Kim Brackin: Swimming Faster The Auburn Way: Training and Race Strategies for Backstroke (DVD)

with Kim Brackin, University of Texas Head Women's Swimming Coach; former Auburn University associate head coach Brackin begins this video by sharing the five phases of a season she uses with her backstrokers. Throughout the training phases, Brackin relates how a shorter high school season would fit into the seasonal plan she shares. Phase 1: Aerobic Phase. Focus areas include a dryland circuit out of the water and in the water and aerobic swimming incorporating technique work. Phase 2: Aerobic Overload, focuses on increasing the aerobic intensity and bringing in an emphasis on racing tempo. In Phase 3: Quality Training, Brackin transitions her backstrokers into more quality work and adds a focus to race intensity training. Brackin also touches on gender differences in the training phases. Phase 4 brings in a lot of quality work with more race-specific focus. Also, race-specific skills are fine-tuned in this phase in preparation for Phase 5, the taper phase. Coach Brackin then shares what she calls "season long essentials" that serve as a great reminder to a coach that there are several aspects of training and skill development that need to be honed throughout the entire season. In keeping with Coach Marsh's love of training toys, Brackin next shares the training devices she incorporates into backstroke training. In the final section, Brackin details race strategies for the 50, 100, and 200 backstroke events for both short and long course. 48 minutes. 2004.