Breakthrough Swimming

by Cecil Colwin

Never before has one book taken such a comprehensive look at the evolution, science, and coaching application of competitive swimming. In Breakthrough Swimming , legendary swimming coach and researcher Cecil Colwin provides a rich perspective on the development of the sport and explains major advances in stroke mechanics, training methods, and racing techniques. Accompanied by richly detailed illustrations, this engaging text is one of the most insightful written works on the sport. It makes clear sense out of the scientific principles and puts into context the historical changes in the sport. Not only will you gain a greater understanding of competitive swimming through its origins and evolution, but you'll also gain these valuable - Improve your stroke technique, starts, and turns.
- Improve your feel of the water by learning to anticipate and effectively manipulate the reacting flow of the water.
- Understand the hydrodynamics of swimming and learn how water reacts to the forces you apply with each swimming stroke.
- Improve your conditioning and develop a better training program by understanding the principles of training.
- Learn how to design different types of workouts to produce specific physiological effects.
- Learn how to plan a seasonal program and how to relate your training to the pace of the race you intend to swim. The book includes a chapter contributed by Dr. David Pyne, sport physiologist to the 2000 Australian Olympic swimming team. Pyne covers the physiology of modern swimming training and the preparation of swimming teams for top-flight international competition. Breakthrough Swimming covers every aspect of competitive swimming from its spawning ground in early 19th-century England to the present day, including the profound changes that occurred in the last decade of the 20th century. The book also explains the societal changes of recent years, such as the advent of professional swimming and the specter of performance-enhancing drugs. Combining history with the latest innovations, Breakthrough Swimming is the definitive work on the past, present, and future of competitive swimming.

Genres: Sports

262 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

Reviews

[Duong (Ufo) Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, there is a book that goes deep about the topic of fluid dynamics and the "feel for the water". So many other resources about swimming only talk about how a good form should look instead of how a good form should feel.

I've been self-coaching my swimming so I found this super helpful. I'm starting to apply some knowledge and tips from the book. I love digging deeper into the science and the fundamentals behind the things I do. If you're also like that, I think you will find this book helpful also.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much too technical for my dweeby swimming brain to comprehend, but interesting to see another sporting language in full swing.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a good deal of redundancy in some of the history and some general comments on training methods, but all told this is a treasure trove of information. The description of strokes and the sections on hydrodynamics in particular are excellent. Compare this to the kind of common sense or generality in most swim instruction and you see the vast divide between those that take the complexity of the sport seriously and insist that you must as well in order to get maximum benefit and those that are simply trying to produce something approachable (uh, I'm not thinking about Total Immersion, am I?).