Finally…the day is here. Some call this the END OF THE SPORT. Some call it the rebirth. I call it a return to reality. A return to what the sport really means and its purpose.

Human versus water. The suits are finally gone. Long live the suits.

When you watch events unfold over a long enough time one of two things occurs…eventually you get numb to them and don’t even perceive them anymore….or you get so in tuned to the events that it becomes a daily battle to focus on anything else. I have watched this disaster mature over the last two years with frightening clarity and since the turn of the year have sat silently by and watched as so many people have participated in this debacle. 104 national records set at USMS SCY Nationals? That’s fucking laughable. So what if I am the only person with balls enough to say it. I saw some of those races and what I saw was about as far from talent as a human could get. It WAS the suit. And even if you legitimately had talent, you wore the suit which means that only in YOUR mind can you ever believe that it was truly you and not the suit.

My friends in the swimming world know my position. Those that are still my friends endured the questions and the seeking. “Why?” I would ask them at every meet and their answers ranged from “why not?” to “everyone else is doing it.” For the last two years my own swimmers have had to languish in 07 suits watching the world skip by them on stones. I would tell them, train harder and regardless of the result, you will be the one with pride at the end of the day. But my words were hollow…because the more I saw the bullshit going on the more I began to realize that many of the swimmers wearing these suits didn’t give a shit about what damage they were causing…they just wanted to go fast at any cost.

And still now to this day, there are still swimming stains icons who criticize the decision to ban the suits!!! What little respect I had left for Rowdy Gaines was snuffed out last week when it was reported that he said, and I quote the article:
Gaines still doesn’t understand why FINA banned the bodysuit. He believes it helped promote a sport that struggles for attention outside an Olympic year, and he believes the revolutionary designs helped get kids interested in hitting the water.
“A lot of people were talking about swimming last summer,” he said. “It attracted people to the sport. It attracted fans. Everyone loves records. I loved every record that was broken in Rome. And I think the records would have ended up hitting a plateau in those suits. But we didn’t give it a chance. I think swimming was in a state of shock, and they overreacted.”
Gaines is among those who believes the bodysuit will eventually make a comeback, only with stricter guidelines than before.
“I think within the next two to five years, they’ll be back,” he said. “We’re not going to have any records. It’s just that simple. We’ll be lucky to see one or two world records during that time, if that.
“That’s going to affect FINA, that’s going to affect the (television) ratings, that’s going to affect sponsorships. Most baseball fans like to see the home runs. Now the traditionalist, the purist, he might like to see the 1-0 game. But most people like to see action.”

Even I was in disbelief to read this at this stage. Of course people tuned in…if they made it legal to take steroids in baseball I bet more people would tune in to watch that too. Rowdy has mentioned the “struggling” argument so many times now its become a punchline. Draw me ONE parallel between the suits and suffering. Further, show me the data which DIRECTLY suggests that the suits created a resurgence in swimming memberships. Oh wait…you can’t…because there is NONE.

Now, because of people like you who still think this is a proper thing to do, the sport WILL suffer a ratings decline. If they hadn’t been in such a rush to legalize the suits we could have come up with a better plan. Maybe the suits we are wearing post 6/1? And why does swimming need sponsorships? Did Spitz have sponsors climbing up his ass to promote learning to speak Chinese or eating calorie bombs from Subway? No but people watched it anyway because it was an American kicking some other country’s ass in a sport so few of the population can actually do. Do bobsledders get sponsored? Nope. Does everyone tune in to watch the bobsledding at the Olympics. Yup.

Further, sure it got kids interested but it ensured that the divide between those who could and those who couldn’t was as wide as ever. Swimming is as ethnic a sport as skiing. What once was a cheap suit and a pair of goggles became 4k/year swim clubs and 400 dollar suits. Yeah…it got them interested all right. I can barely type because of the all of the noise that the kids out in the street right are making right now playing swimming.

Is it records you want? Has it come to that Rowdy? The only reason you want to watch swimming is because of records? What about just watching one swimmer kick another swimmer’s ass as a result of awesome strategy based on a foundation of incredible training? Oh wait…that’s fucking boring! I know…here is how you can get some ratings back into the sport. Shoot whoever comes in last! Yeah that would be awesome…hollow point to the temple. Man that would make me swim fast that’s for sure. Or better yet…how about making the suits SMALLER. Yeah lets make it look like Lake Havasu in August. I would watch that. Even on pay per view!

So anyway…for the rest of us it’s finally over and we can all get back to business. While others will hate awesome fast swimming without records, I will enjoy it once again knowing that the people I am watching are free to swim again as god intended. Body against water and only the ones who master that relationship will win. For those of you crying tonight as you toss your suit in the garbage, my advice to you is this:

1) Train. No, I mean it…actually get in a pool and train. Try it…it works! Get in the water a few times a week…get your heart rate up and make your muscles work…develop some actual technique and stamina and then see what happens. I am going to go out on a limb here but I am willing to bet you actually get…fast!

2) Lose weight. Now that you don’t have a zipper to help squeeze that final sausage of an adipose layer you call muscle into a suit, if you actually spent time making yourself thinner, you might find you never needed a suit to begin with. Lose some weight, hit the gym, throw a medicine ball at your coach a couple times.

3) Look into the FSII and FSPro. They were awesome suits then and are still awesome suits. You can find them anywhere for cheap! They don’t add any talent to your swimming but they do feel good and helps you avoid shaving your thighs!

It’s over and I couldn’t be happier. Those of you who broke the records at Nats…come back next year and do it again and I will personally apologize to you. In fact, I will become your biggest fan. Those of you who are still my friends, I still love you and will still cheer you on, even like I did when you wore the suit. To my swimmers, you have the advantage…you HAVE trained and competed in archaic suits. Now everyone has to relearn how to do it…you already have the knowledge.

Swimming is back.

As a coach, it was awesome to watch so many months of work result in 5 new New England records, 5 PR’s and a National title. I couldn’t be happier.

So big shouts to B-Money for totally kicking ass at Nats this weekend.

To quote the song…

I followed rivers, I followed orders
I followed prophets, I followed leaders
I followed rivers, I followed highways
I followed conscience, I followed dreamers
And I’m nearly there.

Mesa 2011. Where the suits get real and the competition gets beat.

Whale Shark!!!

Unfortunately, lot of national records being set at this meet by folks who are exploiting the June 1 deadline for the silly suit ban. In just 8 short days, all of these “new” records will be left as a stain. Looking forward to Mesa.

Oh and dinner…was quite spectacular…

Brandy also placed 3rd in the 200 Free with a time of 1:56.93 breaking her NE SCY Champs record of 1:58.33 also set back in March.

Abby Maxim, MBCC Lead Intern says “My mother, Jane Maxim, is a two-time breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed for the first time when I was 13 and again when I was 18. I still remember how happy we all were that she had reached her 5 year mark of being cancer free, which is a major milestone for survivors. It was only a few months later that she was diagnosed for the second time. I have just turned 23, so we are coming up to the 5 year mark again, and I am terrified. My mother’s sister is also a breast cancer survivor. So for me, being diagnosed is a very realistic fear. MBCC’s goal is breast cancer prevention, and I believe in that goal. I am lucky to be able to say my mom is a survivor, but I have many friends who have not been as lucky.”

Massachusetts has the fourth highest breast cancer incidence rate in the country. According to the Center for Disease Control, a woman living in the U.S. is estimated to have a 1 in 7 chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime, as compared to the 1 in 11 chance recorded in 1975. These odds are not acceptable to the MBCC and the mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and partners they represent. Please join the MBCC and NESN on June 19th, 2010 in Hopkinton, MA to support and protect future generations from this awful disease. Not one more woman, not one more generation should be affected by breast cancer.

The Greater Boston ‘Against the Tide’ one-mile recreational or competitive swim, two-mile kayak, three-mile fitness walk, and 5K run event will be held at the DCR’s Hopkinton State Park in Hopkinton, MA on Saturday June 19th, from 7am to 12pm and again on August 21st at DCR’s Nickerson State Park, Brewster, Ma. Register online at www.mbcc.org/swim or call 617-376-6222.

Why would you NOT do this swim? Just because you don’t know someone who has cancer or who passed away from cancer. Amongst all of the trivial little triathlons and open water swims you do all summer for yourself…why dont you just do one good thing for someone else?

Lots of small updates…each deserving of its own little mention but none absolutely post-worthy…so they all get lumped together like a big juicy omelet…maybe one or two of them will grow up to be its own post someday…

First, I want to say awesome thanks to Kate Farrington and Joe Mazzone for starting a swim team at my high school Alma Mater, Providence Country Day. PCD did what 3 other high schools couldn’t and that was get my punk criminal ass to graduate. Kate and Joe are PCD parents and are volunteering their time to coach a PCD squad at EP High School in East Providence, RI. Whatever they need whether its money or equipment, they have my full support. Starting a swim team is hard enough, I can testify to that, but in a city short on lane space its twice as tough. Big props to PCD!

Second…West Side Swim Club is now a proud parent! We have a new satellite club in the Delaware Valley LMSC (based out of Limerick, PA) called Wolfpack Swim Club (WOLF). I am taking over as the head coach and we will have quite the squad there by summer’s end. More details on this will be coming out in the next few weeks. Wolfpack Swim Club is a West Side Original. Respek!

Last week was our 2nd birthday! 2 full years of West Side Swimming. Reckanize!

We changed our session times this year to move the seasons around to better accommodate triathletes and open water swimmers. Instead of the traditional 4 month session that most teams employ, we changed our Winter/Spring session to be 5 months long. While most teams are wrapping up, we are peaking and its working great. We took two weeks after SCY Champs for recovery and have brought the base right back up and will continue to ascend over the next few weeks until we reach peak at the end of May and will maintain it through October. Our summer session will only be 3 months, June 1 to August 31, to better accommodate the college kids and the bulk of the tri season.

I listened to the audiobook version of “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall a few weeks ago and this is one of those books that is life changing. At least, for me it was. Over the last few years I have nickel-dimed my running…2 miles here…2 miles there…head down, hating how much it sucked…etc etc. Talk about lighting a fire in my ass…last week I ran 20 with an 8 on Saturday…happier than hell and feeling awesome. And why not? All these years I have been running for the wrong reasons…now I have the perfect reason. Prolong death as much as possible. Here is to you Chris. Awesome book and you have earned a spot in my top 5. Who knew? Leadville in 3 years? Why the fuck not?

2010 SCY Nats is almost here and I will be down in GA with Brandy hoping to take down a few national titles (if I am really lucky I will also get a track run over at AMS). I am also excited about Coach E’s return to Zone level competition after a 2 year hiatus. She is making the long drive down to VA for Zones and this is one of those meets that is going to absolutely set the tone for the next year of training. Down there she will be connecting with Jeremy who will be dropping some Zone records and repping 1776 Colonials for the last time before he joins the Wolfpack.

All this of course, leading up to LCM Championships at Middlebury at the end of June. This year it is going to be an awesome meet (as always). If you are going, find me and buy me a beer and I will tell you a story.

A few weeks ago I participated as the Analyst Coach for the first USMS Extreme Makeover Video session at Simmons College. It will be in the next issue of Swimmer Magazine. It was awesome and I got to work with some really good people. Thanks to Bill Ewan for doing the video and stills the way I needed it, thanks to Bill Edwards for cleaning up my commentary and thanks to Shoshanna for being an awesome student!!! It was a great project and I hope to participate again soon.

Speaking of videos, my last free video clinic at Sudbury (last weekend) put my total video analysis count at 1200!!!. Thats a ton of videos. When I started doing video analysis, I had two angles and couldn’t really articulate what it was I wanted to say. Most of my analysis was long-winded and in some cases made the swimmer more confused. It took a lot of videos and a lot of time to really fine tune the art. Nowadays after doing so many, it has become such an amazing tool and absolutely critical, in my opinion, to any swimmers’ success. No swimmer should ever go without consistent taping and at multiple angles and multiple speeds. Not only is it critical because a swimmer can actually see what a coach is yelling about, but when you go back and compare/contrast videos from different times, you can continuously adjust. You dont need Dartfish or some super expensive camera either. My hi-def camera setup cost <200 bucks.

I put out an announcement a few weeks back offering free video taping/analysis for any club/team in New England that wanted it. As with most free things, people are skeptical at first. But it’s picking up and people are starting to realize its a really really good thing. Babson Masters was the first to go and I am wrapping up their analysis now. 94 videos of 15 swimmers from 7 different angles in hi-def. Oh yeah…Next to go is Dedham Masters and Dedham HS girls. My fee is simply a coffee and a 6-pack. Hard to believe I know but that’s the fee (so yes, technically its not free but if you are savvy enough, its practically free). If your group needs it, just email me. I wont try and steal your swimmers or use it as a platform to evangelize my own club. Its about doing the right thing for swimming and thats the way I like it. If you want to pay lots of money for a clinic then be my guest.

More news in the coming weeks…

The WolfPack

If there is one thing West Siders love to do, it’s racing for a long time in big bodies of water trying to outrun their spotters. In addition to having the Memphre 10-miler at the top of our summer reading list, there is a NEW race being held up in York, Maine on July 10th called the Nubble Light Challenge. All proceeds from the Nubble Light Challenge will benefit the Maine Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), specifically programs in the local area that help children and families affected by mental illnesses.

This is a USAT (USA Triathlon) sanctioned 2.4 mile swim race around the “Nubble”. It will be open to 100 swimmers and 100 kayaker escorts. The race starts on Long Sands Beach and continues out past the Nubble Lighthouse, one of the most photographed lighthouses in the US, swimming through the “gut”, the channel between the lighthouse island and the mainland. The race finishes with a sprint to Short Sands Beach. There will be food from local restaurants and awards following the race at the York Beach ball field which is one block from Short Sands Beach.

For more information please visit their website at: http://www.nubblelightchallenge.com/

It is amazing what swimmers can do when possessed with just an absolute shitload of hard-crossed determination. There is the tale of the West Side coach who, despite suffering what was diagnosed as a massive concussion back in November after colliding with a swimmer during a sprint in practice, has fought her way back against the odds once again and not only competed in 9 events, coming within spitting range of PR’s in all of them, but who did an additional 21,000 yards in between events this weekend in preparation for 2011 Nats. There are the West Side distance swimmers who continue to see the big payoffs, year after year, this year racing their races entirely based on stroke counts. The PR payoffs were huge. There are the West Side stroke swimmers who continue to fine tune their strokes and who, with a little more block time in 2010, will be thundering back into 2011 with a vengeance. Last but not least there are the West Side sprinters who always seem to bring down the antelopes quickly and cleanly when out for the hunt.

Congrats to all of them for taking it to the limit, one more time.

Special congrats to West Sider Brandy Hugo who swam in five events and, consequently, smashed five New England records. In this day and age its so awesome to see records broken in a pre-2007 legal suit like the FSPro kneeskin and by someone who trains alone doing the workouts I send to her over email. The suit wasn’t nearly as old as the records though. Her 50 Free time of 24.80 broke an 18 year old New England record of 24.92. Her 50 Fly time of 26.85 broke the 17 year old record of 27.41. Her 100 free time of 53.64 broke the TWENTY year old record of 54.14. She also broke her own record of 1:00.44 set in 2008 for the 100 Fly by going 58.56. In addition, her 200 Free time of 1:58.33 broke the 2008 record of 1:58.64.

Sometimes you just have to want it more than anyone else.

Full West Side results are available here.  All of the race videos are up on our Youtube page.

MUCH RESPEK!!

NE-LMSC SCY Championships are coming up in 5 weeks (unless their sanction number gets pulled too). Many swimmers will sign up for non-free events like the IM or stroke-specific events to add to their repertoire. That’s awesome but what happens if you screw up your swim? Maybe you had a bad turn, maybe your goggles fell off, maybe you were accidentally wearing an illegal suit? DON’T WORRY!! You can get a do-over swim at the meet!

What the??? A do-over? Yes! Coach Nate is not just being crazy. It’s true, you can get a do-over if, for some reason, you screw up your swim or are unsatisfied with it. How do you do it? I’ll tell you but don’t tell anyone cause its a secret.

When signing up for the meet, if you are signing up for a stroke event in the 50, 100, 200 or the 200/400 IM you should always add the equivalent or greater in freestyle. Why? Because you can swim it again during the free. That’s right…there is a reason its called FREEstyle. You can swim anything you want! So if you have been training for months to set a new PR in the 100 Breast and you just miss it…well…that’s ok because you also signed up for a freestyle event and now you can do it again! And if you signed up for several free events you can do it a bunch of times. Think about it…let’s say you were only interested in the 100 Breast…theoretically you could swim it an equivalent of 6 times at the meet. How’s that for do-overs….

Now, it should be noted that if you wanted to set a New England or National record in the 100 Breast…well you have to do it in the 100 Breast. Sorry but those are the rules. But hey…don’t sweat the record. Just swim hard and do your best!!!