Straight-Arm Freestyle

 

Last 15m

 

Take a look at the last 30 yards - especially the last 15m - of Kristina Schneider's anchor leg (:48.74) of UNLV's 400 free relay at last night's Mountain West Conference meet:

.@UNLV_Swim_Dive wins the 400 freestyle relay by a tenth of a second!#MWSD | #BEaREBEL pic.twitter.com/PYMSVTYNMl

— Mountain West (@MW_OlySports) February 21, 2021

That's how we finish a freestyle race!

Thanksgiving Week

Monday

 

JH/HS Dry-land & Swim/Dive 8-10:00 a.m.

HS Swim/Dive 3-5:00 p.m.

Tuesday

HS Dry-land & Swim/Dive 8-10 a.m.

Okay, just one more...

...USAS video.

From last year, Caeleb Dressell vs. Michael Andrew:


Notes:

You'll recall that Gregg Troy has retired from the college program, but is still coaching a few elite club athletes in Florida.

Maxime Rooney left Florida and is now with Eddie Reese at Texas.

Anthony Nesty (Suriname) won gold in the 1988 Seoul Games in the 100 butterfly.  He beat Team USA's Matt Biondi by a hundredth of a second.

Federica Pellegrini

Italy's Federica Pellegrini is the world record holder in the 200 LCM freestyle (1:52.98) and was the first woman under 4:00 for the 400 LCM freestyle.

Read more about her here

Pellegrini is preparing now for Tokyo in what would be her fifth Olympic Games. She’s been a world-class performer for 16 years. Between 2004 and 2019, she’s medaled in the 200 free at major meets (Olympics, SC Worlds, LC Worlds or Europeans) every year except 2018.

If she races in the 200 free in Tokyo, she'll be just a few days shy of turning 33 years old.

She can REALLY finish races!

Here's some great race footage of some of Pellegrini's top swims. 


Oh yeah, Federica's a pull-up machine:

Anaerobic Work Down Under

Along with some dry-land work, yesterday's Georgia video had some in-the-water aerobic threshold work for the distance group.

Today, we have a pair of videos for the sprinters.

via The Australian

James Magnussen retired from the sport last year as one of the world's fastest freestylers (50/100/200) ever.

First, a little slice of the anarobic workout:


Race footage featuring "Magnussen the Magnificent" from the 2011 World Championships:

    Sorry to see Nathan Adrian out of the medals, but didn't mind seeing it for doper Cesar Cielo...

Katie Ledecky

Distance queen Katie Ledecky (Stanford/Team USA) has held the world record in the 1500 LCM free since 2013.

Some of you may have swum in the Conroe ISD Natatorium.  Did you know she broke her own mile record in that pool during a senior meet (June of 2014) hosted by The Woodlands Swim Team?

The women's 1500 has been added to the Olympic program for the 2020 2021 Tokyo Olympics.  The 800 has been the longest Olympic pool event for the gals up to now.



How is Katie adapting to the changes brought about by the virus?


Below are some dry-land exercises used by Team USA to improve both strength and range of motion.

Today's suggestions:

Psychology of Swimming

Swimmers,

There are some things that are unique to our sport, right?

No other athletes are yelled at by their coaches for breathing.

No other athletes spend hours looking at a black line.

No other athletes spend their practices and competitions in a medium that could be fatal to the less experienced.

On the other hand, we have plenty in common with other sports.

Like all athletes, we need to train ourselves physically and mentally.

Today, the focus is on the mental side of the equation.

Olympian Chloe Sutton (Mission Viejo Nadadores) was one of Team USA's greatest distance swimmers.  Coached by the legendary (and now retired) Bill Rose, she swam the mile (1500 free) in pool competition and the 10k in open water.

Here, Chloe demonstrated one of your favorites - Rotisserie Drill:


As part of our shave/taper guidelines, you were asked to visualize races.  Maybe we should do this more often throughout the season.

Here's today's suggestion:

Great Race Videos

2017 World Champs race video links:

Page 1

Page 2

50 SCY Freestyle in :18.20

Two of my favorite things about NCAA's:

1) Sam Kendricks* on the mic, and

2) starters who refuse to begin a race until you could hear a pin drop!



*one of Bobby's biggest fans

50 SCM Freestyle

Garrett Weber-Gale on Nutrition (Originally posted on 9/21/15)

Former Longhorn Garrett Weber-Gale is one of the smartest, hardest working athletes out there.  Bobby was fortunate to be Garrett's "Locker Buddy" in his freshman year at UT.  He's a great teacher and motivator!

Unfortunately, a battle with high blood pressure almost ended GWG's swimming career...then he got into eating healthier.

Using only the best foods to "fuel" him, Weber-Gale not only qualified for the 2008 US Olympic team, he was a huge part of one of the greatest relays in our nation's history:


2008 Beijing Olympics Swimming Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final from Meazza on Vimeo.
Here's Series 1 of GWG's nutrition videos:








p.s.  Bobby was fortunate to be Garrett's "locker buddy" during his freshman year at UT.  GWG was a great influence on the entire team...especially that Button kid...

GWG - Series 2 (Originally posted on 9/24/15)

Update:

Garrett did some great swim clinics for our club swimmers in Mansfield (MAC) and El Campo (Red Wave).  He makes a positive impression on athletes, coaches, and parents!

He's now coaching with Nitro in Austin.

He still runs a great nutrition site for swimmers (and other athletes) called Athletic Foodie.

From the Archives

Bobby demonstrated a few stroke drills for videos back in '11.  I posted on YouTube, but only told a handful of people.

Playlist, organized by strokes, is here

New Stuff

Coming Soon:

April 1 - First spring practice (no foolin')

April 10 - Blackcats Give Back (see Coach Herring ASAP)

April 22 - Wellness Matagorda 5k/10k Run/Walk (form deadline April 7)

The college swim season ended yesterday with the conclusion of the men's D-I meet.

Links to results from all national championships:

NCAA Division I (M)

NCAA Division I (W)

NCAA Division II (M & W)

NCAA Division III (M & W)

NJCAA (M & W)

NAIA (M & W)


Note that the Longhorn men managed to break NCAA records in both medley relays without pushing the starts.  Quickest exchange of the six was 0.23.


200 Medley Relay

400 Medley Relay

Great relay starts aren't just about timing.

They're about MOMENTUM!

Fast arm swings and forceful steps result in more MOMENTUM!

Clean entries help maintain that MOMENTUM!

Have I mentioned the importance of momentum?

When you scoured the 2017 UIL Region VII-5A results, you noticed the errors in our consol-winning 400 free relay, right?

Correct splits are:  1:02.75, 1:09.92, 1:03.57, & 1:02.87.

We'll all sleep better now, right?

Love distance?  Hey, who doesn't!?!?  Watch this:



Remind me to tell you a story about announcer Sam Kendrick.

When our buddy Eddie was asked to list his three (3) keys to swimming success, he responded:

1) We need to take care of the athlete,

2) take care of each other (team), and

3) try to outwork everybody.

Eddie's brother, Randy, gave his as:

1) Great strokes,
2) hard work, and
3) coming to all the workouts.

The Fifth Stroke

Use a great dolphin kick to become a better butterflyer, backstroker, and freestyler.  It'll also help you improve on breaststroke pullouts.  The Race Club has posted several great videos on the "Fifth Stroke":

Part I

Part II

Part III

Freestyle Turns

Go with option 3!



1) Push off wall on side
2) Streamline & kick underwater
3) Pull first with bottom arm and break out
4) Breathe on second or third stroke

Larsen Jensen

Former American Record-holder (400 & 1500 meter freestyles) Larsen Jensen talks about high elbow catch in freestyle:


Kara Lynn Joyce video is here.

Larsen is now serving our country as a US Navy SEAL.

Freestyle Video

Here's one of our country's greatest freestylers, Kara Lynn Joyce.  She swam in three (3) Olympic Games for Team USA, bringing home four (4) silver medals.

Notice:

• High elbow recovery & clean entry (fingertips-wrist-elbow)
• Outstanding rotation & great stroke finish
• Head still (at twelve o'clock) except for quick breaths
• Tight streamline
• Powerful six-beat kick (three kicks per pull, six per cycle)
• Front-quadrant swimming (slight catch-up in stroke)

Note:  Kara Lynn is strong enough to manage a wide, off the mid-line, pull.