Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club Head Coach,
Olympic and National Team Coach for Australia; has coached a Gold Medalist in every World Championships since 1998 to 2009 ( 6 consecutive World championships).
This is one of the most uniquely informative freestyle technique DVDs that has ever been produced.
Ian Pope dedicates this presentation to comparing and contrasting the technical nuances of the distance freestyle of three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Grant Hackett to that of Australian sprinter Matt Targett, a 2008 Olympic medalist and NCAA champion at Auburn. Both of these greats swam under Pope.
Pope's nine-part instruction focuses on:
- Body Alignment - Learn the ideal body positions for overall freestyle success, which includes etching the most efficient body "line" possible. To train this ideal position, Pope includes drills for both the sprint and distance events.
- Kick - Pope compares and contrasts the powerful sprint kick that Targett incorporates to that of the 2-beat and sometime 4-beat kick that Hackett uses to maximize energy output in the distance events. Pope also touches on the need for the distance swimmer to finish with an aggressive 6-beat kick.
- Contrasting Sprint and Distance Arm Strokes - Take a critical look at the more open recovery that many sprinters like Targett have implemented into their strokes. He compares this technique to the traditional lower high elbow and relaxed recovery of Grant Hackett.
- Stroke Timing Differences - Pope shows each swimmer's ability to hold pressure on the water while each uses different timing in the stroke to achieve maximum efficiency for their respective events.
- Drills to Improve Freestylers - Learn 10 drills you can use to teach a powerful and efficient freestyle stroke.
- Breathing Timing - Pope breaks down the essentials to breathing at the most ideal time in the arm cycle, while maintaining technical efficiency.
- Starts - Every phase of a great freestyle start is included: block foot position, block balance, preferred hand position and grip, what the hands and arms do, what the feet and legs do and how to attain maximum drive off of the block into a great breakout. Get relay change over instruction that shows two different styles of the relay take offs.
- Turns - Pope demonstrates his proven 4-step sequence for teaching a great freestyle turn. Included is the approach into the wall, the planting of the feet, the push off and streamline off of the wall. He then shows the breakout and breakout stroke.
As an added bonus, Pope works with a small group of young swimmers to demonstrate several drills in skill areas that pose the greatest coaching challenges.
Order now and start putting Pope's experience, success and wisdom to work for your team!
50 minutes. 2011.
The unique achievement of Australian world championship Coach Ian Pope in his Championship Productions swimming instruction video is to acknowledge and highlight the differences between sprint freestyle technique and championship form in distance swimming. In this amazing video, Pope utilizes two of the great swimmers from Down Under: distance champion and multiple record setter Grant Hackett and sprint champion Matt Targett. Pope highlights the differences in body alignment, kick, arm recovery, high elbow, glide, stroke timing and breathing patterns that are unique to fast swimming at the different distances. Both the underwater and above water videos clearly show what coach Pope is explaining - and in a way that coaches and swimmers watching this video can understand and apply in the pool. To assist the coach and swimmer he also includes 10 drills that sensitize the swimmer to maintaining correct body alignment and stroke mechanics. This is the only video available that differentiates the different techniques and explains why a sprint style stroke will result in a fatigued swimmer in a longer race and why a distance stroke cannot generate sufficient power to win in the shorter sprints. Most American college and high school coaches focus on sprint technique almost exclusively because meets are in a short course pool and have so many freestyle sprint events. Coach Pope has coached many world class long course distance swimmers and is clear that there is a difference in techniques. This is a great swimming instructional video that can lead to faster swimming for both freestyle sprinters as well as the middle distance and long distance swimmers in your program.
Roy Pinchot,
Previously, Captain, Northwestern Swimming;
Currently, Germantown Masters Swim Team, Maryland