Better Movement, Better nutrition, better performance

I completed the Oakland Sprint Tri yesterday and can’t begin to tell you how much more comfortable I am in the water. The conditions helped (it was perfect), but the spearing, looking straight down, rotation, etc. really helped!

I’ve been working on improving my swimming technique with Total Immersion drills since 1/2011. I had been pretty happy with the improvements for most of the first year until I hit a plateau. During the first year of working on Total Immersion stuffs, I had also been closely following David Shen’s blog. When I found out David was going to be a coach, I knew I had to take a lesson with him. During the lesson, we started off with the basics like Superman glide moved onto stuff like the two beat kick and finished off with advanced stuff like early vertical forearm stuff. I finished the lesson feeling like I had learned a ton. I got ample feedback on each of the things we tried, and it was all recorded for me to review later if I needed to. Since that time, I have been diligently practicing the stuff I worked with David. All of it this was tremendously beneficial. Watching the video again recently reminded me of what an excellent instructor David is. In only 5 weeks, I am now far more balanced in the water. My two beat kick is night and day better. I am far more relaxed while I swim and that has allowed me to swim for a longer period of time without getting tired. At the moment, my swim pace is about 1 second faster per 100 yards given an equal amount of exertion. I feel like I am on the crux of being another 1 second faster within a month. David Shen is a very, very, very good coach. I would strongly recommend him.

From the first meeting, Coach D took a holistic approach to building my swim technique. After giving me a functional test, he guided me to learn about mobility and conditioning that would support building my technique. During my swim coaching, Coach D used both video and in pool analysis to understand my stroke from various perspectives. After the pool training, Coach also sends video with thorough notes, written in great detail! One of Coach’s most special abilities is his style of finding the right cues to help me learn various aspects of the stroke I was struggling to learn. Coach D has a very calm and positive personality and so I never felt rushed and always in good hands. Most importantly, Coach D helped me realize my open water swim goals!

David Shen is one of those rare individuals, who, as a coach, is able to effectively translate his passion, experience, attention to detail & knowledge into an extremely meaningful learning experience for his students. I’ve been working with him as a swimming coach for about 3 months now and look forward to every coaching session with him – his conceptual approach to Total Immersion Swimming combined with his intuitive skills as a teacher make every session with him so worthwhile and inspiring. He’s been able to make me believe that I could “do it” despite my initial lack of confidence – an important trait for a coach to have! Just last week, and with only 3 months of unlearning old habits and learning new ones and much practice, after getting out of the water from a half hour swim, a total stranger approached me from the dock and said, “I was watching you swim for the last 10 minutes and wanted to tell you that the way you swim is so beautiful and such a pleasure to watch”. I couldn’t believe it and I was totally touched by her comment, and thought “so much work and such a great teacher”. Very grateful to be able to work with David and looking forward to experiencing more of his “coaching magic”.