I'm a sinker too. If I relax and lay still in the water, I end up with my whole body totally vertical, with about 1 square inch on the top of my head above the surface.

When moving/swimming, I find I float well and flat on the surface if I keep my head down (chin almost touching chest). If I lift my head up even a little, my feet sink.

The wetsuit takes care of a lot of that. This is really helpful because I can lift my head more often to sight without my feet sinking down.

When doing the balancing exercises, I found that you get a lot more efficient by kicking from the hips than from the knees. You basically torque your core like in a golf swing. It's not as abrupt and dramatic as a golf swing but you if you feel your twist come from the hip rather than the legs, it'll feel easier and quicker.

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'm heading over to the pool to work on some drills and have a soak in the the hot tub.

I looked at these, and the 360 degree floating drill seems particularly useful to me. Also there is one about breathing and floating. On top of that, there is one that has you breath on every single stroke, to help you rotate and breathe quickly, and keep your balance while you do it.

These look like they will be very helpful. Thank you.

I'm a T.I. devotee. I just started learning the front-crawl/freestyle for the first time this last June.

I worked through the drills in the T.I. book, then bought the video. Fortunately, I have a training partner who was a competitve swimmer in h.s. & college; and she added her tips on top of my T.I. indoctrination. I've also had some great tips from T/F's own George (geochuck). Thanks, George!

I've come to realize, that in the last 2 months, I've learned ALOT--more than I could have imagined absorbing when I started. Balance, streamlining, propulsion, and BREATHING...its ALOT and you can't work on it all at once; but it does eventually come altogether.

Along the way, after initially struggling with it, the whole "Balance thing" kind of suddenly became a natural. It will for you too.

Anyway, after 2 months of religious 3x's a week (or more) work in the pool, 1000-1500m each time. Even an Open Water swim here and there. I think its finally paid off. I was having a "personal best" swimming day (on Friday), where suddenly I went from 50m longest continuous swim to 200m.

I was having so much fun, I just kept swimming even after my total 1500m because I was so enjoying my newfound "fun" in the water. I went long on my lunch hour, and overlapped into the Masters Swim session. The Master's coach came over after I finished to invite me to join'em sometime. She then complimented me on my form. Wow! There's a compliment I took to heart!

Anyway, the T.I. system is not a be-all-end-all system. But, it is a great way start, and you can supplement it with tips and instruction from any variety of sources, like I did.

Good luck!