NX Level : Speakers & Interviews

I love brad...and what the hell, anytime a new video comes up, some doucher (trojan_x) tries to prove it wrong. Just because this video was put up on floswimming doesnt mean its a gift from the swimming gods, its just a way for swimmers around the world the opportunity to see what others are doing. As for you, Mr. Trojan man, I think you just like hearing yourself and moan trying to prove some point that NOBODY GIVES CARES ABOUT. If you want to prove a point write a book or start a garbage Trojanman blog.

i feel that that information is very beneficial. however, i am a very large supporter of general athleticism. a person that is a better "athlete" has a larger limit of improvement. its turning these kids into better athletes that will make them stronger all around and have better proprioception. dont know if thats spelled right. but those that just swim swim swim have limitations. of course some are just freaks of nature. (phelps) if we were to watch him push a sled, wed encourage him to wear a helmet. but improving your level of athleticism, so lifting, running, biking, doing different activities i think can play a large role in high school/college athletes.

Implication. Emphasized kicking training does not transfer training benefits to free swimming. This finding supports the implications of the Principle of Specificity. It suggests that the skills involved in kicking-alone activities are discrete activities and bear no relationship to the kicking action that occurs when performing a full swimming action. [The current revival of interest in kicking while swimming, particularly the crawl stroke, is very likely to be another instance of swimming coaches following another blind-path that will not enhance competitive swimming performance.]

Konstantaki, M., & Winter, E. M. (2007). The effectiveness of a leg-kicking training program on performance and physiological measure of competitive swimmers. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 2, 37-48.



This study investigated the adaptations in leg muscle metabolism and swimming function after a six-week, increased-kicking training program. Male swimmers were divided into a control group (N = 7) that followed standard training which included 4% as kicking, and an experimental group (N = 8) that performed 20% of training as kicking. Both groups covered the same total training volume per week. Kicking training included no equipment and equipment (e.g., boards and fins). Physiological measures associated with kicking were obtained from a dry-land simulation of swimming and kicking.

After the six weeks, the kicking-emphasis group improved kicking performance (200-m kicking time trial) and kicking-associated physiological measures (oxygen uptake at 60 watts, exercise intensity at ventilatory threshold). There were no changes in 400-m freestyle swimming time or peak oxygen uptake. The control group did not change in any measure.

Scubasteve - have you seen some great triathletes struggle in the water ? It is all about specific muscle endurance - not general endurance. Good point though on the 98% ...
There are a lot of things you can and should be doing outside of the water - but I think if your time is limited (like most swimmers), you should first maximize time trained in the water. If you are swimming 8 hours a week, your next 2 hours extra hours are better spent in the water.

ScubaSteve0o7, you cant 100% say that because you're a good runner and athlete out of the water that you'll be a good swimmer. There is no doubt that it builds stamina and increases your aerobic system. But swimming is more the just ones aerobic system. Brad is not saying that swimmers should never run, as he says if you bring someone in who is weak and has little mobility more times then not they will have some type of injury. He is just saying that there are many alternatives to running. We push football sleds loaded with weight and I guarantee you that doing sleds elevates our heart rates just as high, if not higher then if we were running. I agree with doodoobutter, sweet name by the way, that to maximize your leg strength one must blend many different leg exercises some in the pool and some out of the pool.

Regardless of the whole running argument, Brad is the man.

98% of what research? Don't make up statistics because of your "general feelings." Running increases your aerobic system, that helps swimming. It's not too hard to figure out. The better of an athlete you are out of the pool, the better you will be inside.

Besides the usual anecdotes, general feelings, and so on there is very little factual evidence that this works -- 98% of all research will tell you - no gain. It simply does not work -- go ahead, put 1/2 your team on your running program and the other 1/2 on simple swimming.

i think that the best way to be a good kicker is not only to kick to strengthen your legs but you should do a multitude of leg excercises. runnin, biking, lifting, kicking, kicking with fins, resistance kicking. you want to create power, torque(as urbanchek would say) stamina, and endurance in your legs. but i also know of people that are amazing kickers but dont transfer it to the actual swimming. swimming with 6bt and 12-bt once in a while, is a great way to add stregth and teach yourself to utilize that strength.

I coach - and I will say that we run 3-4 times a week for the first 5 weeks of every season. And I can say that our leg sizes and strength have increased dramatically = faster kicking intervals for us. Our vertical and long jumps, as well as quickness on box jumps have all increased - as well as improving aerobic capacity without banging out tuns of yardage in early season. Can you only run and become great - no. Will it help - absolutely. Is there a direct connection between running and kicking - yes... at least for my team.

I coach - and I will say that we run 3-4 times a week for the first 5 weeks of every season. And I can say that our leg sizes and strength have increased dramatically = faster kicking intervals for us. Our vertical and long jumps, as well as quickness on box jumps have all increased - as well as improving aerobic capacity without banging out tuns of yardage in early season. Can you only run and become great - no. Will it help - absolutely. Is there a direct connection between running and kicking - yes... at least for my team.

To nxlevel --- I get that part about running not "hurting you". Although after training for a very very long time I have come to the conclusion that: whatever does not help you, will actually hurt you. There is always a trade-off, especially between lifting and swimming. About the leg strength -- if you looking in the weight room to get more leg strength for kicking, you are looking in the wrong place. Explosion off the blocks and walls - yes , but kicking will not transfer.

lance armstrong probably had some shoulder strength deficits, but have you seen anyone bike before? theyre always cathodic. that means their shoulders are always rolled forward to be more aerodynamic. theyre not going to have their shoulers sit back in their scaps too much because there will be too much wind resistance.

leg strength not important for swimmers? are you kidding me??? what about all the kicking we do?? 90% of swimmers dont need strong legs? give me BREAK. Have you watched lochtes, phelps, thorpes, grevers, schoemans, vanhoogenbands, lezaks, cullenjones, peter marshalls, randall bals, crockers, neil walkers kick????? maybe thats why you guys did terrible this year trojan.

dont worry about it sota boys! see you nextyear! good luck this summer.

hes not saying running will make you a better swimmer. but if youre strong enough it wont hurt you. some coaches out there for dryland or cross training will just run their athletes. and a lot if kids if theyre not strong enough get messed up knees and backs because of it. thats what he was trying to point out.

Back to the video and his ideas -- I am at about 50% valuable and 50% not so much. I am sure that Lance Armstrong had some big shoulder strength "deficits".

Leg strength is simply not that important for 90% of the swimmers - running will not make you a better swimmer.

I concur with sota'boyz and sarasota mac I was simply defending the freshman. see you guys next year at y-nats.

I did not post that tucker and I you wont get shot at y nats cause it was rory

Commander_x started this whole thing by putting schroder=not extreme...im gonna get shot at ynats now............thanks marty

Thanks for making us look bad gaylord. For all u schroeder guys, this kid [swim 100] is the biggest sissy ever who walked a pool deck..hes an oversized 14 yr old who has a lick of talent. Nxt year at ynats you guys have permission to do whatever you want to him. Don't worry the real guys on our team who do the scoring have talked to you in the awards room and know that you are fast. Just shows you how much a noob t-shirt collector knows about the other team.

I thought this was about NX level and Brad Arnett...?
There should be no bashing of teams here. Schroeder and Sarasota are both great teams. Its hard to compare them head to head because Schroeder focuses on sprinting, and Sarasota on distance.

sorry schroeder, swim100 is a total idiot, his stupid rookie freshman who has no right to talk. As coach said freshman should be seen not heard. Commanderx is just defending swim100, after all he is a stupid freshman. You guys have a great program hope to see you guys next year at Ynats.

Amen to the last few voices of reason!! Let get this discussion off the personal and on to the greater advancement of the sport.

how could sarasota go head to head with schroeder in sprinting?

200medley relay
Schroeder YMCA 1st
Sarasota YMCA 9th

200free relay
schroeder ymca 1st
sarasota ymca 17th

do the numbers not speak for themselves?

both are fantastic teams however. take for example the distance events.
sarasota had 5 guys score in the 500. 7 in the 1000, and 6 in the mile. thats amazing. i swam in college, and it was always "sprinters win championships". yet sarasota has found out a way to do it with distance swimmers.

great job to both teams. hats off to you. please stop the negative talk. swimming has prided its sport as one where opponents in the water are friends out of the water.

this is all quite comical, however isnt ymca swimming about respect? why the bashing sarasota?

Well, this is getting out of hand fast. I don't even see where this is going. First of all, Schroeder and Sarasota are both phenomenal teams, however you can't necessarily compare either of them. One's a distance oriented program and one is a sprint program. It's that simple, it's like comparing cross country to track. That's dumb.

Okay, because I'm on Schroeder, I have to speak in our defense when I mention that vw2 noted that we did only have 3 individual scorers to produce our score. So if you want to say that Sarasota is better than Schroeder, I guess in the sense of depth I can concur. When it comes to quality, however, you could argue for either side all day long.

But what Schroeder does is sprinting. And we do it well. So why not share some of the stuff we do right with others? Is there something wrong with that? COMMANDER_x, if you think you can do without the information we're presenting, then go on your merry way. You obviously come from a team with superior sprinting ability.

Nobody is going to argue with Sarasota about their distance training, so why do you attack us?

Regardless, what does any of this have to do with Brad Arnett discussing lifting and swimming? If you want to say that we're not good enough, and therefore Brad is not good enough as a source of knowledge, you are sorely mistaken. Brad is extremely experienced as well noted in the introduction of this video.

Thank you to WEST-WI for our defense, however the Schroeder YMCA cannot take association with those remarks if they have in any way offended you. WEST is the Waukesha Express Swim Team.

there's no one knocking sarasota buddy. There's no doubt that you guys owned y nationals. I'm just not sure why you feel the need to attack schroeder.. And do you still believe that size matters in swimming? Do you think that because some of us are big and strong that we don't put in any effort? Also, if sprinting isn't hard, where was your 2 free relay? because last time I checked, that is the ultimate test of a teams sprinting ability. You guys are primarily distance swimmers. We're primarily sprinters. But we all put in the work my friend.

to west-wi I find it comical your lack of knowledge and class. Sarasota Y, Whom utterly shafted at ymca nationals, has about ten of the most extreme undersized male athletes in the country in their events. They arent 6,4 195 pounds, and they werent blessed with the body of a swimming god, but they put in the work, time, and effort to become true champions. To your comment about sprinting, its not that hard!!! Try swimming a mile. And sarasota Y has milers who could go head to head in sprinting with schroeder any day. If I could attach any picture to this post I think it would have to be the last night of y nats when the scoreboard showed our team DOUBLING the second and third teams combined points. Think before you type.

swim100.. does that mean you swim a 100? a 100 of what stroke?
freestyle? do you go a 44.90?
breastroke? do you go a 57.06?
fly? do you go a 49.96 (10 minutes after a thousand)?
backstroke? do you go a 50.9 (guy didn't swim at ynats, and he's a sophomore)

cos the last time i checked there were only maybe 5 people in each event that can do that in the country under the age of 18. and sarasota didn't have any of them.

the cool thing isn't even their times, it's the amount of time they dropped since they started putting in work. i think "bert" was 46.5 last year this meet. colbert was 58.7 and the flyer was 51.2. i'd say they're doing something right.

and lest we forget that they've only got one olympian on the team and a guy that can split 18. their medley might have been over a second under the national record (not just the ymca national record) if they had been able to bring their backstroker. nothing big. look swim100 (and commander x for that matter), i know most of the schroeder guys personally and i give them a lot of respect. if you don't... nobody here really cares about your opinion. this is an informative video that's provided far more information than your inappropriate garbage. so maybe you should just go back to the pool and try to achieve some of the times they have.

anyone see the sarasota 4 medley at y nats? cuz i saw them 4 seconds behind schroeder.

yes because we didnt win three relays or anything. and we didnt get second with only 3 individual scorers. so yes, we are not extreme at all

....cuz i didn't see them anywhere, all i saw was sarasota ballin' outta control!!!!!!!

anyone see schroder in that 8 free relay at ynats?

Schroeder Y = not extreme

Don't forget that while Brad works with many Schroeder Y swimmers, you don't have to belong to that club in order to work with NX level.

great video. i can't wait to see what kind of workouts he uses for that "correction" he was talking about (referring to legs and shoulders). It will be great to see what the top level coaches do.

were currently working on cutting and editing the workout section of this, so just be patient and well have some stuff up soon hopefully. within the next 2 weeks. theres some great ideas in the lifting video, and everything is explained what we do and why we do it. its really cool.

Good guy-Great coach

this is valuable knowledge. we really need more of this.

no messing around...brad=badass

There should be one soon

will there be a workout video posted

This man is amazing, any swimmer around milwaukee needs to check this place out.

This guy really knows what he's talking about. This is one of the best videos I've seen.

Good Stuff Brad, we are trying to think that way all the way trough youth development.