The Texas A&M Men’s Swimming & Diving Team were among the first collegiate programs to return to practice this week amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
As of June 1, the NCAA is allowing teams to have voluntary in-person workouts with its varsity athletics programs, although these are to be ‘conditioning workouts.’ That line in swimming is a blurry one, as conditioning is the nature of most workouts anyway.
For the Texas A&M men, the workout came with no coaches on deck, supervised by lifeguards instead.
Assistant coach Jason Calanog says that the goal was to check athletes’ fitness level and to work on small details that might have been lost in weeks away from organized practice, including pushing off the wall, streamlining, and stroke details.
Along with the Texas A&M women, 13 swimmers at the University of Louisville, and the University of Delaware, the Aggie men are among a handful of teams that have confirmed a return to on-campus training this week.
The A&M men, led by US National Teamer Shaine Casas, had a breakout season in 2019-2020. They were 2nd at the SEC Championships, the team’s best-ever finish at that meet. They were predicted to finish 7th at the NCAA Championship in the final SwimSwam Power Rankings before that meet was ultimately cancelled.
Below, see the Texas A&M men’s first full voluntary conditioning workout back in the pool.
Warmup
- 200 swim
- 200 kick
- 200 pull
- 200 drill
- 1 x 100 kick @1:40
- 2 x {4 x 25 variable sprint* @:30}
Main Set
- 8 x 75 kick @1:05/1:10
- 1 x 400 drill-swim by 50 IM order
- 8 x 75 kick-swim-kick on 1:05.1:10
- 1 x 400 {100 pull-100 swim-100 pull-100 swim} breathing every 3rd stroke
- 8 x 75 BK pull/50 breast, 25 free @1:05/1:10
- 1 x 400 {kick-swim by 25 IM order}
- 8 x 75 kick with fins @1:00
- 1 x 400 free breathing every 3rd stroke
Cool Down
- 200 yards cool down
*Variable sprint means a short burst of speed somewhere within the repeat
Is 5k supposed to be impressive…bunch of softies
The article doesn’t say that it’s impressive
Easy
Uhhh.. first day and 5000 yards? Jeez, I know A&M is a top tier program nowadays, but even pro swimmers can’t just jump straight into a 5k practice after a 2~3 month break… can they?
David Jablewski, I brought back a group of age groupers (illegally) about 2 months ago to train. Their first practice they did a set of 10×500 for time to see how many of them were doing the 10 miles of running I had required them to do during this pandemic. If they can do it, pros can too.
^ everything about this statement is dumb
You would never make it on my team. Only the strong survive.
Should have made them do it with socks, seeing as their legs would be in such great shape
I think they probably can. Notice that most if it wasn’t for time or on any kind of an interval.
The lap pool at A&M had been open for about 3 weeks, albeit for only one hour time blocks, one swimmer at a time, etc. So I would guess that many of them had been in here-and-there in the runup.
Ok danny berlitz
Believe me (if you will), the guys on this team did this!! Just amazing athletes as well as young menđź‘Ť.
Looks like a good practice!
Interesting that no coaches were on-deck, as they are permitted to be present as a “safety exception” during “voluntary” activities. Other part of the voluntary parameters is that coaches are not supposed to get any information as to who was there or how they did, so to “check their fitness” would imply a report back to coaches. Just be present for the safety purpose and observe what you want to observe. Anyway, glad some people are able to be back in the water – good for them
I’ve heard that several programs that train in pools that have lifeguarding staffs aren’t going to be on deck, just to make sure they’re clear of any allegations of misdoing.
I think maybe you’re reading too far into “check their fitness.” College level athletes should know how to check in on their own fitness levels.
5,300 not 4,900
8 x 75 = 600
1 x 400 = 400
600 + 400 = 1,000 x 4 = 4,000 + 1,100 Warm-up + 200 CD = 5,300 yards
Oh yeah👍. These guys are back “on it”!! Getting prepared to do some quality “gigging” in the future!! I know that they are “chompin at the bit” to get this year fully underway & I can hardly wait for that first meet to get here so I can raise a “little ( well maybe a bit more than a little) yell & hell” from the mezzanine area of natatorium. I’m “all in all the time”!! Keep working hard Ags!! It’ll pay off in big dividends!! Gig em & keep gigging em👍👍
I love this guy hahaha