The Race Club – Swimming Camps • Coaching • Competitive Training • Advanced Techniques

After working on dolphin kick and sculling drills with Max, we are ready to practice full stroke breaststroke for the 200 Individual Medley or a 46 Stroke Rate.  At the Race Club we spend a lot of time on stroke rate using tools such as the tempo trainer and stroke rate stop watches.  Once we figure out what the swimmer’s optimal stroke rate will be, we practice those rates repeatedly.  Generally speaking, 46 strokes per minute is the ideal stroke rate and is what the goal is for Max during this leg of the IM. Previously Max has been in the high 30’s for his stroke rate so it will be quite a bit faster.  We see so many swimmers going out with too fast or too slow of a tempo so we continually practice sets tuning up our stroke rate count.   This will ultimately lead the swimmer to setup the perfect race.

Coach Gary and Olympic hopeful Max Seidel continue working on Breaststroke with Max’s own scull drill.  At the Race Club we like to ask our swimmers what are some of their favorite swim drills.  After working on the dolphin kick breaststroke drill Max describes a similar scull  drill that emphasizes a wide catch and powerful ‘shoot’ forward.   Coach Gary adds the Race Club twist by adding more emphasis to the height and power of the head recovery.  We like this drill so much that we’ve been using it with great success in swimmers that aren’t comfortable with these coupling motions.

For many Individual Medley swimmers Breaststroke is their weakest leg.  Swiss Olympic hopeful Max Seidel needs to improve his breaststroke and backstroke legs in order to have a shot at Paris 2024.  Coach Gary’s preliminary analysis of Max’s strokes was too slow of a stroke rate and not enough coupling motion with his head.  A great way to teach swimmers to improve both of these problems is using the breaststroke with dolphin kick drill.  Many swimmers, like Max don’t use their head as a weapon by simply laying it down as they enter the recovery phase.  In order to learn how much energy you can actually put into this motion, Coach Gary uses fins with this drill that allows Max to both get higher and feel the power of his newly learned coupling motion. 

Swiss Olympic hopeful in the 200 Individual Medley, Max Seidel needs to improve his backstroke more than any other leg. We spent a lot of time working on swim drills that teach bending the elbow more for the pull and finally stroke rate. In this set of 4 x 25 Max improves on each one using the same stroke rate. This means each 25 he uses the coupling motions he learned (rotation and recovery) in a more effective way that shows in the amount of rotation and elbow bend he creates. If Max can swim like he does on the last 25 of this set, he’s got a great chance for Paris!

Main Set of the Week: Individual Medley

When I held the world record in the 400 IM, I considered this set to be semi-torture. Yet, I knew that a brutal main set would help get me ready for a brutal event. Each summer, early in the season

Determining your ideal Breaststroke Stroke Rate
It has taken me years to understand breaststroke. It is not just the most difficult stroke to teach and learn, requiring an entirely different set of anatomical tools than the other three strokes. It is also the most difficult stroke for coaches to understand. It is also the most timing-sensitive stroke.

Katie Ledecky Anaerobic Threshold Main Set: SC yards

In honor of Thanksgiving, we thought everyone would enjoy this great set from Bruce Gemmell. No better way to build up the appetite than an anaerobic swim set inspired by Katie Ledecky

Analyzing Dolphin Kick at The Race Club

As coaches or parents, we notice great differences among swimmers in dolphin kick speed. Not only do swimmers who dolphin kick fast have a tremendous advantage on starts