Sam Hoekstra was an NCAA All-American for Louisville, graduating in 2013. Since then, Hoekstra has stayed close to the sport via coaching club and doing clinics for Fitter and Faster. Hoekstra wasn’t swimming regularly, though, and certainly not sprinting regularly. However, after the idea of sprinting a 50 free for 100 days straight was presented to him, Hoekstra decided to give it a go.
His first 50 was 22.2 (25-yard pool). After the first week, he switched from a brief to wearing a tech suit. He didn’t do any in-pool warm-up or warm-down before or after the 50 sprint, but he did do a dryland warmup routine for safety and injury prevention. He didn’t do any other form of exercise outside of this during the 100 days. On day 100, Hoekstra swam his fastest 50 of the entire experiment, 20.4.
Listen to what Hoekstra learned during this process as well as what he will now carry over into his workout routine moving forward.
You can watch all 100 of Sam’s 50s and observe his progression through this process here.
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In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges, Garrett McCaffrey, and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
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20.4 pretty sick. I thought that when I was 22, that I had peaked physically, which of course turned out to be complete nonsense. My body didn’t start slowing down (or not recovering as easily) until I was about his age, 32-33 ish.
On par with his water polo goalie abilities!
Such a hater. Someone decided to challenge themselves and say great improvement based on their ability. Yet you’re here throwing shade. You’re washed. Get out of here.
I was an All-Americn water polo goalie in HighSchool. This was a compliment. I appreciate you having my back though!
Huge W btw I tried doing what you did but it got too difficult after about 10 days and had to stop but made me respect the 100 days even more.
Reminds me of a 16 yo girl I coached. Her season ended at a taper meet where she went ~ 25 seconds in 50 free – not her best event, but that was her lifetime best in it. Her brother’s season lasted a month longer, and she literally just came by with her mom to pick him up 3-4 times a week. She’d throw on a suit and do a 50 from the blocks while brother changed.
Swimming < 500 yards a week, she peaked in the third week after her championship, almost a second under her official best time.
The 50 is really all athleticism plus executing the tiny details perfectly.
Fast swimmers stay fast. Slow swimmers stay slow.
what’s your definition of fast vs slow?
He should throw all the data in excel so we can see max min mean mode graph etc
Working on it!
Off Topic:
2024 NCAP Elite Qualifier psych sheets?
Speaking of sprinting, will Kate Douglass swim the 50 FR this weekend?
This is a cool thing to do and Sam seems like a nice guy. Probably a very good coach. But like most of the sprint revolution stuff its really only proving that its a lot easier than anyone realizes to maintain or get back to an imitation of their best, but very difficult to actually be better than ever.
All he did was swim a 50 fast every day lol. He didn’t lift weights or anything. Of course he was not going to go a lifetime best.
It’s a power event right? And great swimmers don’t really lose their technique. Could you imagine if he also had the time for even 2-3K/day, and the skill work and refinement he could have put in?
Sounds like someone is talking bout practice.
What was his PR before the 100 day experiment?
He says 19.9 in interview
It looks like he went 19.98 back in his college days
And 22.3 this season