The Complete Book of Swimming

Rating:
Summary: not highly technical but highly encouraging.
Review: a volume that preaches to the choir of masters (and would be) swimmers. discussions of benefits of swimming, weight loss, strokes, masters swimming & more. maybe the best starter book available for someone interested in getting started in swimming. not bed for those of us in it, but not as informative for stroke technique as other volumes. loses ponts on the one to ten scale due to lack of technical improvement information

Rating:
Summary: Great instructional book for those who taking up swimming
Review: As a regular runner, I have often thought of using swimming as a great cross-training exercise but always hesitated because I am a weak, inexperienced swimmer. This book was a wonderful find to give tips on improving each stroke and has a wonderful set of workouts in the back for beginners to improve their skill level. I am now swimming a couple of times every week and consult this book regularly for ideas to improve and inspire.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent motivator
Review: I really love this book. It's full of great motivational stories and excellently illustrated techniques. I have only two complaints. Whitten, like authors of most books on swimming that I've come across, doesn't address what to do when you've been out of the pool a long time and are struggling to get back. As someone who was very much afraid of the water until I took some excellent classes in my county, it's hard for me to get back into the pool after a long layoff. I really need to revisit basic breathing techniques and overcome some deep-seated fears. I also question some of the studies on body fat and swimming. Not that I question swimming's benefits, but all the studies Whitten quotes have been done on Master's swimmers, a sport that like cycling and running is somewhat self-selective. Most successful Master's swimmers are long, lean body types that move along quickly in the water. I wish someone would do body fat studies on the effects of swimming on the normal, non-athletic physique. Other than that, Whitten has written, in my opinion, an excellent book for most beginner and intermediate swimmers.

Rating:
Summary: The complete book of the excitement of swimming
Review: This book is great for getting started. If your first thought is,"do I really wanna go all the way up to the pool, get in my swimming trunks and jump into the cold wet?", just open this book and you'll already be in the water. Dr. Whitten has so much enthusiasm for the sport, that he could probably even convince a cat to take up swimming. I bet there are better books for competitive swimmers, which have more complete work-outs or are more technical, but this book gives you a bit of everything and it also explains WHY you should take up swimming.

Rating:
Summary: The complete book of the excitement of swimming
Review: This book is great for getting started. If your first thought is,"do I really wanna go all the way up to the pool, get in my swimming trunks and jump into the cold wet?", just open this book and you'll already be in the water. Dr. Whitten has so much enthusiasm for the sport, that he could probably even convince a cat to take up swimming. I bet there are better books for competitive swimmers, which have more complete work-outs or are more technical, but this book gives you a bit of everything and it also explains WHY you should take up swimming.

Rating:
Summary: Little about swimming, a lot about everything else
Review: What are swim book authors so lousy? This one is worse than the Total Immersion book. More pages are devoted to topics around swimming than swimming itself. There are chapters on health, diet, etc. etc. That's not necessarily bad, but I'd rather have a smaller, more focused book just about swim technique. In addition, the author gets carried away with love of his sport, asserting that swimming will lead to a better sex life, longevity, wealth, world peace. Well, many fitness regimes will improve your health. Buy it used and keep your expectations low.