Customer Reviews

Breaststroke for Every Body

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

So, I was planning to do a sprint triathlon, my crawl stroke is abysmal, and I staggered across this DVD as a rental, so I gave it a shot. It's original target was senior citizens - there's a title left in for "Breaststroke for Boomers". Ignore it, the content here is pretty darn good.

Basically, it's about an hour of video of folks in the water, both above water and below water angles, showing you how to efficiently use a breaststroke.

I already knew the basic stroke, and this certainly helped me correct a few problems I didn't know I had. A week later, I was able to swim faster and farther with the same amount of effort. A month later, I finished my triathlon without any problems.

If you already consider yourself an expert swimmer, this might not be for you. If you figure you can still learn a few things, 5-stars.

The first contact with this style was the book Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier, after reading it I felt prepared to swim like never. So I decided to work on my technique according to it. It wasn't a miracle but for me was pretty close.
But that was not enough, I had to learn how to swim breaststroke and butterfly, then I found this DVDs, all of them by Terry Laughlin. So I thought, if the reading was good, the motion picture should be even better, and I got what I was looking for.
Lesson by lesson, I'm improving my technique and the way I swim. The fact is, I'm working better than any one else at the pool, just because I decided to learn more.
The truth is, I will buy the free and backstroke too...

I have been a Swimming Coach for 6 years and USA Swimming Coach for 4 years. All the Total Immersion products are great. I read Terry Laughlin's book Total Immersion and was hooked. Tried it in the pool my self and on my swimmers. My daugher has been the State Champion 4 years in a row (since she was 10 years old) in two Breaststroke events and has gone to finals in all 7 of her events and ddin't place below 5th. The total Immersion way of learning and understanding swim stroke mechanics, and progressing through swimming strokes has been one of the best ways to do it.

A good start in learning how to use less energy in the water. It goes step by step through each part of the stroke and teaches several drills. As someone who does not easily float in the water, this gave me hope about changing my form.

I've been swimming the breaststroke for over a year now and I thought I was pretty good at it but after 17 minutes of this DVD I've already learned so much to improve my stroke. My personal swim coach did not give me as much instruction as I've gotten from this video(though I am grateful to her because she taught me to swim from scratch--she had me doing freestyle on day one, then taught me breaststroke and basic fly over several weeks).

I have the Total Immersion book Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier as well as other swimming books Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any Stroke, and The Swimming Drill Book but a video works better for me than reading instructions. I don't really recommend books just because reading doesn't translate to swimming for me... But I highly recommend the video.

I cannot wait to get in the pool to apply the techniques to refine my breaststroke! Thank you, Terry!

I have been swimming the Breast stroke for 10 years, it turns out that my stroke was very inefficient. Seeing Terry's video and implementing his technique has improved my speed by at least 50%. Terry is a rock star!! I can't recommend this video enough.

When I ordered swimming instructions, I expected a pro to show the best muscle movement. My kids may or may not participate Olympics when they grow up, but they'll learn the professional movements in any sport they try. The cover uses a pro as an enticement. The guy in the video is actually no Michael Phelps, but a round belly polar bear, whose postures are in every ways against fluid dynamics. Please, mark your DVD in the appropiate category: the title should say "fun ways to swim for retirees".

with 2 shortcomings in IMHO:

1) mostly shoot in an outdoor endless pool
2) wish it could explain more of the rules. eg. is it forbidden to use dolphin kicks in breaststroke?

Just returned from vacation--no time yet to review; however, other DVD by Terry Laughlin, Freestyle Swimming, was great!