In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
Episodes
Monday Jun 22, 2020
Monday Jun 22, 2020
We sat down with Tom Jager, the man who held the 50m freestyle world record longer than anyone else to date. He got into the nitty-gritty of how he developed speed, including learning to listen to his body and do what he needed to do, not necessarily what every coach at the time thought he needed. This eventually evolved into his trademark set, 10x50 all out (this was in the late 80's... sound like anyone else in our current swimming community?).
Jager also enlightened us on what he and Matt Biondi tried to change in terms of swimmers getting paid, by USA Swimming and by outside sponsorships. He speaks openly about how upset he was that athletes were getting scraps compared to what coaches or officials were taking home.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Thursday Jun 18, 2020
Thursday Jun 18, 2020
We sat down with Olympic medalist and world champ Brent Hayden. Brent discussed that while he is commonly perceived as intimidating, that typically dissipates when he opens his mouth. Brent is, in a word, a sweetheart. He's incredibly intelligent and finds solace in photography, of which he's had numerous shows (you can see his work here).
What you may not know about Brent is that at his first Olympics in 2004, after already performing poorly by his standards, he was mistaken for a rioter in the streets of Athens and assaulted by numerous policemen, resulting in an elbow injury which kept him out of the short course world championships the following autumn. However, this entire Olympic experience did give Hayden the motivation he needed to really commit, and push himself to new heights in the pool, including his world championship title in 2007.
Hayden (who has been making a comeback since 2019, something you can listen to more of here), is now putting his efforts in SwimSecrets.com, his own freestyle master course, taught by him. During these classes, Hayden teaches you all of the tricks to having a world-class freestyle.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
We sat down with me, Coleman Hodges, to tell you a little about who I am, why I got into swimming, and how I ended up at SwimSwam producing a lot of its media, including the SwimSwam Podcast and Practice + Pancakes. In short, from my perspective at least, I made myself be reliable and consistent with my work and always embraced new opportunities. I think it helped that I was a total swim geek too.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
We sat down with the Texas men's assistant coach, Wyatt Collins, to pick his brain about the extremely storied Texas Tradition. Collins talks us through his own swimming career, coming to Texas as a swimmer, learning the Texas way through being a volunteer coach for 3 seasons, and finally what led to him being the assistant to current head coach Eddie Reese.
Wyatt admits that over the last 2 seasons, he's learned to step out of the shadow of legendary associate head coach Kris Kubik, and make the Texas Tradition his own. That seems to be one reason why Austin Katz described this last year's team as "the weirdest we've ever been", in a good way. According to Collins, this included lots of very bad jokes being told before practice, singing during practice, and even a cricket-hunting competition outside of practice.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Monday Jun 15, 2020
We sat down with 2016 Olympic head coach David Marsh and picked his brain on how small changes can make huge differences, especially when you want them to. Marsh has a history of working with athletes for a very short amount of time and it making a big difference.
This first started with none other than SwimSwam Co-founder Mel Stewart, as Mel went to train with Marsh for 8 weeks in the summer of 1990. Marsh made technical changes with Mel, and the next January in 1991, Mel broke his first world record in the 200 fly in 1:55.69.
Marsh goes in-depth about other athletes he's trained to success, including Cullen Jones, who was a toss-up to make the 2008 Olympic team heading into Trials, but who stormed his way onto the team in the 4x100 free relay.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Friday Jun 12, 2020
Friday Jun 12, 2020
We sat down with Jaylan Butler, a rising junior on the Eastern Illinois swim team who had his life threatened by a group of white policemen at a rest stop in the highway coming home from Conference championships in 2019.
We started the conversation with how Jaylan got into swimming and ended up at EIU. Jaylan was a latecomer to swimming, starting competitively when he was 14, and attributed his coaches as the reason he stuck with it and continued his career onto college. Freshman year was a big transition for him, but he ended the season on a high note at the Summit League Championships, registering best times in multiple events. However, on the way home from the meet is when the police mistook him for a suspect. Per the ACLU:
In February of 2019, his team was on a bus returning home from the Summit League Championships. When the bus stopped at a rest stop in Illinois, police mistook Jaylan for a suspect they were pursuing and handcuffed him face-down in the snow with a knee in his back and guns pointed at his head. One officer threatened to shoot him. When police realized they had the wrong suspect, instead of letting Jaylan free, they kept him handcuffed, searched his pockets, and told him they were arresting him for resisting arrest. Police only released Jaylan when he could provide photo ID.
** Though the police refused to give their names, the ACLU has tracked down four of the six officers involved and filed a lawsuit for false arrest and excessive force. SwimSwam has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for more information about the officers and any prior complaints against them. **
Jaylan told us his initial reaction to the situation, as well as how he tried to process and recover from it over the course of the next year. He said his sophomore season was great in terms of training in the water, but his racing did not translate that at all. It wasn't until the 2020 conference championships where he realized this incident was having a negative effect on his performances.
We finished our conversation with Jaylan's advice on how to make sure we are creating a safe and welcoming environment for people of color, whether that's in the pool or outside of it.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Thursday Jun 11, 2020
Thursday Jun 11, 2020
We sat down with 2012 Olympic champion and Swimmingly CEO Charlie Houchin. Charlie walked us through his swimming career, from swimming at Michigan collegiately to making an Olympic team and ultimately winning gold as a member of the 4x200 free relay.
Charlie admits he had no intention of ever staying in the swimming community after his career was over, but one of his college professors ended up changing his mind. From then on, Charlie started developing his app while continuing his swimming career (2012-2014), and eventually released Swimmingly, a different way of running a swim meet.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Wednesday Jun 10, 2020
Wednesday Jun 10, 2020
We sat down with Indiana head coach Ray Looze, who has built up quite possibly the best breaststroke group on earth. He talks about the ins and outs of learning how to coach breaststroke, what he looks for in potential recruits, and how to build up a great breaststroke. Looze coaches, among others, American greats Cody Miller, Lilly King, and Annie Lazor. He talks about what each of them do really well, and where they don’t necessarily excel.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Monday Jun 08, 2020
Monday Jun 08, 2020
We sat down with former members of the East Carolina University swim and dive team, which got cut unexpectedly just weeks ago. This included former head coach Richard Kobe and sophomores Randi Palandro and Ryan Brennan. We discussed what made East Carolina such a special team, how the fundraising of over $400,000 has gone so far, and what it might take to revive this storied program.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
Sunday Jun 07, 2020
Sunday Jun 07, 2020
We sat down with Grant House, who recapped in just under 2 hours his entire swimming career. That started in Ohio, where House began swimming at a young age and eventually came to swim for the legendary St. Xavier high school. House contributed to their winning an unexpected state title his freshman year, winning 2 individual events and anchoring their winning 400 free relay.
House goes on to explain his experiences at the World Jr Championships, the rest of his high school career, and transitioning to the Arizona State team under Bob Bowman. House gives his in-depth analysis at how he's grown under Bowman at ASU, why he decided to red-shirt, and what he's gained over the last 3 years in Tempe.
Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com