Recently at a Virginia practice filmed by SwimSwam, coach Todd DeSorbo finished warmup with a 100 IM all out. You can see world record-holder Gretchen Walsh pushing the pace here, with DeSorbo ultimately clocking her at 52.7.
***EDITOR’S NOTE: Coach Todd’s watch is typically very quick. This practice is no exception. His philosophy is to start his watch when the swimmers’ feet pass the flags (instead of when they leave the wall) because he feels this simulates what they would go from a start off the blocks. It is not how most coaches time practice swims, but coach DeSorbo is consistent with this method and his results speak for themself.***
The DeSorbo watch thing cracks me up. I mean the guy can do whatever he wants obviously and ultimately practice times are meaningless, but I have never seen or heard of another coach that uses a watch that way.
She’s broken 1:00 in the 100 breast. Would love to see her swim it in the coming Texas duals.
the 100 breast? absolutely not… this meet is gonna be exciting and most likely fast lets not waste our time with her 10th best event or whatever it is
amazinggg!
Back to breast turn legal ?
yes
Errrrr, doubtful!
Tsk tsk…the big sister is a bad influence on Gretchen!
She’s awesome but we really need to include disclaimers or footnotes about Desorbo’s watch, he admits to starting it when the feet pass the flags.
You can time it yourself if you want lol
I did: ~54.6 from the wall
I added the same editor’s note that I had included in the recent Practice + Pancakes with UVA. Thanks for the reminder
Ha, I didn’t see her at the start so I was very confused about why she popped up so early.
So you’re basically showing and telling us that the University of Virginia women’s team prides itself on swimming age grouper events in practice? A 12yo named Zoe Skirball once swam a 57.47 in 100 IM in 2017. Relevant? We know that the Walsh sisters as 6-foot-plus 21+ age groupers can swim fast underwater in short pools without taking a breath. This is not Breaking News.
I assume you’re just trolling here. But SC 100IM is a legit WR — and Grethen Walsh is the fastest in history
And as such, it does not have “Breaking News” in the headline. But it is something fun to watch on a slow news day
Heaven forbid if we can see some fun going on in our sport.
Coleman, thanks for posting this. Some of us do enjoy seeing some fun in the pool.
must have taken you longer to type this complaint than watch her swim.
Youtube timestamps put it at 53.95 so that 52.7 is a very generous watch.
Edit: to be clear, still extremely fast.
I’m pretty sure he starts the timer once the swimmer has passed the flags off the push off. He believes the time that’s drawn is similar to that from a start.
Haven’t checked so can’t confirm if that’s the case here.