Customer Reviews

Swimming Dynamics

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a book that should be provided to every young coach today. As swimming-world wide-becomes more centralized, young coaches are exposed to progressively less and less intellectual diversity. Coach Colwin has laid it all out for them; all the key ORIGINAL thinking on all aspects of our sport. It will help young coaches put their learning into context and make them better questioners. For us "more experienced" coaches, it brings us back to our roots. It reminds us of what we have forgotten or left behind, and perhaps desperately need to return to.

Swimming Dynamics is an aptly named book that provides a historical perspective on the ever-changing aspects of competitive swimming. After reading this important work, every swim enthusiast, coach or athlete should feel as if he or she is a part of the sport's evolution.

The first chapter of the book talks about some of the intangible aspects of swimming - aspects like intuitive coaching; team dynamics; experimentation and the need to challenge ideas; criticizing helpfully and not spitefully; and the importance of individualized coaching. Cecil does not attempt to tell the reader what is right or wrong in the sport, he simply lays it out for the reader to form his or her own conclusion based on past and present experiences.

Swimming technique is thoroughly discussed early in the book, but Cecil goes one step beyond by talking about how swimming styles change. He refers to "The Bandwagon Effect" to explain how the winning style of one swimmer can effect an entire generation of swimmers.

Chapter three stands as a documentary collection of pictorial artifacts and historical stories about swimming's evolution. This, along with an entire chapter devoted to the pioneers of women's swimming, causes the reader to reflect on where the sport came from and how we got to where we are today. These chronicled perspectives are a "must read" for every swimming enthusiast.

The book goes on to relate conversations with the great distance coaches to reveal how they trained their swimmers. Joe Bernal, Mike Burton, Sherman Chavoor, Mark Schubert and Don Talbot all share their perspectives. Other leading figures such as Doc Counsilman, Forbes Carlile, Arthur Cusack, Peter Daland, Donna de Varona, John Devitt, Ray Essick, Don Gambril, George Haines, Jim Montrella, Walt Schluter, Jonty Skinner, Gus Stager, Karen Moe Thornton, Stan Tinkham and Gennadi Touretski also relate their coaching experiences.

Swimming Dynamics does not preach or advocate one style of coaching or method of swimming over another. It simply shows the facts as they appeared in time. Every reader should come away with an energetic and renewed passion for the sport after reading Swimming Dynamics., by Cecil M. Colwin.

Colwin's lifetime of exposure to competitive swimming is encapsulated in this truly marvelous compendium of facts. The book will be a milestone in the history of the sport, a book that is highly recommended by this reviewer. Cecil Colwin's attention to accurate detail is unparalelled in this comprehensive treatise. This is one book all swimming aficionados should have in their libraries for ready reference and browsing. In addition, it is a good read, full of humour and enlighting anecdotes.

Great resource for all coaches. This is an excellent read and provides great information for all levels of coaches.

The titile is a little bit tricky. I didn't get what I exactly wanted out of the book. But I like it. It is basically about the history of swimming. It talks about the future of swimming too. The problem is that there is only one chapter about swimming teqhniche.

I found this a very interesting and informative book. The discussions about the personalities in the sport from past and present were fascinating to a swimming enthusiast like me. I thought the line drawings of the strokes were excellent and very instructive.

This work is clearly a labour of love undertaken by one of the most learned swimming people around. Mr. Colwin undertakes to give us a grand view of swimming development in the 20th cy. He deals mostly with the crawl. There are excellent insites into swimming history and the coach-swimmer relationship. This is a very serious book - in depth and length. At times I felt that the text could have been edited without deleting anything important, particularly chapter six "30 Years of Discussions With Leading Personalities". The author is a staunch advocate of long distance training and much of the book is devoted to this aspect of the sport. If you are a swimming coach or hard core afficiendo then this book is for you. Otherwise you would do better with Mr. Colwin's previous book "Swimming Into the 21st Century".

Maybe I should have read the other reviews more closely, particularly the one calling this an "historical treastise" because that it most certainly is. Definitly NOT the book on technique and strategy that I was hoping for and was led to believe by the other reviews and the book's title.It is a great big long book on the history of swimming, maybe the other reviewers have more time on their hands for general reading.There are transcripts of long conversations for pities sake. Oh well - the pitfalls of buying online I suppose, hmmmmm, who can I offload this onto?

Cecil Colwin's latest work is a fascinating look at his favorite sport. It is a comprehensive view of the forces that effect change in competitive swimming, but it is a down-to-earth, readable conversation among the many practitioners of the sport as well. As a former competitive swimmer, and currently a writer myself, I envy Mr. Colwin's mastery of his subject and his personable ease of presentation.

Dear Cecil -- Yesterday the book I'd ordered arrived. What a treat it turned out to be! Swimming Dynamics has mentally and physically interrupted my life. As soon as I began reading I could not put it down and so took it in the car with me. Turning through the pages at traffic stops I for once found myself cursing green lights! My only interruption of reading was the evenings coaching, following which I returned to Swimming Dynamics until my eyelids could stay open no longer. Your chronicles of the sport have made you its premier historian. Keep going!As a coach, I especially enjoyed your touching on those rarely mentioned issues that are of great import such as team size, team administration, etc. as they relate to athlete development. Cecil, your presentation always relates any issue to the development of the athlete. This is why you and the coaches you interview have been highly successful. Your orchestration of these and the many other issues raised through your interviews is masterful. If there is one aspect of your book I liked the most it would be your knack for allowing personalities of your interview subjects to shine through, along with those expressions of individual opinion that make life so interesting...I think especially of the Sherm Chavoor interviews.Thank you for your outstanding contribution to sport literature. Best regards, Coach Charles Yourd