David Marsh, SwimMAC CEO & Head Coach (courtesy of Mike Lewis, olavistaphotography.com)
11-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte guns for speed on his fourth run at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Lochte has amassed an enormous base of training under Coach Gregg Troy at the University of Florida, and he’s shown speed, but his training was geared for the 400 IM. The speed we witnessed was evidence of an extraordinarily talented swimmer (and coach Troy’s ability to push Lochte’s very broad limits). Lochte’s move to SwimMAC Team Elite in Charlotte, North Carolina is calculated, a shift in focus to 100 and 200 meter races only. Lochte made the move after watching his friend and Olympic peer Cullen Jones develop into a 4-time Olympic medalist in the sprint freestyle events.
Under SwimMAC CEO and Head Coach David Marsh, Lochte has been drilling-down on his explosive power. Coach Marsh is famous for making slight changes and tiny tweaks to squeeze every ounce of power from a swimmer’s stroke. Lochte’s already opening up his freestyle a bit more, going over-the-barrel as Marsh would say. You can expect to see more tweaks in breaststroke and backstroke over 2014 and 2015.
Coach Marsh will be the first to say his training method for truly professional elites like Lochte isn’t ideal without the time, effort and energy their coaches invested developing their bases over many, many years. It’s a two-coach effort. Several coaches are now collaborating with Marsh, sending elite college swimmers to SwimMAC for the summer season. Some elites, like Tyler Clary, are adopting a two-coach effort. Marsh will guide most of the speed and power work for the 2012 200 backstroke gold medalist, while Clary’s coach in Michigan, Mike Bottom, will manage pockets of the season scheduled for base-work and threshold training.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by Swimoutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com.
Until you have been on deck in Gainesville, you are relying on rumors and speculation. UF has specific coaches who coach specific groups. Those who think that Caleb is going to be in the same workout group as someone training for the mile, 400 IM, or 200 fly are just plain ignorant.
Looking at SECs (I think they had the top seed coming out of prelims in the men’s and women’s 50 free), and looking at last season’s results (two girls under 48 in the 100), the UF sprint program is legit.
I am always curious to know why people bash the UF sprint program because it is considered a distance school, but the same criticism is not directed towards… Read more »
He’s perfectly capable of speaking at an age-appropriate level. It is just out of his comfort zone; he feels silly. Get over it, Ryan.
For what it’s worth… I’d have a tough time coming off as thoughtful and focused in a deck interview during warmups, too. Some people have a knack for it, some people don’t. Lochte could use some public speaking classes, sure, but one could argue that his informal approach wins over those teen fangirls.
Change can be good, or at least useful. You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Swimswammers are to funny!
They dump garbage (pun no intended) on Gregg Troy for employing tons of yardage training.
And they also bash the Andrews for training less yardage.
Maybe they think a happy medium is ideal?
Well, I mean, yeah. It’s not like this is some kind of hivemind. The people that hate “garbage” will whine on these posts, while those that hate short stuff’ll pipe up on the Michael Andrew stuff.
Ryan chooses to act like a clown because he doesn’t want to grow up. It helps him blend in better with the “kids” he likes to party with. It’s also a very low-effort way to differentiate himself from his athlete/Olympian peers. That shtick opened a lot of doors in the past, but it is definitely getting old and is probably holding him back at this point.
You can’t deny the importance of endurance in any sport, yes. Sometimes outlasting the field is all it takes but the quality training will definitely help him at this stage in the game. I just hope that he doesn’t lose too much of the former.
If you work hard, you swim fast. Lochte works hard, so no matter how many yards he swims, he will be fast.
I follow many athletes in many sports and there is no one that irritates me more than this guy. Michael Andrew is 14 and has more maturity and class than this clown.
I think the majority of people see Lochte for who he is. I’ll never forget this classic interview of the reporters who are laughing AT him not WITH him…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuV1JYgyBxY
Eh. The guy was bad at interviews. He’s gotten a lot better. Look at him in the video Mel posted: He’s talking about swimming, and it’s interesting and coherent. When he sticks to what he knows, it’s all good. I can’t speak for his reality TV show, never watched it, but it’s reality TV which means that the chances of that being the ‘real’ Ryan Lochte are slim.
You can be as irritated with him as you like, don’t get me wrong, but let’s keep this in perspective: We don’t see Ryan Lochte on the news for anything like DUIs, hitting women, or dogfighting. I’ll take “reality TV sellout” or “bad interviewee” anyday.
Ryan Lochte does have 11 Olympic medals and has set world records and has won world championships throughout his long career. That does take some skill and intelligence.
Ya, Dennis Rodman has 5 NBA championship rings and Mike Tyson numerous heavyweight titles. I guess that takes intelligence too..
None of these people (Lochte included) needed intelligence to reach the peak of their profession, but they all needed a tremendous amount of heart and determination.
People are complex. Tyson and Rodman are not perfect people (they are the first to admit that) but each of them is admirable for what they achieved. Tyson grew up surrounded by violence and was constantly bullied. In his prime he was unbeatable. Dennis Rodman was not a talented scorer, but his extreme devotion to mastering rebounding and defense is a huge reason the Bulls won so many titles. Rodman never cared about boosting his stats.
I agree with Sven. In balance, Ryan Lochte is a great role model. I’m proud he’s a… Read more »
Sidebar…Rodman and Tyson are painfully dumb and ignorant even though they try hard not to be. Ryan just doesn’t try at all. Hasn’t tried for FAR too long. I don’t think he should be compared to those poor souls.
Swimzlazy, I saw that interview and I was APPALLED by their nastiness, and cruelty. No RL is no Einstein, and he has been in a pool what 8 hours a day? since he was 10. Ok so he never had the time to develop “social” skills. But he is kind, generous with his time, and very, very nice.