Best of Club: Technical Drill Progressions for Successful Freestyle

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.