The biggest frustration I ever had in my swimming career was not being able to hoist up a swimming championship in the UAAP seniors division the way I twice did in the juniors. While the sweet second place my teammates and I landed in 2009 will be with me forever, winning that elusive championship could have been the pinnacle of my on-again, off-again relationship with swimming. But that is for another time. This entry will be about something else--something any swim team could find useful in their quest for aquatic supremacy.
Winning a championship requires what I like to call "collective individualism" or in the words of my former coach, "team success through individual excellence". Simply put, every member of the team needs to work on being an exceptional swimmer in his own right to the very best of his abilities. Everyone needs to adapt a confident attitude which will foster this aura of being intimidating instead of being intimidated. Most of all, each and every member of the team needs to be confident in his own swimming prowess so that no one will be too reliant on the elite swimmers.
But how does one do these things, you ask? Below are three points which may be helpful.
1. Train the way you compete.
The fault of many swimmers these days is that they tend to take the importance of training too lightly. It is quite disturbing that most swimmers resist pushing their limits whenever a set seems too difficult to accomplish. Instead of accepting a new challenge, they cower away and mediocrely swim the set just to finish it. Their excuse: there's always tomorrow...
Guys, there is no tomorrow--not if you want to be the best that you can be! Besides, there is no point in attending training if you do not have any intention of simulating how you will be competing. Why do we train, in the first place? We train because we want to get faster; the only way to get faster is by making fast-ness natural to us. What better venue to make ourselves naturally fast than practices--the place wherein we are allowed to make mistakes and test new techniques or stroke mechanics until we come close to perfect with regard to it.
Train the way you compete, fellas. Treat your trainings as an aquatic laboratory of sorts. Envision how you intend to compete and try it out when you train. If you plan on performing long underwater dolphins during the meet, do exactly that in every set of the training if it is applicable. If you plan executing a flip turn during the back-to-breast transition, practice that consistently. If you plan on using a track-start before you dive, track-start during training so that you are absolutely comfortable in that position come the meet. If you plan on wearing a swimming cap, by all mean, wear a swim cap in training!
As the age old saying goes, "practice makes perfect." The thing is, you have to ask yourself what it is your are perfecting in practice. Are you perfecting your slacker skills by cutting corners and taking it easy? Or are your honing your competitive skills by perfecting every aspect of your swim while training?
2. Swim while everyone else is resting!
While others rest, prepare. Need I say more?
One of the things I used to lament back then was how late my teammates started training seriously to prepare for the UAAP. I am honestly astounded that they expect to be in top form with only three to four months left before the meet that I almost scoffed at their misplaced confidence. While some of them actually do regain and surpass their peak performances with such a small window of preparation, most seem confused as to why they put up such disappointing borderline embarrassing times. Many a time I just kept my mouth shut; how could they be so obtuse to not know what they did wrong?
As I mentioned in one of my earlier articles, the competition does not start or end with the meet. Competition is 24/7! It is true that off-season trainings are not as intense as the ones during the season, they do serve a purpose of maintaining stroke integrity and keeping swimmers as fit as possible. I am not saying that you should continue the rough trainings; by all means, any swimmer is entitled to a well-deserved rest after a grueling season. What I am saying is that you might want to take advantage of this period to get ahead of the game, so to speak. Especially when you are playing catch up against competition which is faster and far more trained that you, use this downtime to close the distance separating you from the them.
3. Fight (Swim) like a Champion!
We all remember the Pacquiao-Marquez fight a few weeks ago and how controversial the decision was. Regardless of how the pundits and would-be experts analyze the fight, the mere fact that the challenger was not at all challenging the champion was Marquez's downfall. Sure, he gave Pacquiao a hard time and might have even won the fight had me knocked him down once. But the fact is, he was not launching an all out assault on the champion. And he dare say that he ought to be champion when he was not acting like one?
Fellas, to be a champion you have to act like a champion and not just talk like one. Swim like a champion by being an aggressive competitor in training and in meets. Never back down from anything no matter how daunting workouts are or how fast your competitors are reputed to be. Challenge yourself and your teammates everyday to be the best swimmers that you can possibly be.
So you see, it all boils down to every member of the team doing his part exceptionally. In contrast to club swimming, varsity swimming is much more complicated since not everyone can just join a team and compete. There are certain academic requirements which have to be met for any athlete to be part of any team as most of us know well. Hence, varsity teams do not have the luxury of simply recruiting all the top talents and dominating the field since said talents need to prove their worth--and more importantly earn their keep--in the classrooms as well as the in the pool.
However, keep in mind that regardless of how the recruits fare academically, you can be certain that they will perform splendidly once they plunge in the pool and amass team points crucial for the championship. You ought to do the same, don't you think?
Winning a championship in swimming starts with the swimmer. You and your teammates have to believe that you are more than capable of winning the championship. Beyond believing, you guys have to be willing to put in the requisite amount of work a champion is called to deliver. Believe adamantly and swim exceptionally--it is as simple as that.
Take Your Mark!
