Special Sets: How Nathan Szobota Is Developing Into American Upstart
In June, Zane Grothe, former American record holder in the 500 and 1650 yard freestyles, opined that “Nathan Szobota has a beautiful stroke. That kid is going to be good.”
The truth is, Szobota is already good—really good. When Grothe spoke, Szobota was 15 and competing at the Phillips 66 National Championships in which he accomplished all three ambitious goals set by his NOVA of Virginia coach, Mike Wenert.
Those goals were to:
- Go best times in the 400, 800 and 1500 meter freestyles: 3:52.49 (by 6 seconds); 8:05.78 (by 13 seconds); 15:18.13 (8th by more than 30 seconds)
- Get Olympic Trials cuts in all three
- Make the World Juniors meet in the 1500 free
Wenert regards those national championship swims as “special performances.” For Szobota, it was mission accomplished, capping off a terrific 10 months on the local, national and world stages.
Last September, he captured the FINA World Junior Open Water 5K title in Seychelles, Africa, swimming a brisk 48:50.90. In March, he was named the male All-Metro male swimmer of the year by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. And at the spring NCSA Championships, he negative-split his 8:50.44 1000 yard free (4:26.36/4:24.08) to win and become the fastest 15-year-old ever. The swim moved him to third all-time in the 15-16 NAG rankings behind Matthew Hirschberger (8:45.11) and Jeff Kostoff (8:49.97).
But wait…there’s more. At July’s Speedo Junior National Championships in Irvine, Calif., Szobota showed he is still at the top of his game. The now 16-year-old clocked Olympic Trials cut times of:
- 8:01.36 (second) in the 800 free
- 3:53.51 (fourth) in the 400 free
- 15:29.87 (fifth) in the 1500 free, and
- 4:26.27 (seventh) in the 400 IM
THE INSIDE STORY
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“There are a number of keys to Nathan’s success,” says Wenert. “He has a:
- Tremendous work ethic. He swims nine workouts a week and doesn’t miss any.
- We have a distance track for him at NOVA. It is very structured and Nathan knows what to expect on a weekly basis. We do dedicated distance sets twice per week (Mondays and Thursdays) during our primary workouts (2 hours) and once per week during our doubles (1.5 hours on Fridays).
- We have a dedicated group of athletes who are committed to distance training. We usually split our groups up on Mondays and Thursdays based on particular skill sets. He has between 20-30 athletes training with him who are committed to—and like—distance swimming. He routinely has multiple kids to train with and would be the first to say that his teammates push him to be the best he can be.
- He trusts his coaches (Wenert and Megan Garland).
- He has received a lot of great coaching along the way—both during his age group and senior swimming career.
- Lastly, he is extremely talented. I find myself routinely saying, ‘Did he just do that?’ during practice. Some of the sets/times he throws down during practice are unbelievable.”
SZOBOTA SETS
Following are five sample sets. Hold times, where recorded, are listed as well.
Distance Set #1
April 23, 2023 (SCY)
- 16 x 400
All 400s off the block
1-25 fast free for time/375 dps free @ 5:30
2-50 fast fly for time/350 dps @ 6:00
3-75 fast free for time/325 dps @ 5:30
4-100 fast fly for time/300 dps @ 6:00
5-125 fast free for time/275 dps @ 6:00
6-150 fast (100 fly-50 back) for time/250 dps @ 6:30
7-175 fast free for time/225 dps @ 6:00
8-200 (100 fly-100 back) fast for time/200 dps @ 6:30
9-225 fast free for time/175 dps @ 6:30
10-250 (100 fly-100 back-50 breast) fast for time/150 dps @ 7:00
11-275 fast free for time/125 dps @ 6:30
12-300 (100 fly-100 back-100 breast) fast for time/100 dps @ 7:00
13-325 fast free for time/75 dps @ 7:00
14-350 (100 fly-100 back-100 breast-50 free) fast for time/50 dps @ 7:30
15-375 fast free for time/25 dps @ 7:00
16-400 IM for time @ 7:30 (early season workout/1st 400 IM set of season)
Distance Set #2
April 28, 2023 (SCY) (double)
Alternate negative split with fast free swim
- 1 x 1000 free negative split @ 11:00 (Nathan 5:11/5:08 = 10:19)
- 800 free swim @ 8:00 (Nathan 7:41)
- 1 x 800 free negative split @ 9:00 (4:11/4:12 = 8:23)
- 600 free swim @ 6:00 (5:48)
- 1 x 600 free negative split @ 6:45 (3:10/3:05 = 6:15)
- 400 free swim @ 4:00 (3:46)
- 1 x 400 free negative split @ 4:30 (2:05/2:03 = 4:08)
- 200 free swim @ 02:00 (1:46)
- 1 x 200 free negative split @ 2:15 (1:04/1:01 = 2:05)
- 100 free swim @ 1:00 (49.6)
Test Set
May 12, 2023 (LC)
- 20 x 100 freestyle @ 1:30
Best average
Nathan averaged 1:01.45
“If you look at his best 1500 time (15:18.13), this was a pretty good precursor of what he was going to be able to hold per 100,” says Wenert.
IM Set
June 9, 2023 (LC)
- 16 x 100 @ 2:15
1st 50 @ 200 goal pace/2nd 50 easy free
8 x backstroke (averaged between 31.3-31.8)
8 x freestyle (averaged between 27.7-28.2)
200 Pace Set
June 12, 2023 (LC)
- 5 x 800 free swim @ 10:20
Odds: negative split-choice of equipment
Evens: descend 200s to fast
1:00 rest
- 8 x 100 free pace @ 1:20 (hold 800 goal pace)
BACK TO THE FUTURE
In Swimcloud’s listing for the Class of 2025, Szobota ranks fourth nationally and sits only behind 20-time NAG record holder Thomas Heilman in Virginia.
Michael J. Stott is an ASCA Level 5 coach, golf and swimming writer. His critically acclaimed coming-of-age golf novel, “Too Much Loft,” is in its third printing, and is available from store.Bookbaby.com, Amazon, B&N and book distributors worldwide.