turns, underwaters, breakouts, and finishes · 2020. 2. 11. · lechnique coaching the details...

lechnique

Coaching the DetailsTurns, Underwaters, Breakouts, and Finishes

BY STEVE HAUFLER - ASCA WORLD CLINIC 2007

This is a little bigger room than Iam used to. I am used to working asix-lane-by-25-yard room. And I amgoing to move around because that iswhat I do when I coach. I do not stayin one place often.

I want to finish yesterday's talk,because I had a lot of questions aboutsome things and I forgot to mentionone thing yesterday. T have a hearthere that 1 use for demonstration andI didn't have it yesterday becauseI left it at home and it just arrived.Now I live up in San Francisco areaso, literally, I left my heart in - nah- Vi'hatever.

So this heart arrives and they call meup at the bell desk. They said, "Youhave a package." I go, "Great, I needthat package." They go, "Okay great- you need it tonight?" And I go,"Yes. There's a heart in it." And theguy goes, "Sir? A real heart? Are youhaving a heart transplant?" So I said,"Yeah...look for the cooler...the dryice." He goes...I go, "Nah, nah - it'sa plastic heart." And he goes, "Is it aJarvik Heart?"

Here is the heart. You can get this atanatomywarehouse.com. There are abtinch of body parts you can order.1 am into body parts lately and I usethis as a demonstration. Oh - before Igo on. I gave you the wrong websitefor the heads. It is storesupply.com.It is not storesupplywarehouse.com.Storesupply.com. And you can orderthose display heads if you would liketo get some.

All right, so I have this heart and itis a nice little model and I show it tothe kids and I tell them look - here

is what is inside of you. Everybodyhas one. And they look at it and theyare fascinated with this thing andI explain a little bit of physiology- you know - how the blood comesin here and then it goes out here inthe pulmonary artery into the lungsand gets oxygenated and then itcomes back into the heart throughthe pulmonary vein and then it getspumped out the aorta into the bodyand you can swim faster because youhave energy and oxygen. And theyare looking at it and 1 take it aroundand let them hold it like this and theylook at it and they ooh and aah.

So then I say, now we are going toswim five 100s on the 2 minutes.This is 10 and unders, right? AndI want you to take your heart rate,and this is what is beating. And theyget into it because they realize thatthey have one of these in there. AndI say - why do you think Shannonis so good at the 200 freestyle? Shedoesn't look any different than youguys. Her muscles are about thesame. She's got a stronger heart. So,it's good to have that heart beating.It's good to be breathing hard. That'show you get better.

You see, I think kids need to getexcited about fitness and that isgoing to give them longevity in thesport and also I think they need toget excited about having heroesin swimming. When I was a kid, Iused to play baseball and I would beWillie Mays - San Francisco - WillieMays up to bat and my friend Leftywas Ernie Kovacs and he would bethrowing the ball. When my friendwas Don Drysdale and went right-handed, I had to get out of the way

because he would try to hit me. Wedon't have that enough today. I don'thave my kids going I am MichaelPhelps on the blocks. We need a littlebit more of that. I think if you havemore camps for the kids, I think theywill be more into getting heroes inour sport. I think that is very impor-tant.

I had other questions about the mir-ror - how do I use it for backstroke?Well - a number of ways. If I havean edge of the pool and I want tocorrect the over-reach or just wantthem to look, I hold up a 4 X 8 mirroror one of the Finis mirrors, whichis about half that size. And as thevswim away I just say, "tilt your headback and take a look at it." They get3 or 4 or 5 strokes as they are goingaway and they finally believe youabout that left arm that is crossingover because they see it. I have onlyfallen in the water twice in ten years.So, every five years I go in, but it isusually when they get far away andI start jumping up in the air with themirror.

All right, let's move on to the turnsand I am really big on turns. I thinkit is so important for kids to knowhow to do those right and I just can'tstand to watch badlooking turns. Itell the swimmers that turns are thething that the coach sees the most. Itis right in front of me. I can see everypart of it so when you do - ohhhhh- and you know - and it is just hardfor me to take a bad turn. So I tellthem that if I can teach you anythingit is just a beautiful freestyle flip turnand a nice long stroke. With those

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things you are going to be set for lifebecause you can train hard, you canswim Masters, you can look good.

So here is our general outline fortoday. After some general comments,I am going to talk about how I teachthe streamline. Then I'll give a teach-ing progression for beginner flipturns, with some thoughts on whatto watch for with more advancedswinimers. Common mistakes. Thenwe'll cover breakouts. Then we'llcover a simple teaching progressionfor backstroke approach and cross-over. Then we'll do the breakout forbackstroke - teaching the ready posi-tion and push-off. Then we'll cover aprogression for the two-handed openturns and what to watch for withmore advanced swimmers. We'U alsocover breakouts on breaststroke andbutterfly. I'll show a teaching pro-gression for open turns and back-to-breast turns and what to watch for,for more advanced swimmers.

Now this is the age-group clinic,right? This is the age-group track. Iam showing you how I teach 7-, 8-,9-, and 10-year olds when they arefirst learning to do the turns. Nowit is pretty basic, but then I go on tosome more advanced things. But Ithink these things will help every-body and I just want to remind youabout that. You know, when my sontook ski lessons, the first thing theylearned to do is the snowplow, right?And then they got to stem turns andparallel skiing. So just like in swim-ming, you don't always teach exactlywhat you are going to do at the veryend. There is a progression that youneed to go through.

All right, general comments: Turns.I look at them as gymnastics in thewater with the wall. Now what Imean by that is that turns are notlike swimming. I can watch a swim-mer go down the pool 25 yards andI am watcl"LÍiig their stroke and I canfigure out that the chin is doing thisand the arm is doing that, and whenthey are done at the end of the pool 1know a lot to tell them - sometimestoo much. But when a turn happens,sometimes it happens so fast that I

say what happened there? I go - dothat again - no, no, better not - don'tdo that again. Do something differ-ent. But what happens on turns isthey happen really quick and it is adifferent type of coaching. It is likecoaching gymnastics. It is Hke coach-ing diving.

1 have progressions for teacWng. Wehave drills and we have certain dis-ciplines. Look at a turn as a completething, and not just what happens atthe wall. Look at it from flag to flag— what they do coming in and go-ing out, al! the way to the breakoutstroke. I always teach technique first,then speed later. We slow it down alot so they understand it. Then wecan pick it up. When I talk aboutteaching world-class technique toswimmers at every level, I am aim-ing for the best technique. I teachtechnique at all levels and emphasizelegal turns all during workouts: two-hand touches, backstroke push-offs,breaststroke pull-downs. And Iemphasize legal especially with myMasters swimmers.

How many people have coachedMasters swimmers? They are theworst. And when I take over a Mas-ters group, I tell them I do not wantto see a one-hand touch. I do notwant to see those and I say to themnicely, if you want to do a one-handtouch, you are a lap swimmer. Ifyou want to be a competitive swim-mer with a professional coach, youdo two-hand touches and you dostreamline. First of all, I can't standto look at it, right? I am not used to itand whenever the kids do somethingwrong I tell them to get out of thewater and we go over it and I stopthem and make them do it again.Now, you don't want me to do thatto you, do you? So, let's touch withtwo hands because touching withone hand is cheating and we do notlike cheating. So I emphasize legalturns all the way through. I do nothave any tolerance for anything il-legal in practice. 1 would rather seeslow and legal than fast and illegal

- or fast with bad technique.

I like to look at what part of the turntechnique is weak. It might be thespeed at the wall. It might be thespeed of the breakout. Bad turninghabits are hard to break, just like badstrokes are hard to break. Propertechnique will always be better inthe long run than a fast bad turninitially. If you're doing short-courseswimming, you need fast turns. Iteach the backstroke turn itself — thepush-off action — before I teach thefreestyle. And 1 teach the fly-to-backturn before the other open turns. It isthe first one I teach and I will explainthat a little bit later. And we alwaysuse the ready position when pusliingoff the wall in practice and that is keyand T will explain what that means.And 1 work on streamlines everyday.

So how do I teach the streamline?Well, first of all, I want the hand-over-hand like this, without thethumb sticking out like this. It shouldsqueeze around and hold the bottomhand like this. You want to flattenthe back by sucking in the stomachand pressing back here and squeez-ing the butt for a slight pelvic tiltbecause you do not want the buttsticking out like this - like you getwith some of those 9-and-lO girls,right? They get a big arch iii the back.You want to try and get them to flat-ten the back and make a streamlinewhere their head is neutral and thearms are straight ahead - right overlike this. They should be flat in theback, with no extra curvature, andit takes looking in the mirror some-times to get that right.

With little kids - who often have bigheads and small arms - we have de-cided as a team not to let them pushtheir head way down like this just toget into a proper streamline positionwith the hands. We feel that if theyjust stay neutral with the head that isbetter in the long run. We think thatis very important.

Two squeezes. I always talk abouttwo squeezes. Squeeze hand overhand with the thumb locked aroundthe bottom hand, and then squeezethe biceps against the ears. I will

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watch a swimmer and I will say, youdidn't squeeze your thumb and theygo - you can see that? YES, I can seethat. So 1 am looking for a squeezeand I say, I don't want to see twohands; 1 want to see only one hand.The other hand is completely cov-ered up. That works with them. Theylike that. And also point their toes.And what also works is to measuretheir streamline. I have them lie ontheir back and I measure from thetips of their toes all the way out totheir fingertips. I give them theirwater heights. So if they are about5' 4" when they are standing up,their water height might be 7' 3". SoI emphasize how tall they are in thewater. So when I ask them how tallthey are in the water, they will know.When they push off the wall I can tellthem they should be 7' 3" and not6'. So your kids should know theirwater height.

All right. Let's talk about a teachingprogression for beginning freestyleflip turns. I believe in verbal cueswith full demonstration. That meansI am in the water and the first thing Ido is to make sure the kids can blowbubbles out the nose. A lot of kidsdon't do that. Some kids do not blowbubbles at all. The kids who don'tblow bubbles out the nose are goingto have trouble. They are going to geta fizzie as they go around. They aregoing to come up and they are notgoing to like that so I go underwaterwith my goggles and then we just dovertical bobbing and 1 make sure thebubbles are coming out of the nose.

I don't know how coaches coachwithout being in the water - atleast sometimes. I know some goodcoaches who do not ever get in. 1think they would be better if they gotin and looked under water some-times. That is just one of my things.I think coaches need to get in thewater more - especially at the higherlevels - even the college coaches.

All right. After everybody is blow-ing bubbles I ask them - can every-body do a flip in the water? And Ireally don't care how they do that.I just want them to get straight over

and come back and they can eitherpush off the wall and take two faststrokes and flip over {speed helps)or they can push off the bottom andgo around. If they can do that thenI can move on with the progression.If they can't do that...then, Houston,we have a problem. And 1 have gotto take them over to the side andwork a lot of different things to getthem doing somersaults correctly. 1don't have a foolproof method forthat, but we do somersaults on thelawn. We manipulate them a lot toget their body around. We make surethey open their eyes, tuck their chin alittle more, and spot the knees.

It is very interesting. The kids whocannot dive at 5 and 6 and 7 havea hard fime with flip turns at 7, 8, 9and 10. They are the ones who do notwant to let go and roll forward andaround. I have discovered that a lot.

So after everybody knows how to dobubbles and somersaults, we try amid-pool swini. We go 4 to 5 strokes,stop your hands by your side (onearm at a time), they're in head-leadposition, then turn the palms downand glide. I will go through that tomake sure they understand that Iwant one hand back, then the otherhand back and I want them to turnthe palms over and glide. Yes, I wantthem to glide. I want them to finishboth strokes in a nice flat positionright now. That is position #1. Be-cause they will do some weird thingsotherwise and will just get confusedand they can't ever stop.

Finally we get them to stop like thisand then I have them do the samething and add a submersion at theend of the last stroke by leaning ontheir chest. So, they swim in like this- they stop their hands by their side,turn their palms over and just pressthe chest down a little bit and whathappens is that the head is like thisand I talk about the pencil and justtake the pencil down an inch. Justpress the chest. Just press the air andyou will submerge a little bit. That isthe next step.

Once I have everybody able to dothat 1 get out the pipe and we havea number of these pipes. We workindividually with the kids - everycoach takes one and 1 tell the swim-mers to float face down. 1 will placea pipe on the back of your legs withyour fingers over the pipe ~ palmsdown. Slide the back of your kneesunder the pipe. You will see yourlegs so they are floating. They are onthe water in a horizontal position.Their hands are like this and all theydo is slide their legs under the pipe,which gives them this feeling andthey just look back at their knees.Now, 1 will take their legs and justkind of hold the pipe and push themso that they get that feeling manytimes and it keeps their arms in lineand it gets them bending at the waist.They are going to look back like thisand they get that feeling where theydon't pull at all. They keep their legsinitially straight as they are makingthe bend and then they are going tobend when they come over. Swim-mers must come close to their legs.That means their face comes close totheir legs.

When they can do the somersaultwith the pipe, the next step is to havethe swimmer stand on the bottomand we set an Abe Lincoln hat on theswimmer. Has anyone seen my hat?Where is that yellow thing? There itis. All right, so - we ask them if theyknow what an Abe Lincoln hat lookslike and that is a stovepipe-shapedhat. I had to make one of these todaybecause I didn't bring that. So wehave them stand on the bottom anduse both hands to push the tall hatback a few inches. They get this feel-ing. The hands are right here - push- push - push. They are standing onthe bottom. Push again. Okay, yougot that feeling? Beautiful - remem-ber that feeling. Let's take the hataway. Keep the fingers straight upthe hat - use both hands.

Next step. Swim four or five strokesto mid pool, both arms are back,they're in head-lead position, palmsdown, then submerge and go straight

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over and think. They are not usingthe pipe now and they are not usingthe hat. They are thinking pipe. Sothey kind of bend here and theirhands stay close to the legs initially.And we are just talking about travel-ing six to eight inches over the backof the knees. And then HAT and theyland on their back. So, we avoid theairplane arms and things like thisbecause we get their palms turneddown and they have a nice platformand they keep the elbows in andthen they press. I tell them as soonas you see your legs, your feet comeout of the water. Right after theycome out, they go back in. That's thekey instruction. And then they comearound fast. They do not throw theirlegs up liigh. They move their feetmore parallel to the water.

Position #8 is the same as #7, butadd the streamline. Think pipe. Hat.Streamline. And they are just swim-ming in and they come straight over.Pipe. Hat Streamline. And they endup on their back like this, straight upand down.

Step #9: Practice the approach. Nowwe haven't even used the wall yetbecause it freaks them out the firsttime they are going on the wall.So we practice going into the walland just practicing the strokes intoheadlead position, and then the sub-merge, and then I stop them. Don'tgo to the wall. Just practice and feelcomfortable. Check out the T and,yeah, that is a good place to startyour tum. I tell them right after the T- right there — you are going to start.So then we swim toward the wall,subtnerge on the last stroke, whichmeans as they are pulling in here,they submerge. They are taking thepencil one inch lower and they thinkpipe.. .hat.. .streamline and they areon their back like this and they push.This is where we stop and move onto backstroke because initially 1 justwant them to go straight in and gostraight off on their back. This headmakes a lot of sense to them. I don'twant you to over rotate and comeback and see the wall. When youmake your turn, keep your eyes openbecause 1 want you to see the water

straight up. I want you to push offlike that on yotir back in a stream-line.

Now, a lot of the kids will tuck theirchin down like this to protect theirnose, because they are not bubblingright or they do not know how tohold it so that is a challenge to a lotof kids.

What we do next is have them pushoff in a streamline on their back andthen roll to a side and I do not tellthem what side. Naturally, they goto one side or the other so I observewhat side they like to roll to so theywould just roll like this and push offon their side. The next step is to gostraight in, push off on their back,roll to their side, roll to their stom-ach, and then pull. And we have themirror on the bottom of the pool andI say - when you see your face in themirror, then you can pull.

Now, on a regular flip turn they arenot going to be completely flat ontheir back. As they come in there is aslight tilt with the body. Some peoplewill be on the right side slightly, andsome people will be on the left sideand their feet will be pointed eitherthis way or that way. All I tell themis when you push off for freestyle 1want you to be legal for backstroke- so you are slightly on your side asyou push off, roll and then pull withthe head down. And stay in stream-line! So many kids lift their head upright in here or they lift it up as theyare making their somersault, or theirchin moves out of alignment. 1 havethem get everything lined up, thenmake the streatnline. Pull from thestreamline. Don't lift your head. Letyour back come out of the water. Feelfor the air on your back. Don't lift thehead.

So that is the basic flip turn work thatwe do. As they get faster, as they getmore advanced, as they're pullingthey'll go down sooner. They're notgoing to be gliding into the wall. Asthey pull they'll be heading downand they'll be heading into the turnreal fast. This is more advanced stuff.Maintain the speed and avoid any

slowing down into the wall. Holdyour breath inside the flags andinside the approach - well that is forsprinters and things like that.

You know, if you are swimming atraining set you are swimming thou-sands and things and you want totake two strokes without breathinginto the wall. That's what I recom-mend. I don't like to see someonetake a breath right there and thenmake the turn. T think they lose sightof the wall. We use submarine orblind approaches to avoid lookingup at the wall and using a dolphin-ing motion. I don't like the kids to golike this and look way up at the walllike that and then make their turn.But in reality, not everyone can do ablind turn where you never see thewall at all. 1 can do one.. .in my homepool...pretty well. But when the Tsare a little bit different at differentpools it is confusing so it doesn't al-ways work. So what most of my kidsdo is swim in a neutral position, butas they approach the wall they seethe T and they go up a little bit. Theyare looking at the bottom of the edgeof the pool. They are looking at thecorner because they get a good focusthen and at the most they might seethe bottom of the T and then theyhave confidence. They know exactlywhere the wall is and they maketheir turn. That is just reallife flipturns.

The roll begins before the finalstroke. Lean on the chest to lift yourlegs. We think about submergingand bringing your heels toward thetarget - not up and over anything.The sooner your feet hit the wall thebetter. Think of time. How fast dothey go from exiting the water to thewall? Your nose will stay close to thelegs. Hands are used for leverage.Do not let the elbows go out here.The elbows remain narrow. Get intoa streamline before you hit the wall.Tliat takes fast hands. They push thehat back. They make the streamlinethe feeder. That all happens beforethe feet hit the wall. Hit with theballs of your feet. It is amazing how


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many kids, if you get in the waterand look at them, are hitting the wallflat-footed and getting stuck. Rotateto the front during the streamlineand break the surface before the fin-ish of the first arm stroke. So righthere.. .your back's not out of thewater yet, but you break the surfaceright there...right as you are finish-ing that last stroke and then youhave that other arm out in front andyou start that one right away.

Common mistakes. Breathing intothe turn. Kids miss their turns all thetime. They get too close to the wallwhen they breathe because they donot have a focus of where they arecoming in and they are still movingfast while they are breathing, lift-ing the head. They get too close andthat usually causes a flare-out likethis and turning onto the stomach.You know, kids who seem to makea flip turn and need to breathe rightaway and you can't understand it - itis like they are so out of air. I wentunderwater and noticed what wasgoing on. When my better swim-mers flip, they do a little squirt of airout their nose and continue on. Theless accomplished swimmers weregoing like this and letting out all theair they ever had in their little lungs.Everything is out and then they comelike this and they are completely outof air. So you need to have them holdthe air in, because they are trying toprotect their nose. Hold the air in,but all you need is a little squirt ofair out the nose and that has made ahuge difference for some kids.

Freestyle breakout. Again, thebreakout is what is happening afteryou streamline and as you transitionfrom the underwater into the stroke.Most of the best sprint freestylers aretaking about two dolphin kicks offthe wal! and then going into the flut-ter and then a breakout stroke. If yougo right from a dolphin to a breakoutpull, without flutter kicking, it usu-ally causes a loss in speed during thebreakout. My magic words are: feelyour back come out of the water. Thepencil stays in. What I mean by thatis I don't want them to make a break-out where they go like this and lift

their head up, They keep the pencilpointing toward the other wall andthey take their stroke without liftingtheir head. The back comes out of thewater and, very simply, when youstart swimming, do not stop kicking.The tendency is to kick hard off thewall and then start to swim and theylet the legs go a little bit. Tell themthat and T guarantee you will havefaster turns coming out of the wall.

All right, the teaching progressionfor backstroke approach and cross-over. It's very simple. We want themto go mid-pool and we go hands bythe side and we just go right - left~ right - and then they're crossingover with the left arm and they learnto do that side. Then we practicethe other side. You start with theleft - right - left, so they learn to goon both sides. Some kids only liketo cross over on one side. You hadbetter check that out because it canget them in trouble when they hitthe turn with what they do not like.They will end up doing an extra-longstroke.

Then we practice the backstrokefinish so that they know the strokecount on the finish and then wesubtract two hand hits as a guidelineand then they gol - 2 - 3 - 4 handhits - 5 for the stroke and then theymake their turn. And then we makethe necessary adjustments. Some-times you just need to subtract onehand hit to give them the right countfor when they should cross over andwhen they get the freestyle pull.

Now remember. On that backstroketurn, you need to start the final back-stroke stroke on your back. You startit while you are not past vertical. Butthe sooner you get past vertical, thebetter, because you can get a strongerpull when you are on your front. Sonow you will have the final pull as afreestyle pull and you submerge asyou go into the wall and make yourturn. So you can get a little n:iore outof that freestyle pull if you cross overquickly. Now watch out for the kid'shead, because as they cross over, alot of them lift up. You want them togo like this to either come over the

top or to the side. 1 have kids doingit both ways. T have had more ad-vanced swimmers kind of come overthe top and then roll down like that,but watch out what happens to theirhead as they are doing that secondarm stroke. There will be a lot of dif-ferent things going on.

The breakout on the backstroke:Start with dolphin kicks - you know- three to seven or three to whatever.I think Natalie does 11 dolphin kicksoff the wall. I saw this interview withher and she dolphin kicks straight onher back. She does about 11 dolphinkicks and then makes the breakout.When I talk about two breakoutstrokes, you want to think of this firstbreakout stroke when you are underwater and maybe a foot is a littledeep. You have to think about that,but the arm is going to start whileyour face is still under water. Andthen as you start this arm, before youfinish this arm you start the otherone and that is going to bring thisarm out real fast so you get a real fast1,2 and you get right into it. If youstay like this and then you pause,then you will have a pause betweenthe first and second stroke. So youkind of think of two breakout sh^okesto get into the water aggressively onthe next stroke.

Now the magic words for kids arekick...pull...then breathe. Because alot of them will kick, slow it up, andthen pull. You want them to kick,start their pull when they are underwater, and then breathe. Also, thinkof the cup right before your facecomes out of the water. So pretendyou have a cup on here - because wedo backstroke with a cup on the fore-head. As they make their breakout,they want to come out of the waterlike this. They do not want to comeout of the water and break their neckand look down. They are doing that,usually, to protect their nose on theirbreakout and then they throw theirhead around to clear things out. Sotry to breakout by looking under-neath the water and just comingstraight up.


Ready position and push off. Let metell you something about turns thatwe did. Next Tuesday we are startinga five-week turn clinic. We go fivedays a week for 45 minutes a day.A lot of our 8-year olds and 9-yearo!ds take this clinic. We have about20 kids in it and two coaches. And Iwas talking to one of the moms and Isaid you know, after they finish thisfive weeks they will be "turn certi-fied." I like that. Turn certified. It justcame out and then I started thinking- okay - we will get a certificate andit will say "Turn Certification." Andthen I said okay, I am going to makea T-shirt. So I made a Turn Certifica-tion T-Shirt. On the back it said OCC- Orinda Country Club - Turn-Cer-tification. Then below that it liad "flyto fly," "fly to back," "back to back,"" back to breast," "breast to breast,""breast to free," and "free to free."All seven turns. Like you are swim-ming a 200 IM. There are 7 turnsand a little box by each one with agreen check mark and then stampedacross that was CERTIFIED. It kindof looked like a meat stamp, youknow? And we would say, you needto be certified. You need to know allyour turns to get that T-shirt and wewould have the whole practice wherekids were trying to get certified. Wehad a big chart and we would checkkids off. The turn had to be legal andtechnically correct and nothing ugly.It did not have to be perfect. We aretalking about basically 8-, 9- and 10-year olds. It had to be looking goodand they got really into that turn-certification shirt. My best swimmer

- instead of wearing his team shirtthat said Orinda Country Club asthe high point winner - he wore hisTurn-Certification Shirt to get hispicture taken, so he liked it.

Now this is a thing that I started do-ing just a few years ago and 1 am abig believer in it: open turns. How doI teach them? Wiiat do 1 do? We learnthe ready position and the ready po-sition push off. And I had my doubtsabout it when I first started doingit because there are some thingsthat you are saying well, that is notexactly what you do. Here is whatwe do. 1 am going to get this mat and

then get back up on the stage. Thiswill take a year to transfer your teamover if they don't have this habit andwe basically start with the 7- yearolds to get them in this habit. Butthey will be on the wall and they willhave one hand on the wall - right inthe middle. They put their feet upon the wall, too. Now hands and feeton the wall is not usually how youmake a turn, but this all works. Theyare right like this and they are in thewater and they are looking at theirthumb and the other hand is outhere and then every time they pushoff they think "answer the phone."They let the hand go, they keep theelbow in the water, the hand goeslike they are answering the phone- by their ear. The other hand is outhere, like they have a tray. They pushup on the water. Their face goes in.They sink. They streamline and pushoff. That is through every set -everypush off — and once they learn that,then you can move on to some otherthings.

I got this phone from my room.John, if they are wondering whathappened to the phone in 1611...itunplugs, right? You wonder whereI get my bag of tricks, right? So youcould put a phone right on the deckthere and you can have the kids prac-tice doing that, all right? If you couldjust have them go like - answer thephone. Again, teaching is making animpression. Like this - you have tokeep nice and straight. 1 line up mychin - right here on the shoulder andyou can look in the mirror. Go likethis and you just bring the phone tothe ear, because you don't answerthe phone like this or you don't goHELLO! HELLO! So I was practic-ing this last night in front of a mirror" just to make sure I got it right foryou guys. I took the phone out. I amsitting in front of the mirror. 1 amgoing like this and I am practicingto see that T am lined up and I am alittle crooked so 1 started doing - andthen 1 look out and I am - the drapesare open and I am going like this - inmy underwear. I am supposed toimagine YOU in your underwear, allright.

So...answer the phone. But there isanother part of this thing. They touchthe wall and this comes a little bitlater, but it is basically - elbow therobber. You may have heard this; el-bow the robber and the coaches willdo a little skit where I go up behindmy coach and I go AHH and he goesugh like this and I go AHH. So elbowthe robber and serve him something- you see? My country club swim-mers - I used to coach in Oaklandand they understood "elbow the rob-ber" and "call the police," right? Mykids in Orinda - they don't get that.I have to explain to them what crimeis, but they understand this becausethey get that all the time. So elbowthe robber, call the police, and servethem some hors d'oeuvres - like that- hello.

All right, so get out these propsand you will make an impressionon your swimmers. So - we do thisand for free and back we have thetoes pointed upward. That does notmean straight upward, but to theside - one side or the other. Now thekids should learn to do ready-posi-tion push offs on both sides so theycan learn to do a good back-to-breastturn on both sides and see the paceclock at the other end of the pool ifyou don't have them on both sides.But they should have a preferredside so they do not get confusedwhen they make their open turnsin races because they are usuallyconfused enough. I want those feettoward the side for the breast andfly. The body will be like this, but thefeet will be more to the side and youcan't really push off on your back onthose other strokes. You have to haveyour shoulders like that - when yourfeet leave the wall you have to bepast vertical. I like the chin near thewall-side shoulder - like this - putthe chin right there - that works

- eyes looking straight down thearm towards the wall and the headstraight.

Is it 8:45? I gotta move faster. Allright. For the ready position every-thing should be lined up in a straight


w w w. swi m m ¡ n gc oa CÍ1, o rg 23


line: hand, elbow, shoulder, chin,shoulder, elbow, hand. And whenthe hand leaves the wall you main-tain the posihon of the head. Justdrop the head back in the water andyou are looking down on the wall.The elbow stays in the water and thehand almost touches the ear - that isanswering the phone. The face goesunder the water and they find eachother for the streamline. You pushoff in streamline - maintain a straightbodyline off the wall.

How do I teach the open turns? Wereview that and we practice openturns, then we swim toward thewall with two hands and we touchwhile keeping the eyes down. Touchthe wall and I will put a mirror onthe edge of the pool so when theytouch they see their face. They arenot looking up at the wall - they arelooking straight down at the bottom.They see the T - the mirror can bethis way - they touch, they see theirface. Now what I want them to do issee the elbow going back - elbow-ing the robber - they see their kneescoming up and then they plant and Ijust want them to pull one arm back{elbow the robber) and extend onearm toward the other end of the poolwith the palm facing up, holdingthe tray. Then I want you to freeze.I say, freeze in that position. And Icome around and correct their headposition if 1 am out of the water andtheir head and their hands - I justcorrect that position and then I say- GO - GO - GO - GO and they doa ready-position push off. And to dothe next step I just say, do that with-out stopping.

Now when I first did this I said,God - I don't know if this is go-ing to work. They might get stuckon the wall, right? They might gettheir hands and feet on the wall atthe same time and you don't wantthat. But they didn't do it. They justwent in and they just made the turnand they went off. I had maybe afew kids who got stuck on the wallinitially, but you know - just keepmoving. Never have your hands andfeet on the wall at the same time.

Here are things to watch for; ac-celeration, kicking into the wall,approach the wall on a stroke so itis long. Know when to use two orthree strokes. Eyes looking at thebottom. Knees fast ahead. A smallball extends faster. The momentumof the swim and the rotation of thebringing the knees up will help youextend faster. Head stays neutral. Idon't really like to see it tuck becauseit causes kind of a funny positionwith the body that is going around.Just stay neutral, but don't lift up.Feet pointed at the side. Late breathor none at all. The key to this turnis you touch and you don't breatheright away. You breathe when youare going back. You get the breathlater, and one of the key things to dois to blow bubbles out longer thanyou are going to take the breath. Sotwo seconds to blow - one second totake the breath or it's actually fasterthan that. One second to blow - ahalf second to take the breath. Youget the idea. Late breath or none atall. Have them hold their breath - noteven take a breath. We don't breatheon other turns. You are doing a 50breaststroke niaybe you don't needto take a breath.

Think of the back of the head firstand we will do knee-to-head spinswhere the knees come in and theystay in a ball and they roll backwardsto get that feeling of rolling back andlearn to find the streamline immedi-ately. Common mistakes are tuckingthe chin or taking a short stroke.Pulling into the wall. There is a littleshock-absorber action and then youhave to be able to push off the wall.You do not want to bring your headin close. Stay about a foot away fromthe wall. Don't lift the head. Don'ttum around like this or turn to theside and you know what people usu-ally do is they turn their feet like thisand then they turn their feet downand you just don't want to do that.Or they bring the arm over the top.

Now, this is a pet peeve of mine:circle-swimming turns. In America, itis the right leg. If we are doing circle-swimming turns, you are coming inand as they make the turn, if they do

not get over where they are sup-posed to be, the right leg will flareout to push them to the right sideof the lane. 1 guess in Australia - dothey circle swim a different way?Their other leg probably goes out- their left leg might flare out to pushthem that way. This is where youcan use the head. You want to usethe head like this: Here is the laneline - here to here - two lanes. 1 putthe head over here and where kidsare swimming breaststroke - I say, Iwant you to swim, but when the #1passes you by, I w ânt you to angleover so you make your turn in frontof the head coach. See, when theymake the turn here, then they haveto flare out their right leg and theypush diagonally. So they know whatI'm talking about. We have six headsdown the lane on the other side andwe are just doing some 50s and theymake their turn there. It makes themremember that so they do not dothe circle-swimming turn. The samething happens in freestyle turns, too.That is why the leg flares out - that iswhy that right leg goes like that - be-cause they are not tuming straight inand out.

Breaststroke breakout and the pull-down. Let's just talk. I like to coachthem to go out and feel like they aregoing up a little bit. It just kind ofopens them up a little bit more for astronger stroke because people havethe tendency to come right downhere so I tell them to press and reachback a little bit, which is upwardand then they grab that water - theycome in diamond and they finishlike this and have their fingers fac-ing back with a little roll-in of theshoulders right here. I see so manyswimmers - even some pretty goodones - that come up and they arereally like this as they are doing theirunderwater and I go - am 1 missingsomething? Because I just thoughtit would be better to stay within thebodyline and sneak up and if youuse the mirror you can watch all thisbecause you should be neutral all theway through and sneak right up andyou see yourself make all the three




zooms. The kick should be fast andlate as the hands are shooting intothe streamline.

The magic words are: Keep look-ing at the mirror through all threezooms. It's kid talk. The push off iszoom 1. The pull-down is zoom 2.The kick is zoom 3. They see this inthe mirror and they don't let theirelbows go outside their bodyline.And then stay in the water when youpress out. That means, on the stroke,do not come out of the water...lift.Press out, and then right as you arestarting - you can lift right there at abreak and then you turn in and makeyour stroke on the first one. That isfor breaststroke.

For butterfly. Build the kick. Toooften kids will slow the rate down asthey approach the surface. Try to getthem to speed up with an aggressivekick on the breakout stroke. Don'tslow down. The magic words: Keeplooking in the mirror when you startto swim. Feel like your face is on askateboard so they don't stari offwith their first pull by moving theirhead. Start the first pull before yourback comes out of the water. Keepholding your breath and keep thepencil going straight forward.

Timing turns. When the hand touch-es the wall to when the feet leavethe wall - I would say 1.4 is slow.One point- two seconds is okay. Onepoint one is good. One second isvery good and under 1 is excellentand here is what you can do. Put aTempo Trainer on them. Put it to onesecond. Stand away from the walland when they hear a beep just jumpinto the wall. By the time you get tothe wall it w îll be a second and makea turn and get off the wall before youhear the second beep. They like that.The Tempo Trainer is going beep- beep - beep — and you go beep- beep - beep and you are off thewall within one second. You can timeturns or the kids like to do that ontheir own.

All right. Back-to-breast turns. I amalmost done. Review the ready posi-tion and push off. Approach the wall.

then grab with the palm down andbring the knees up and around andplace feet on the wall. Now here isthe key thing that really works: Takethe chin from this shoulder to thatshoulder and freeze there. Shoulderto shoulder and have them make theready-position push off. Assume theready position and then freeze. Sameprogression and then do the turnwithout stopping.

Now, everybody seems to have afavorite side on the back-to-breastturn. For example, if I like to go likethis and bring my right arm downand come over like this on my openturns - like breaststroke - that meansmy left hand is leaving the wall last.I am going to want to touch the wall.I am going to be much more comfort-able touching my back-to-breast onmy left hand. They are not used tothis feeling so that is why you needto get them to go to the ready posi-tion on the other side, too. We do nothave seven turns now - we have nineturns, ln addition to the seven that Imentioned, we have back to breaston both sides and back to back cross-ing over left and crossing over right.

More advanced swimmers use the"now" game. Well we use it with theyoung kids, too. We just say come inlike this and when you think the wallis there you say NOW - out loud.Shout out the word NOW.

We also do a spin-type turn. Thetum that I am showing you here isthe legs just kind of come under.Also we do a turn where we havea flat hand and we bring the kneesup and spin around. It works prettywell. We don't do any flips - straightover — and we do not do the suicideturn. Not that I don't believe that itis faster, I just have other things toworry about besides that turn, with300 kids on the team. 1 know Ronnieand Donnie teach that though. Youhave got to stay nice and shallowon the spin, no matter what. Thehead position, spot the shoulders, itreally works. From this shoulder tothat shoulder as you bring your legsaround. The trailing hand scoots andyou all know about calling the policeand all that.

All right, there is my pool. Do youlike that pool? That is where I work.You don't even see all the grass onthe side. I had a friend come by andhe says - this is where you work?See the golf cart over there? I drivearound in that and coach a little bit.I am afraid I am going to go in thepool sometime.

I made a half-hour video and I hadan hour talk and I don't have enoughtime to show all of this. This is avideo of Bill Aden, head coach of theMontclairSwim Team and assistantcoach of the Orinda Country Club.Bill is giving a lesson to one of hisyoung swimmers. And before 1 playthe video I want to thank Don andRon Heidary, Bill Aden, MichaelHaney and Todd Krohn for the helpwith this talk.

This is Bill Aden...(cut to translationof the soundtrack of the video):

Alexandra, T want you to float facedown with the pipe over your legand your fingers over the pipe, likethis. Looks good - looks good. 1 likethat you are not gripping the pipe. Iam holding it from the side as weUso it is not necessary to grip. I like theopen fingers. Now, you are going tofloat in that position and then slideyour knees under the pipe and whenyou do you will see your legs. Wewill do this several times in a row soget ready to hold your breath. Let'sfloat.

Haufler: (Now, she wasn't quite see-ing her legs on this. She had her headtilted up a little bit, but watch thelegs - that is the good part. Noticehow the hands are maintaining theposition.)

Video soundtrack: That's good. Allright, let's put the pipe away. Nowyou are Abraham Lincoln. Youare putting on your stovepipe hat.Push it back. Use both hands. Good.Push it again, push it again. Good- again. It looks good. All right, thatis enough of that. Back to your flipturn. Slide your knees under the pipeand push back the tall hat. Take alook underwater. We will do it right


here. Two strokes - 1 - 2. Slide theknees under the pipe, then push thehat back.

Haufler: She is thinking pipe.. .hat.That is the first time that she has everdone that...just kidding.

Video soundtrack: So you have topull yourself ahead of each hand. Goahead. Excellent. I want to watch un-derwater ~ let's do it again. Can yousee your hands turn over? Like yourfingers are on top of the pipe? Let'ssee it again. Good. Here is anotherthing that looks good to me. 1 likethe way you keep your hands up onthe hat when your feet go back in thewater. Let's see it again. Be aware ofthat. It looks great, alligator. Now, letme mention one or two things aboutyour feet. As soon as you see yourlegs, your feet come out of the water.Right after they come out they goback in. Focus on your feet this time.Let's do another midpool flip there.Good. It is like they are chasing yourbutt back into the water. Do thatone more time. 1 like that. Chasingyour butt. All right, let's kick to thewall, slide the pipe. Push the hat.Chase your butt and streamline. So,1 am going to stand on the side andwatch you turn from free to back and1 want you to focus on the feelingof pipe - then hat. Slide your kneesunder the pipe and then push backthe hat and just leave the wall onyour back in a streamline. Go ahead.Looks good. Do you feel that? Doyou feel your knees sliding under thepipe?

Haufler: All right, I have 30 moreminutes of this and the other strokes,but I was lucky to show this part and1 do not want to go over into DonHeidary's time. Don Heidary is oneof the best coaches I know. I havewatched him coach workouts. Hecoaches my son and he commandsthe workout and that is the title of histalk. He has magic ways of gettingrespect and attention from the swim-mers and he is the next speaker. Donot miss his talk and I want to thankyou very much for being here today.

Text from Slides:

TURNSGeneral CommentsTurns are gymnastics in the water

with a wallThink of coaching turns like coach-

ing a stroke (progressions, drills,discipline)

Think of the turn as the transitionfrom the approach stroke into thewall to the breakout stroke, fromflags to flags, rather than just theturn on the wall.

Teach technique - be willing tomake the trade off of techniquenow for speed later

Teach world-class technique toswimmers at every level

Start teaching proper turn tech-nique with 8 year olds

Emphasize legality for all turns dur-ing workout (two hand touches,backstroke turns, pull downs)

Slow, good turns are O.K. in prac-tice (until technique is perfected!)

Assess which part of a turn is weak:technique, turn speed, underwa-ter speed or breakout?

Engrained bad habits are hard to fixfor turns (likewise with any stroke)

Proper technique turns will AL-WAYS be better (in the long run)than a fast, bad turn

For fast short course swimming,turn efficiency is critical

Teach the backstroke turn beforefreestyle

Teach the Fly-to-Back turn beforethe other open turns

Always use a ready position whenpushing off the wall in practice

Work on streamlines everyday

Teaching the Streamline1 Head in the neutral position2 Flat Back3 Two squeezes: hand over hand

with top thumb squeezing theunder side of the bottom handand the biceps squeezing yourears

4 Point your toes5 Measure the Total Streamline

Teaching Progression for Begin-ning Freestyle Flip Turns

(Verbal Cues with Pool Demonstra-tion)

1 "Practice blowing bubbles outyour nose."

2 "Do a straight over flip and blowbubbles out your nose."

3 Mid-Pool: "Swim 4-5 strokes, stopyour hands by your side, one armat a time (head lead position) turnpalms down and glide."

4 Repeat #3 with "now add sub-mersion at the end or your laststroke by leaning on your chest."

5 "Float face down, I will place apipe on the back of your legswith your fingers over the pipe(palms down.) Slide the back ofyour knees under the pipe. Youwill see your legs." Repeat manytimes Swimmer must come closeto their legs

6 With the swimmer standing onthe bottom, set the Abe LincolnHat on the swimmer: Push the tallhat back a few inches." Repeatmany times

Other prompts:"Use both hands""Keep your elbows in front of your

face - where you can see them""Keep fingers straight up the hat"7 Mid-Pool: "Swim 4-5 strokes,

head lead position, palms down,submerge, then flip straight over."

"Think Pipe-Hat (land on back)"As soon as you see your legs, your

feet come out of the water, rightafter they come out, they go backin"

8 Same as #7 but add streamline"Think Pipe-Hat-Streamline" (still

on back, tight at back of ears)9 Practice approach to wall by us-

ing step #4 (submersion at theend of last stroke by leaning onchest)

10. "Swim toward wall, submergeon last stroke in the head leadposition, turn palms down andthink Pipe-Hat-Streamline-Push(still on back)"

11. Repeat above and roll to sideafter push off

contiriued or} page 28

www.swjmmingcoach.org 27


12. Add roll to stomach and whenyou see the bottom of the pool,then pull from the streamlineposition without breathing

What to Watch ForMaintain speed and avoid decelera-

tion into the wallHold breath inside flags on ap-

proachUse "submarine or blind" ap-

proaches to avoid looking up anddolphin motioning into turn

Know pool markings or use bottomedge of pool

Roll begins during the final strokeLean on your chest to lift your legsSpring your heels at the targetThe sooner your feet hit the wall

the betterNose stays close to the legsHands are used for leverage, el-

bows remain narrowHands in streamline before the feet

hit the wallHit the wall with balls of your feetSpring off the wallRotate to front during streamlineBreak the surface before finish of

first arm stroke

FREESTYLECommon MistakesBreathing into the turn. The swim-

mer loses speed and loses sightof the wall/edge/bottom

Lifting the head into the turn, creat-ing a slow spin (wider arc.)

Getting too close to the wall. Thehands usually flair/scull out caus-ing a pause on the wall.

Turning the body on the wall topush off on the stomach.

BREAKOUTFreestyleStart with dolphin kicks (2 to ?)

followed by flutter kicks, then abreakout stroke. Dolphin kickingand going into a breakout pull,without flutter kicking, usuallycauses a loss of speed during thebreakout.

Magic Words:"Feel your back come out of the

water, the pencil stays in.""When you start swimming don't

stop kicking."

Teaching Progression for Back-stroke Approach and CrossOver

1 Mid-Pooi: Start with hands byside. Right-Left-Right-Left CrossOver & Pull

2 Mid-Pool: Start with hands byside. Left-Right-Left-Right CrossOver 8¿ Pull

3 Practice Finish - know strokecount

4 Subtract two hand hits, thenCross Over and pull

5 Make necessary adjustments

Backstroke BreakoutStart with dolphin kick (3 to ?),

then flutter kicks, then 2 breakoutstrokes.

The first breakout stroke shouldstart when the head is one footbelow the surface.

The second breakout stroke shouldstart before the head breaks thesurface and should bring the firststroke out of the water aggres-sively.

Magic Words:"Go kick, pull, breathe" (Not kick,

breathe, pull)"Think of the cup right before your

face comes out of the water."

Ready Position and Push Off1 One hand on the wall2 Balls of feet planted on target3 Feet planted upward for Free and

Back and toward the side wall forBreast and Fly

4 Chin near wall side shoulder, eyeslooking down the arm towardwall, head straight

5 Non-wall hand extended towardother wall palm facing up

6 Hand-elbow-chin-shoulder el-bow-hand in LINE

7 On Push OffHands leave wall, head maintains

positionElbow stays in the water until hand

almost touches ear

Face goes under as hands find eachother above head for streamline

Push in streamlineMaintain a straight body line off

the wall

Teaching Progression forTwo-Hand Open Turns1 Review Ready Position2 Review correct sequence for push

off from Ready Position3 Swim toward wall and touch with

two hands while keeping eyesdown

4 From this extended position,bring knees up together andplace feet on the wall with toespointed to the side. Simultane-ously, pull one arm back underwater (elbow the robber) andextend arm towards other end ofpool with the palm up (holding atray.)

5 Freeze in Ready Position (100%correct)

6 Wait for coach clearance of "GO"7 Practice freezing in Ready Posi-

tion, and pushing off correctly(100% correct)

8 Do the turn without stopping

WHAT TO WATCH FOR WITHTWO HAND OPEN TURNS

(Includes Fly, Breast, Fly to Back,Breast to Free)

Acceleration to the wallApproach the wall on strokeKnow when to use 2 long vs. 3

shorter strokesEyes looking at bottom of poolKnees fast to head (a small ball

spins faster)Use momentum to help spin speedHead stays neutral/some may tuckElbow the robber and call the

policeFeet pointed to the side corner gut-

ter (ready position)Late breath or none at allBack of the head in first (try knee to

head backspin)Find streamline immediately

TWO HAND OPEN TURNSCommon Mistakes




Tucking the chin as the knees arepulled up

Taking a short stroke into the wallPulling into the wall (let the arm

absorb the wall like a shock ab-sorber)

Lifting the head upTurning head around to side or

frontSpinning feet to a "toes down"

positionBig arm over the topCircle swimming turn, leg flares out

BREASTSTROKE BREAKOUTThe pull part of the pull-down

should angle the body slightly tothe surface. The approach shouldstart with the hands recover-ing tight (against the body.) Thekick should be fast and late - asthe hands are shooting into thestreamline. Bringing the heelsup early causes the body to slowdown.

Magic Words:"Keep looking in the mirrors

through all 3 ZOOMS. The kickgives the 3rd Zoom."

"Stay in the water when you pressout."

BUTTERFLY BREAKOUTBuild the kick speed to the sur-

face. Kids often slow the kickrate down as they approach thesurface. Try to get them to buildtheir kick speed into an aggres-sive kick on the breakout stroke.

Magic Words:"Keep looking in the mirror when

you start to swim.""Feel like your face is on a skate-

board when you start to swim.""Start first pull before your back

comes out of the water. Keepholding your breath."

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Workout Tips for Breast/FlyTurns

TIMED TURNS{from when the hands touch to

when the toes leave the wall)1.4 slow1.2 ok1.1 good1.0 very good< 1.0 excellent

Teaching Progression for Back-to-Breast Turns

1 Review Ready Position and PushOff

2 Approach wall, then grab withpalm down

3 Bring knees up and around andplace feet on wall, chin movesfrom shouider-to-shoulder

4 Assume Ready Position andfreeze

5 Wait for coach clearance to "GO"6 Do the turn without stopping

WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN BACKTO BREAST TURNS

(For More Advanced Swimmers)Swimmer maintains speed on ap-

proach (stroke count and flagangles)

No peeking for the wall on ap-proach - use the now game tosee if they know where the wall is

Treat the approach as a backstrokefinish, except turn palm down forhand touch

Legs stay on surface during the ap-proach

Use momentum to help spin speed- bring knees to chest and keeplegs shallow to spin fast Keephead position "in-line" but usethe "spot points" for turn (shoul-der-to-shoulder)

Trailing hand "scoops" to bringbody underwater

Wall hand leaves from Ready Posi-tion "calls police" and returns tostreamline

Hands are in streamline when feetplant on wall •


turns, underwaters, breakouts, and finishes · 2020. 2. 11. · lechnique coaching the details...

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