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

Using the right butterfly swim technique in the individual medley is critical. Many swimmers will use too slow of stroke rate without breathing enough. This not only leads to not getting out fast enough but also not having the aerobic capacity to finish strong. In this video, Coach Gary works with Swiss Olympic hopeful Max Seidel on his best butterfly swim. In order for Max to be in the race after the butterfly leg, he needs to get his stroke rate up, increase coupling motion and breath more.

The freestyle kick butterfly drill is a great way to work on the ‘head throw’ in Butterfly. Most swimmers don’t emphasize this critical technique in Butterfly (and Breaststroke) resulting in not only a slower stroke rate but a less powerful pull and kick. Using a freestyle kick during butterfly allows the swimmer to feel the ‘surge’ one gets from ‘throwing the head down’ as hard as a Martial Artist breaks a board with their head. Timing this head throw will ultimately lead to more efficient and faster swim.

In this session Coach Gary and Max work on the butterfly leg of a 200 Individual Medley. Analyzing Max’s stroke Coach Gary identified two swim techniques to work on. First Max’s stroke rate is too slow and second his entry is too wide. Using these swim drills with an emphasis on coupling motions of butterfly Max learns what exactly he needs to work on.

Sprint Freestyle has less variation in technique than any other race because it’s the shortest distance. We do see different head positions in this event. From Pernile Blume with her head down to Caeleb Dressel with his head slightly tilted forward each swimmer has to find their sweet spot. There is no better way to measure this using Velocity Meter technology. In this session we work with Brad and Payton on getting them comfortable with the range of head positions. Stay tuned as we will test what the difference in velocity exactly was in their sprint freestyle head positions.

The goal of this week’s main set is to improve stroke rate in backstroke. A fast stroke rate in backstroke is important whether you’re swimming the 200, 100 or 50 back.

Breaststroke: Master’s Breaststroke Technique

Breaststroke is a challenging stroke to master at any age. To do well, breaststroke requires a completely different set of anatomical tools than the other three strokes: namely,

Pathway to Greatness: Adam Peaty and Mel Marshall

In 2003, Melanie (Mel) Marshall from Great Britain posted the fastest 200 meter freestyle time in the world. One year later, at the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004,

Pathway to Greatness: Adam Peaty and Mel Marshall In 2003, Melanie (Mel) Marshall from Great Britain posted the fastest 200 meter freestyle time in the world. One year later, at the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004, Join the club to access this page! You must purchase one of our Race Club memberships: The Race…