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.

Recovery that's about to undergo an overhaul....

Over the years I have worked with many swimmers on recovery but have never really tried to approach it as a team remediation. In most cases I would spend significant time on it with an individual, especially in cases where the poor recovery had some other detrimental effects such as a residual crossover, poor shoulder/hip rotation or where it was causing injury.

In recent weeks, however, I have become somewhat obsessed with it at the team level for no particular reason other than it’s a glaring inefficiency that can and does lead to other inefficiencies in the stroke overall and I think that a team wide remediation may be just the thing to get everyone completely fixed. Even those whose recovery is already outstanding are using the review period to refine the technique.

I went back through not only a recent team session of recovery video footage, but also through my archive of videos from the local and Olympic level and found overwhelming evidence to suggest that there is a specific range of recovery and many swimmers operate within it. Those who operate outside of it typically suffer from some of the same symptoms: deep catch, crossover, over rotation of the hips, poor head position and injury.

The range of motion I discovered is both high elbow based but also rotation based. In fact, I found that in my swimmers who had the best recovery, their off-side rotation was almost perfect as well.

I created two heat map overlays for the videos based on the ranges I discovered while evaluating all of the videos.

In this heat map, the top section represents the allowable range of recovery for the elbow-hand with the optimal position being almost vertical. In the bottom section, you can see almost an opposite spectrum for extension and catch as a direct result of the recovery.

In this heat map, translated from the other heat map, we can see that the elbow angle range, (the maximum allowable angle between the forearm and body during recovery) is actually quite small. Swimmers who tend to swing out their forearms but keep their elbows high were almost no better off than those who just swung the arm on a flat plane.

I also went into my library and started digging around and spent some time speaking with many coaches, collegiate, age group and Masters, to get opinions on their ideas about recovery. Overwhelmingly, many of them felt as though they did not do enough work on recovery but that it was one of those “things” that they occasionally did drills on and that would have to be ok. A few coaches said that typically they only focused on recovery with their top swimmers because that is where perfecting it made the biggest difference.

In the archives I found several articles and speeches where recovery focus was prevalent. Two excerpts are below.

In a 1993 presentation at the ASCA World Clinic, Coach John Carew, speaking in terms of the training of Kieren Perkins, was discussing technique potential with swimmers such as Kieren who had poor recovery:

“…Without technique you cannot reach your full potential regardless of what it might be. A lot of people think Kieren’s recovery is wrong. He swings the arms wide because that is how he is. He is just stiff in the shoulders. The recovery is one of the most important parts of the stroke. In a recovery you need relaxation. In relaxation you get speed through the recovery. Your recovery determines how you go through the water. Your elbow position in the recovery and where your elbow is after it passes your head determines the first part of your stroke. The recovery is one of the most important parts in swimming and one of the most neglected. If you are going to be a distance swimmer, you cannot be tight in your recovery. You must be able to get a follow through and ride forward and all these things come from your recovery.”

In 1997, Dick Jochums wrote an article in which he was describing some of the critical points of Distance Freestyle Training. Among other excellent points he mentions this about recovery:

“…This is the movement of the hand and arm from the back-end position to the entry position of the freestyle stroke. At the end of the push phase, just as the hand breaks the surface of the water, the arm is lifted from the water, lifting with the elbow. The elbow is always above the hand and arm through this phase. NOTE: A high elbow is a fundamental for two major reasons. First, lifting the arm and hand with the elbow uses a completely different set of muscles than are used to power the hand and arm through the water. This allows the muscles needed in the power phase to relax and recover. Second, the high elbow position helps keep body part movements inside the flowline. Physical law states “that any action must be countered by an equal and opposite action.” Therefore, any swing of the arm must be countered by an equal swing of the legs in an opposite direction. By keeping the hand directly below the elbow minimizes this arm swing and therefore minimizes the leg swing.”

While I continue to devise creative ways to address recovery, one thing is certain and that is teaching my swimmers to simply relax the hand and forearm on the way back up to the front. That, in itself, is a pretty simple concept which most swimmers understand. Do not POWER the arm back up to the front as there is no need. The underlying principle is also simple…Nothing goes lateral, nothing goes sideways. As long as you keep things in alignment, you will be in pretty good shape and that forms a foundation for the stroke.

My recommendation…get video of your recovery. Just have someone stand on deck at the end of the pool with a camera and swim towards them. It’s simple and quick. Then, WATCH THE VIDEO. What you think your arms are doing with your recovery and what your arms are doing in reality will most likely be vastly different. By watching the video right then and there, you will see your recovery and chances are pretty good that it will amaze you. Once you understand and see how your recovery functions, you can begin to correct it and get that elbow high and relaxed and become an amazing swimmer (or more amazing than you already think you are )

Here are some drills you can use to work on your recovery:
The Boat Drill: Essentially in the boat drill you simply hold you recover normally but stop it at its peak (when the hand is at the armpit and the elbow at its zenith) and hold it there for 7 kicks. Then finish the recovery with a flat palm entry and do the same on the other side. There are variations to this such as doing the boat drill for 2 strokes and then doing 2 strokes normal trying to emulate the same high elbow path. Alternate during the 25. You can also do one arm per 25 where you simply keep the opposite arm extended or at your side while doing one-sided boat drills.
1-Arm Drill: Practically a necessity in any coach’s drill bag, the 1-arm drills can be so effective if done absolutely properly. In this case, similar to the boat drill, you want to focus on the elbow and hand position during the recovery but with no pause during the recovery. To emphasize rotation, leave the opposite arm at your side…to emphasize extension and head position, leave the opposite arm extended out front.
Fingertip drag: Simple goal here is to focus on recovering with the elbow high and the forearm and fingers pointed straight down such that you drag the fingertips next to the body back to the front and enter/extend palm down. This lets you feel how close you are to your body and guides your hand/forearm/elbow back to the front in the proper path.
Head hip head drill: Once the hand has recovered to the front, right before you would normally extend you reverse the recovery back to the hip and then recover again and enter properly. You get two chances for recovery per stroke instead of your normal one!

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.