Well-known faces in the swimming community are making appearances on the diamond this week, with a pair of swimming celebs throwing out first pitches at Major League Baseball games.
Sunday afternoon, Olympic medalist Katie Hoff threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Tampa Bay Rays in their game against the New York Yankees.
Hoff is slated to make the first major step of her comeback this week as she competes at the Mesa Grand Prix. But in spite of a first pitch and a big-time swim meet, Hoff will likely remember this week for something else.
After throwing out that opening pitch, Hoff was surprised by her boyfriend Todd Anderson, who was waiting for her at home plate with a pressing question. Anderson proposed to the multi-time Olympic medalist, and Hoff said yes. (You find USA Today’s coverage of the proceedings here.)
ICYMI, @USA_Swimming Olympic medalist Katie Hoff (@KHoff09) threw out the #Rays ceremonial first pitch and said YES: pic.twitter.com/IuNFyhi2Vf
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 20, 2014
On Tuesday on the other side of the country, California Golden Bears men’s head swimming coach David Durden will warm up his arm, tossing out the opening pitch for the Oakland Athletics in their game against the Texas Rangers. Durden will represent the entire Cal men’s swimming and diving program, which won its third NCAA title in four years last month.
There’s certainly some symbolism there, given the A’s are facing Texas on Tuesday. Cal beat the Texas Longhorns for that NCAA title just as they did in 2011 and 2012, and the year before that, Texas topped the Bears for the NCAA crown. That’s prompted us at SwimSwam to ask the question of if college swimming now has its new iconic team rivalry, a possibility the Oakland Athletics certainly seem to be picking up on.
She’s a lefty! Learn something new every day…
Congrats Katie! And Todd!
Awful throwing motion… 🙂
I’m so happy to see Katie back in the water. Hopefully she has a refreshed mind and a refreshed body to surprise us again. She’s only 24!
The 200 IM is very open in USA now. She can do it.
And I always have my 4X200 free relay dream team in mind with Missy Franklin, Katie Hoff, Katie Ledecky and Allison Schmitt.
RIO 2016, HERE SHE COMES! 😎
All swimming at their best, that 4×200 free line up will destroy and pulverize the WR.
I estimate that would be 1:54.5/1:55.5/1:54.9/1:53.2 for a 7:38.1!
U are right on this ; It’s time to see that ridiculous chinese WR go down . why ? Because the chinese never replicated anything close since than . The Usa or Australia have both the potential to destroy that WR .
And because AMERICA
These ladies are all wonderful, but it would make me so happy to see Dagny on this relay. Don’t know if she has decided yet to come back or not, but if she does I’m rooting for her!
Me too!
I would be also very happy to see Dagny Knutson come back.
Hopefully. Hopefully.
Her fiance looks huge, like he’s on roid or something
He was a former fullback in the NFL… generally they are built just like this guy. Maybe pound for pound the strongest guys on the field.
The NFL, and football in general, is notoriously riddled with steroids… Your logic is not sound. This is not saying that he is or isn’t on steroids.
He’s not trying to say the guy is or isn’t, because we have no way of knowing. I mean, he could be on roids or he could be clean. Hulk wasn’t trying to answer that question because that’s unfair speculation. All he did was give an explanation that would legitimately explain why her fiancee is so muscular.
Was commenting on the being huge part. Not looking to get involved in an internet detective conversation about who is or isn’t on steroids based on pictures.
Fact: Everyone who is “big” is on steroids.
Congrats to Hoff!!
Now go get that 200 IM and 4×200 free spot for Gold Coast and Kazan!
Her throwing form is awful. Someone please teach her to not lead with the elbow like that!
Focus on core work. Spend time on excercises and activities that promote general athleticism and explosiveness. You don’t need to do crazy strength work at that age. Just keep it fun. Beyond the requisite core stuff, you can get lots out of things like ultimate frisbee, basketball, or handball.
I’m a firm believer that the best swimmers are great athletes. There’s a negative stigma toward swimmers that they’re soft or uncoordinated. The key is to keep it fun and keep everyone involved. The athleticism you develop on land can certainly transfer to the water.
Alright, I’m going to try to post this question one more time. I start as a coach tomorrow afternoon. Coaches, please enlighten me. Your help is greatly appreciated…
“This is a little off topic, but I’m hoping someone here can give me advice… I will be coaching dry land for a group of 11-14 year olds for 30 minutes 3 days a week. Their primary focus is speed, maybe mid-distance as well.
It will be outside of a gym (basketball court, parking lot), so I will be limited with weights. Maybe a few medicine balls and bands.
Any ideas for exercises I can do with the group? When I trained I was used to just doing swimming, no… Read more »
Jogging (in place or around, depending on space constraints), stretching, general calisthenics*, squats/squat jumps (with a perfect streamline at the top), sprints if you have the room (hillsprints if you have a small hill), stairs.
*push ups, flutter kicks, leg raises, planks, etc.
I’d also look into some basic plyometric exercises to mix in once you’re confident in the group being able to execute them safely/correctly. I’m a huge fan of squat jumps or anything of the sort, since that will help every single time they push off the wall.
Also, this may seem obvious, but are you the one who will be coaching them in the pool afterward as well? It sounds like it. So If you’re the one writing their workouts then it’s no problem. If not, try to coordinate the intensity with the other coach to best match their pool work for that day. i.e. know when you want them a bit fresher for the pool (maybe before a test set or something), and when you want them to swim tired.
Some kids can bounce back better than others, but every once in a while there were days I would feel so sore after dryland that I think the net effect was worse because I would suck… Read more »
Thanks SVEN and CRAIGH! Good point on coordinating with the coach who will be doing the swim practices. I’ll make sure to discuss with him before hand. I’ll be sure to use these exercises you guys mentioned, and most importantly, try to make it fun for them…
how are you even qualified to coach these kids if you have no idea about how to put together a dry land program? scary!
you could even google your question and get some ideas? thought of that?
wow
ROJO,
Everyone has to start somewhere. Perhaps this is a young coach getting into the sport of swimming, understands how much info can be gained from the coaches on this site and wants to use the valuable resource to pick our brain. We shouldnt be scalding, we should be helping. Its what this great sport is all about.
Very well said, The Other Hulk. ROJO’s response was not necessary but was insulting to the young coach looking for a helping hand from the more seasoned coaches/swimmers.
late to the game here, but go look for a book called
swimming anatomy.
has numerous dryland workouts you can do. one guy said focus on core, that’s helpful, a hint, forearms and toes, or planking really doesn’t do a WHOLE lot unless you’ve already blasted your core. what you have to do is not to just say ok do push ups, its to make sure they do the push ups right, correct form, elbows come back not out to the side. if they do them wrong there is no point to dry land.
That’s player