for anyone looking to improve their freestyle swimming, from beginner through intermediate skill levels.