The Michigan Swim Camp offers four sessions open to any and all entrants, limited to age and 195 campers per session in Canham Natatorium at the University of Michigan, home of the Michigan Wolverines. A staff of 60+ and three instructional sessions per day ensure the individual attention necessary for significant improvement.
Supervision is handled by the staff of the Michigan Swim Camps and the staff at Conference Management Services. The dorm staff and hall counselors are responsible from 8:30 pm until 8:00 am. The staff has primary responsibility during the day. They escort the swimmers to and from the dorm for each of the three sessions (9-11 am, 2-4 pm, and 6:30-8:30 pm). They maintain a minimum ratio of 1:20. Our staff eats all of their meals in the cafeteria with the swimmers. The University of Michigan Public Safety Department has an officer on site to handle any serious incidents in the dorm.
Coaches Mike Bottom, Dr. Josh White, Rick Bishop, Sam Wensman, Nikki Kett, Kurt Kirner and Roger Karns are directly involved in coaching and teaching campers. All campers HD-filmed and receive a written stroke analysis. An optional custom video and/or Kistler start-and-turn analysis available for an additional fee. Choose the Intensive Training Track or the Technique Development Track. World-class staff provides leadership and mentoring that encourage each swimmer to strive for excellence in and out of the pool. It’s great to be a Wolverine!
2020 Michigan Swim Camp Dates
- June 7 – 11
- June 14-18
- July 26-30
- August 2-6
Go to website to register for a Michigan swim camp.
2020 Michigan Swim Camp Costs
- $900/week includes instruction, swim cap, T-shirt, color photo, instructional printed materials, “goody bag” and room and board
- $795/week day camper fee includes all of the above (less room and board) and between-session supervision
Contact Michigan Swim Camp Staff
8160 Valley View Drive
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Phone: 734-845-8596
E-mail: umswim1@gmail.com
Web: www.michiganswimcamp.com or http://camps.mgoblue.com
The Technique Track is designed for individual and group instruction in fundamental and advanced stroke skills, starts, and turn techniques. A daily optional training workout is available in addition to the three instructional/practice sessions daily. Yardage in this one hour workout varies from 3,000-3,600 yards depending upon ability.
This track is a skill acquisition curriculum which begins with basic body balance and progresses to swimming with maximum efficiency (i.e. fewest number of strokes per length). This is the foundation for all fast swimming. Starts, turns, functional dryland training, nutrition education, team building, True Colors assessment, Mindset education, and mental training are part of this comprehensive curriculum. Swimmers are filmed daily and their HD video is viewed and critiqued in written form. Swimmers are encouraged to use their phone cameras to video their strokes and the coach’s assessment.
This track is designed for: the younger swimmer (12 & under) in need of better technical skills; the older swimmer who is relatively new to the sport; high school swimmers who do not train year-round; and the skilled swimmer who needs a week of technical fine tuning without the added stress of intensive workouts.
The use of a front mount snorkel is strongly recommended.
The Intensive Training Track challenges swimmer to embrace the importance of team,to look at technique in new ways, and to learn how to work smarter as well as harder in practices. Athletes will leave this camp with a new understanding of the sport and a desire to make themselves and those around them better.
This track is designed for swimmers 12 and older who have high aspirations in competitive swimming. Swimmers will be divided into training groups based upon the workout focus and the ability level of the swimmer. The daily schedule involves two in-water training workouts and one dryland workout and instructional sessions. Threshold, VO2max, lactate tolerance, and maximal speed training are part of the in-water training program. The evening session will be out of the water training with and emphasis on core strength, body awareness, and overall fitness.
Daily above water and underwater video review sessions will provide the backbone for each workout. In addition each swimmer is videoed and receives a written stroke critique upon completion of the camp.
This track requires that swimmers arrive in shape and training at full capacity (e.g. ~40,000 yds/week) as daily volume averages between 8,000 and 10,000 yards.
A competent level of skill in all four strokes is required. It is important not to “push” younger swimmers into this track. We need to provide the best group cohesion, training volumes, and injury prevention.
Recommended equipment: hand paddles; pull buoy; fins; kickboard; and front mount snorkel.
COACHING STAFF
HEAD COACH MIKE BOTTOM
Honors & Accomplishments
Honors & Accomplishments- Led Michigan to one NCAA title (men: 2013), ten Big Ten titles (men: 2009, 2011-16; women: 2016-18) and 11 top-10 NCAA finishes (men: 2009-15, 2018; women: 2016, 2018-19)
- Seven-time Big Ten Coach of the Year (Men: 2011-15; Women: 2018-19) and 2013 CSCAA Swimming Coach of the Year
- Has coached nine national champions (eight individual, one relay), 126 Big Ten individual or relay champions and 51 CSCAA All-Americans
- Coached at the last six Olympics; served as assistant coach for Team USA at the 2016 Games in Rio
Coaching Experience
- University of Michigan — Head Coach, Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving (2013-Present)
- University of Michigan — Head Coach, Men’s Swimming and Diving (2008-12)
- University of California-Berkeley — Co-Head Coach, Men’s Swimming and Diving (1997-2008)
- University of Southern California — Assistant Coach, Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving (1994-97)
- Auburn University — Assistant Coach, Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving (1991-94)
- Olympics (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
- World University Games (USA, Head Coach: 2013, 2015)
- FINA World Championships (USA, Assistant Coach: 2009, 2013; Yemen, Head Coach: 2017)
At Michigan
Bottom is in his 11th year at Michigan, the last seven coming as the head coach of both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams.
In his 11 years at the helm of the men’s team, Bottom is 90-6-1 in dual meets (56-4 in the Big Ten) with one NCAA title (2013), seven Big Ten titles (2009, 2011-16) and eight top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships and four consecutive top-five finishes from 2012-15. He is a five-time Big Ten Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year (2011-15) and was named CSCAA Swimming Coach of the Year in 2013. During his tenure, Bottom has coached the men’s swimmers to a total of nine national titles (eight individual, one relay), and has produced 101 Big Ten individual or relay titles and 40 CSCAA All-Americans. In Bottom’s tenure, a Michigan swimmer has been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Year seven times: Tyler Clary (2009-10), Dan Madwed (2012), Connor Jaeger (2013-14), Dylan Bosch (2015) and Felix Auböck (2017).
In seven years overseeing the women’s team, Bottom has completely transformed the culture, rebuilding the program from the ground up. The Wolverines are coming off back-to-back top-four team finishes at the NCAA Championships, finishing fourth in 2018 and third in 2019. They won three consecutive Big Ten titles from 2016-18 — the program’s first three-peat since 1996-98. Under Bottom, the women’s team is 51-13 in dual meets (36-6 in the Big Ten), and jumped 26 spots at the NCAA Championships in just three years (36th in 2013 to 10th in 2016). All 18 short course (yards) swimming records have gone down since Bottom took over, including 15 since the start of the 2018 season. In his seven years with the women’s team, Bottom has coached 11 CSCAA All-Americans (individual) and 25 Big Ten individual or relay champions. He is a two-time Big Ten Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year (2018, 2019).
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have also excelled in the classroom under Bottom’s watch. For the 2017-18 academic year, 49 student-athletes (75 percent of the roster) earned the U-M Athletic Academic Achievement Award, an honor that requires a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Of those 49, 32 were Academic All-Big Ten, four more than in 2016-17. In ten years, Bottom has coached five Academic All-Americans (PJ Ransford in 2016 and 2017, Justin Glanda and Richard Funk in 2015, Courtney Beidler in 2014, Connor Jaeger in both 2013 and 2014) and four Big Ten Medal of Honor recipients (PJ Ransford in 2018, Justin Glanda in 2015, John Wojciechowski in 2014, Dan Madwed in 2012).
International Experience
Bottom has over two decades of international coaching experience and has coached athletes at the last six Olympics, including a stint as assistant coach for Team USA at the 2016 Games in Rio. Several current and former student-athletes achieved their Olympic dreams under Bottom’s guidance at Michigan, including medalists Tyler Clary (2012; USA), Connor Jaeger (2012, 2016; USA) and Charlie Houchin (2012; USA), while also supervising Dylan Bosch (2016; South Africa), Anders Lie Nielsen (2012, 2016; Denmark) and brothers Miguel Ortiz and Bruno Ortiz (2016; Spain). Among Bottom’s non-Michigan Olympics include 10-time Olympic medalist Gary Hall Jr. (USA), a 10-time Olympic medalist; Duje Draganja (Croatia), the silver medalist in the 50-meter freestyle in 2004; and Anthony Ervin (USA), a gold medalist in the 50-meter freestyle in both 2000 and 2016. In the three Olympics from 1996-2004, nine of the 18 medals awarded in the 50- and 100-meter freestyles were won by Bottom’s swimmers.
