Better Movement, better health, 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”.

I made a special trip from Israel for two weeks for swimming lessons with Coach DShen after I learned about him from his website and from his videos. I learned so much on details that I could not have picked up otherwise. I now have a great plan to improve!

I wanted to let you know that I just finished my first Olympic distance Triathlon!! I couldn’t even swim 200 yards without stopping when I first came to you! Thanks for teaching me the basics!

I highly recommend Dave as a personal coach. He is dedicated to his craft, an inspiring role model and willing to share vast access to resources. He’s a notch above many other coaches in the field – a strong academic education as well as personal achievements such as 6 Ironmans, multiple Alcatraz swims, Russian Kettlebell certification and more. He is a special person to have that level of ambition and determination coupled with humility and sensitivity. Dave has coached me on everything from health related issues, diet and exercise, coping with a new devastating diagnosis, tough career decisions and family relationships. We have had some sessions where I am laughing and energized and others where I have been sobbing, and he just rolls with it like a pro. I have brought him challenging and unpredictable issues and he knows when to put down the “playbook” and use his intuition. I’ll never forget one particular session where I was in a terrible predicament and he took me far out of the box to reconsider the way I was approaching a choice. This helped me tremendously and provided a growing opportunity that had far- reaching results for me.

I was looking to improve my long distance swimming because I am training to earn a place in the US Air Force Special Operations Command (not in the service yet). I was referred to David Shen from a family friend of mine and to be honest with you, I was skeptical at first about paying a pretty large amount for swim lessons. However, the moment the lesson began, I knew for a fact that having David as a swim coach was beyond priceless. The fact that he analyzed my form with one lap, and gave me critical feedback which caused my swimming to improve immediately, shows his extraordinary competence as a swim coach! Now y’all might not believe his competence as shown above. So here is the difference 3 lessons (a total of 3 hours) made to my 500-meter swim time. My very first 500-meter swim time was approximately 14:00. Now even for this time, I was exhausted after completing it. But now, after being taught by David, my 500-meter swim time has gone down by around 6 minutes and is now at 8:44! Moreover, I can now swim upwards of 3,500-meters (70 laps on a 25-meter pool) without exhaustion! I still can’t believe how much a great coach, like David Shen, can improve a person’s swimming. If you are looking for a coach who is passionate about his job, has a truckload of experience, and can effectively translate those characteristics into his coaching, then you have come to the right place. If you hadn’t guessed already, I highly, HIGHLY recommend David Shen!

I wanted to thank you for an incredibly meaningful coaching session yesterday. As I mentioned, I was feeling really disheartened and approached our call with some trepidation due to my own low state. However, I am so glad I stayed the course and was very honest with you about my feelings and the sticking point I was facing. Your questions were hugely transformative to my thought process. It was really bang on. Instead of going in circles which I can do at times in my own mind, each question enabled me to carve a clearer path forward and break the cycle I’ve been stuck in for the past few weeks. I cannot thank you enough!

It’s been over seven years since I’ve trained for an event. With two little kids, it makes it a bit tough to find time for myself, working out sometimes becomes the last thing on my list of things to do. In the last year, I’ve made it a priority and decided to sign up for the Santa Cruz Aqualathon. With a crazy work, kids, and travel schedule, I could only squeeze in one swim lesson with Dave. Having completed a number of open water swims, I am very comfortable in the water, but not very fast or efficient. The one lesson with Dave helped so much. I can’t thank Dave enough for working with me on just a few small tweaks that made a huge difference. Dave understands that you can’t fix everything all at once. He helped me focus on a couple of things I could do immediately to make a material impact on my swim time. I am planning on participating in the Santa Cruz Aqualathon again next year and will be scheduling a few lessons with Dave in preparation for the event.