Indiana swimming coach Ray Looze was one of the keynote speakers at the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) annual conference.
He discussed a number of things, including the future of the sport and how women’s swimming and diving needs to be pivotal in the NCAA as well as what he looks for in the breaststroke, social media and more.
Looze discussed these topics with Brett Hawke at the CSCAA conference.
Ray Looze on the future of NCAA swimming:
“We are thought of as a third-tier sport. We are an important sport at Indiana University, but we are a third-tier sport in the NCAA. How the hell did softball, volleyball become more important than women’s swimming and diving? But they are. But when they start paying athletes, they will start paying football and basketball players first, then they will look for the female equivalent (for football) to pay and we have to position women’s swimming and diving to get paid. It could be $35,000 per kid. Think of what that could do to our sport. Even though one gender is benefitting more, we need to position ourselves there. Hopefully the men will get dragged along with them.”
Looze on breaststroke:
“Breaststroke creates the most drag of any stroke. We are trying to find ways to reduce drag. I look at what their heels are doing. If they are fast on the recoil, I like that a lot. They can kick narrow or kick wide, I don’t get too hung up on that. That is the No. 1 thing I look at. … I talk to them when they arrive and ask them how much breaststroke they do. They are pretty honest. Some will say I do it every day, 3-4 times a week, some will say I hardly do it but I am good at it. You have to listen to that.”
Ray Looze on Cody Miller’s influence on social media:
“When Cody was getting to a point where he was not going to make money anymore as a swimmer, he had a bad year and was losing sponsorship. I encouraged him to get prepared for the rest of live. He told me he really enjoyed connecting with people and doing video. All the credit goes to Cody on that.”
Ray Looze on pullouts:
“Pullout is the most difficult thing to coach. You are born with that. Some of the best at the breaststroke pullouts come from sprint freestylers.”