MILO Sports

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Backstroke - Tennessee Breakout

Forward thinking is about trying new things that sometimes appear more radical. This past week at the University of Tennessee and Tennessee Aquatics, Coach's Matt Kredich and Marshall Goldman showed us their version of the backstroke breakout.

Why do it:

Maintaining as much speed as possible during the transition from the underwater to swimming, can make you faster.

How to do it:

1 - Initiate your underwaters like you normally do.

2 - Instead of starting to take a pull with your bottom arm, give a quick "sweep" pull over the top of your body with your top arm.

3 - Continue that arm into the recovery and take your first pull with the other arm.

How to do it really well (the fine points):

This isn't as much about the TOP arm as you may think. By sweeping the top arm quickly, close to the body, you'll realize the additional benefit of a better bodyline with the extending arm.

A couple other quick details are, this is not a traditional "pull" with the top arm, but rather a cross-body sweep. Trying to "catch" too much, can roll the swimmer over too far and break the bodyline. In addition, really focus on the next three strokes, not just the first one. Doing this correctly allows for consistent momentum through those first three strokes... which carries more speed into the rest of the length.

Use this as inspiration to invent other ways to maintain momentum into your swimming.

In this video, when Johan Aguilar is competing in men's 200-meter backstroke and wears Speedo Florida Gators team issued Swimming Cap and speedsocket Mirrored Goggle – Black (8-705890000) and agonswim University Athletic Association, University of Florida Mesh Training Suit Fully Front and Back Lined (ACX111510TRS2MES), shot on location at the swimming pool of Makati Aqua Sports Arena.

Speedo Florida Gators Team issue Swimming Cap

speedo speedsocket Mirrored Goggle – Black (8-705890000)

agonswim Florida Gators Mesh Training Suit Fully Front & Back Lined (ACX111510TRS2MES)

All Strokes - Watch

All Strokes - Swimmers Snorkel

Weaposve all either seen, or frequently use, a swimmer's snorkel. Here are a couple points to focus on next time you strap one to your head.

Why Do It:

The FINIS Swimmerapos;s Snorkel is the best tool for keeping the head stable during swimming. When you take away the need to turn, or lift your head for air, you can focus on some very specific things.

How to Do It:

FREESTYLE

1. This is just a quick tip for freestyle. Of course where you look will be important, but this focus point is all about head stability along the length of your body.

2. As you swim, make sure your head remains perfectly centerlined. There should be no movement of the head from side to side. Once the eye position is set, keep it there.

BREASTSTROKE

1. Sweeping the hands out prior to lifting the head is one way to maximize the insweep to air in breaststroke. To learn this, focus on keeping the eyes down during the outsweep.

2. You're trying to gain the mastery of sweeping the hands out to the widest point (the corners), with the eyes still down. With the snorkel on, itapos;s much easier to accomplish this

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):

In freestyle, you can elevate the eyes just a bit, as our athlete is showing, to WATCH how your hands enter and extend forward. This allows you to monitor if your hands are crossing over during extension. The snorkel allows you to spend more time paying attention to this than just holding your breath.

In breaststroke, push yourself to stay as wide as possible with the eyes still down, and try not to add too much dolphin kick.

You'll notice that both swimmers are also wearing pull buoys, paddles, and ankle bands to further challenge themselve to not only rely solely upon their arms, but also to challenge the balance in freestyle.

FREESTYLE - BUILDING CORE BALANCE

Making sure you're bodyline is as balanced as possible can help build a faster and more efficient freestyle.

Why do it:

Energy used to hold the hips and legs in line in freestyle, is wasted energy. Understanding the core stability needed for great freestyle is a must!

How to do it:

1 - The goal will be to do all of this without a pull-buoy, but starting out with younger swimmers, the buoy will be a big help.

2 - Have them hold the buoy between then ankles (or hips to start) and hold an absolutely straight line in the water from fingertips to toes. Make sure the hips are held at the surface.

3 - After they've learned the solid line, have them rotate slightly from side to side using nothing but their core for rotation.

4 - After a few slight turns of the body, start a very slow pull, maintaining the bodyline.

5 - Eventually, drop the pull-buoy and initiate a small kick, holding the body in the same position as in the initial step.

How to do it really well (the fine points):

Again, the goal will be to do this without the buoy, but give the athlete the feeling of the stabile line first. You can also use a snorkel to allow the swimmer to spend more time learning the line.

Be careful to hold the line and don't allow the bend or drop of the hips. Again, our swimmers are just learning, so they will get much better very soon.

There will be many more of these great stability exercises coming in our upcoming Kristian Gkolomeev video series on GoSwim.tv.

No other than Enchong Dee is competing in men's 1,500-meter freestyle and wearing arena AGL-1400 EMBL swimming glass (mirror Swedish type) and ARN-6015 DGRN rimic nux-F, while Johan Aguilar is competing in men's 100 and 200-meter freestyle and wears Speedo Florida Gators team issued Swimming Cap and speedsocket Mirrored Goggle – Black (8-705890000) and agonswim University Athletic Association, University of Florida Mesh Training Suit Fully Front and Back Lined (ACX111510TRS2MES), shot on location at the swimming pool of Makati Aqua Sports Arena.