Let one of the world’s greatest swimming coaches teach you how to perfect your competitive strokes!

In Swimming Fastest—a revised and updated version of one of the best books ever written on competitive swimming—author Ernest Maglischo reveals the science behind the training principles that led his teams to 13 NCAA national championships at the Division II level and 19 conference championships.

This book is the definitive reference on stroke technique and training methods for swimming. It shows you how to apply scientific information to the training process so that you can swim stronger and faster. Swimming Fastest addresses not only the how but also the why of training. It’s the one source that you can turn to for reliable information about hydrodynamics and exercise physiology, giving you all the information you need to evaluate present and future concepts of training and stroke mechanics.

Swimming Fastest covers every aspect of competitive swimming. The book is heavily illustrated, with more than 500 illustrations and photos featuring world-class swimmers. Sequences of photos taken from the front, side, and underneath views show you exactly how to perform competitive strokes, starts, and turns.

This book is a source that coaches and athletes will pull down from their shelves again and again for reference. In part I Maglischo masterfully explains the mechanics of competitive swimming. He presents detailed technique analysis of the four primary strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. He also explores the roles of stroke rate, stroke length, and drag reduction and reevaluates the role of lift forces and the Bernoulli principle in swimming propulsion. He explains the complex relationship between stroke length and stroke rate and swimming speed, and he reviews recent findings on the physical basis of swimming propulsion and the techniques that swimmers use to apply propulsive force.

Part II explains the physiology behind the most effective training methods and provides detailed sample workouts and training programs for each event. Maglischo provides critical information to help you train more accurately and monitor your training more effectively. He evaluates current training theory, explaining why the anaerobic threshold theory of training needs revision and why muscle fiber types are important to swim training. Maglischo also presents important new studies that define the relationship between endurance and sprint training, and he suggests their implications for training.

Part III addresses topics that pertain specifically to competition and racing. Maglischo shares his insights and recommendations for pre-race tapering, establishing race pace, racing strategies, and post-race routine.

Every swimming coach and serious swimmer will benefit from this book. Swimming Fastest will be the first resource you turn to when you want to trim precious seconds off your best times.

Part I Technique
1 Increasing Propulsion
2 Reducing Resistance
3 Guidelines for Increasing Propulsion and Reducing Resistance
4 Front Crawl Stroke
5 Butterfly
6 Back Crawl Stroke
7 Breaststroke
8 Starts, Turns, and Finishes

Part II Training
9 Physiological Responses to Exercise
10 Energy Metabolism and Swimming Performance
11 Performance Benefits of Training
12 Principles of Training
13 Endurance Training
14 Sprint, Race-Pace, and Recovery Training
15 Training For Different Events
16 Monitoring Training
17 Season Planning
18 Tapering
19 Overtraining

Part III Racing
20 Stroke Rates and Stroke Lengths
21 Pacing and Strategy
22 Warming Up and Swimming Down