Swim Racing Start Dive Drills

Todays focus on dives and a couple of my favorite dive drills.
So if you’re foolish enough to ask your swimmers, “what do you want to work on today?” I can almost guarantee multiple people are going to say starts. And no one says distance fly. Starts are just more fun. But on a serious level, the start is critical. And swimmers with high aspirations need to develop good ones. It doesn’t happen without work.
One of the best places to start might be behaviors we’re trying to extinguish. These are the typical habits all coaches will see in developing swimmers. First is that butterfly like arm swing. Where does this come from? I don’t know. Its going to propel swimmers down, and it takes unnecessary time to do. The other the short entry, more like falling forward. We need push, arc, or power to develop a racing start.
I’ve heard before the best coaches are the best thieves, and the following drills are not my own. So here are a couple drills that I’ve found elsewhere that have helped me improve the kids and have fun.
The first one is med ball starts. As you can see, pushing the ball forward is bring focus to getting out and forward with power rather than straight down without power. Kids can be a little nervous at first, but they should be diving safely under the ball they throw. After the ball release, the athlete needs to tuck their chin and prepare for smooth entry. Forgetting this part usually results in a belly flop and generally only happens once.
The other drill, pull buoy throws, is more of a recent discovery and helps to build starts that replicate the arm motions of senior level athletes using arms to push off the handles of front of the blocks. After trying a couple of these, I instructed swimmers to aim low, below a certain line on the wall behind them. They looked great. You’ll see little Sammy with the butterfly arm motion looks fantastic in this drill. Remember what he looked like before?
You can immediately see when we switch back to regular dives without the equipment, we quickly lose some of the motions and components that made the drills look great. So unfortunately, the kids are right. We do need to practice these, forego the distance fly set from time to time.

[@johnwilliams7885]

Lol, that’s my punishment drill. 500 fly for you!

[@SBanderaB]

that was great..... will take a look at your other videos now

[@jrb5094]

Awesome!!

[@performanceswimcoaching4601]

It’s all ideas I’ve learned elsewhere but it’s fun to mesh it into a focused practice.

[@Mrspillsy]

So good!!!

[@performanceswimcoaching4601]

I'm glad you like it. Adds fun to swim too.

[@carmenrodriguezcabello8520]

Wow!! A totally out of the ordinary video. Excellent s drills.
I'm sure I put it in practice. Tanks. 💦CDMX

[@miksis44]

Thanks Carmen. Any specific strokes or areas you’d like to see videos on? Trying to generate some great ideas for the next one

[@simpletonballsack]

Butterfly arms (as opposed to windmill) timed with back leg lift maximise forward momentum at the instant the front toes leave the block while counterbalancing each other for rotation. Even the "windmill" cannot propel as swimmer down if the arms are rising at the point of leaving the block.

[@welshgit101]

it also encourages swimmers to push back against the block for a little extra momentum

[@shakiedirisinghe1420]

Thank you, sir, great one.

[@zivaaricadia4939]

Thank you so much❤️

[@IamAdrianaCarolina]

Thank you!! This video was well made. Super informative and to the point. Thank you for that.

[@elizabethraub]

I am not seeing how the last drill with the pull buoys fits in. The rest of the conversation talks about throwing the arms forward. This drill focuses on throwing the pull buoy back. Can anyone share their philosophy on this one? Thanks!

[@syedzeeshanahmedwasti5790]

Thanks 😊

[@feynmanc303]

Thanks. This is good

[@jeffreymiksis7621]

Thanks. Always open to suggestions on where to go next!

[@darlysonreis8579]

Thanks 👏😀

[@sykhoihoang4324]

I don't know but I saw Caeleb dressel uses the butterfly arm motion ( one of the best 15-meter-start swimmers ) when he jumps and some videos claim that it is much faster than original movements.

[@performanceswimcoaching4601]

Thanks for the comment. See another below mentioning another swimmer and the different arm style. There are a few world class athletes that are utilizing a more butterfly like arm motion. I’d urge you to be cautious teaching that to young kids. You might find yourself undo’ing some habits later.

[@wangsus3802]

In the video, they teach not to do the butterfly arm motion, but they show it with a completely straight arm. Caeleb dressel does do a butterfly arm motion, but his arms are bent, sort of like how a little child might attempt to do butterfly for the first time.

[@rae6555]

The issue has nothing to do with wether the arms are bent or not. Olympic swimmer Brad Tandy utilizes a straight arm Butterfly motion and he has arguably the best start in the world. However, this motion is really complex even though it might seem easy at first. It's best to develop a good start without a butterfly motion first before trying this out. When taught to young swimmers they won't get a feeling of what it's like to get the arms involved correctly. I also did the butterfly arm motion for a while but now I went back to the classic arm motion and since my start has improved by a lot. Only when there is nothing more to improve I'll switch back.

[@andrewthomas8737]

Brad Tandy uses the fly arms start.
Any comments?

[@miksis44]

Thanks for the comment Andrew. I think that there’s some behaviors that exceptional elite athletes can learn to use to their advantage. I think a coach would be making a grave mistake to push that dive style on to their entire team.

[@andrewthomas8737]

@@miksis44 I concur with you. Brad does have an
Excellent start and breakout.
Very well coached.

[@SimonaF-z4r]

Do you have an IG account?

[@neohchunwei7033]

Distance fly,😆😆

[@JustinWang]

2:56

[@christaylor2685]

Daddy ohhhhh

[@danmaraderie]

wtf

[@osamaahmed3574]

2:42