You are working on Staging1

Welcome Back: Texas A&M Men Swim 4,900 Yards on First Day Back to Practice

The Texas A&M Men’s Swimming & Diving Team were among the first collegiate programs to return to practice this week amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.

As of June 1, the NCAA is allowing teams to have voluntary in-person workouts with its varsity athletics programs, although these are to be ‘conditioning workouts.’ That line in swimming is a blurry one, as conditioning is the nature of most workouts anyway.

For the Texas A&M men, the workout came with no coaches on deck, supervised by lifeguards instead.

Assistant coach Jason Calanog says that the goal was to check athletes’ fitness level and to work on small details that might have been lost in weeks away from organized practice, including pushing off the wall, streamlining, and stroke details.

Along with the Texas A&M women, 13 swimmers at the University of Louisville, and the University of Delaware, the Aggie men are among a handful of teams that have confirmed a return to on-campus training this week.

The A&M men, led by US National Teamer Shaine Casas, had a breakout season in 2019-2020. They were 2nd at the SEC Championships, the team’s best-ever finish at that meet. They were predicted to finish 7th at the NCAA Championship in the final SwimSwam Power Rankings before that meet was ultimately cancelled.

Below, see the Texas A&M men’s first full voluntary conditioning workout back in the pool.

Warmup

  • 200 swim
  • 200 kick
  • 200 pull
  • 200 drill
  • 1 x 100 kick @1:40
  • 2 x {4 x 25 variable sprint* @:30}

Main Set

  • 8 x 75 kick @1:05/1:10
  • 1 x 400 drill-swim by 50 IM order
  • 8 x 75 kick-swim-kick on 1:05.1:10
  • 1 x 400 {100 pull-100 swim-100 pull-100 swim} breathing every 3rd stroke
  • 8 x 75 BK pull/50 breast, 25 free @1:05/1:10
  • 1 x 400 {kick-swim by 25 IM order}
  • 8 x 75 kick with fins @1:00
  • 1 x 400 free breathing every 3rd stroke

Cool Down

  • 200 yards cool down

*Variable sprint means a short burst of speed somewhere within the repeat

In This Story

17
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

17 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Random observer
4 years ago

Is 5k supposed to be impressive…bunch of softies

Swimmerdude420
Reply to  Random observer
4 years ago

The article doesn’t say that it’s impressive

Swim Dawg
4 years ago

Easy

Daniel Jablonski
4 years ago

Uhhh.. first day and 5000 yards? Jeez, I know A&M is a top tier program nowadays, but even pro swimmers can’t just jump straight into a 5k practice after a 2~3 month break… can they?

the michael phelps caterpillar
Reply to  Daniel Jablonski
4 years ago

David Jablewski, I brought back a group of age groupers (illegally) about 2 months ago to train. Their first practice they did a set of 10×500 for time to see how many of them were doing the 10 miles of running I had required them to do during this pandemic. If they can do it, pros can too.

Blackflag82
Reply to  the michael phelps caterpillar
4 years ago

^ everything about this statement is dumb

The michael phelps caterpillar
Reply to  Blackflag82
4 years ago

You would never make it on my team. Only the strong survive.

CACrushers
Reply to  The michael phelps caterpillar
4 years ago

Should have made them do it with socks, seeing as their legs would be in such great shape

Ricardo
Reply to  Daniel Jablonski
4 years ago

Ok danny berlitz

Texas A&M Swim Fan
Reply to  Daniel Jablonski
4 years ago

Believe me (if you will), the guys on this team did this!! Just amazing athletes as well as young men👍.

Drewbrewsbeer
4 years ago

Looks like a good practice!

Coach A
4 years ago

Interesting that no coaches were on-deck, as they are permitted to be present as a “safety exception” during “voluntary” activities. Other part of the voluntary parameters is that coaches are not supposed to get any information as to who was there or how they did, so to “check their fitness” would imply a report back to coaches. Just be present for the safety purpose and observe what you want to observe. Anyway, glad some people are able to be back in the water – good for them

Wow
4 years ago

5,300 not 4,900

8 x 75 = 600
1 x 400 = 400
600 + 400 = 1,000 x 4 = 4,000 + 1,100 Warm-up + 200 CD = 5,300 yards

Texas A&M Swim Fan
4 years ago

Oh yeah👍. These guys are back “on it”!! Getting prepared to do some quality “gigging” in the future!! I know that they are “chompin at the bit” to get this year fully underway & I can hardly wait for that first meet to get here so I can raise a “little ( well maybe a bit more than a little) yell & hell” from the mezzanine area of natatorium. I’m “all in all the time”!! Keep working hard Ags!! It’ll pay off in big dividends!! Gig em & keep gigging em👍👍

Swimmer
Reply to  Texas A&M Swim Fan
4 years ago

I love this guy hahaha

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »