Practice + Pancakes: Morozov, Balandin, Hansson (and More) Worlds Taper at USC

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.

Here’s the deal. I filmed Practice + Pancakes with Team Elite on Tuesday morning. Then I went to get pancakes. There were leftovers. I then proceeded to take the 5, to the 405, to the 101, and ended up at the tail end of a USC taper practice with a group of their postgrads who were gearing up for World Champs.

This included sprinting savant Vlad Morozov, Swedish swiss army knife Louise Hansson, and 2016 Olympic champ in the 200 breast Dmitriy Balandin. Like I said, I was only able to catch the last hour of practice, and they didn’t do a ton when I was there: mostly just max efforts on chords. But lets be real. Who doesn’t want to see fast swimmers swimming fast?

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Lpman
4 years ago

Bungees always made me nervous for the following reasons…

1. I would slip and get dragged back to the block hitting every pole in the way

And

2. The cord would snap from the block end and give me a lashing in a dangerous body region

Cool to see Ous still at it

SummrLeagr
4 years ago

Coleman, I really appreciated The Californians SNL skit reference. Thank you.

Superfan
4 years ago

Ous should have done a few more laps after watching him yesterday in the 10k

Apathetic
Reply to  Superfan
4 years ago

Not a great swim, but he should have a pretty good chance to qualify next year via the 1-per-continent selections.

Swimmerlobber
Reply to  Coleman Hodges
4 years ago

Hey Coleman. What’s the name of the song in the video?

Brian M
Reply to  Superfan
4 years ago

A 35 year old man busts a 1:50 in the 10k and you see fit to bag on him.

Swim4Him
4 years ago

well, would rather do that than the distance set

Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

“Long sprints” = 500s. Geez.

ChestRockwell
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

Salo says everyone is a sprinter at heart and should swim like one – spring, mid-spring and long sprint – there is no “distance.”

Dcswim
Reply to  ChestRockwell
4 years ago

My college team had short sprint, long sprint, and “endurance speed” and followed a good amount of Salo’s philosophies

Curiousswimmer
Reply to  Dcswim
4 years ago

What college did you attend Dcswim?

Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

Hilarious. Vlad was generating so much power, the cord sling-shotted on top of him when it was released on the first round.

PhillyMark
4 years ago

I would’ve torn my labrum and rotator cuff both arms simultaneously attempting that ring maneuver

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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