About Me

The man himself

Hi, my name is Christophe Keller and until few years ago I was only an average swimmer that could swim the breast stroke.

But then a succession of events made me discover my passion for swimming. I improved to the point where I can now swim all four competitive swim strokes and in 2006 I even took part in a triathlon.

With the right swimming instruction, this is doable by almost anybody, and this website is my attempt to teach you how to become a good swimmer that also enjoys his sport.

But first let me tell you my story...

The Early Years

In elementary school we had mandatory swimming lessons. Every other week a bus drove us to the swimming pool in the next town. The instructor was old school and taught us how to swim the hard way.

Even though I was only an average swimmer, I always liked to go to the pool. When I left elementary school I could swim the breast stroke, and with a lot of struggle I was also able to do a length of backstroke.

The following years I only managed to go occasionally to the pool, mostly with friends to have some fun. Yet on those occasions I secretly admired the swimmers that swam the freestyle stroke effortlessly, or so it seemed.

Baywatch

My teenage years were also the years when Baywatch was popular, and being a safeguard at the beach surrounded by fit and beautiful women seemed to be the dream job for me. :-)

Swimming Lessons

In the year 2000 I saw an advert in a local paper for 10 swimming lessons targeted at people who knew some basic swimming techniques. It promised to improve one's breast stroke and to teach how to swim the backstroke and freestyle swim strokes. So I applied.

During those 10 swim lessons my swimming technique improved somewhat. Yet at the end of the instruction I still couldn't swim a length of freestyle without swallowing half of the pool.

I wasn't meant to become a good swimmer, or so it seemed.

Swimming Again

Then came the year 2003, and here in Europe it was a very hot summer. I went to the pool every afternoon during the holidays to escape the summer heat.

Over a period of three weeks I rehearsed all the swimming exercises and drills I had learned during the swim lessons three years earlier. Finally, at the end of those three weeks, I could swim one length of freestyle without too much distress. From that point on, I was hooked.

Total Immersion

I started to browse the Internet to find answers to my questions. Finally I stumbled onto Terry Laughlin's Total Immersion method, which is a completely different approach on swim instruction.

Total Immersion teaches swimming like a martial art, focusing on relaxation, progressive drills and sensory feedback to improve one's swimming technique. Swimming and practicing this way feels like meditating in the water and is very enjoyable.

This method immediately appealed to me as I have a background in Taekwondo. It was really a turning point in my swimming and I improved steadily since then. Finally I even mastered all of the four swimming strokes.

Triathlon

The highlight of my yet young swimming career was in 2006 when I was asked to do the swim leg in a team triathlon. The distance I had to swim was about 700 meters (or about 765 yards).

Even though it was exhausting I still managed to get out of the water at about the 40th place among a field of 60 swimmers. This was kind of a feat for me since I couldn't swim the front crawl stroke three years earlier.

Sadly the following years I became injured at an ankle and it prevented me to participate in other competitions. But luckily I still could work on my swimming technique using relaxed swimming drills.

Enjoy Swimming

The key lesson that I learned over the last few years is that swimming harder doesn't make you better. Swimming is a very technique-oriented sport so to improve you need to swim smarter. And swimming smarter often means mindful practice of key exercises, like any elite-level athlete or artist does in his chosen sport or art.

Besides this swimming smarter not harder is much more enjoyable. If you enjoy swimming, you'll stick with it. If you don't, you won't.

So the purpose of this website is to teach you what I've learned over the last few years since I took up swimming again. And who knows, maybe swimming will become one of your passions too?