Best of Club: Swimming Series

with Jeff Julian,
Leader and Coach of Mission Viejo Nadadores Professional and Post Grad Performance Training Center at the Marguerite Aquatic Center;
Rose Bowl Aquatics Head Coach and General Manager from 2004 to 2022;
8x All-American, Pac-10 Champion, and U.S. National Team Olympics Trial Qualifier; has coached of many Olympic Trial & Collegiate Swimmers.

Jeff Julian teaches age group swimmers that while butterfly is a demanding stroke, it can be easier and more fun to swim when you focus on two things: keeping your power going forward and maintaining your rhythm. That creates momentum - easy energy for faster, more sustainable butterfly.

Julian breaks down the butterfly stroke so that age group swimmers can learn to appreciate its power and rhythm. Stressing the importance of the pull & catch and keeping the body in a forward motion, he will have even the novice flyer swimming in a relaxed position while not compromising on power or speed. He explains what to look for in the stroke:

• Develop a powerful catch and pull that propels the body forward, with no up-and-down motion that wastes energy and increases drag
• Why hand entry and the shape of the pull is critical for maintaining power
• How to time the breath so it's supported by the pull and doesn't disrupt the stroke's rhythm
• Sustain rhythm that doesn't change between a breath and a non-breath stroke cycle, and learn why the non-breath stroke may be the culprit when the two are uneven
• Learn to balance power and tempo for speed that even younger swimmers or tired racers can achieve

Undulation and Kick

Julian takes swimmers through undulation and kick drills to help them build maximum power by making sure the body motion starts all the way up in the core and that the up-kick and down-kick are balanced and strong. Swimmers that rely only on their arms tire quickly. Teaching the entire body to work together creates a smooth, sustainable stroke.

Arms

Use the Power Catch Drill to focus on connecting a powerful catch and accelerating pull for a forward surge that maximizes momentum. Learn why the right catch sets up the entire stroke and how to spot catch flaws that create problems in the other phases of the stroke.

Drills as Diagnostics

Learn how developmental swimmers are not the only swimmers who rely on butterfly drills. Advanced swimmers learn to use butterfly drills during warm up to develop consistency and spot stroke problems before they become entrenched.

Turns

The faster you can get your knees up, the faster you can get your body turned around. Learn to adjust strokes before the flags so that you can hit the wall with full momentum to take into the turn. Carry that momentum off the wall for a surge through your breakout.

Starts

Learn to send power and momentum forward at the beep for a powerful start with no wasted motion. Engage arms to get your body over the water before your front leg pushes for the right angle of entry at the fastest speed.

If you want to break down the flow of the stroke from the pull & catch, the timing of the breath, or the recovery of the stroke, this is the video you need. Julian's easy to follow instructions with great in-water demonstrations and below-water videos is a great resource for coaches of all levels. His drills are easy enough for novice swimmers, but still helpful enough to refine the stroke of the most advanced swimmers. This is a great butterfly video to add to your collection!

Age group swimmers of all levels will learn what they can do to improve their butterfly now and keep getting it faster.

65 minutes. 2017.

with Kevin Zacher,
Santa Clara Swim Club (SCSC) Head Coach;
Scottsdale Aquatic Club (SAC) Head Coach & CEO from 2007 to 2021;
American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Level 5 certified coach;
3x American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Arizona Age Group Coach of the Year (2007, 2014 and 2016 );
under Zacher's leadership, SAC was named a USA Swimming Gold Medal Club in 2013, won the 2014 Junior National title and in 2016 the Junior National overall team title;
Zacher-coached swimmers have: broken National Age Group Records, won Individual National Championships, attained National Top 10 rankings in respective age groups, earned Junior/Senior National Qualifying times, qualified for the Olympic Trials and won Olympic Medals

While biomechanical principles exist to inform coaches about effective technique, it becomes challenging to adapt these principles to each swimmer. Kevin Zacher guides you through the technical building blocks to success in the freestyle stroke, which has resulted in him coaching a national age group record holder and an Olympic medalist.

With the assistance of two young national level swimmers, Coach Zacher demonstrates his unique approach to individualizing the stroke. Because each swimmer is different, they must apply different approaches to technique to find what works best for them. With the use of various tools and drills, they'll help you get a feel for the water to help transfer power efficiently.

Freestyle Stroke Progression

Go through a series of drills that helps the swimmer connect the body with the stroke. The focus is on all aspects of the stroke: establishing a low resistance body position, developing a propulsive kick, having a clean entry and catch, engaging in an effective and strong pull, and having a smooth exit and recovery. You'll see drills to enforce each of these elements of the stroke, including:

• Muscle Activation Series
• Kicking Drills
• Body Connection Drills

Coach Zacher explains each drill and its appropriateness for a specific movement. The biggest benefit is seeing the drills performed by two world class athletes. These two swimmers have achieved their success with different techniques. This can help you better understand how to adapt basic freestyle skills to individual differences.

Freestyle Starts, Turns and Finishes

This video gives more than technique drills for swimming; it takes time to give great detail on starts, turns, and finishes. For the forward start, the objective is to get into the water with as much speed as possible and carry that speed into the full stroke. The swimmer goes through the full setup of the body position when they're on the block, the take off, the entry, and transitioning to the breakout. Zacher demonstrates how to take advantage of each swimmers' strengths.

For the freestyle turn segment, Zacher gives verbal cues to use when teaching/coaching the turn. He emphasizes the importance of generating speed into the turn in order to carry that speed into the underwater portion that transitions to the breakout. The progression includes the approach, rotation, acceleration off of the wall, underwater kicks, and breakout.

The finish is an important part of the race, and Zacher delivers a laser-focused message on what to say to your swimmers to motivate them to finish correctly. He explains the importance of maintaining the speed and the body line all the way into the wall; things like: keeping the head still, rotating the body to the side to take advantage of the long reach, and being able to touch the wall in the middle to make sure the touch pad is hit properly.

Coach Zacher gives you an excellent supply of tools to improve your coaching for improved freestyle swimming performance. With over 50 different drills variations, you'll have many options to improve freestyle technique, starting, turning, and finishing performance.

100 minutes. 2017.

with Kate Lundsten,
2026 International Swim Coaches Association (ISCA) Hall of Fame inductee;
Aquajets Swim Team Head Coach (a USA Swimming 'Gold Medal' Club);
Head Women's Coach for Team USA at the 2017 FINA World Junior Championships; has coached many swimmers to many levels of success including: an Olympic Gold Medal, a Division III National Championship & state/national records;
former Eden Prairie (MN) High School Head Girls' Swim Coach - 4x MN State Champions;
member of the MN Swim Coaches Association's Hall of Fame;
as a swimmer, was a 24x All-American, a Division III National Champion and national record holder in the 200 backstroke (Hamline University)

The backstroke is one of the most complex strokes, with the need for a unique balance in the water. Let Kate Lundsten teach you the drills she's used to help guide her swimmers to national championships and a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. From the fingers entering the water to the toes finishing the snap of the kick, Lundsten gives a detailed breakdown of the backstroke. She teaches you the drills she uses every day in practice, working on improving all segments of a backstroke race.

Using a progression of drills, Lundsten introduces techniques and drills to work on body position, catch, underwater kick, starts and turns. Superb in-water demonstrations give you a good look at how each drill should be done and how improvements can be made.

Body Position Drills

World class backstrokers ride high in the water with little lateral motion for minimum drag and maximum efficiency. Common backstroke flaws such as a "bouncy" stroke, low hips in the water, and head movement often result from a failure to keep a strong connection diagonally through the core from the catch hand all the way to the kick. These body position drills will help your swimmers develop the connection that is key to balance and power.

You'll see three drills to develop a smooth stroke by focusing on:

• Getting hips and shoulders to roll at the same time while maintaining balance for an ideal body line.
• Maintaining tight tone through the core, but relaxed extremities for sustainable speed and power.
• Shoulder and hand position and how they affect balance and timing.

You will recognize how a swimmer's size, strength, flexibility, and strength of kick affect each swimmer's unique balance point. Swimmers who master this progression will learn to initiate rotation from the core and find the proper hand and shoulder positions to correct the common problem of over-reaching.

Catch and Finish

The catch drills build on the body connection and balance to develop proper timing and maximum leverage. Using these drills, Lundsten breaks down common errors and how she coaches her swimmers to improve. She teaches the importance of keeping the opposite shoulder relaxed during the catch to maintain balance and conserve energy. Still head drills reinforce the importance of the body connection during the full stroke.

The finish drills build a strong "push-and-snap" finish for timing of the hip rotation and full acceleration through the recovery. The tempo training portion uses a spin drill, with and without fins and tempo trainers, to improve turnover rates.

Coach Lundsten's attention to detail takes a familiar drill up a notch and helps you adapt it to athletes of different sizes and levels of flexibility.

Underwater Dolphin Kick and Breakouts

Teach a strong follow-through that equalizes the upward and downward power of the underwater dolphin kick to keep the hips in line for body alignment and to hold momentum off the walls.

Help your swimmers find the exact size and tempo of underwater kicking that works best for them; learn how swimmers can get the right angle of approach to the surface, and, use the first two strokes to set a fast tempo for the race.

Backstroke Starts and Finish

The fastest a swimmer travels in the backstroke is at the start. Carry that speed as long as possible by setting up with a neutral back and chin position. Lundsten goes through all of the elements of a good backstroke start, takes it into the breakout, and into the wall with a finish that drives the hand into the wall with minimum body motion.

Backstroke Turns

Lundsten stresses a race-pace approach to the turn, even during practice, to better mimic race performance. Her drills focus on keeping the head in line with the body and creating a football or almond-shaped body position with the chest as close to the thighs as possible. She encourages swimmers to allow a full pull of freestyle into the wall for more speed and power.

In addition to the quality backstroke drills, this video also shows how Lundsten gives constructive feedback to her athletes.

Age group coaches and swimmers can learn tips and drills to improve every aspect of their backstroke with this video from Coach Lundsten!

"I used the Fin-Paddle Drill from this video during a recent drill set. All of my simmers commented on the difference of the 'feel' of the stroke doing this drill. It made them realize how much the catch is related to the kick of the stroke. They also noted that adding a little more rotation to their stroke made the flow of their stroke much easier. I am pretty sure it was the first time for many to not swim 'flat' on the water. The new 'feel' gave them more confidence and much improved stroke technique." - Myra Nelson, M&K Swim

66 minutes. 2017.

with Jeremy Linn,
Nation's Capital Swim Club West - Senior Coach (Senior group since 2008);
All-American swimmer at the University of Tennessee (17 All-American honors);
9x NCAA Champion (four individual titles and five relay titles); 3x SEC Swimmer of the Year;
1996 Olympian - Gold Medalist in 400 Medley Relay (setting World record time) and Silver Medalist in 100M breaststroke (setting an American record time of 1:00.77 );
1997 U.S. Open Championships Gold medal (100M breaststroke)

Improvement of any stroke is always generated in the fine details, but probably most important in breaststroke than any other stroke. In this video, Olympic medalist Jeremy Linn takes apart the stroke and reconstructs it, one step at a time.

Using in-water demonstrations and below-water views, Coach Linn has created a comprehensive stroke training video that you will turn to again and again as you work on seasonal planning, design daily practices, and diagnose stubborn breaststroke stroke flaws. His drills are easy enough for novice swimmers, but still helpful to refine the stroke of the most advanced swimmers.

The Kick - The Driving Force of the Stroke

Linn breaks down every part of the breaststroke kick. He teaches drills that will develop greater range of motion for greater acceleration. You'll see Linn address the set-up, initiation, execution, and finish of the kick with drills for each component. He also suggests corrections for common kick flaws, such as dropped knees, wide kicks, and slow or weak kicks.

After examining the components of the kick, Linn takes the swimmer through a complete kick drill progression designed to combine the kick elements and then integrate them into the stroke. Throughout, Linn keeps the swimmer focused on his body line and stroke count so that the swimmer can develop power and speed without sacrificing a low-drag body alignment.

Pull and Position

The next sets develop pulling skills - including familiar drills to work the out-sweep and the in-sweep of the stroke. Every coach has a set of favorite breaststroke strength, hand speed, and water awareness drills. Many of them are repeated here, but what sets these drills apart is how Coach Linn builds context into every pull drill. Athletes build speed and power while they develop ideal tempo. They work on efficiency - not just by measuring distance per stroke, but by being aware of where their bodies are in relation to the water's surface, the pool bottom, and the end of the pool.

Details matter in a stroke that is naturally the least efficient stroke, and these drills incorporate physical and mental challenges to build a championship-caliber stroke.

Pull-outs

Few videos, even those aimed at elite swimmers, cover the pull-out in so much depth. Here, Coach Linn breaks the pull-out down into four parts: The jump and streamline from the wall, the whole-body dolphin kick, the "bullet" pull through, and the recovery into the kick.

He shows swimmers how to build velocity in each of the first three parts by starting them at the peak acceleration of the step before it. For the recovery, Linn teaches swimmers how to stop fighting the water by relaxing the shoulders and shadowing the body to take as much velocity as possible into the breakout.

Finishes

Age group swimmers can also benefit from the focus on the finish. A simple drill reinforces the need to know where to begin adjusting for a full-extension finish that ends with a strong kick to the wall. Common finish errors such as decelerating into the wall and lifting the chin into the wall can be eliminated with this technique.

Turns

The ability to judge the wall for the finish is also critical for the turn. Here, Linn breaks down the turn into its most critical movement - the use of the core to create a tight rotation. Drills such as the back flip drill help athletes drive their knees and hips forward, discouraging them from collapsing into or twisting at the wall.

Starts

Consistency in timing and stroke cycle count begins with a great start. A swimmer who takes maximum speed from the blocks into the water at the same depth and angle each time is a swimmer who can focus on maintaining as much velocity as possible instead of worrying about making body line adjustments with the pull-out.

Breaststroke Drills

Starting with the kick and progressing through the start, Coach Linn provides over 30 drills to improve sculling, timing, tempo, pulling, the underwater pull-out, the finish, the turn, and more. Examples of drills include:

• Accordion drill - This drill helps to teach the timing of the stroke, putting the kick together with the pull. Timing is important to keep the swimmer moving through the water in a straight line and to avoid the yo-yo effect.
• Christy drill - This drill helps the swimmer to feel the timing of the swim as the head breaks the surface tension. Reducing the amount of the surface tension during the breath allows the swimmer to keep the body in a straight line.
• Spencer drill - This drill works on the count cycle. Using landmarks on the pool bottom teaches the swimmer to maximize the amount of distance per stroke.

Coach Linn set out to create a complete toolbox for coaching age group breaststroke, and he shares it with you here so that you can develop championship-caliber swimmers!

"This has been the easiest video to follow in regards to building a great stroke. Coach Linn has taken each aspect of the stroke and broken it down with interesting and easy drills to build upon. This will be my #1 breaststroke resource." - Coach Mic Nelson, Incarnate Word Academy Corpus Christi

83 minutes. 2018.