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Ash Delaney talks Power Racks, Gym Work, Backstroke Technique, 50’s in LA, and Kyle Chalmers 100 Free

The final pod of 2024!

We’re joined by the great Ash Delaney - former Olympic backstroker and current Head Coach at St Andrew’s Anglican College.

Ash shares his journey from competing in the Beijing Olympics to shaping the careers of some of Australia's top swimmers today, including insights on his coaching philosophy, the evolution of sprint training, and his pivotal role in guiding athletes like Kyle Chalmers and Isaac Cooper.

Here are 5 things I learned from Brett’s recent conversation with Coach Ash Delaney.

1. Kyle Chalmers is a nice guy… But a BULLY in the pool

Chalmers is a “competitive beast”.

One day, Ash’s group was doing easy repeat 100s. Even on this non-competitive set, Kyle ensured he out-touched his teammates on every interval. To keep Kyle on his toes, Ash told one of the younger swimmers to sprint the last 5 meters of the next easy 100 just to beat Kyle. The swimmer dutifully followed his instructions and beat the 9x Olympic medalist.

Kyle was infuriated.

Ash started laying into Kyle - playfully criticizing him for getting beat. Kyle couldn’t even look at him.

Ash explains that Kyle’s competitive nature extends into many areas of life, including recreational games like darts to stupid games like throwing trash into a trash can.

2. The Secret Behind Isaac Cooper’s Backstroke

Isaac Cooper does 1 thing in his backstroke, better than ANYONE else.

At the end of his backstroke pull, the 2x Olympian keeps his elbow anchored to his hip and aggressively DRIVES towards his thigh. This motion creates a final blast of propulsion and significantly speeds up body rotation.

Personally, Coach Ash wishes he learned this earlier. During his career, Ash was taught to flick the water up at the end of the pull - thus losing power and putting the shoulders in an awkward position.

3. Use the Gym for BACK-END SPEED

Ash credits the gym for his sprinters’ recent success.

After a large macrocycle of gym work at the beginning of the season, one of Ash’s athletes (100 flyer) put on A LOT of size. With State Championships just around the corner, Ash was worried because:

More Size = More Drag = Less Speed

As well as this, the team lacked endurance training and Ash had major concerns about his athletes’ backend speed. Yes they were stronger, but they surely lacked the fitness to finish a race. At least that’s what Ash thought. But instead, that 100 flyer dropped from 54.3 → 52.9.

The rest of the sprint team performed similarly and achieved major PBs… their back-end speed was basically unaffected. 

Ash believes the sprinters had more energy for their back-end speed because they were able to maintain their front-end speed with less effort - as a result of their increased strength from gym work.

More Size = More Power = More Speed

4. Power Racks: Can you get a faster time with less strokes?

This sums up Ash’s model for success on the Power Rack - he records weight, time and stroke rate, but prioritizes stroke count over everything. Ash wants his athletes to swim fast, just not using a wild, inefficient stroke.

The athlete should be simulating their ideal race stroke on the power tower, just with additional resistance. If the athlete trains inefficiently, they will race inefficiently.

Resistance tools can be a major asset for performance.

5. 50’s at LA 2028??

Will there be 50’s of stroke added in LA 2028?

Ash believes it would lengthen swimmers’ careers and let the 50-specialists finally take the much-deserved spotlight. In particular, he believes Isaac Cooper would greatly benefit from 50’s at LA - it’s his favorite distance, by far.

However, the announcement must come soon… if it is to come at all.

Ash points out that the national governing bodies require large period of time for planning and talent identification. Brett believes the announcement must come soon after the next years World Championships in Singapore.

Let’s wait and see…

Enjoy!

Catch the Full Episode:

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Time Stamps:

00:00 Hello Ash 03:56 Learning how to coach 7:37 How is Ash’s club set up? 09:18 Isaac Cooper 17:56 How to train for the 50 25:30 Helping Brett with backstroke 37:45 Tempo 40:45 Kyle Chalmers 45:20 Kyle’s preparation for Paris 49:03 Kyle’s personality 51:40 Kyle’s last minute prep 54:39 Top end VS Back end 58:01 50 Free WR 1:00:07 50s in LA 1:01:37 Cam’s Impact 1:05:06 Thanks Ash