Do you want to develop a stronger Freestyle pull? Well, then you’ve come to the right place, because in today’s blog we will be looking at the 6 BEST Dryland Exercises to strengthen YOUR Freestyle Pull! Nowadays, almost all elite swimmers incorporate some form of Dryland or strength training into their schedules. This is due to the huge amount of benefits that it can hold for us as swimmers, such
Recently, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Dominic Latella who is the owner/coach of SwimBox. SwimBox is based in FairFax, VA and is run out of an endless pool. Dominic is a Level 4 Masters Swim Coach, along with a Head Swim Coach for an Adaptive Swim Team at Walter Reed. Overall, Dominic has over 16 years of coaching experience. To get a taste of what we chatted
Welcome to our newest series on Backstroke Swimming, specifically looking at swimmer’s rotation. It’s only fitting that we move on to the Backstroke rotation, as we’ve already discussed in the Backstroke kick & pull. My goal by the end of this series is to help you understand why rotation IS crucial in Backstroke swimming and give you a few ways to improve your rotation while Backstroke Swimming. Let’s get started…
Welcome back to Part III of our series on the Backstroke Pull, this week we are going to talk about one of my favorite drills for the Backstroke Pull: Kayak Drill. If you missed Part’s I and II of this series, I would definitely recommend going and reading those first before this one. Otherwise, let’s get started! In Parts I and II, we discussed the pulling pattern in Backstroke, Rotation,
A couple months ago I sat in on a panel about college recruitment process for swimmers. As a former D1 swimmer at the University of Georgia, I went through the college recruiting process at an early age. Now, the NCAA has changed the rules up from when I was recruited and allows collegiate coaches to contact swimmers EVEN EARLIER than before. If you’re unsure how to even go about the
Welcome back to Part II of our series on the Backstroke Pull. This week we plan to dig deeper into the Backstroke stroke itself, dissecting the recovery—where as, last week we discussed some keys to a GREAT Backstroke Pull. If you haven’t read Part I of this series, click here. Otherwise, let’s get started! Have you ever felt in your Backstroke that you’re trying really hard, but the feel of
Looking for a way to improve your Backstroke pull, but not really sure how? Well get ready, because in our next series we are going to fully dissect the Backstroke pull to get you swimming Backstroke faster down the pool. Let’s go ahead and get started… Just like we discussed in Freestyle, Backstroke is a long-axis stroke. What that means is swimmers will rotate around their longitudinal axis. Your longitudinal
Welcome back to Part II of our series of how to swim with a snorkel. This week, we are specifically diving deeper into how to Flipturn with a snorkel. In case you missed Part I of this series on the basics of how to swim with a snorkel, click here. If not, let’s get started… Swimming with snorkel does NOT have to be so complicated. If you read Part I,
Welcome back! This post is 1,000% delayed from when I should have wrote it, but none the less–we are getting it done. Back in June, I traveled out to the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, CA with Indiana Swimming. During my time in Chula Vista, I was working with the swimmers on finding their optimum kick counts off the walls. Normally as a coach, you can
One of the FASTEST Freestyler’s I’ve ever seen is actually one of my best friends, Allison Schmitt. Allison won Gold in the 200m Freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics and she’s a great example of someone who not only swam fast–but kicks FAST the entire race! Allison does a few things right with her kick during the race which I’ve highlighted in her analysis below: 1.) She consistently keeps a