China dominating Asian Games. Pan Zhanle goes 46.9. Shun Wang 1:54 2 IM.

Morning, Nerd.

Welcome to the Swimnerd Newsletter where each week we highlight the most interesting stuff going on in swimming. This week...

• 🌎 Fast Swims Around the World

• 📰 Swimming Headlines

• 📜 Set of the Week

• 🤡 Swimming Meme of the Week

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🏊‍♀️FAST SWIMS AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Asian Games, Day 1

China woke up and chose violence on Day 1 of the Asian Games this weekend, sweeping gold and setting meet records in 6 of the 7 events contested on the day.

Yufei Zhang set the tone with a 2:05.57 200 fly win and meet record. That’s a time that would have taken third at Worlds for the Tokyo Olympic champion.

Next up was the men’s 200 IM. Olympic champion and Asian record holder Shun Wang was seen as a bit of a disappointment at Worlds as he missed finals with a 1:57.9 swim, but it turns out he was just peaking for this meet. He blasted a new PR 1:54.62, the seventh fastest performance of all time. That leapfrogs Leon Marchand’s Worlds winning 1:54.82 to return him to third fastest performer ever behind Lochte and Phelps. Each of his first three splits were faster than his previous 1:55.00 best, with his freestyle only slightly slower.

Following that up, Li Bingjie popped a 15:51.18 meet record women’s 1500, only six seconds off her Worlds silver performance.

Next was the men’s 100 free. Pan Zhanle was out for blood, taking over the race midway through the first 50 (22.45) and blasting home in his usual freight train manner for a 46.97 that makes him the fifth man sub-47 in history. He was disappointed, though, as he came back (24.5) much slower than he did when he went 47.2.

Next, Qianting Tang came within .04 of her meet and Asian record 29.92 from prelims with a 29.96 50 breast win, and Jiayu Xu nipped his 100 back meet record with a 52.23. Notably, both swimmers swam faster here than in Fukuoka and would have won silver in their respective events with those times.

For the finale on the day, China’s women went straight 53s to crush the meet record in the 4×100 free relay with a 3:33.96 win.

More to come from this meet as it continues into this week.

College Swimming Kickoff

Some college season kickoff notes from a few meets the past couple weeks:

Now That’s a Debut: Arizona State dualed Georgia over this weekend and ASU freshman Ilya Kharun had about the best debut college meet we’ve ever seen. In the Friday long course session, he went a 1:24.52 150 fly and added 22.98/51.54 fly relay splits. He carried that over nicely to say the least into the Saturday SCY session. The native Nevadan who represents Canada in international competition went 44.88/1:40.68 flies (the former a school record) and added a 19.51(!) 50 fly and 41.93 100 free relay split.

BTW, what is the actual story about his citizenship? Wasn’t he set to compete for America then we found out he’s actually Canadian? His parents are Cirque du Soleil performers and just so happened to have Ilya in Montreal. Now Bob Bowman will coach another non-American to beat Americans at the Olympics next year. I can’t wait.

"It happened really quick. I was like, alright, I'm a Canadian now." - Ilya Kharun

Knocking Out Qualifying Early: Henderson State University, a small school in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, boasted the best sprint 1-2 punch in D2 last year in Bahamian Lamar Taylor and Grand Canyon transfer Jack Armstrong. They’re back with a vengeance this year, starting with the All-Arkansas Invite in Little Rock a couple weekends ago. Armstrong went 19.57/42.77 while 3-time NCAA champ Taylor went 19.58/43.41 which should easily lock their NCAA spots, while they teamed up for a 1:29.33 200 medley and 1:20.15 200 free relay.

Queen of the Pool: Cal and Cal Poly historically open their seasons with a pentathlon dual meet to crown Queen and King of the pool. This year, Isabelle Stadden took the former title with a dominating performance, winning the 100 fly (53.99), 100 back (52.81), 100 free (50.65) and 100 IM (56.47), and taking fifth in the 100 breast (1:04.69). Her 4:38.61 add-up is, as far as I can tell, the fastest time in event history, beating out Abbey Weitzel’s former record by a tenth.

📰 SWIMMING HEADLINES

College Hazing Still Alive & Well

Looks like Boston College, the bottom dweller of the ACC, won’t be swimming this year - and perhaps never again after reports of hazing and heavy drinking are being plastered on every news outlet known to man.

SS is also now reporting that Texas A&M’s men’s team is also being suspended for hazing after being caught playing, “Edward 40 Hands” - the classic college game where you duct tape two 40 oz malt liquors to your hands. I saw SS referenced two liters of cola but I never knew that was ever an option. OE or nothing.

On a serious note, this is horrific for our sport. We are already a non-revenue, Olympic sport that nobody watches or cares about except us. And now you are giving your athletic department a perfectly good reason to cut the team forever. You’re in the Wall Street Journal for cripes sake.

Thankfully nobody died. Over the last two decades, over 100 college students have died from hazing incidents. And, you go to jail for killing your friends.

There is literally no reward for hazing. It is 100% risk. If I was still coaching college, I think I’d literally get on my hands and knees and beg these 18, 19, and 20 year old’s not to haze each other.

Because I like my job and enjoy paying my mortgage on time.

Unfortunately, I don’t think hazing is going to stop - and I only say this from experience and pattern recognition.

I mean, come on, kids are still out here playing Edward 40 Hands.

Eddie Reese is Retiring (For Real This Time)

There is nothing more to say than he’s the greatest of all time. Visiting him two years ago was an absolute treat. He took Brett and I out to lunch. We talked about how his personal trainer changed his life and the immense potential of Shaine Casas, among other things.

In honor of the GOAT, here are some of our favorite clips:

• Some of Eddie’s favorite training methods

• Underwater dolphin kicking with Eddie Reese

• What Eddie Reese looks for in a recruit

• Have kids changed?

How do you break Paul Biedermann’s 200 Free World Record?

Paul Biedermann:

24.23/25.89/26.18/25.70

1:42.00 

Race Pace Calculator:

24.22/25.77/26.21/25.74

1:41.94 

✅ +1.96 between 100's (49.99/51.95)

✅ your middle 75's (50-125 and 100-175) need to be 38's

✅ this would be 1% improvement for David Popovici

Go to https://racepacecalc.com to try it out for free.

Check out those practice speeds Pop needs to hit based on the RPE. 95% would be 1:47.0.

CLIPS OF THE WEEK

• High elbow catch is slow!

• Zac Stubblety-Cook wants his World Record back

• How Stubblety-Cook trains his breaststroke kick

• Zac’s thoughts on Leon Marchand, the Breaststroker

• Can Zac go back to back in Paris?

• Best 100 Breaststroke Kick with a Board

• Pieter van den Hoogenband loves David Popovici

• Hoogie inspired by Anthony Nesty

• Pieter van den Hoogenband went 47 in practice 1 week before the Olympics

• The Swimming Propeller

• Backyard Throwdown with Doug Erasmus, South African Olympian

This week on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

Tomorrow…

#336 Chris Mooney, Head Coach of Bond University

Chris Mooney is one of the world’s premier swim coaches.

As the Head Coach at Bond University, he coaches Flynn Southam, Mia O’Leary, Alex Graham, and Maddy Gough. He previously worked with Kaylee McKeown & Elijah Winnington. Bond has just become a World Aquatics Development Centre.

In this episode, Chris goes in depth about his coaching philosophies, his unique training schedule, and how he writes workouts. Brett & Chris also discuss how the Australian women and kicking America’s teeth in, the importance of sport science in Australia, and his thoughts on strength & conditioning outside of the pool.

📝 SWIM SET OF THE WEEK

95% in Practice with Ray Looze

Today’s set isn’t really a set but a guideline.

Ray Looze says that if you can get a swimmer to go 95% of their best time in practice, it is a strong indicator of potential performance.

How do you figure out 95%? Use our race pace calculator.

🤡 SWIMMING MEME OF THE WEEK

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