Swimming Question of the Week - August 25, 2010

I'll kick this off. When I was in 10th grade, my parents offered me the opportunity to train with a team in Cincinnati for the summer. When I left home, I was the fastest swimmer in the city I had come from... when I got to Cincinnati, I was 6th in the lane. The training was absolutely brutal, the first day we swam farther than I had in my entire life. I remember Skip Kenny yelling and how afraid I was to not make it. Everyone seemed larger than life, the swimmers, the coaches, even the pool was 50 meters where I'd only ever trained in a 25 yard pool.

It turned out to be the toughest summer of my life.

Ultimately... it changed the course of my life.

Good luck everyone starting a new adventure today.

My first meet was the Frankfort YMCA Bulldog Distance Invitational, only a few weeks after starting on the team. I false started my first time on the blocks. Coach Dave (Montgomery) was so unsure he offered to give me the t-shirt to step down, but I finished my first 1650 that afternoon. I miss Dave's encouragement.

I didn't swim in college, but I remember a lot of first days at a new swim team. The first three new teams were kind of the same, because I knew the swimmers and they knew me, so there was nothing really new but the coaches and the training plans.
It was very different as I moved to Cape Town. Everything and everyone was new. I just rocked up to practice, however got at the pool 15min prior training as usual, just walked to the coach, told him my story and asked him if I can swim with him. He wanted to see me how I swim for a session. I kicked everyone bum and gee I was lucky the session was only 1,5h long, because I really died. The coach noticed that I am not really that fast but just trying very hard. He just smiled and let me join him. I stayed with him for 5months. The coach was cool but the swimmers weren't really as much so I was planning to go the another coach, whose swimmers seemed more dedicated, and who I was seeing every evening on deck. However, I twisted my knee and was out of the water with a swollen knee for like 3months. As I finally dared to jump in the water again, I was simply drowning. I couldn't do even 50m without stopping. I was busy warming up on deck one day when I somehow started chatting to the new coach. He asked me what I am training for and if I want to swim with him, but I said no, because I was embarrassed of how bad my shape was. I really didn't want to start in lane 1. After a couple of chats he convinced me that drills won't make me swim fast and the sooner I start training with him, the sooner I will get back in shape, so I did so. At the very first practice with him I wanked to him and said "Do you see that Ducati outside the pool? That's the best sh*t ever!" Hahaha... and I did start in lane 1. It wasn't that bad after all. :) It took me 6 months to get used to his program and I was dying every single day. It was so worth it!!!

My parents gave me permission to swim with Phillips 66 (and Don Gambril) one summer which meant fley to CA from NY - a long hual for a high school junior. Olympians were all over the place with Phillips 66 at the time. I had never worn goggles.

I (and two buddies from NY) disobeyed Coach Gambril and skipped a 1500 meet. Our punishment was swimming 4 x 1500 with 1 minute rest. The 4th person in our lane was Hans Fasnacht - the world record holder!

I remind every freshmen class that, no matter how they trained in high school/club, what we do here is beyond anything they have done to date. They don't believe us...until the 3rd week of training! And, at the end of their freshmen year, they go so much faster than they have ever gone before. :)

Are you saying that 50m pool is lot tougher than 25m pool? why that? I never swim that 50m pool :(