University of Tennessee Head Swimming & Diving Coach (men and women);
2x SEC Women's Coach of the Year;
coach of 2x Olympic Silver Medalist, Christine Magnuson
and Bill Boomer,
University of Tennessee Assistant Coach; 2000 US Olympic Team Assistant Coach;
Pioneer of balanced swimming (using core muscles to minimize water resistance) with more than 50 years coaching experience
Bill Boomer is a revolutionary figure in the sport of swimming, who has incredible insights into how people swim and the best way to get them to move faster. He developed the language of Posture Line and Balance that is so instrumental in teaching correct movements in the water. After 50 plus years of coaching he continues to build on his own ideas and terminology while looking ahead to the future of swimming.
Historically, freestyle has been focused on techniques using the hands and feet with little focus on what the body is doing. Coaches Matt Kredich and Bill Boomer breakdown the future of freestyle with instruction to maximize the line, velocity, leverage, and core focus that one needs for great impulse-space swimming.
In Freestyle Reimagined, the thought is to go away from pulling the body forward to throwing momentum forward, creating a surge in the stroke. Traditionally, the underwater pulling action has created an impulse (putting energy into the water) followed by a riding of that impulse - or riding the spaces. In this concept, the energy comes from the pulling hand and the riding of the impulse or space between strokes comes from the opposite hand gliding forward. In the reimagined freestyle, the impulse or surge comes from the arm swing of the recovery hand followed by immediate space travel on that same hand. The space between the impulses is where the speed truly lies.
Understand Leverage Systems
Coaches and swimmers have been focusing on the second-class, or less efficient, levers of force to generate movement in freestyle. Kredich and Boomer use the classroom and pool to teach you how to transition to balance, the first-class leverage system that is producing break-through freestyle at elite levels. Coach Boomer uses his unique gift of turning complicated scientific principles into tools coaches and swimmers can understand and put into practical application.
Identifying Aquatic Signature
Each swimmer has an aquatic signature - a natural position his or her body will hold in the water when they completely relax. Aquatic signatures determine a swimmer's inclination toward certain strokes and distances. Understanding that will help coaches determine which strokes and distances to emphasize with swimmers, what sort of distance, intensity and duration of training will be most effective for them, where swimmers should focus next to become more versatile, and what sorts of recovery different types of signatures require. Kredich and Boomer demonstrate how easy it is to determine the aquatic signature for each swimmer, discuss what can change the signature and how often it should be reevaluated.
Establishing Proper Aquatic Alignment
Establishing and maintaining a proper aquatic line, especially as speed increases, is the key to fast swimming. Watch as the coaches have an elite swimmer demonstrate ideal alignment, then mimic common flaws in head and body position and discuss corrections. Learn drills using kickboards and foam rollers that will destabilize swimmers as they try to maintain proper alignment, challenging them to use their cores to hold the high, toned body line they will need at race pace.
Use Assisted Swimming to Establish Line
The faster the swimmer is going, the more drag, and therefore the more tactile feedback the water provides. However, while a swimmer is working to generate top speed, it is difficult to also focus on the nuances of water feel. Towing a swimmer lets you create the speed. You can watch for clues that the body's reactions and the quality of the water flow behind the swimmer give you about what is affecting the swimmer's alignment. Kredich and Boomer demonstrate a series of towing drills, all starting with body line, a challenge that causes the line to degenerate, and then the recovery to excellence. While the coach is learning the swimmer's strengths and weaknesses, the swimmer is building a "mental library" of how it feels to deviate from ideal alignment and what adjustments it takes to recover.
Teach your Swimmers the Restart Position
The Restart position mimics having a swimmer suddenly pause between stroke cycles in the middle of high velocity swimming - just at the position where the body generates the next impulse. It is the best position for swimmers to learn where freestyle comes from and for coaches to diagnose errors in a swimmer's understanding of the stroke. Watch excellent restart position, and see drills you can incorporate into your practices. Kredich and Boomer also have the swimmer demonstrate common errors in restart position so that you can identify and correct them. They also show how restart position can be used to teach a faster topside breakout using the principles of first class levers for maximum speed.
Take the challenge! Reimagine freestyle - the way to train it and swim it - so that you will be at the forefront of the revolution in the stroke.
182 minutes (2 DVDs). 2015.
MD-04929: with Matt Kredich,
University of Tennessee Head Swimming & Diving Coach (men and women);
2x SEC Women's Coach of the Year;
coach of 2x Olympic Silver Medalist, Christine Magnuson
and Bill Boomer,
University of Tennessee Assistant Coach; 2000 US Olympic Team Assistant Coach;
Pioneer of balanced swimming (using core muscles to minimize water resistance) with more than 50 years coaching experience
Bill Boomer is a revolutionary figure in the sport of swimming, who has incredible insights into how people swim and the best way to get them to move faster. He developed the language of Posture Line and Balance that is so instrumental in teaching correct movements in the water. After 50 plus years of coaching he continues to build on his own ideas and terminology while looking ahead to the future of swimming.
Swimming has evolved from a surface event to an underwater event. Learn how to take advantage of the fastest part of each swim and increase velocity without scarifying energy.
This program is revolutionizing the way elite athletes are understanding the sport and taking it to the next level.
Matt Kedrich and Bill Boomer provide an in-depth look at starts, turns, and underwater swimming referred to as harmonics. Then they take their top athletes through the drill progressions they are using to build the fastest, most efficient turns and starts.
Importance of the Turn
Elite swimmers are maximizing the underwater portion of their swims - causing the turns to account for up to 60-70% of a short course race. It is no longer enough to have a vague plan to "spend some more time on turn work." Coaches need to incorporate turn work into every practice. Learn how to do that in a way that benefits surface swimming, rather than competing with it.
Seven Parts of the Turn
This video breaks starts and turns down into basic parts and uses skill development to strengthen each part before putting them all back together for a great start or turn. Using some science and some art, Kredich and Boomer breaks down each part to define what each should look like and why it looks like that before introducing some skills to show you and teach you what to do.
- The Approach - Swimmers learn how to line their body up during the approach to the wall to minimize drag and maximize momentum into the wall. They perform drills to learn to use the competing pressures of gravity and buoyancy to find their own natural float layer. Drills also build breath control - purposeful exhalation - and comfort at various underwater depths. By taking speed into the right depth of water, they are set up for the next step.
- The Rotation - One of the biggest mistakes in the rotation of the forward turn is the athlete's taking theirs heads down and too deep. With a special somersault drills progression Kedrich and Boomer help swimmers understand how body position can make or break a good rotation. Coaches learn what to expect when they introduce the drills, and how to help the athletes make natural corrections that lead to greater speed and less resistance.
- The Landing - Coach Boomer teaches the body position on the wall through what he calls the force line and the power triangle. Classroom instruction with help from classic drawings by the great Milt Nelms help coaches and swimmers visualize the importance of a great power triangle on the landing of a turn.
- The Jump - From a strong landing, swimmers learn to use their glutes to power the jump while their abs control the motion - drive with your butt, manage with your gut - for power that holds a good body line to create maximum propulsion. Drills like Target Bobs provide swimmers with instant feedback and allow coaches to make corrections swimmers can feel and incorporate quickly.
- The Flight - It is important to have balance as you are moving forward as the body is fighting buoyancy and gravity. If everything has been done correctly to this point, the swimmer can ride the good body line they have developed by holding core tension and controlling buoyancy.
- Subsurface Travel - Boomer and Kedrich explain why they call underwater dolphining harmonic, and share drills to help swimmers find their own maximum harmonic motion.
- Transition - More than just a "breakout" - they share tips for making the transition from underwater to surface swimming as smooth and efficient as possible.
Starts
Boomer and Kedrich cover forward starts - including a discussion of how and why swimmers develop their own approach to the blocks, and why the same swimmer may approach the blocks differently for different races. They demonstrate the keys to getting a stable set up and perfect entry. Coach Boomer uses the kneeling start on a kick board to teach the athletes about sighting their entry, pointing to their entry and having their legs move to the line all before the entry.
They address backstroke starts and relay starts. Boomer urges swimmers to think about "winning the exit" or focusing on building maximum momentum and distance in minimum time - as the way to evaluate a great racing start.
Kedrich and Boomer are natural teachers who use every kind of audio-visual tool at their disposals to help swimmers understand how to perform every skill with precision. Boomer's special vocabulary, developed over 50 years of studying and teaching swimming, helps make important scientific concepts easy to understand. Coaches come away with verbal and visual cues they can use to diagnose and correct start and turn flaws and reinforce important concepts.
Starts and Turns are not afterthoughts anymore. This video takes underwater swimming front and center - right where elite swimmers need it to be.
347 minutes (3 Videos). 2016.