Practice + Pancakes: IU Breaststroke Group Does Work

SwimSwam wants to give you an inside look at what a normal day-in-the-life looks like for any given swimmer, and how that differs from team to team or city to city. We send our head of production, Coleman Hodges, to be a fly on the wall at practice, then relay what he discovered back to you over pancakes. Or at least breakfast.

PART 2!!! We are back with Practice + Pancakes at IU, this time covering the PM workout of the Monday double that SwimSwam attended in Bloomington (If you haven’t seen part 1, check it out). In the afternoon, there were a lot of stroke groups going, so we went with Ray Looze‘s famed breaststroke group. As a sort of pre set, they did some breaststroke kicking on their backs and sides, which Ray explains in the video. The first part of their set consisted of timed breaststroke kicks followed by breaststroke swimming. Then he hit them pretty hard with an 800 breaststroke pull. For time. Brutal, Ray. But effective.

At that point, I went over to see what Coley was doing. Coley’s practices are interesting because he puts a lot of emphasis on drills, and uses a lot of different drills. If he likes or doesn’t like how one drill is going, he isn’t afraid to change the set to compensate for it either. If you watch the video, you can see all of the different things they do with freestyle drills: kicking into swimming, swimming into kicking, swimming into 1-arm pulling, 1-arm pulling where you switch using a paddle or no paddle. Coley even said some of the drills he uses purposefully puts the swimmers into compromising positions, so they can feel the difference when they go back to their normal technique.

More Videos From IU:

IU Video Report

Coleman’s Carpool with Lilly King, Blake Pieroni, and Cody Miller

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Tea rex
6 years ago

In this set, they do more breaststroke yardage than I did in 4 years of college.

Swimmers Ear
6 years ago

Don’t think IU gets preferential coverage. Instead, a couple of things are happening. First, individual breaststrokers tend to get a bit more press & pictures than other athletes. Why? Perhaps because there are fewer breaststrokers out there and they are much easier to photograph than others. Secondly, swimswam graciously welcomes articles and differing view points from 3rd party writers & readers. That’s also what’s happening here. Two of the three IU breaststrokers named above are big time self-promoters, who love & push for the press coverage; and they are two of the biggest self-promoters in the sport. They are the ones who send in their stories, tweets & rhetoric for swimswam readers’ ‘enjoyment.’ It is with them that we should… Read more »

Taa
Reply to  Swimmers Ear
6 years ago

I don’t think King is a big time self promoter….she just has confidence

bob
Reply to  Swimmers Ear
6 years ago

As a coach who is looking to get better, I thank Swim Swam for putting video and information from a program that earned 2/4 Olympic spots in breaststroke in their video!

Maybe they’re doing something right and I can learn?

Swimarie
6 years ago

Getting a little tired of the preferential coverage of IU.

Dudeman
Reply to  Swimarie
6 years ago

How is two videos of their training preferential? Were the countless videos/coverage of NC state or Texas or Cal too preferential as well or was that ok?

NM Coach
Reply to  Swimarie
6 years ago

I can’t speak for Braden or Coleman…BUT I think the reason they’re getting so much coverage is because Coley and Ray are willing to share!!!! MANY of the top programs won’t allow this type of access!

And let’s be honest…Indiana is one of the hottest collegiate programs around right now! Within the past 18 months…3 olympians…one of which was a WR holder and now an American record holder in the distance events!

Too bad we aren’t getting MORE preferential coverage of this program.

Big10 Boyz
6 years ago

Indiana is the place to be for breaststroke with Miller, King, and Finnerty. So many schools are lacking in quality breaststroke, coaches should be looking to Looze for direction. Go Big10!

swimswamswum
Reply to  Big10 Boyz
6 years ago

IU is doing great things, but the place for women’s breaststroke right now is definitely Texas A&M. They have 5 women 2:08 or better after the midseason meet.

Big10 Boyz
Reply to  swimswamswum
6 years ago

Good analysis in the 200, but what about the 100? The 200 is great for the LC season, but for the NCAA season, the 200 and 400 Medley are the priority. In the SC season, who is close in the 50/100?

Double Arm Freestyle
Reply to  swimswamswum
6 years ago

I would argue A&M is better for 200 Breaststrokers and Breastrokers who lean towards IM and IU is better for 100 Breaststrokers and Breaststrokers who lean towards sprints.

Cucumber
Reply to  Big10 Boyz
6 years ago

Place for breastroke right now is MICHIGAN

Buckeyeboy
Reply to  Cucumber
6 years ago

Are you serious…….have you seen Taylor Garcia swim breaststroke????

Cucumber
Reply to  Buckeyeboy
6 years ago

Have you seen the three Sophmores ranked 3rd, 5th and 24th in the Nation as of Midseason in the 200 breast?

bob
Reply to  Cucumber
6 years ago

Miranda tucker got 2nd in the NCAA with Indiana.

marklewis
6 years ago

I wonder who thinks up some of these drills, and how they determine if they are “helping.” I’ve noticed that Cody and Lilly have a similar style of breaststroke.

Variety is important to keep training interesting. The swimmers are going pretty fast in that “100 breast with paddles and fins” set.

Swimmer A
6 years ago

On the kick sets a lot of them were doing two pulls into the wall, flip turn, dolphin kicks under water, freestyle kick breakout and then into breaststroke kick. If I had to guess they do that so they begin their breaststroke kicking with some momentum, which is actually similar to how you race breaststroke. But my god, I woulda gotten reemed out if I ever did that during practice lol.

Swimclh
Reply to  Swimmer A
6 years ago

Why did they call it “100 breast kick for time” if it isn’t a 100 breast kick for time…?

DMSWIM
Reply to  Swimmer A
6 years ago

Yeah I wouldn’t call those 100s breaststroke kick. Only about 40-60 yards of it was actually breaststroke.

Swimswum
Reply to  DMSWIM
6 years ago

Agreed, but dang whatever they are doing is working. 2 Olymipians from that group and another US National teamer. Who cares what they call it results are there.

Brad Flood
Reply to  Swimmer A
6 years ago

It’s about consistency from repeat to repeat and set to set (i.e. comparing results if today’s work to a month ago, or a month from now) for each swimmer. It doesn’t matter what you call it, so long as it is the same, from repeat to repeat within a set, or set to set for apples to apples comparison for improvement, or lack thereof.

AfterShock
Reply to  Swimmer A
6 years ago

Bowman emphasizes repetition in practice so that swimming under pressure in competition is second nature. I can’t imagine him letting his breaststrokers swim freestyle, flip turn and flutter kick in his breaststroke sets.

bob
Reply to  AfterShock
6 years ago

Bowman? He is not the best coach in the country – he had the best swimmer in the country.

For this post – he has had no breastrokers! And count how many Olympians/post grads got slower under him – more than how many people made the Olympics. He’s a great coach for Phelps, for sure, but let’s get a grip.

Thank you for posting, and thank you for sharing Ray! I wish more programs did this.

Hannah
Reply to  bob
6 years ago

Bowman has a breaststroker, Silja Kansakowski. She’s been faster than Lilly King this year.

Brad Flood
Reply to  Hannah
6 years ago

LOL, Really & Seriously??? Let’s revisit this part of the discussion after the 2nd weekend in March!

About Coleman Hodges

Coleman Hodges

Coleman started his journey in the water at age 1, and although he actually has no memory of that, something must have stuck. A Missouri native, he joined the Columbia Swim Club at age 9, where he is still remembered for his stylish dragon swim trunks. After giving up on …

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