Todd DeSorbo's Open Practice Series

with Todd DeSorbo,
University of Virginia Head Coach;
2024 US Olympic Swim Team Women'ss Head Coach (Paris);
2x USA Swimming Foundation's Golden Goggle Coach of the Year (2024, 2025);
2025 ASCA George Haines Coach of the Year;
2x Swammy National Coach of the Year (2021, 2024);
Six Straight NCAA Women's National Championships (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026);
Five Straight CSCAA Women's Coach of the Year Awards (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025);
8x Women's ACC Championships (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026);
5x ACC Women's Swim Coach of the Year (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024);
2021 US Olympic Swim Team Assistant Coach (Tokyo);
North Carolina State Associate Head Coach from 2011 to 2017
Helped the Wolfpack men capture three consecutive ACC titles and the women win the 2017 ACC title;
University of North Carolina Wilmington Assistant Coach from 2007 to 2011
Cape Fear Aquatic Club (NC) Coach from 2005 to 2007
College swimmer for Kentucky and University of North Carolina Wilmington

In this ‘Open Practice’ video you will get a behind the scenes look at Coach DeSorbo’s training program for the 50 free in a live practice session.

50 Free Training Program
Coach DeSorbo leads the athletes through a practice that focuses on developing power and speed for this specific event. The beginning of the practice starts with a series of drills to get the athletes focusing on a lower recovery in their freestyle stroke. This helps the athletes set up their strokes and gets them ready for power work.

In the second part of the practice, DeSorbo leads the athletes through a series of turn drills and finishing drills. You will see that the focus for the turns is to spin fast while keeping a low profile with the surface of the water. The emphasis is on hitting the wall high and hard on the finishing drills because a low angled finish takes longer to get to the wall than a higher finish

Up next, Coach DeSorbo focuses on power development while having his team use the power racks. The athletes do a series of swims and kicking against the rack. Throughout this part of practice, DeSorbo emphasizes to the swimmers to “swim big and powerful.”

Finally, DeSorbo has his athletes go as fast as they can with a 2x25 blast to finish practice.

Afterwards he leads them through an active warm down.

Developing strength and power are essential in 50 free training and this front row view gives you an excellent idea of some of the most effective drills, techniques and strategies covered!

77 minutes. 2025.

with Todd DeSorbo,
University of Virginia Head Coach;
2024 US Olympic Swim Team Women'ss Head Coach (Paris);
2x USA Swimming Foundation's Golden Goggle Coach of the Year (2024, 2025);
2025 ASCA George Haines Coach of the Year;
2x Swammy National Coach of the Year (2021, 2024);
Six Straight NCAA Women's National Championships (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026);
Five Straight CSCAA Women's Coach of the Year Awards (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025);
8x Women's ACC Championships (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026);
5x ACC Women's Swim Coach of the Year (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024);
2021 US Olympic Swim Team Assistant Coach (Tokyo);
North Carolina State Associate Head Coach from 2011 to 2017
Helped the Wolfpack men capture three consecutive ACC titles and the women win the 2017 ACC title;
University of North Carolina Wilmington Assistant Coach from 2007 to 2011
Cape Fear Aquatic Club (NC) Coach from 2005 to 2007
College swimmer for Kentucky and University of North Carolina Wilmington

In this video, you will get an inside look at Todd DeSorbo’s 100m training program.

100 Specialty Training
After a short warm up, Coach DeSorbo begins practice with an extended fly kick set with drag socks. The focus is to build strength, power and lots of endurance. DeSorbo asks the athletes to drive their heels down and hard while being fast.

In the second part of the practice, the athletes use tempo trainers and fins for fly kick work. The focus is to generate more power on the lower tempos and to generate more speed on the high tempos.

The athletes then do rounds of underwater fly kick work with drag socks. The athletes kick on all four sides to strengthen the different aspects of the fly kick.

The athletes then remove the socks and blast two underwater 25’s to transition the power into speed. The focus here is to generate power and force while they are fatigued. The legs are tired at the end of the races and this practice will help the athletes learn to overcome their fatigue while racing.

The practice moves to power development while using parachutes. This practice is two rounds of a progression from underwater fly kick through the breakout.

The athletes do a series of efforts that help the athletes develop 1^st stroke power through super short explosive efforts trying to get as much power out of 2 full strokes.

Lastly, DeSorbo has the athletes go as fast as they can with 2x25 blast. They focus on optimal underwater kick counts and stroke counts that they are going to do in their races.

Afterwards he leads them through an active warm down. The practice concludes with four maximum effort swims.

This is an excellent inside look at Todd DeSorbo training his swimmers with a variety of proven methods and exercises designed to reinforce and grow front-end speed and endurance!

56 minutes. 2025.

with Todd DeSorbo,
University of Virginia Head Coach;
2024 US Olympic Swim Team Women'ss Head Coach (Paris);
2x USA Swimming Foundation's Golden Goggle Coach of the Year (2024, 2025);
2025 ASCA George Haines Coach of the Year;
2x Swammy National Coach of the Year (2021, 2024);
Six Straight NCAA Women's National Championships (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026);
Five Straight CSCAA Women's Coach of the Year Awards (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025);
8x Women's ACC Championships (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026);
5x ACC Women's Swim Coach of the Year (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024);
2021 US Olympic Swim Team Assistant Coach (Tokyo);
North Carolina State Associate Head Coach from 2011 to 2017
Helped the Wolfpack men capture three consecutive ACC titles and the women win the 2017 ACC title;
University of North Carolina Wilmington Assistant Coach from 2007 to 2011
Cape Fear Aquatic Club (NC) Coach from 2005 to 2007
College swimmer for Kentucky and University of North Carolina Wilmington

In this video you will get a behind the scenes look at Coach Todd DeSorbo’s speed endurance training programs!

100 Speed Endurance Training Program
Coach DeSorbo leads his athletes through a practice that focuses on developing 100m events. The beginning of the practice starts with a quick warm up for resistance and power training and DeSorbo encourages a focus on riding their lines with the use of power pulldown drills.

In the second part of the practice, Coach DeSorbo leads the athletes through rounds of underwater fly kick work with drag socks. The athletes kick on all four sides to strengthen the different aspects of the fly kick. After they remove the socks, they blast two underwater 25’s to transition the power into speed to generate power and force while they are fatigued to practice overcoming fatigue while racing.

Up next, DeSorbo leads them through a speed endurance set that incorporates explosive underwater fly kicking with socks into max effort explosive swimming. They are asked to take these reps with a race mentality approach, accelerating into the finishes.

The socks make the set significantly harder, and they are expected to maintain and sustain their speed throughout. Take note - as a bonus, in this section, you will see two of the best 100 freestylers in the world racing in practice.

The practice concludes with maximum effort 100m swim. The entire practice has focused on speed endurance. This is where the athletes put it all together into a maximum effort and Coach DeSorbo asks them to go as fast as they can.

Developing speed endurance is essential in 100m stroke training and this video is your inside look at one of the best coaches in the world leading his athletes through the techniques and drills that have consistently set them up for growth and success!

88 minutes. 2025.

with Todd DeSorbo,
University of Virginia Head Coach;
2024 US Olympic Swim Team Women'ss Head Coach (Paris);
2x USA Swimming Foundation's Golden Goggle Coach of the Year (2024, 2025);
2025 ASCA George Haines Coach of the Year;
2x Swammy National Coach of the Year (2021, 2024);
Six Straight NCAA Women's National Championships (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026);
Five Straight CSCAA Women's Coach of the Year Awards (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025);
8x Women's ACC Championships (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026);
5x ACC Women's Swim Coach of the Year (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024);
2021 US Olympic Swim Team Assistant Coach (Tokyo);
North Carolina State Associate Head Coach from 2011 to 2017
Helped the Wolfpack men capture three consecutive ACC titles and the women win the 2017 ACC title;
University of North Carolina Wilmington Assistant Coach from 2007 to 2011
Cape Fear Aquatic Club (NC) Coach from 2005 to 2007
College swimmer for Kentucky and University of North Carolina Wilmington

Since he took the helm in 2017, Coach Desorbo’s University of Virginia swim program has consistently been among the most successful swimming programs in the country. Led by the 2024 US Olympic Head Coach Todd DeSorbo, the Lady Cavaliers have won 6 consecutive NCAA titles since 2021. In this ‘Open Practice’ video, you will get an exclusive, behind the scenes look at the dynamic dryland program that is the foundation for some of the best swimming performances ever!

Coach DeSorbo leads the athletes through a dynamic dryland program that mixes jump rope, body weight exercises and med ball exercises. The beginning of the program starts with a 15-minute warm up circuit of jump rope, body weight leg exercises and high plank work.

In the second part of the program, DeSorbo leads the athletes through a series of jumps followed by back rolls. This portion of the program develops strength, athleticism and helps the athletes increase their speed and explosiveness; this is important because it develops the necessary leg strength for elite starts and turns. The back rolling work focuses on having tight, fast turns.

Up next, the dryland program focuses on core strength. This phase uses a mix of advanced plank exercises, core-based exercises, individual med ball core exercises as well as partner med ball exercises. Developing a strong core is essential to elite swimming performances.

Lastly, Coach DeSorbo’s dryland program focuses on being a better athlete. DeSorbo leads the athletes through a series of exercises that includes jump roping, body balancing, core work and explosive med ball exercises and concludes the session with 10 minutes of stretching

Your dryland program needs to be the cornerstone of your program. With a glimpse into a live practice session featuring one of the top coaches in the world, you get a sense of the focus, attention to detail and commitment required to take your athletes to the next level!

48 minutes. 2025.