Freestyle - Ricky Berens

Important Note to the Viewer

LESSONS: 26 VIDEOS

Ricky Berens - Relay Start - With Commentary

This video talks about how Ricky uses his arms are his sights, watching the approaching swimmer to set his take off point. We also discuss why he swings his arms all the way around for the take off.

Ricky Berens - Relay Start

Close up and detailed video of Ricky setting up and taking off for a relay take off. This video has no annotation, and is presented to allow coaches to add their own description to this video.

Ricky Berens - Start - Entry Underwater 2

Ricky Berens' start shown from underwater. This video allows us to look at more detail when Ricky enters the water.

Ricky Berens - Start - Entry Underwater

Ricky Berens' start entry shown from underwater. This video is best suited for coaches to use as visual representations so they can explain the concepts to their swimmers.

Ricky Berens - Start

Ricky Berens' start shown from above water. This video includes commentary walking through some of the finer details of Ricky's start.

Ricky Berens - Start - Above Water

Ricky Berens' start shown from various angles above water. Shown at regular speed, and then super-slow-motion to allow for coaches to comment on the details of the start when teaching their swimmers.

Ricky Berens - Freestyle Body Rotation

Ricky's freestyle focusing on his body rotation from underwater. While Ricky rotates, his body stays in a very balanced line. His shoulders, torso and hips all roll together through his full extension. Watch how connected the entire body is while he takes his strokes. While he may rotate just a bit further to his breathing side, he does show a complete rotation to the non-breathing side, which is something young swimmers who typically favor one side over the other for their breath, need to be aware of.

Ricky Berens - Freestyle Body Rotation

Ricky swims freestyle and we focus on his body rotation. The key points to watch are that Ricky rotates enough so that both shoulders have a clean recovery. You can see that he rotates his entire body from shoulders, through hips, but that was he rotates, his head stays very still and stable.

Ricky Berens - Breathing

Ricky demonstrates his freestyle breathing shown from underwater. Just like in the above water clip, Ricky maintains a very low profile while taking his breath. He rotates his head directly along his spine, and doesn't tilt or lift to get his breath. He maintains a long line with the extended arm and keeps it extended until his head starts to turn back down after the breath. While he doesn't lift his head, or tilt to air, you can see how he rotates more than some people. This allows his head to stay lower through the entire breathing cycle.

Ricky Berens - Breathing

Ricky demonstrates his freestyle breathing. Talk about a low breath, Ricky keeps one eye in the water at all times. He maintains great balance with the extended arm while he's breathing. Watch the left arm while his head is rotated to air to the right. He maintains a long line until after the breath, and the head starts to rotate back down. You'll also see that he has a relaxed breath, keeping his mouth open all the way through the rotation up, and the rotation back down.

Ricky Berens - Hand Extension

Watch Ricky's hands as he extends forward in freestyle. There are very few examples that are better than Ricky when trying to illustrate a relaxed hand into extension. The softness of his interaction with the water allows him to work with the water, and grab ahold of the catch more effectively. Like other great swimmers, his fingers are slightly apart.

Ricky Berens - What is Speed?

Speed is all relative. A distance swimmer thinks he's fast. He's not. I don't have the fastest turnover. I'm not the fastest 50 freestyler. But I can hold a good speed the entire race. Eddie Reese always told me that speed comes with taper, which meant that he has long tapers, and you end up with a lot of POP to your stroke. I also felt that during that taper, you had to learn your stroke. Your body and stroke weren't used to the pop and increased stroke rate. It's a learning curve that you can learn with fins, paddles and stretch cords. For the 200 speed, I like to hit that speed at least once in every practice, even if it's just for a 50 at the end. Leading up to the 2012 Games, I could do a 50 freestyle, and know within 10ths of a second what my time was because I did it so frequently. If the 200 pace was 27.0 or 26.5, I would start training my pace at 25s. That way a 26 felt so easy.