That feeling you get when you just did something amazing at a swim meet? A lot of you know what I am talking about, I‘m sure.
It is that indescribable feeling you get as you tuck into your hotel bed at night and your shaved legs feel so strange as they touch the sheets. When it is time to sleep but your heart is still racing because you can’t contain the thrill of how awesome you are for just performing better than your best…
It’s the confidence that burns inside you because your weekend is off to a great start and you just can’t wait for your next race to see how far into "uncharted territory" you can take it…
It's the beaming smile that makes it hard to eat your dinner even though you are crazy hungry, and the giddiness that comes from joking around with your team during down time; when you just feel so “on“… so connected.
I wouldn’t know how to describe it to a non-swimmer. I can’t help but wonder how many people have never had the chance to feel so charged.
I felt a little bit of that today. I am at a summer league championship meet and my athletes have done well on their first day. I am going to bed tonight feeling some of their charge with them. I have heard world class coaches describe the look on an athlete’s face after they have done something beyond what they thought they were capable of. It is that very look that keeps so many of us coaches at it even when there are so little other payoffs to a lifelong coaching career.
I told my assistant coaches tonight that I can attest that it is the same at age 21 as it is at age 8. You do better when you are having fun, and it is easy to have fun when you are swimming well. I want my swimmers to have fun first and foremost. Having fun and working hard are not exclusive of one another. If swimming fast is fun, I guess I am just trying to make sure they are having more fun than everyone else, right?
I can only imagine what it has been like to try to get a normal night’s sleep after breaking a world record in Rome this weekend. I have to wonder: Does Michael Phelps really get that same feeling that my summer leaguers get? Does he have a hard time sleeping after a great swim? Does the excitement make you hyper after you go a 49 in the 100m fly the same way it does for my 10 year old who dropped two seconds to swim a 36 in the 50y back and earn a medal in the finals?
I can tell you every detail of my 50y fly that was such a blur at age 10... That was the swim that made me really fall in love with swimming at the Alaska JO’s… the same way I can tell you every vivid detail of my 200 breast when I won my university conference championship. For me it has been the same. Will masters nationals carry the same thrill if I ever get to compete there some day?
I love to imagine that Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol, Ariana Kukors, and all of the other athletes who have put on such an amazing show this week are going to bed with that feeling tonight. I like to think that even at the highest levels, it is not about suits and sponsorships… not about newspaper articles and paychecks. I consider myself a purist because I like to dream that our best and brightest still get that thrill. I like to think that is why they have stayed in it long enough to reach their true potential and keep improving upon it. It brings me comfort to think that even they still feel the joy of a 10 year old every time they swim a big personal best.
I hope I get to see that look on my daughter’s faces someday. I hope that every athlete I ever coach gets a moment that makes them feel this at some point before they hang up their suits. I hope that I can still catch a little bit of it every time I set my coaching bag down in my hotel room and crash hard in my hotel bed, just waiting to see what my athletes are capable of tomorrow.
But most of all… I hope I can feel this way until the end of my career and tell stories about it until I no longer draw breath on this earth.
Would we really get this much press without the suit controversy? Once again, there is just so much great stuff out there. The world championships are fanning the flames on every side of the suit argument and we are getting an unprecedented amount of coverage for our sport. I even got to see Ricky Berens' bare butt on my 52 inch hi-def screen last night. I was horribly uncomfortable with how exciting that was for me.
As usual, Tony Austin at SCAQ is on top of it all on the pro-suit side. I am sure that most readers realize that even though FINA seems to have made their final decisions, there are still a lot of decisions to be made. More problems will come up. We may not know for years if the prevailing purist viewpoint will prove to be best for the sport. Rowdy Gaines seems to think that it will hurt us in the long run. Matt Lauer compares it all to the imaginary scenario of letting Major League Baseball use aluminum bats for a year and then taking them away.
One of my swim team parents is a dedicated triathlete who had to ask why Phelps would bring a “knife to a gunfight” in the 200 freestyle. This dad, Chris, will occasionally send me a link or two that relate to the things we chat about. Last summer, he sent me the SI archive article from 1972 about the Belgrade. He recently tipped me off to a new resource: The Science of Sport. I have become a regular reader as of about a week ago. With the world meet going on they have made a few excellent posts about swimming and suits. The fascinating thing for me is that the site attracts a lot of very knowledgeable comments from athletes in other similar sports, several of which have gone through similar crises.
Their most recent article highlights two different perspectives on the suit wars. They have actually taken a very intelligent “welcome to progress” comment from a reader (that alludes to an Einstein quote: “you can’t solve problems at the same level that you created them.”) and contrasted it against John Leonard’s recent ASCA blast email for coaches to pass on to swim parents; “What’s the Big Deal About Swimsuits?” while adding running commentary throughout. Some of the comments are just as fascinating as the work of the authors, and swimmers need to hear what other sports have to say. On the left side of their site, they have a link to all of their past swimming articles. They have done excellent work and it is worth reading.
I have cut and pasted one of the most intriguing comments from their site below. Please take note of who posted it, and let me know what you think in the comments section.
Kelvin Koch said... There is a lot more to this than what is going on in Rome. This has been brewing for over 25 years and many of the coaches and athletes complaining now, did not complain one bit when the advantage over their predecessors was theirs during the past two decades. Now we will have rules where men will be competing in suits that have not been used in elite competition on a regular basis in over 15 years. 25 years with the drag reducing fabrics of pre-2008 suits that are being removed as well.
As for the cost issue: The "paper suits" that started this in the mid-'80's cost over $150 for the girls. And they would last one session of a meet. There would be no "jammers" without the introduction of the "paper suit". A simple brief couldn't do much, drop the material down the leg to reduce drag and add compression where it could really matter and we had $125 suits for guys that lasted one meet session.
As a company we will provide whatever suits the rules require. I just don't think this has been thought out enough by anybody to avoid a long list of court battles that are about to happen. Now that men and women will be told they have to compete at a distinct handicap to those who preceded them over the past 2 decades there will be lawsuits over this issue. Their funding ultimately comes from world rankings and records. No one in their right mind can say that those who set records from at least 1992 - 2007 did not have an advantage over what is about to happen, now this next generation is being punished for what went on long before this week. Ultimately the courts will decide what is "fair" for these athletes in light of full disclosure of this issue...and it's not good for the sport to have that happen.
As a manufacturer I can see a lot of changes in this rule forcing all of us to have to scramble for "availability" due to last minute changes in rules for many seasons to come.
Kelvin Koch Rocket Science Sports - Swimming
Keep tuning in true believers! The clean up is going to be just as fun as making the mess!
What a week so far, eh? I have another linkfest here for you.
First FINA decided to choose NONE in the “all or none” solution to the suit dilemma. Then, Ryan Lochte calls for banana hammocks and makes everyone pause to reconsider where it is all leading before they throw up just a little in their mouths. Of course, amongst all the wacky-ness, Ricky Berens decided to protest by mooning everyone in Rome. Then, Michael Cavic took his gracious loss back by claiming that the touch pads failed him in his 100m fly loss in Beijing. Then, I ended up feeling like I am teaming up with Dr. Doom when Craig Lord gives a rant that cuts Speedo no slack in their role in starting the era of the fancy pants.
And all that is before I even get started on a crazy record destroying World Championships. France can’t get the job done again on the 400 FR. Peirsol gets knocked out of the 100m back final. Phelps gets eaten alive on the last 50 of a 200m free, which was, in my eyes his most amazing record. Thorpey is erased from the books… the list goes on.
Now, FINA is already backtracking within days of their decision by letting boys go back to wearing girls suits, and Bob Bowman has threatened to take Phelps out of International competition until FINA makes up their minds and hits their enforcement date.
I have a great idea. Let’s host a meet on the last weekend that non-permeable suits are allowed. We can call it the “Bull Run Rumble” and invite everyone to come and duke it out to see who gets to hold the (possibly asterisked) world record for the next 30 years. One last hoorah before the records are set for eternity. That might be fun, eh? I mean, really… the record book is gonna be a mess no matter what we do. I wouldn’t mind giving Phelps another chance to get that 200 free record back. His old record will be gone when the asterisks start flying. It could be the greatest meet in history. It might bring Ian Crocker out of retirement to log that 48 second 100 fly we all know he could do in the Jaked. Give it some thought. Maybe we can talk the Chesapeake Swim Club in OKC into hosting their Pro-Am in long course and tech-friendly this year to attract he best of the best for one last crack at it.
The Viking predicts that FINA will change their minds three more times before the World meet is over, and Craig Lord will follow Ricky’s lead and moon everyone in Rome, and Michael Phelps will finally get mad and go green... he will HULK out and hit a sub 1:50 200 fly in the nude.
My RSS feeder is going crazy. Stay tuned for more, and don’t forget to go to Swim Pulse for your exclusive coverage from Rome.
Okay, folks... I don't have to keep my lips sealed any longer. Garrett gave me the "go ahead" to let you know what the next move is. I got the call last week and it has been really tough to keep my big mouth shut about where the Viking Ship is going to be docked. The big G and his crew are starting a new site, and it has been a rush job to get it ready enough to give you the coverage from ROME. It is still under construction, but I can tell you that everyone is excited and we want to get this right. I will still be posting here, but I will be a very active part of Garrett's crew as well. Please go check it out at swimpulse.net. Go there. Bookmark it. Support the site.
The Site Mission:
We're checking the pulse of the swimming community to find out what kind of support an independent, for swimmers by swimmers website, will get from you. Swimpulse isn't part of a bigger company or organization, which means our priorities and obligations to the swimming community will never come 2nd. Ask any great coach and he'll tell you the best approach to building something is to keep it simple, so that's what we're doing. If you like the kind of content you've seen from our World Championship Trials and World Championship coverage, become part of Swimpulse by purchasing a Swimpulse T-shirt. Think of it as investing in the next step for swimming. The goal of this site is to be the heartbeat of the swimming community, so show your support by rocking a Swimpulse T-Shirt!
So, this morning I got an email on my ipod that said I have a comment on a blog. No big deal. I passively check my email several times a day. Tony Austin had left a comment that ended with something to the effect of: “what do you think of the new FINA rule?” …but I am off work for the day and playing with my kids so I didn’t really think anything of it. I figured he was talking about FINA adding the words “swimsuit” rather than just the vague “device” to rule SW10, as reported at SwimNews.
Then, in the evening, when I checked in to my hotel (as I am away at a meet this weekend) I realized that my wife had texted me during the drive, to turn the radio to NPR. The text said “fast skins banned today. Tune to 107.5.” I didn’t know I got the text until over an hour after she sent it. As soon as I got within range of my hotel wi-fi I had to find out what in the hell was up. The first link I tapped was this radio interview with the President of USA Swimming. After that, I found articles at the Texas Swimming Blog, SwimNews, Universal Sports, Kast-Away, Swimming World and, of course, more from SwimNews.
Damn... I got scooped. Time to sharpen the horns.
How in the world did my wife find out about this before I did!?! How was it on NPR and in the AP before Craig Lord had ranted about it? How did my RSS feeder not keep me in the loop? How could FINA have made this decision without consulting me? How dare they?!
I don’t have a problem with returning to pre-2008. I really don’t. I never liked the cost, and at times the record breaking was exhaustingly heart-breaking. The first list, with the LZR still on it, was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen. I have come to the conclusion that it needs to be all or none regarding tech. FINA has now decided to go with NONE. That can be seen as a good thing. No middle ground, because the middle has proven to be too muddy.
What I have a problem with is the BS that has led to the decision and the fact that now we have some problems to solve that are bigger than asterisks and patience.
How much influence did Speedo and their outspoken, high powered sponsors have in this decision that will put them back in the saddle? If the LZR and their 2% advantage had remained the pinnacle of swimsuit technology, would we be backtracking right now? When TYR athletes were ditching contracts to wear Speedo, people treated TYR like they were the villains for trying to get swimmers to honor their commitments. When athletes like Andrew Lauterstein started jumping from Speedo’s ship, we suddenly needed to change the rules for everyone. Speedo sponsored athletes and coaches have made a serious turn-around regarding tech. What the hell? In the months leading up to Beijing, the media frenzy surrounding the LZR left the world with no doubt that the new tech was the way to go. At the time I read more article about the NASA developed suit than I ever had about swimming as a whole.
Now that we are returning to skin and length restricted textiles, what do we do about all of the records set in super-modern suits? Asterisks might sound simple and harmless, but once they are put in place they will carry an ominous connotation that implies cheating. Years from now, when people are reading about Michael Phelps tremendous 8 gold medal performance, it will take a very involved footnote to explain that his races were “artificially aided,” although everyone else he raced at the time, or at least those from America and Australia, were also performance enhanced. Also, what about Thorpey’s records set in the full body? If we are choosing NONE with the suits, we probably oughtta take our asterisks back to pre-FS1. Think about it. The suits aren’t just going back to 2007... They are going to pre-2000, and the record board should go there with it. Are we really ready for that?
Just like the interviewer on NPR, the non-swimming public will not quite understand what is going on within our sport. They really won’t get why, when other sports are embracing similar innovations, we feel we need to banish them. They won’t know what it means when they see a list of the top 50 meter freestyle performances in history it will show asterisks after every name until they get to Alex Popov and Tom Jager. How far down the list are they right now?
Beyond that, will our sport be taking a step backwards regarding the income that keeps our athletes in the sport? In my opinion, post-grad opportunities are the greatest change that swimming has ever seen. Name recognition has been taken to a new level, and that counts for a lot when we are trying to break through to becoming a more mainstream, televised sport. Are post-grads going to struggle in a sport where innovation has been halted?
I really don’t know what the right answers are. I can only hope that decisions of this magnitude have been given the thorough investigation they deserve. The problems we face now will not be solved easily. Let’s hope that our sport can handle the road ahead. I am still on board. Let’s try to make the most of it, eh?
Maybe it is time to start the ball rolling on that tech-friendly pro league. Maybe the tech mess can spawn a healthy, media friendly, and positive addition to an unquestionably pure sport.
Let me know what you think in the comments section.
There has been a lot of great stuff out there lately. Honestly, if the blog fight were still on, we would all be getting our butts kicked by Tony Austin over at SCAQ. He has been all over it lately.
For example, I have referenced more than once, the Sports Illustrated Vault article from 1974 about the Belgrade swimsuit and all of the turmoil it caused our sport that is so similar to today… but Tony finally gave it the treatment it deserves by comparing the similarities and then giving quotes on the speed suit controversy from some big names who have jumped ship regarding tech. You also have to go to his article on Libby Tricket’s decision to stay with Speedo and read the comments thread. There is some great discussion going on. Please check out his links.
Then, after I officially announced that we are in the age of asterisks, Mark Schubert decided it was time to go ahead and let everyone know is on board with the idea. He thinks everything since February 2008, including everything set in the LZR, should be marked as “artificially aided.” This would mean that when we look back upon the greatest feat in Olympic history, Micheal’s magic 8 golds, there would be an asterisk, just like a ball player on steroids. Do we really want to head in that direction? There are a lot of athletes out there who have been playing by the rules who deserve to be treated with respect when we decide the direction we are going to take regarding records if we go back to lycra. Let’s just hope Schubert’s influence doesn’t open another door to problems bigger than our decision makers could anticipate.
Sorry I don’t have any big announcements to make right now. Please be patient. The G is cooking up something, and you can expect the crew to bring you what you need from Rome. Keep tuning in. The ship is still sailin’… just waiting for the wind to pick up a little. In the meantime, click on every link in this post. There's lots of good stuff out there!
Sorry there hasn’t been much going on since WCT. We have all been waiting word of the old flo crew’s next moves, and I have been too busy coaching to write anything new for a while; but luckily, summer league meets are fun, and they can attract all sorts of spectators. I was blessed enough to be introduced to a lady yesterday who was there to watch her niece. She just happened to also be a former american record holder who was happy to chat with me when I asked her. When I got home I googled her and found out that there is actually a Tammy Thomas award at KU, and I found a really great article in the Sports Illustrated archives that makes a pretty big deal of her breakthrough at the 1983 NCAA’s. In the interview we also talked a little about suits, and she had actually worn the old controversial Belgrade! How cool is that? I guess love of the sport keeps a lot of us around the pool deck, and still wanting to talk about swimming years after our careers are over, and I am somehow blessed to get a chance to get some of them on camera for all you swim fans out there. Enjoy!
