SwimSwam is excited to bring back our “Drill of the Month” segment! This is a monthly recurring feature that brings drills and idea submissions from various creative and innovative coaches all over the world.
November’s Drill of the Month comes to us from Arizona State University associate head coach Herbie Behm. Primarily a sprint coach, Behm has been coaching at ASU since 2018 and was elevated to the role of associate head coach in April of 2022 after the Sun Devils had their best men’s team finish at NCAAs in 40 years. Behm also swam for Arizona State from 2010-2013, where he was on a school record-setting 400 medley relay and graduated with a degree in Psychology.
Behm calls this drill “Reverse Turns.” It’s a bodyline drill that ASU does for all four strokes. Here is Behm’s description of “Reverse Turns.”
“The goal is to keep a god bodyline while moving through several different body positions. The five seconds of max speed kick causes some fatigue in the legs, then the reverse glide forces a good bodyline and puts the athletes in a spot where they have to accelerate into the wall and hit the turn from a unique starting point each time.”
The process for “Reverse Turns” is fairly simple. The swimmers start with their hands on the wall, then do five seconds of max speed kicking. They then push of the wall into a reverse glide, then breakout and swim in for a fast turn.
Here is a video of the freestyle version of “Reverse Turns.”
Work the legs.
Find the line.
Hit the turn. pic.twitter.com/JJFAOfhhO1— Herbie Behm (@SirHerb_the3rd) October 5, 2022
Here is a video of the breaststroke version:
Breaststroke version. Legs feed the wolf. pic.twitter.com/V8V66R1loK
— Herbie Behm (@SirHerb_the3rd) October 6, 2022
And here is a version with a couple of ASU swimmers doing the drill butterfly:
When your body has all the answers, it’s time to change the questions. pic.twitter.com/hq3nUndQVv
— Herbie Behm (@SirHerb_the3rd) October 7, 2022
Love the drills and the coach! Not a fan of the selection process though. Would be cool to see a submission process and not just based on those already at the higher level. Personally, I’d like to see SwimSwam’s drill of the month to incorporate drills for all levels of swimmers and to engage/encourage teams to compete for drill of the month.