ASCA Podcast #116 - Dr. Max McKenzie and Dr. Mark McKean

ASCA Podcast

Dr. Max McKenzie Max is a S&C Coach with the QAS Swimming Hub on the Sunshine Coast. Max has worked with elite swimmers for almost a decade across three Olympic/Paralympic cycles. Working within a multidiscipline performance support team servicing several swimming programs and coaches has shaped Max’s philosophy on the physical preparation of swimmers. In 2024, Max completed his PhD which investigated the impact of land-based warmup strategies on subsequent swimming physiology and performance. Dr. Mark McKean Mark started his career as a Physical Education teacher and still uses these teaching and coaching skills he learnt in many of his current coaching roles. Mark is a Master S&C Coach and completed his PhD in Sport and Exercise Science at UniSC. Mark has 30+ years of experience in various sports, including Sprint Kayak, Tennis, Swimming and Netball. Mark is a Senior S&C with the QAS Swimming Hub on the Sunshine Coast and is Head of Physical Performance in High-Performance Sport at UniSC. Mark has worked with UniSC's High-Performance swimming program since its inception in 2011 and has more than two decades of experience working with Olympic and Paralympic swimmers. QUOTES “One of our biggest concerns is swimmers, and it's like in any sport, their sport age is very different to their S&C training age, so you get swimmers that have been in the pool for five, 10 years, but when they come into our environment, they've got less than one year of good experience” “If you ever spend any time around swim coaches, you'll hear the word connection probably on a daily basis and my interpretation of what swimming coaches are talking about is how efficiently are they sequencing together movements of their joints through water.” “It is very common to hear swim coaches and swimming athletes talk about “what can you pull up?” but one of the things we are interested in is an athlete’s ability to pull their own body weight up as fast as they can for as many repetitions without a certain drop of velocity” “So within about six weeks of major competitions, we're going through a set testing battery, which includes bench press velocity and bench press maximal strength, pull up maximal strength, pull up velocity and counter movement jump and squat jump performance” “I've always believed one of the strength and conditioning coach’s biggest weaknesses is their general anatomical knowledge” SHOWNOTES 1) The back stories of Max and Mark including Max’s PhD research on swim performance and land-based interventions in the warm up 2) The basics of athletic movements for swimming like streamlining and rotation control, and the importance of connection 3) The adaptation of common traditional exercises like the pull up and reverse hyperextension to be more swim specific 4) The importance of monitoring vertical pulling speed and drops in speed in swimming 5) Swimming strength and power profiling before major competition 6) Strength ratios between upper body exercises and their influence on programming 7) A look into the day-to-day process and weekly periodization at UniSC swimming program 8) The power of the mind and influence of pre-competition lifting on swimming performance 9) The importance of knowing anatomy as a strength and conditioning coach PEOPLE MENTIONED Scott Pollock Dan Howells Dr Mark Burnley Adam Peaty