Mastering Swimming

Trim seconds off your time, train more efficiently, or simply maximize your fitness workouts with Mastering Swimming.

Renowned coaches Jim Montgomery and Mo Chambers have teamed up to create the ultimate swimming guide for masters athletes. Swimmers aged 18 to 120 will benefit from a targeted approach that covers these essentials:

-Stroke instruction and refinement for freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly

-Workout plans for fitness and competition

-Training for open-water swimming and triathlon

-Second-saving starts and turns

In addition, Mastering Swimming covers equipment, dryland training, motivational strategies, and guidance for selecting a masters coach or program. With such complete coverage, it's the one resource you'll turn to time and again for a lifetime of serious swimming.

Part I: Taking the Plunge
Chapter 1. Start With a Vision, Train With a Plan
Chapter 2. Set the Stage for Success
Chapter 3. Develop Your Water Sense

Part II: Fine Tuning Your Strokes
Chapter 4. Freestyle
Chapter 5. Backstroke
Chapter 6. Butterfly
Chapter 7. Breaststroke
Chapter 8. Starts, Turns, and Finishes

Part III: Conditioning for Success
Chapter 9. Workout Essentials
Chapter 10. Pool Workouts
Chapter 11. Dryland Training
Chapter 12. Open-Water Training
Chapter 13. Make Your Plan for Success

Part IV: Competition
Chapter 14. Competing in Pool Events
Chapter 15. Competing in Open Water

Appendix A: Resources for Selecting a Coach or Training Program
Appendix B: Sample Pool Workouts

Jim Montgomery has held 10 swimming world records and won 9 world championships, 14 national titles, and 7 NCAA titles. As a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic team in Montreal, he won three gold medals and one bronze. He was the first person ever to break 50 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle, a feat some have compared to Roger Bannister's breaking the four-minute-mile barrier in track. In 1981 he founded Dallas Aquatic Masters, one of the largest and most successful masters swim programs in the United States, and has been its head coach from day 1. Since 1998, Montgomery has also served as aquatics director at Greenhill School in Dallas. In 1986, he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and was the 2002 United States Masters Swimming Coach of the Year. Montgomery has competed and given swim clinics in Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Thailand, Mexico, and Finland as well as throughout the United States. He lives in Dallas.

Mo Chambers was a software engineer for a large Silicon Valley company when, at age 30, she decided to take a job teaching a group of eager adult swimmers at a local health club. This side job soon became an all-consuming passion that would bring her national recognition. Within a year she left her engineering job to coach swimming full time. She took the helm of Mountain View Masters Swim Club and in seven years developed the club from 30 to more than 350 members. In 1993-94, she worked with well-known coaches Richard Quick and Bill Boomer on Stanford's women's swim team. In 1996, she was named USMS Coach of the Year. Chambers is a prolific writer for Swim, USMS Swimmer, and the ASCA newsletter. She is currently chairperson of the USMS coaches committee. Chambers lives in Vancouver, Washington