Summer 2024: Week 4 Technical & Conditioning Focus

Week 4: June 24 – June 28

Technical Focus: Holding Water, Breakouts, Breath Timing, Starts & Turns

Conditioning Focus: Major Kick

Hello Swim Families!

Holy wow, an entire weekend without a swim meet! We hope you enjoyed your weekend off from competition!

Here we are in week four, which will be characterized by the following technical focuses: holding water, breakouts, breath timing, and starts and turns.

If you haven’t heard the term holding water, if refers to an athlete’s ability to catch and pull water. Catching water involves the entire body, starting with the hand and forearm—not the “ice cream scoops” you learned in swim lessons! Rather, the ability to turn one’s entire arm into an oar and use it to pull water, transitioning that force throughout the entire body to create a lever that manipulates the water in such a way to keep the body as high as possible.

Basically, the best swimmers hydroplane when they swim!

Regarding breakouts, this is the first stroke a swimmer takes as they transition from “underwater” to “swimming.” This must be an explosive stroke that propels them through the surface—momentum is everything in swimming!

Breath timing and starts and turns… these are our old stalwarts. Without these, one’s swimming career is doomed.

Our Platinum and Blue groups will be doing a lot of kicking this week. Without strong legs, success in a long course pool is impossible. These sets will be long and will test the endurance of our athletes, but they are nothing to be nervous about.

Kick days were always my favorite days, and I always did dolphin kick on my back… which is also why I used to have a 6-pack (hint, hint, y’all who wanna look ripped, dolphin kick on back is a key).

Well, that’s all for this edition.

See you at the pool!

-Coach Reid