Practice + Pancakes: Texas Men Sprint 25’s and Play 6-Square (Video)

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.

Getting to see the defending national champions at work was a treat.

And not just because they’re the defending national champs.

Practice starts at 3:00pm, but the UT men get there early to play 6-square (4-square but with 2 more squares). The goal was to get to the King Spot and stay there for as long as possible. Once you had gotten out 3 times, you were out of the game for good. For the amount of fun they had doing it, and how competitive they got with it, I felt like I was a kid at recess. It was a blast, and totally caught me off guard.

According to Eddie, Texas goes fast on Tuesday and Friday. By the end of this week, the Texas guys were pretty beat up, so Eddie threw something at them he thought they could handle. 8 rounds of 3×25, doing a round every 3 minutes. If you did them free, they were on :15, back/fly was on :16, and breast was on :18. Go fast. There were some good battles going on, and you could tell the guys worked hard and got tired.

My favorite part of practice was a Hook ‘Em tradition; literally, it involved hooking. The guys threw their snorkels across the pool and tried to hook them on the far flags. Usually they did this before they got in the pool, and for each snorkel that was hooked, they got in an extra minute later. However, at this practice after they went through their sprint set (and did another 4 rounds of the 3×25 kick), John Shebat made a deal with Wyatt that if he hooked his snorkel right then and there, they could warm down instead of going through the kick set again with fins.

I was on the other side of the pool filming the women’s practice when this happened, so sadly I didn’t witness it. However, I did hear the entire men’s team hooting and hollering when Shebat hooked it perfectly on the second set of flags and earned the boys their warm down.

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FormerTexasLonghorn
6 years ago

Great video! It show the combination of fast workout swimming with a fun attitude from Coach Reese which is why swimmers swim so fast at Texas and why so many want to go there. Thanks Swim Swam! Do more of these.

EDP445
6 years ago

Love the music…song?

Jake
6 years ago

So about that 20.4 by Ringgold…that from a push or with a start?

gator fan
Reply to  Jake
6 years ago

Push!

completelyconquered
6 years ago

You can find Psychodad hiding up in the corner at about 4:40 in.

PsychoDad
Reply to  completelyconquered
6 years ago

Unfortunately I was not there – Eddie should invite me next time (I do have picture with Eddie and can e-mail it to you if you want to put on your night stand).
But, I will be there next 3 days – Short Course Kick Off at the UT Swim Center this weekend. Twins swimming. Fun times!

crooked donald
6 years ago

Based on his summer swims, Shebat shouldn’t be doing “get out” tosses.

Dudeman
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

Based on his NCAA performance last year I think he can do what he wants in the yard pool

Chris
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

You mean his lifetime best :52 in the 100m fly and his lifetime best 1:59 in the 200m IM?

crooked donald
Reply to  Chris
6 years ago

He’s a backstroker. He won’t score in the other two events, but nice try.

Caleb
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

I know you’re trolling, but the only way he wouldn’t score in those events if he doesn’t swim them. If he enters the 200 IM I’d call him a dark horse to win.

crooked donald
Reply to  Caleb
6 years ago

8 returning guys went 1:41 or better in the 200 IM last year, and one of the 1:42 guys (Devine) went 1:56 this summer. Shebat’s best is 1:42.99 from Big 12’s. Sure he might be a bit faster, but he’ll have to beat Roberts to make the final. Schooling’s faster than he is, too, so he’s the third best 200 IMer on his own team. Might make the consols. And the 100 fly? Forget about it.

Dudeman
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

In the backstrokes he is pretty much locked in as a favourite in both, I’m not so sure about his other events (fly and IM) but without Murphy and Oslin in the 100 it is very much his race to lose. Same with the 200, while Mulcare was close he is still far enough away that it isn’t a very tight race. We’ll have to wait and see if he has more breakout swims in different strokes this season but as of right now he probably wouldn’t be swimming fly or IM at the same level as his backstroke.

Steve Nolan
6 years ago

Between the lack of pancakes and Wyatt’s shirt my pedantry alarm just exploded.

Kage
6 years ago

Love this kind of content–would watch stuff like this every day.

Blackflag82
6 years ago

Where was Schooling in this practice?

PsychoDad
Reply to  Blackflag82
6 years ago

Licon is post-graduate swimmer. Schooling was there but asked not to be taped so that Crooked Donald does not have new material for his anti-Schooling tirades.

crooked donald
Reply to  PsychoDad
6 years ago

Thanks for clarifying pro vs post-grad. Because Schooling is definitely a professional, yet, amazingly, still NCAA eligible. His annual income for 2016 was more than the entire UT coaching staff combined. By a lot.

crooked donald
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

The real question is whether Schooling drops Singapore after the million or more dollars they’ve given/will give him when his National Service deferment in Singapore ends in 2020. He’ll come down with some acute virus and bolt for another country.

Admin
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

Eddie Reese’s salary from the university according to the Texas Tribune is $257,000. Plus, the other things alluded to.

crooked donald
Reply to  Blackflag82
6 years ago

he was already tapering

crooked donald
Reply to  Blackflag82
6 years ago

Especially since he swims faster — I’ve heard — in practice.

samuel huntington
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

yawn, not sure if your comments or Donald’s tweets are more annoying and repetitive

crooked donald
Reply to  samuel huntington
6 years ago

Practically as annoying as listening to you all hype Schooling before Worlds, when the rest of us said he’d fall flat on his face.

Adam
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

You can’t confirm how much Eddie made last year. Go to bed.

Just Saying
Reply to  Adam
6 years ago

Since Texas is a public school, all faculty and staffs’ salaries are public record (if requested). I’m not sure if Texas’ were requested and published last year, but it is entirely possible and quite easy.

crooked donald
Reply to  Just Saying
6 years ago

They were, and published as always in the Texas Tribune.

crooked donald
Reply to  Adam
6 years ago

Well, I can confirm how much his salary was, because it’s publicly reported ($256K). I seriously doubt he’s making half a million in endorsement deals.

Bevo
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

Eddie salary is public for coaching at the University of Texas. It doesn’t Include bonus for winning national championships. Eddie also does the swim camps in the summers as well as other endorsements from speedo. He does pretty well I would think.

Swimmer1
Reply to  Bevo
6 years ago

What about salary for coaching Longhirn Aquatics ( non college athletes or texas swimmers when they’re not in season)

PsychoDad
Reply to  crooked donald
6 years ago

Don’t worry about other people – I always give you thumbs up. After your posts, even people who never liked Schooling are now his biggest fans. Win-win.

Abnen
Reply to  Blackflag82
6 years ago

Crooked Donald again and again. Whenever there is article on Texas and Schooling, you will appear here. Really annoying..

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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