The Essential Swimmer [Paperback]

Steve Tarpinian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1996 | Series: Essential

A professional trainer's advice on everything from basic stroke technique to advanced training programs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is the essential guide to a successful swimming program for fitness and competitive swimmers alike, filled with concise, practical advice on everything from basic stroke technique to advanced training programs. It will teach you how to identify your own stroke, kick, body position, and breathing flaws, and provides innovative drills to correct errors in form. Steve Tarpinian is an experienced swimming coach and an Ironman triathlete.

From the Back Cover

The essential Swimmer is every swimmer's guide to a successful swimming program. Fitness and competitive swimmers alike will benefit from its concise, practical advice on everything from basic stroke technique to advanced training programs. The Essential Swimmer will not only teach you how to identify your own stroke, kick, body position, and breathing flaws, but it will also prescribe remedies in the form of new and innovative drills. This helpful book contains chapters on: swimming's many benefits; basic & advanced freestyle technique; perfecting your freestyle technique; drills, drills, and drills; butterfly, backstroke; and breaststroke; swimming aids; setting up your training program; practical swimming tips; flexibility training; strength training; nutrition for swimming and life; and cross training. With over fifty precise, east-to-follow line drawings, The Essential Swimmer guarantees results and is a must for each and every active swimmer. (5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 176 pages, diagrams, charts)

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558213864
• ISBN-13: 978-1558213869
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for the freestyle swimmer, May 1, 2001

By 

Joanna (FL, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Swimmer (Paperback)

This book is a great tool for learning how to swim the freestyle, or just for pointers when you need to improve your technique. It provides drills for improving freestyle technique, and great tips on how to design swim workouts. The only problem I had with this book is that it does not devote any time at all to the other three strokes, as they are all compiled into one chapter which does not include any drills or pointers. The rest of the book, which includes tips on nutrition and stretching, is meant as a tool only for beginners. If you are new to swimming or don't have access to a coach, I highly recommend this book to improve your swimming technique.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skillful, Exemplary, October 5, 2003

By 

thattherepaul (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Swimmer (Paperback)

The brevity of this effective, perfectly edited swimming manual is sweet indeed. Not one word too long, it will teach you to swim better than you ever have before, teaching you the fundamentals of freestyle, improving your freestyle, and then using a goal-oriented drill program, developing the four main strokes of swimming (freestyle, breastroke, backstroke, and butterfly). It touches on strength training and the brief nutrion chapter, which basically says, if you eat garbage (empty calories) insteady of health food (fruits and vegetables) is better than a lot of popular nutrition books I've read. Practical, resourceful, and knowledgeable, the books is truly like having a coach right there.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I really struggled until I found this book, November 15, 2005

By 

Malik Coates (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Swimmer (Paperback)

I wanted to learn how to swim better. I tried a few other books, worked hard, and got nowhere. I began to believe it was impossible to learn swimming from a book. Swimming books tend to be lists of little things which can make you swim better. These lists are addressed to people who already know how to swim and do not add up to instructions for a new swimmer.

Tarpinians book is different. It told me in a simple fashion what I needed to do, how to do it and why. Reading just a handful of pages from this book has been the single most effective thing I've done to improve my swimming.