Shape Up!

My background: amateur frequent swimmer, occasionally participating in amateur open sea races.I have applying the advice laid in this book for a month now. I am generally pleased with the progress I have made. The book contains 4x25=100 workouts, 25 for each stroke. The workout yardage or meters increases as we progress from the first to the 25th workout of each stroke. I decided to rotate stroke workouts so that I will have completed 1 workout for each stroke in 4 days.Specifically, I like the variety of the workouts, the drills, the kick sets and the focus of each workout. I have also experienced a positive shift in the way the workouts feel now, as opposed to the unorganized workouts I did in the past by myself. I also like tha fact that the workouts include benchmark swims, timed swims and other, which force you to record your progress. I am pleased with the product.I recommend it to amateur swimmers with a sufficient grasp of the stroke techniques, such as myself.The disadvantages:The ability level needed for each of the three workout books written by the author (this is the second book) should be included in all versions (and given in the preview), so that it would be easier to decide which book is appropriate. This is given in detail only in the "Challenge workouts for advanced swimmers" in the swim level test table. I accidentally saw this table and decided to buy the second book of the series.Another disadvantage is the price,which should have been lower for a book of 160 pages. Another book by the same author, namely, "The 100 best swimming drills" is 260 pages at about the same price. The book could be easily reduced much more in length and actually cover less than 160 pages, since each workout is presented in one page (I guess two could fit in one page) and is accompanied by non-descriptive (unnecessary) photos of swimmers on each page. I understand that the three workout books written by the author address different level swimmers, but I think that some -if not all- could be merged into one volume.I will update the review as I progress

If you are a beginner and need some inspiration for traing sets, this book would be fine, easy to understand and follow.

Excellent workouts and loads of ideas. Recommended for both swimmers and coaches.Amazon would like me to write 20 words but really this is all there is to say buy it and read it and use it!