If you want to swim better, faster and easier, you need to condition your muscles to learn the correct techniques and then maintain that correct action at speed.

Thanks to Terry Laughlin, he developed the Total Immersion techniques which were based on his observation of champion swimmers. The lessons and drills from his Total Immersion book (1st Edition) have been very briefly summarised here. Do refer to his excellent book AND videos for a more detailed explanation and you can check out the Total Immersion website.

Each drill is a progression of skills to rebuild your swimming technique. If you use your training sessions to focus on and practice these drills, the improvement should astound you. The learning curve will be different for everyone but you will know when you have mastered each drill since your body will let you know how stabilised and comfortable it feels.

For starters, you should memorise the names of the lessons and drills in each lesson and understand what they are trying to do for you. These introductory key lessons only make you work harder in the sense that you have to concentrate and stay focused on your stroke technique.