WATCH: KAATSU Training With Alabama's Jonty Skinner

KAATSU Training With Alabama's Jonty Skinner

Jonty Skinner knows a thing or two about swimming fast. The current associate head coach at the University of Alabama was a favorite to win gold in the 100m freestyle at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. However, his home country of South Africa was still banned from the Olympics for its apartheid policies, thus making Skinner ineligible to compete.

On July 25, 1976, in Montreal, Jim Montgomery of the United States became the first man to break the 50-second barrier in the 100m freestyle with a 49.99.

Twenty days later on August 14, 1976, at the AAU Championships in Philadelphia, PA, Skinner unloaded a 49.44 to shatter Montgomery’s world record. His time would stand until a guy you may know by the name of Ambrose “Rowdy” Gaines broke it with a 49.36 in April 1981.

After his days of competing ended, Skinner dove into a career of coaching in various roles, which included an eight-year reign (2000-2008) as USA Swimming’s director of national team technical support. In this position, Skinner was charged with organizing all of the testing, monitoring, and analysis of national team swimmers.

Now, in his third separate coaching stint in Tuscaloosa (1978-1981; 1988-1994, 2012-present), Skinner is applying his analytical mind toward using cutting-edge scientific methods on his Alabama swimmers. In a sport in which races are won and lost by hundredths of seconds, Skinner is always searching for new and creative ways to get his swimmers to move faster through the water.

A big part of that? KAATSU training. What is that, you ask? Check out the video to find out.

Want more from Jonty and Alabama? Check out our Workout Wednesday with the Crimson Tide.
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