Freestyle with Matt Targett

Important Note to the Viewer

LESSONS: 11 VIDEOS

Matt Targett - Smooth Freestyle

When Matt swims smooth freestyle, it’s as if he’s sprinting in slow motion. The timing of his stroke varies only slightly. While the arm reaches full extension, he doesn’t keep it out front, he doesn’t ride out the extension, but drops his arm into the catch nearly immediately. He pushes his entire arm deep and straight into the catch and keeps the elbow in a position that keeps the arm solid for as far into the pull as possible. Matt has a purpose driven stroke… the purpose is to reach the highest speed possible, and even when he’s swimming slowly, he focuses on all the aspects that he’ll need to know when he needs to react, to attack and race. There will be no room for thought when the race is over in 18 seconds. The habits and skill that it takes to move that quickly through the water are learned in all the small actions when most swimmers stop thinking. Matt keeps his head position, body rotation, kick consistency, all as close as possible to what he’ll need when he asks his body to perform.

Matt Targett - Fast Free From Above

While we love watching great swimmers from above, as you can see here, Matt is so incredibly aggressive with his stroke, there’s not a lot that can be seen. Some of the things to look for will be the head position on the breakout, and how it doesn’t change from that point. Young swimmers can learn a LOT from watching how he doesn’t breathe right away, but continues the great line from the streamline, into the breakout. The hips or always right on the surface, visible through just about the entire stroke cycle. While we already know how aggressive his kick is, the feet aren’t breaking through the surface to the point where you can see the entire foot. The kick isn’t just narrow under the water, but also doesn’t waste energy by being too high above the water. If you look VERY closely, you can see Matt take a breath on this sprint. You’ll never see his mouth, and have to question if he really did get any air. However, with someone as powerful as Matt, and as educated as a sprinter, he doesn’t move that head for anything that doesn’t have purpose… so yes… he’s getting air there.

Matt Targett - Fast Free Head On

One of the first things you notice when Matt swims right at us is how his arms remain wide, outside his body through the entire pull. His pull is very linear, or straight. He tries to remain in a full backward push through the entire pull. Even with this aggressive pattern, Matt reaches full extension on EACH stroke. The extremely tight relationship between his face and shoulder keeps him as narrow as possible at these very high speeds. You can see how he keeps his elbow high, which puts his entire arm in a powerful position as early as possible, and maintains that position through the entire pull. Watch how his lats engage early in the pull to show how he uses the larger muscles on his sides and back to aid with the pull. At the very end of the pull, you can also see how he turns his hand to exit pinky first, slicing out of the water for more speed into the recovery, and back to the front for another pull. As is standard with all great freestylers, his head remains extremely steady for this much attack in his stroke.

Matt Targett - Sprint Flutter Kick

Having a solid, consistent flutter kick is a necessary part of achieving the highest speeds you’re capable of. When Matt sprints, his kick is consistent, but also narrow. He uses a 6-beat kick for his high speed swimming. This means that by the time one of his hands has completed a full cycle of a pull, the legs have kicked 6 times. This fast kick stabilizes the hips, so you won’t see much rotation in Matt’s midsection when swimming fast. The torso and shoulders will rotate, but the hips stay fairly flat while the kick remains in a very up and down motion. Matt has tremendous ankle flexibility which allows him to get the most out of each kick. His toes trail the top of the foot on the downkick, almost SNAPPING to extension to complete the kick.

Matt Targett - Strong Freestyle

Matt swims some shorter, up-tempo 25s while focusing on various aspects of his stroke. Asking swimmers of this calibre to achieve race speed too frequently could mean they rarely reach their ultimate level. Matt spends a lot of his time training at high speed, but not ultimate speed. This level allows him to focus on the catch, head position, rotation, timing, and kick a bit more intimately without tiring too quickly.

Vertical Kick Sprint 25s

While this is swum the same way as the TURN SPRINT 25, there is more emphasis placed on the legs. Matt starts in a vertical kick position, kicking flutter kick with his arms crossed over his chest. His focus is on his feet and legs, developing a quick, consistent kick. He leans forward and driving from the flutter, starts his sprint toward the wall and into the flip. After a couple dolphins, he keeps his feet moving with a fast, quick, consistent kick as he sprints through this exercise. Next, Matt moves to initiating this drill with a dolphin kick. This changes the focus from the swimming portion to the breakout dolphins. Matt starts with vertical dolphins with his arms crossed over his chest. After he’s identified the dolphin motion and feelings, he goes horizontal and starts to sprint to the wall. Immediately after the flip, Matt initiates a few very intense dolphin kicks into a very fast breakout. While the variations in the two focus points in this exercise seem subtle, we start to understand the focus it takes to go 50 yards in less than 19 seconds. Don’t short change even the smallest detail.

Turn Sprint 25s

With the swimmer facing the wall, have them scull their bodies into a horizontal position. Sprint IN to the wall, flip, and sprint to the other flags. This requires the swimmer create the initial momentum and focuses the attention on the quick catch. After the turn, continue to focus on a quick catch and a high intensity 25. You’ll notice that Matt does not breathe once the head is lowered into the water, and the sprint has begun.

Ankle Tied Sprinting

Just as in the Straight Leg Sprinting drill, this places more emphasis on the catch. When swimmers have a hard time holding the legs in the correct line, use a cord or rope to tie the ankles together to limit the leg movement. Continue to encourage the swimmer to keep the legs locked out straight and focus on a very quick catch with very little, or no glide. To further add to the intensity of this drill, try it from a standing start rather than pushing off the wall. Float your body into a horizontal position, with the legs up, and the head down. Once stable, go quickly into a very fast, high intensity stroke. This demands the swimmer create all the momentum through only the catch. Keep the legs as still and tight as possible.

Freestyle Straight Leg Sprinting

To push more emphasis toward the front of the freestyle, Matt swims with his legs completely straight and feet pointed. This drill places extra stress on the torso and catch. To keep the legs up, the torso needs to be tightened, and the catch has to be quick and consistent. The hands dive immediately into the catch and Matt limits the bouncing, or dolphin movement of the legs by holding them as tightly as possible from the torso through the hips. This drill should be done with very high intensity for very short distances. You’ll also notice that in this instance, Matt does not breathe, which continues to focus the attention on the quick catch.

Matt Targett Intro

Olympics 2008 - 1 SILVER - 2 BRONZE 2008 & 2012 AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIAN World Champs - 1 GOLD - 2 SILVER - 1 BRONZE NCAAs - 2 RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS 50 Free time - 18.52 100 Free time - 41.55 100 Fly Time - 45.02 With 3 Olympic Medals, 4 World Championships Medals, numerous NCAA relay championships, and top short course times of 18.52 in the 50 free, 41.55 in the 100 free, and 45.02 in the 100 fly, Matt Targett is one of the most successful and fastest swimmers in the world. Matt will share with us some of his sprinting technique for both freestyle and butterfly, and his attention to detail in trying to achieve this incredibly fast times.

Sprint Freestyle Clip

Currently the 2nd fastest man in history in the 50 yard freestyle. Much more to come. This clip serves as an intro to chapters we're currently working on. Do you know who this is?