Swimming Faster The Auburn Way: Training & Race Strategies Series

with David Marsh,
Cal Berkeley Men's Assistant Coach;
Team Elite Aquatics (San Diego) Head Coach;
Israel Swimming Association Professional Adviser;
UCSD Head Coach from 2017 to 2019;
2016 USA Women's Olympic Team Head Coach;
14 Marsh-coached athletes competed in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympians Games;
Head Coach, SwimMAC Carolina from 2007 to 2017 (3 consecutive USA Swimming Club Excellence Championships);
Auburn Head Men's and Women's Coach - 1990 through 2007;
12x NCAA Team Championships - 7x for the Men's program, 5x for the Women's program;
including Men's/Women's sweeps in 2003 (1st time in NCAA history to have a Men's/Women's coach sweep Championships) , 2004, 2006 and 2007 ;
8x NCAA Coach of the Year;
3x USA Men's Olympic Team Assistant ('12, 00, '96);
has coached 49 Olympians from 19 different countries;
2000 & 2003 National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy;
North Carolina Swimming Hall of Fame - 2016;
Auburn Swimming Hall of Fame - 2015;
competed at Auburn (5x All-American; backstroke)

Perhaps a more appropriate title for this particular video is "Auburn Sprint Secrets Revealed!" This instructional video offers a candid look at virtually every aspect of the Auburn Sprinting Program. In Part 1, David Marsh lays out a seasonal plan for his sprint program. Details of the plan include both in the pool training, dryland, and weights and a look at a typical training weekly plan. As in all of the sections of this video, you will witness Coach Marsh's unique understanding of the nuances of the sprinter themselves and you will also see how Marsh capitalizes upon those nuances by building them into his program. In Part 2: Marsh shares how he would implement his sprint program into a training plan for a 12-14 week high school season. In Part 3, "Training Toys", Marsh shares the equipment he likes to utilize in training his sprinters. Part 4 is truly a unique segment of this video - Marsh begins this segment with the basics of power rack training. Then, Marsh's unique creativity takes you through several competitive games he has created to train essential race components including finish drills, turn competitions, three person drag races, tag games, and more! This unique look into "sprint training the Auburn way" will most certainly assist a coach in creating faster swimmers.

55 minutes. 2004.

with Ralph Crocker, Auburn Assistant Coach/Distance Specialist (7 seasons at Auburn);
while there, the Tigers won a combined eight NCAA and 10 SEC Championships while posting a dual meet record of 102-3;
Crocker coached 82 swimmers to 660 All-American honors, and during his tenure eight distance freestyle swimmers won a combined 10 NCAA and SEC individual event crowns;
Greater Pensacola Aquatic Club Head Coach (1996 to 2000);
Ft. Lauderdale's Pine Crest School Head Coach (1989 to 1996);

Coach Ralph Crocker has experienced success at every level of the sport! As an assistant at Auburn, Coach Crocker has extensive experience working with all groups, but primarily the distance group, or as they fondly call it, "Ralph's House of Pain"(RHOP).
The success of RHOP was very evident at the 2003 NCAA and SEC Women's Championships as the all-star quartet of Margaret Hoelzer, Heather Kemp, Kirsty Coventry and Bowen not only won the 800 free relay at each, but did so with a new SEC, NCAA and U.S. Open record.
In this instructional video, Crocker shares the training and race strategies for the 400 and up. In the training portion of the presentation, Crocker begins with "Distance Training Basics" that reflect his overall success and experience that he incorporates into training his Auburn training group. He also shares a season-long training plan and strategy that includes strategies for a shorter high school season, weekly training plans, and workout construction. Crocker also devotes a segment to pre-meet warm up discussing the importance of the pre-meet warm up, structuring a proper meet warm-up along with specific examples. Sharing Coach Marsh's affinity for "training toys", Crocker shares the training toys he specifically uses for his distance swimmers. In the final segment of the video, Crocker shares race strategies for distance events.

52 minutes. 2004.

with Kim Brackin,
LA Current Assistant Coach in the ISL;
founder of Brackin Elite Swim Training;
University of Texas Head Women's Swimming Coach from 2006 to 2012;
Auburn University Coach; was an Assistant and then Associate Head Coach (at Auburn - 1997 through 2005);
2002 NCAA Coach of the Year

Kim Brackin begins this video by sharing the five phases of a season she uses with her backstrokers. Throughout the training phases, Brackin relates how a shorter high school season would fit into the seasonal plan she shares.

• Phase 1: Aerobic Phase. Focus areas include a dryland circuit out of the water and in the water and aerobic swimming incorporating technique work.
• Phase 2: Aerobic Overload, focuses on increasing the aerobic intensity and bringing in an emphasis on racing tempo.
• Phase 3: Quality Training, Brackin transitions her backstrokers into more quality work and adds a focus to race intensity training. Brackin also touches on gender differences in the training phases.
• Phase 4 brings in a lot of quality work with more race-specific focus. Also, race-specific skills are fine-tuned in this phase in preparation for ...
• Phase 5, the taper phase.

Coach Brackin then shares what she calls "season long essentials" that serve as a great reminder to a coach that there are several aspects of training and skill development that need to be honed throughout the entire season. In keeping with Coach Marsh's love of training toys, Brackin next shares the training devices she incorporates into backstroke training. In the final section, Brackin details race strategies for the 50, 100, and 200 backstroke events for both short and long course.

48 minutes. 2004.

with David Marsh,
Head Coach, SwimMAC Carolina (3 consecutive USA Swimming Club Excellence Championships);
2016 USA Women's Olympic Team Head Coach,
12x NCAA Championship and 8x NCAA Coach of the Year (Auburn),
3x USA Men's Olympic Team Assistant ('12, 00, '96); has coached 49 Olympians from 19 different countries

and Dave Durden, Auburn assistant coach

In this seven-part instructional DVD, David Marsh begins with an overall seasonal planning segment for training all mid distance strokers. Coach Marsh breaks down the season into early season, mid-season stage one, mid-season stage two and taper. Marsh shares training methodology for each of the segments and includes test sets that he likes to use during the specific phases. Marsh also includes dryland and strength training breakdowns for each of these seasonal segments as well as breaking out how he would implement these strategies in a shorter high school season. The rest of the video features include:

• Part 2: Breaststroke Specific Training Strategies - how breaststroke training fits into the overall seasonal plan.
• Part 3: Breaststroke Training Toys - the variety of training equipment he utilizes with his breaststrokers.
• Part 4: Race Strategies for Breaststroke - break down of the breaststroke races - short and long course.
• Part 5: Butterfly Specific Training Strategies - break out of the fly-specific training as it relates to the seasonal phases.
• Part 6: Training Toys for the Butterfly- Durden shares how a variety of devises fit into butterfly training at Auburn.
• Part 7: Butterfly Race Strategies - Durden breaks down race specifics for both short and long course butterfly events.

75 minutes. 2004.

with David Marsh,
Head Coach, SwimMAC Carolina (3 consecutive USA Swimming Club Excellence Championships);
2016 USA Women's Olympic Team Head Coach,
12x NCAA Championship and 8x NCAA Coach of the Year (Auburn),
3x USA Men's Olympic Team Assistant ('12, 00, '96); has coached 49 Olympians from 19 different countries

Coach David Marsh believes that the Individual Medley is the cornerstone of a successful program, and takes great pride in the Auburn tradition of successful individual medley swimming. Marsh begins with a breakdown of the seasonal training plan for the 200 and 400 IM which he develops from the taper back to the beginning of the season: early season, mid-season stage one, mid-season stage two, and the taper phase. Marsh details the differences in training for the 200 IMers and the 400 IMers and shares examples of sets that he feels are most appropriate for each of the training phases. Marsh's program emphasizes specific training sets that work on transitions and preparing the IMer for "big legs" to bring them home on the freestyle. Marsh also details strength training specifics through each of the training phases. He also breaks out a sample mid-season weekly training plan that gives an idea of how the Auburn IMers workout needs are met on a weekly basis. Next, Marsh details a phase-by-phase seasonal training plan that can be implemented into a shorter high school season. Marsh loves to use training devices for adding different stimuli for his swimmers and shares with you his favorite "toys" for training IMers. He shares detailed breakdowns of race strategies for the IM events for long and short course that include specific tips for effective stroke transitioning.

51 minutes. 2004.