SwimSwam took a visit to the University of Pittsburgh, where head coach Chase Kreitler is in his first season at the helm for the panthers. We went through a full day of training with the Pitt Swimming and Diving team, which started with diving practice at 8am.
On a Monday morning, the divers are just getting back into the swing of things and focusing more on their approaches and lead-ups than they are on their entries. From there, I met the Pitt coaching staff at Pamela’s diner (in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, say it 5x fast) for, among other breakfast yummies, banana chocolate chip crepe-style hotcakes (smothered in whipped cream).
We were back on campus in the afternoon for weights at 2pm, where they “were able to push it a little bit” with some Olympic lift derivatives with a focus on “re-amping the central nervous system”.
At right after the lift from 3:30-5:30, Kreitler was coaching the mid-distance/IM group, where they had a cross-over focus, starting with aerobic work and then getting into anaerobic work, using resistance to prime the athletes for the faster, more focused swims.
I need more of what’s going on in the practice if we’re going to get the little divedove intro.
Chase once told me with a straight face when he was a Volunteer Coach at Texas how difficult and challenging it was to recruit males to UT. Wonder what he thinks now after recruiting people to Pitt. Also, “Easy Lover” by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins is a quintessential 80’s jam song. Good stuff.
Once he makes some swimmers great (especially from his backyard) recruiting will become easier. Till then, swimmers with Western PA connections or foreign hired guns will work. Talk with Alumnae.
They’ve had Blaise Vera and Cooper Van der laan for years who were swimming phenomenal at NCAAs and couldn’t build off of them.
You should have gone to Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh at 2 am for a real Pittsburgh food experience
Is it better to lift before or after a practice or does it depend on the swimmer?
or does it depend on when you can get into the weight room and the pool?