Overachiever's Diary: How the Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders (Paperback)

by Louis Tharp with Laurie Ferguson Ph.D. (Author), Brett Wiggins (Editor)
Key Phrases: hand lead drill, notice high elbow, tri swimming, Overachiever's Diary, Nick Dason, Ryan Peacock (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Welcome to Army Triathlon swim training. Meet this group of overachievers and take advantage of their Overachiever's Diary, including the same proprietary online speed and efficiency assessment Cadets take to measure their improvement. Overachiever's Diary chronicles the team's triathlon swimming journey and, for the first time, all athletes can benefit from the unique style of coaching motivation, and analysis that has bee developed in real-time with this dedicated group of America's athletes. Sometimes the right combination of people come together and magic happens. This happened in the '06-'07 Army Tri season, and the magic has carried over to '07-'08 when this West Point club team, led by dedicated officers, will once again be out to surprise competitors and take the accolades that others assumed were theirs to keep. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book and other Overachiever's Diary products is allocated to the West Point Tri Team in an effort to ensure that future cadets will have the opportunity to confront the challenges, personally and as a team, that triathlons uniquely provide.

About the Author
Lou Tharp is a competitive swimmer, World Masters medalist and swim coach of the Army tri team, one of the top performing college triathlon teams in the country. At age 45, Lou found himself overweight, out of shape and overworked at a job he didn't enjoy. Determined to improve his health, Lou began swimming regularly as part of a comprehensive health and fitness routine. From the start, he was frustrated with the outdated swim training methods he encountered, and felt that tools such as swim buoys and kickboards were having little impact on his performance. After struggling for six months, Lou discovered Total Immersion, a unique approach to swimming designed to generate better, faster results than more conventional methods. With the help of Total Immersion and its founder (and Lou's mentor), Terry Laughlin, over the next decade Lou lost nearly 80 pounds, competed in several international, local and regional meets, and eventually emerged as a World Master's medal contender. In 2006, during one of his regular training swims at the U.S. Military Academy facility, Lou stopped to help a cadet in the next lane. The next day, there were two cadets requesting his assistance and within a week, Lou was invited to their tri swim team practice. Under Lou's direction and thanks to the overachiever mentality of the cadets, in 2007 the US Army tri team placed fifth overall in Collegiate Nationals and took home a bronze medal in the ITU Worlds in Hamburg. Today, Lou is well-established as a competitive swimmer. He has trained at the U.S. Olympic Center in Colorado Springs, and won a bronze medal in the 1998 World Masters in the 400 IM. He also earned two gold and two silver medals at the 2006 Gay Games, and has developed a successful, productive partnership with the Army triathlete team as the first out gay coach at West Point. In addition to his role as US Army tri swim coach, Lou is CEO of TGI Healthworks, a company he co-founded in 1999. In 2006, he also co-founded the Global Healthy Living Foundation. Both organizations work to improve the quality of life for people living with chronic diseases worldwide. Lou lives in Upper Nyack, New York, with his partner of 24 years, Jim Bumgardner.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Total Immersion Swimming; 1st edition (October 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931009120
• ISBN-13: 978-1931009126
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #920,704 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better, could have been more..., July 6, 2008

By	G. Soos "emanigol" (Dublin, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The positives:

1, Louis Tharp appears to be an exceptionally gifted coach, writer and has a unique ability to describe and emphasize the concepts of Total Immersion. He is personable, funny, convincing and reading the book does not feel like a list of e-mails, but more of a list of "on-deck discussions". He is engaging and you truly would want to have someone like him as your coach and guide. I really loved his chapters, although a little more structure, sense of skill progression, and...well, a little more would have made this book so much better.

2, The concept is great: an e-mail/diary with tons of pictures that has the intimacy and laid back feel of a friendly advice on improvement. It has the look of a yearbook, playful and easy-going. Although, here is a possible problem: one can not make the book too specific to any particular year or team without the risk of losing the emphasis on the general concepts. The entries have a discussion, then a training practice plan.

The negatives:

1, The title: Who is the "overachiever"? There is the Army Triathlon Team, but who is achieving what over what inherent skill, genuine lack of talent or limitation? Was it the stroke, the recovery, the balance? What improved? What was overcome to overachieve? What made the difference? There are all these pictures throughout in the book, but who was really a team member and when? There is no description, introduction to any of the team members, so it leaves the expected intimacy of a diary missing. "How the army triathlon team became world contenders?" Page 213 lists 87th, 121st, 154th, 209th, 139th of overall position for respective members. I am not dismissing these as valuable results, but this does not list their swimming leg results that this whole book was supposed to address. It was a book about the swimming, right? "Diary"? There is no year listed, so we don't know if the Month and Day of the entries belongs to the year of the above mentioned race result (World Championship 2007) or not.

2, With all respect to Laurie Ferguson, PhD, whose motivational chapters appear in the book (about 15% of the volume), the value of her contribution to both the possible improvement of the reader and the team appears limited. It is hard to imagine that a multisport athlete struggles with focus, motivation and drive, requiring outside assurance and guidance.

3, It is annoying to read a book that refers to websites and links for further explanation. Even if you go to these websites, how do you find the description of the "stone skipper" drill, for example? A book should be more complete of its own.

4, Unless you are familiar with the concepts of the Total Immersion, you will be lost reading "zipper-skate", "underswitch". Some terms are never explained like "90 second rule". A short, condensed summary would have gone a long way.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for swimmers - or gay people, November 26, 2007

By	Dan Woog (Westport, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Lou Tharp is an amazing man -- and he's written a marvelous book. It doesn't fit in any particular category -- it's a swimming book, a motivational book, a memoir, a gay book, and much more. If you're interested in any aspect of the human condition -- improving one's body, fitting in to society, figuring out what makes us tick -- you'll find something of interest here. Actually, you'll find plenty of interest. You'll even find yourself interested in things you didn't know you could be interested in!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're a swimmer, you have to have this book!, November 23, 2007

By	Kristopher Adkins "butlerguy2006" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's a fun book to read -- all the emails from him to the team. If you're a swimmer you need to read this. It's all about the basics as well as race strategies. The basics work for pool or open water swimming. The strategy is for tri swimming. He's obviously got a great rapport with the team. He's got a great sense of humor, and he's able to really reach out and grab them emotionally before big events. There are hundreds of pics. Also, the interesting twist is that he's gay, he's out, he's coaching at West Point, and nobody cares that he's gay. It's a very interesting dynamic. This is not your usual boring swimming book -- or triathlon book for that matter. It's worth the 15 bucks.