Breakthrough Swimming [Paperback]

Never before has one book taken such a comprehensive look at the evolution, science, and coaching application of competitive swimming. In Breakthrough Swimming, legendary swimming coach and researcher Cecil Colwin provides a rich perspective on the development of the sport and explains major advances in stroke mechanics, training methods, and racing techniques.

Accompanied by richly detailed illustrations, this engaging text is one of the most insightful written works on the sport. It makes clear sense out of the scientific principles and puts into context the historical changes in the sport. Not only will you gain a greater understanding of competitive swimming through its origins and evolution, but you'll also gain these valuable skills:

- Improve your stroke technique, starts, and turns.
- Improve your feel of the water by learning to anticipate and effectively manipulate the reacting flow of the water.
- Understand the hydrodynamics of swimming and learn how water reacts to the forces you apply with each swimming stroke.
- Improve your conditioning and develop a better training program by understanding the principles of training.
- Learn how to design different types of workouts to produce specific physiological effects.
- Learn how to plan a seasonal program and how to relate your training to the pace of the race you intend to swim.

The book includes a chapter contributed by Dr. David Pyne, sport physiologist to the 2000 Australian Olympic swimming team. Pyne covers the physiology of modern swimming training and the preparation of swimming teams for top-flight international competition.

Breakthrough Swimming covers every aspect of competitive swimming from its spawning ground in early 19th-century England to the present day, including the profound changes that occurred in the last decade of the 20th century. The book also explains the societal changes of recent years, such as the advent of professional swimming and the specter of performance-enhancing drugs.

Combining history with the latest innovations, Breakthrough Swimming is the definitive work on the past, present, and future of competitive swimming.

Paul Bergen Member of the International Hall of Fame Has coached 10 swimmers to 22 world records

”In Breakthrough Swimming, Cecil Colwin has called upon all of his years of experience as a coach, teacher, historian, scientific analyst, writer and iconoclast to create a brilliant, comprehensive and eminently readable work of art. Colwin's unique insights make this book an absolute must-read for every serious swimmer, coach, and lover of the sport.

Breakthrough Swimming has reconfirmed Colwin as the dean of the world's swimming scholars.”

Phillip Whitten Editor-in-Chief Sports Publications, Inc.

"Cecil Colwin continues his major contributions to the thought processes of swimming in a fascinating book that gives meaning and relevance to a mountain of information ."

John Leonard, Executive Director, American Swimming Coaches' Association Editor, American Swimming Magazine

"Like Counsilman's The Science of Swimming, Colwin's Breakthrough Swimming serves as a comprehensive technical manual on competitive strokes and training, and is certain to stimulate creative thinking on the part of novice and veteran coaches alike."

Murray Stephens, Director, North Baltimore Aquatic Club, USA Olympic Coach