Editor’s Note: Terry Laughlin passed away on October 20. To honor Terry and his contribution to swimmers everywhere, here’s my interview with Terry, which was published originally in TSC on August 29, 2016.
Terry Laughlin of Total Immersion Swimming is a household name in swimming. Total Immersion Swimming is swimming where the objective is to help swimmers move through the water efficiently. Techniques include “sustainability of effort, drag reduction, vessel shaping, and full body swimming.”
To understand more about this area of expertise, The Sports Column caught up with Terry Laughlin, founder and head coach, Total Immersion Swimming.
Ravi: Congratulations, Terry, on your work with Total Immersion Swimming.
Courtesy: Amazon.com
Terry: I founded Total Immersion (TI) in 1989, so I was the first TI coach (of about 400 currently). Some say TI could only have been founded in the USA because we are a country of optimism and innovation. The fact that my home language is English also helped TI spread across the globe. But I think the main reason TI has spread widely is that swimming is an essential life skill, and we have the most successful and foolproof method of teaching it. Many people who learn TI develop a passion for swimming and TI. So the most meaningful thing for me is that I’ve been able to get so many people to share my own passion for swimming and I’ve touched many lives in a positive manner.
Ravi: As an aficionado of hockey and swimming myself, I understand you faced a lot of pain across the passage of time and sacrificed many things to reach this level.
Terry: I was tremendously excited when I realized our method solves the most common and frustrating problems faced by nearly everyone in learning and improving at swimming. And it’s virtually foolproof, too. Unlike traditional lessons, we NEVER fail a student.
Ravi: What makes Total Immersion different from other techniques to teach people how to swim?
Terry: We teach ‘fish-like’ swimming. Humans are terrestrial mammals, but swimming is an aquatic skill. Our primal instinct is to swim like other terrestrial mammals–head up to avoid choking and with arms and legs churning to avoid sinking. Traditional instruction reinforces those instincts and tries to improve upon them. But we teach an ‘aquatic technique’ instead, emulating the balanced, sleek form of fish and aquatic mammals, and propelling forward with whole-body movements.
Ravi: Who influenced you? Who were your teachers and other people who inspired you?
Bill Irwin (photo, swimwellblog.com)
Terry: I was influenced by Bill Irwin and Dick Krempecki, two men who coached me when I was a teenager over 45 years ago. I also owe a great debt to Bill Boomer who showed me that “the shape of the vessel matters more than the size of the engine in swimming.” And I’m inspired by the dedication to improvement and love for swimming of our students.
Ravi: What areas should we consider if ever we wish to take this on as our profession?
Terry: We tell prospective TI coaches three things: First, our most important job is to spark a passion for swimming in our students–by revealing your own passion to them. Second, we use swimming as a vehicle to teach people how to learn ANYTHING. And, third, there is no such thing as a bad student. It’s our responsibility as teachers to help them discover the key to their success.
Ravi: What plans do you have and in what areas are you concentrating on?
Terry: We’re working to achieve high and consistent standards for all of our coaches around the world. We also want TI to move from being a niche program to being the way all people learn and practice swimming.
Ravi: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in life through your swimming and Total Immersion Swimming, in particular?
Terry: It’s to cultivate and maintain a Kaizen attitude, that is, no skill is ever fixed or static. All skills are improvable. Focus on being a little better tomorrow than you are today.
Courtesy: steelcityendurance.com
Ravi: Do you have final thoughts that you’d like to share with the TSC audience?
Terry: There’s no sacrifice involved with my work. Rather it’s a thrilling privilege to have been able to spend my life focusing on my deepest passion, to impact so many lives positively, and to work with the best teachers of swimming in the world–my TI coaching colleagues.
Ravi: The saying goes, “Winning is not the matter, but maintaining the winning streak is the toughest.” Terry, from the bottom of my heart, we wish you all the success and happiness you truly and thoroughly deserve.
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Read Terry’s obituary from The New York Times. Watch Terry in action in the video that follows.
