University of Louisville Head Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Coach;
2014 Men's and Women's ACC Champions; 2012 National Coach of the Year; 2014 ACC Coach of the Year (3x Big East Coach of the Year);
2012 Olympic Coach for Portugal; back-to-back-to-back Big East Women's Championships (2011-13)
One of the most effective ways to improve your freestyle swimming technique is to break down the stroke into its main components, improve each component, and then rebuild the stroke.
2012 National Coach of the Year Arthur Albiero provides drill progressions that isolate the key components of freestyle for all swimmers wanting to improve their stroke. Three-time NCAA Champion Joao De Lucca provides demonstrations for over 20 different drills, as well as starts, turns and relay take offs.
Coach Albiero outlines the key components of freestyle - from body line, kicking and breathing to starts, turns and breakouts.
Body Line
Learn a five-drill progression designed to create a tight body line that will minimize drag and keep the swimmer's body fully engaged from fingertips to toes. This progression provides balance through core stabilization. Throughout the progression, Albiero notes which drills De Lucca favors because they play to his strengths and which ones he doesn't favor although they remain valuable as they address his challenges - and why both are important.
Pull Progression
Discover drills for addressing every aspect of the freestyle pull - from the catch through the middle scull to the finish.
Coach Albiero's "Pull Drill" progression advances from sculling drills that focus on feeling the water to catch drills. Albiero adds a little twist to these familiar drills by using tools like snorkels, paddles, sponges and tennis balls to isolate components.
This progression helps swimmers develop slow hands in the front of the pull and fast hands in the back of the pull phase into the hand exit for excellent timing, tempo and rhythm. Coach Albiero teaches an eight-drill progression that transitions from a sculling focus during the beginning of the propulsive phase to swimming with a complete superb freestyle stroke.
Turn & Starts & Turns
Coach Albiero analyzes the elements of a fast freestyle turn. He breaks down the wall approach, foot positioning on the wall, the ideal body line leaving the wall, the dolphins and the breakout stroke.In addition, you will gain insights into the forward start and the two-step relay start. Albiero demonstrates the mechanics of the start and discusses the ideal "feel" when on the blocks - stable, comfortable and relaxed but ready to react.
Strategies
Great technique is just part of the equation when it comes to lowering times. In this segment, Coach Albiero interviews three-time NCAA champion De Lucca about race strategies for 200, 100 and 50 freestyle. They discuss pace, breathing, and use of straight arm recovery at turns and finishes for a burst of speed. This interview will give swimmers insight into the level of planning required to maximize meet performances.
Help your athletes refine their freestyle by using component training and drill progressions to swim faster and more efficiently.
39 minutes. 2015.
MD-04815B: with Whitney Hite,
University of Wisconsin Head Men's and Women's Coach;
including coaching stints at Arizona (M/W), Washington (M/W), Cal (W) and Georgia (W), In just three seasons, Hite's teams broke 35 school records
In his coaching career, Whitney Hite has worked with some of the best coaches in the sport: Eddie Reese, Teri McKeever, Jack Baurle and Frank Busch. Adding nuggets from these coaches into his own philosophy, Hite delivers a comprehensive look at the most critical components of good backstroke technique.
You'll gain insights into the fundamental elements of fast and efficient backstroke, including the key ingredients that all great backstrokers have in common. Hite also addresses the variations between great backstrokers - from high power 50 and 100 backstrokers who kick out and swim at a higher tempo to the swimmers who may be more adept for the 200 backstroke and a bit slower tempo.
Coach Hite stresses the importance of good head position, developing great underwater dolphins, a steady flutter kick, and good tempo. He describes the three phases of the pull, including the catch, the pull pattern and the water exit/entry.
Throughout the video, Hite uses three swimmers of different sizes and abilities to show that all builds of swimmers can learn a style of backstroke that is right for them.
Dolphin Kick
To generate as much speed as possible coming off the walls, Hite pays particular attention to the vertical dolphin kick. He discusses its importance and emphasizes critical techniques for maximizing the kick. Swimmers demonstrate the "6 Second Blast," a vertical kicking drill designed to generate as much speed and power as possible using the underwater dolphin kick.
Pull
In this segment, you'll see a variety of drills focused on the pull.
- "Single Arm Backstroke" and "Lane Line Pull" drills are used to develop a good pull pattern.
- The "Double Arm Drill" helps with hand entry position.
- "Up Top Scull Drill" establishes a strong catch.
- "Spin Drill" encourages hand speed.
Together, these drills help coaches teach swimmers all aspects of a fast backstroke arm action.
Starts
Backstroke starts are unique to swimming, and Coach Hite has all three swimmers demonstrate their technique. He discusses the challenges taller swimmers have getting close enough to the wall. The goal is to create a start that is out, not up, for the fastest start with the cleanest water entry. Slow motion video shows the essential techniques for creating the strongest starts. He also discusses backstroke turns and has the swimmers show how they get into the tightest possible ball at the wall to create a faster turn.
Arm Cadence
You'll also learn how to use the tempo trainer to help swimmers find and develop a fast and efficient cadence. The goal is to find each swimmer's ideal cadence for each backstroke racing distance. Learn how you can challenge the swimmer by setting tempos that are faster to encourage a faster cadence or slower to improve distance per stroke. By using tempo training, coaches can spot weaknesses in a swimmer's stroke and help to continually improve upon a swimmer's strengths.
In clear, concise language Coach Hite describes the key elements of backstroke and breaks down the drills and tools he uses to develop NCAA Champion backstrokers at the University of Wisconsin.
42 minutes. 2015.
MD-04815C: with Ray Looze,
Indiana University Head Coach;
25x Big Ten Championship Coach;
2016 & 2017 Men's & Women's Big Ten Coach of the Year - first coach in Big 10 history to win both honors in back-to-back years;
member of Team USA's Coaching Staff for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics;
Head Coach for Team USA at the 2014 FINA Short Course World Championships
Understanding the key components of a fast and powerful breaststroke will allow you to work the varied styles of breaststroke you see within your team.
Coach Ray Looze describes and illustrates technical aspects that create a successful breaststroke. This includes body position, kick, arm pull, timing, head position, rhythm and other Indiana secrets and strategies.
Each component of the breaststroke race is performed by Big Ten Record Holder in the 100, 200 breaststroke and 200 IM, Cody Miller. Above and below water video footage of Miller, also recognized as a 3x NCAA All American and current US National Team member, provides elite level feedback for what every movement or stroke technique should look like.
Coach Looze provides comprehensive instruction and video illustrations that will teach you how to improve speed, power, breath control, motor memory and mechanics necessary for achieving personal best times.
Pullout
Optimize pullout speed and efficiency by learning to maintain a good connection between core and arm musculature and by avoiding the classically taught hourglass pull. Coach Looze shows drills that will help improve timing and power by coupling the pull to a forceful body dolphin kick. He includes detailed demonstrations on deck for optimal streamlining with the hands at the side. You'll see how proper head/hips relationship facilities streamlining and maintenance of speed generated by a forceful pullout.
Kick
Proper hip, knee and ankle positioning throughout the kick cycle is discussed and modeled to show how to improve body line, and catch the maximum amount of water possible with the feet and legs. Coach Looze shows five drills that will streamline your body, increase ankle speed, feel for the water with the feet, and breath control. Common errors are discussed and demonstrated to provide better understanding for improving your breaststroke kick.
Arm Pull
Coach Looze continues perfecting the swimmers body line, timing, speed, and power with nine drills to help swimmers learn how to develop a powerful, wide and shallow pull with three distinct options for achieving a fast arm recovery.
Turns
Learn how the modern method for breaststroke turns was influenced by Cody Miller at Indiana University. Miller's "Side Turn" quickly puts the swimmer onto the stomach for a faster straight line and non twisting position from which to push off from the wall. Watch as Miller demonstrates and Coach Looze talks through this unique and highly effective turn technique.
Starts
Develop an athletic body position by connecting the core to the block. Coach Looze shows how to use the rhomboid and trapezius muscles to assist with a quick, powerful and streamlined dive. Drills are provided to assist with developing a powerful, quick downward body line resulting in a smooth and streamlined entry.
Full Stroke Swimming
Learn practice sets and drills for improving posture, streamlining, breath control, and fast recovery. Included are methods for assessing the pull and kick portion of the stroke separately to discover strengths and weaknesses. Looze shares how he creatively trains his breaststrokers for maximizing speed in breaststroke sets. Common errors are also illustrated to improve the swimmer's ability to recognize weaknesses and address them with pertinent drills which are provided throughout this comprehensive video.
Finish
Attention to stroke count and judging distance from the wall are important variables for attaining a solid breaststroke finish in stride. Learning to utilize a "punch out" finish when necessary is demonstrated as well.
Coach Looze shows a variety of drills and key elements of breaststroke that a coach can take to any level of swimmer to gain improvement in their breaststroke performance. This video is a must for all swimmers who are serious about improving their breaststroke.
81 minutes. 2015.
MD-04815D: with Braden Holloway,
North Carolina State Head Coach (Mens & Womens);
2013 ACC Men's Swim Coach of the Year; 5x All American swimmer at NC State
Swimming butterfly effectively is all about rhythm and timing and maintaining a great body fulcrum and body line. It is the most complicated stroke in swimming and often feels unnatural to beginners.
By breaking the stroke into its components, Coach Holloway explains how to teach each part of the stroke until it feels natural to the swimmer and then how to put the components together for a stroke that has great power and rhythm. He teaches drills at high speed so swimmers can translate the feel of the drill to race conditions. He also teaches drills with resistance so the swimmer can feel where in the stroke they are weak or are letting the water "slip."
Body Line
The first crucial component of great butterfly is finding and holding the right body line. Holloway uses five drills with a focus on kicking and eye placement to create the correct body position to help swimmers maximize efficiency and minimize drag. Drills are performed with a flutter kick to enable the swimmer to work on holding a low body line to minimize drag, and with a fly kick to build power. Alternating the two kicks helps the swimmer capitalize on the powerful wave motion of fly without creating too much resistance for maximum sustainable speed.
Catch
The catch is a critical stroke component that sets up the power phase of each stroke. During this segment of the video, five drills are used to enhance proper hand entry placement in the catch phase while maintaining a flat body line. Drills like "Block Drill" and "Alligator Drill" are effective for swimmers at all levels when learning the proper high-elevation set up for a powerful pull.
Timing
Perhaps the most difficult part of butterfly to master is the timing. Great timing is critical as it provides maximum power in a fluid motion. Two surf drills help swimmers develop timing. The first, "Surf Chin Drill," helps the swimmer know when and how to take a breath in the stroke. The second, "Surf Hip Drill," helps get the eyes back to the bottom of the pool with the second kick, which helps the swimmer return to the ideal line as quickly as possible after the breath. The "Explode Drill" helps build the kicks, especially the second kick, so it's helpful for building timing but also to work the exit kick for great breakouts off starts and turns.
The Kick
In butterfly, it is a common mistake to only use one kick or only focus on kicking in one direction. The first and second kick should be of equal size and power, and both kicks should generate as much distance and force in both the up and the down kick. Coach Holloway shows the "Wall Kick" and the "Fish Kick" drills which emphasize the feel of kicking in both directions. He also reviews how his kick training transitions as the season progresses.
Speed
Once all of the butterfly stroke the components come together it's time to focus on speed. Here Coach Holloway uses five drills to build hand and foot speed without sacrificing efficiency. His swimmers learn how to add more force per stroke to increase speed.
Starts
Learn start methods for both a traditional block and a block with the back foot wedge. Holloway details the set up position for the track start beginning with a solid base and with the swimmer in a comfortable, stable position. Foot positioning is discussed along with ideal leg angles.
You'll also learn strategies for leaving the blocks in a position that lines up the body for a low resistance entry into the water. With an established start technique, Holloway proceeds to connect the great dive with the butterfly stroke, which includes carrying the speed and power from the start entry into a fast and powerful kick-out and stroke breakout.
Turns
The challenge of the turn is trying to carry speed from the swim into the wall and reverse direction without sacrificing speed. Staying on a line into and out of the wall is critical. He teaches how to best use the head and shoulders to generate speed in the directional change.
Race Finishes
Coach Holloway's motto for efficient butterfly finishes is, "do not finish into resistance." To accomplish this goal it is imperative to teach the swimmer to stay on a `line' rather than finishing down and then into the wall. Holloway offers simple tips for teaching the swimmer how to finish on a full stroke.
Conclusion
Perhaps the most useful segment of the video is the conclusion. Coach Holloway and swimmer Barrett Miesfeld discuss the changes Barrett made that made him a championship-caliber collegiate swimmer. Before attending North Carolina State, Barrett was an Arizona State Champion and had attended Jr Nationals and Sr Nationals. Despite his previous success, Barrett was willing to make changes to his stroke to go even faster. He discusses how he learned to engage his mind in his swimming. This increased his speed, but it also helped him tune out distractions at meets because he learned to focus on technique in practice.
Using the techniques and drills on this video, you can help your swimmers establish a low-resistance body line and use power intelligently to create force within a fluid motion for maximum sustainable speed.
103 minutes. 2015.