5 Things Varsity Swimmers Need to Know & Understand

Ever since I entered college, I noticed that most swimmers younger than myself (as well as a certain number of senior swimmers) seemed to have developed amnesia with regard to the fundamental responsibilities of a swimmer. Well, amnesia may not be the right word to describe it since I do not think most of them were ever told that such responsibilities existed. But I did hope that they would have deduced such realities after a few years of swimming varsity. 

In either case, I think it is time that young swimmers are reminded of the things below. It would be such a pity if you guys do not put to memory and, more importantly, understand them. Trust me--these five things will help in the long run.

1. Not all the time should the Student come before the Athlete.

We have heard it all before in Coach Carter. "These kids are student-athletes. Student comes first," as Samuel L. Jackson eloquently phrased it. I am not disputing this. It is the obligation of every varsity swimmer--or athlete for that matter--to prioritize his education over his athletics. After all, turning professional is not an option for a Filipino swimmer for obvious reasons.

However, I have seen swimmers using the student-athlete excuse to chronically skip training. Kids, prioritizing academics over athletics does not mean forsaking your swimming obligations altogether. Prioritizing means striking a manageable balance between studying and swimming. The life of a student-athlete is hard to put it mildly. And while your coach, captain and/or teammates allow you certain latitude to skip training in order to study, please be reminded that you have voluntarily joined the team. Meaning to say, you accepted the difficult, complex and sacrifice-ridden life of a student-athlete in all its entirety; you embraced all of a varsity swimmer's responsibilities and obligations with open arms when you joined the team after passing try-outs. Let me stress it again; You joined to team voluntarily. No one forced or coerced you.

Except for certain unavoidable occasions, never use academics to skip team activities such as training and meets. Everyone, even the brightest, of your teammates is experiencing the same amount of difficulty you are going through so you have absolutely no right to complain or give excuses. And while you will have to skip athletic commitments for academic obligations, there will come a time wherein you ought to do the reverse. Whether it be cutting classes for meets, taking exams earlier or even load-reving from a class of the best teacher to the class of the terror teacher since the former coincides with training, you will have to see these through.

Boys and girls, sacrifices go both ways. So keep the student before the athlete alright; just do not be too uptight about it.

2. Listen to and RESPECT  your coach.

Integral to swimming success is your relationship with your coach and/or coaches. We all desire to have the perfect coach--one who is always understanding of our shortcomings and will never give sets we cannot accomplish. As lofty as such dreams are, we know that we rarely encounter such coaches. Often we get the composite coach--the combination of the dreaded one and the benevolent one in certain aspects of his personality. But of course, relationships with our coaches are dynamic.

In the team I came from, I am honestly astounded by how younger swimmers view our coaches. Most of the time, I had to restrain myself from coming down on numerous youngsters because their attitude  toward our coaches are downright disrespectful. While most of my teammates dismiss such attitudes as childish behaviors of, well, children, I cannot reconcile such things as gentlemanly, Atenean even. And let us not even begin to discuss the online social network bashing...

Guys, RESPECT ALL YOUR COACHES! You are allowed to have favorite coaches in as much as coaches are allowed to have favorite swimmers. That is a fact of any athlete's life. But respect your coaches indiscriminately nonetheless. You may not like them but you have to respect them, for their authority if not anything else. 

Keep in mind that your coaches (well most of them) only want what is best for you. They are hard on you because they believe that you can become a better person through sports.

Do not be scared if your coach comes down on you. Not too much anyway because that is a sign that he still wants to push you; that he still believes in you! Be scared when he ignores you completely. That is an indication of a total loss of confidence and trust. Believe me, I know.

However, if you really cannot swim for a coach you do not like and cannot bring yourself to respect in any way possible, find another one who you will swim for. There is nothing wrong about that. In fact, I highly recommend it. 

3. Never mind that no one watches your meets or even cares that you are a varsity swimmer.
Coming from a school whose administration, faculty and staff absolutely worships basketball and football as much as the student body, I understand completely why grade school, high school and college swimmers are very much frustrated when their achievements go unnoticed. Imagine swimming for your school for four grueling days trying to win a team championship by winning individual medals and breaking records without receiving so much as a thank you for your efforts regardless of the end result.  Would not you feel upset, frustrated even angry at that?  And when you hoist up your trophy at the end of the day, you do not even see the direct representatives of the student body--the varsity cheerleaders--because they are off at Araneta cheering for the basketball team full force. Get my point?  (For my opinions about the aforementioned, click Burst My Babble Part 1 and Burst My Babble Part 2)

In my years of swimming for my school, I have learned that while such a reality is dreadful, you are setting yourself for more than you can possibly imagine if you dwell on it too much. Lobby hard  and fight for the recognition you deserve and do it the right way. Other than that, just swim. Leave it out on the pool because at the end of the day, your achievements are only as important as what you make them regardless if your school recognizes your or not. 

For you grade schoolers, take it from me. Do not quit swimming to shift to the popular sports so that your peers will regard you as an athlete. You are an athlete, young man! And trust me, while your basketball batchmates bask in limelight now, their numbers will dwindle with every year level you progress since there are fewer and fewer leagues wherein basketball teams can play in high school and only the UAAP division in college. Only a few of them are good enough to make it to the UAAP Seniors Division so come college, the only league you will see these guys is the IAC (kind of like your Intrams in grade school). But if you stick it out with swimming, chances are you will still be enjoying the perks of a varsity member in college. (If you are wondering what some of the perks are, well, Ateneo College is co-ed!)

Here's another food for thought. While your basketball batchmates only play in one league be it PAYA, PRADA, PSBL and the like, you will be swimming in all of them! So technically, you are a member of at least two teams! How's that!

So keep swimming, young men. Keep staring at that emotionless black line and endure the proverbial chlorine-smell and tan lines. It will all be worth it in more ways that you will ever expect.

4. Competing does not start and end with the meet.
During my time as team captain for the college team, I cannot remember a time wherein I did not stress this. The competition does not start and end with the meet; it begins the moment you wake up everyday and will only end once you finally hang up your swimming gear. Competitive swimming is a consummate sport. The key to success is to keep swimming even when you are not swimming.

But how do you swim without swimming? Easy. By going the extra mile. Apply Magis in your sport! In my experiences, you accomplish a lot of your technique improvements and stroke corrections when you are not swimming. In every waking second, think about what will make you stronger, faster and better. Be as cerebral as you possibly can out of the pool because when you are racing, more often than not, your instincts take over. Also, take advantage of technology! Watch Youtube videos of the legends like Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe, Ryan Lochte, Grant Hackett, Kosuke Kitajima and other elite swimmers to learn from them and see what you can possibly adapt.  

Guys, never believe anyone who tells you that you need only to defeat your opponents during competitions. That is a total misconception. While the goal is to defeat your opponents during meets, the only way to do so is by defeating him in every aspect of the sport. It is true that you do not control what your rivals do but regardless, make sure that your goal is to outwork him in training by acting as if you are already competing. Outsmart him by eating the right food. Overpower him by religiously attending gym and land training sessions before pool workouts. But as creative and as unorthodox as possible!

5. Enjoy every second of swimming; have as much fun as you can.
Enjoy swimming as much as you can, young ones. Swim every swim as if it is your last and enjoy the company of your teammates as much as you possibly can. As amazing as life is, it is also unforgivingly unpredictable. So love swimming, even if she plays hard-to-get.

A word of warning though. As much as I advocate having fun, please keep them in the proper perspective and in line. When it is time to get serious, do not fool around. Focus your attention at the task at hand and have fun afterward, once you and your teammates finish the set. Surviving hellacious sets are always fun and entertaining to look back on. Especially when one of your teammates is a sport when he is the butt of all the innocent ribbing and jokes!

Boys and girls, I hope that these five things are clear enough. If you have any questions or concerns, never hesitate to leave a comment!

Take Your Mark!

Regaining Aquatic Fitness

Any former competitive swimmer can attest to spending as much time away from the pool once their careers are over. Most, especially those who have been swimming ever since they had baby teeth, have become too sick of being tan and proverbially smelling like chlorine that they literally put their suits and gear in a cardboard box and stow them away in the deepest recesses of their closets. Who could blame them? For ten plus years, they have swam lap after lap after lap twice a day, seven days a week preparing for competitions almost every other weekend. While some are given renumeration for their hardwork--athletic-scholarships in high school or college--the monotony of swimming makes it difficult to constantly be loyal to its responsibilities and obligations. Fast-forward a few months after retiring, you look at the mirror and see the physical changes your body has made. Gone are the washboard abs, barrel chest, chiseled shoulders, bulging biceps and V-shaped body. Replacing them are the dreaded fats you never had to deal with only a few months before. Then, you realize that you are at a crossroads of sorts. You can continue rebelling from what you have done for so long and slowly watch your swimmer's body disappear or you can reconcile with your sport and work your way back into shape.

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in the same situation. While I generally did not mind my muscles turning into fat and my "V-ody" slowly disappearing--after all, I was retired--I realized just how difficult my future would be if I continue my post-swimming career foolishness. Cutting the long story short, I realized the many health risks I was setting myself up for and decided right then and there to do something about it. Without thinking twice, I took out my gear and headed to the pool to do some laps and gauge my current physical condition. After that painful morning, I created my personal swim program which would more or less get me back into shape. After my first week of said program, I can honestly say that I am on the right track.

I do not want to divulge the specifics of my program but I will offer some advise which will help you craft your own program.

1. Know what you want and set your goal.

The last thing you want to do is to swim blind. Before you put on your suit and goggles, ask yourself what you are swimming for and why you are swimming again. Whether it is to lose weight, enjoy the water or mount a comeback to competitive swimming, the key is to know what you are after. When you do know it, set your goals. Be sure to make them SMART too (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, REALISTIC and TIME BOUND). Draw motivation from such goals because it is all on you this time around.

2. Remember what type of swimmer you were.

"Once a swimmer, always a swimmer," I always say. No matter how much you fight or run away from it, you will always be a swimmer. The sooner you embrace that fact, the faster you will regaining aquatic fitness. That said, remember the kind of swimmer that you were--in training and in competitions. Recall your strengths and weaknesses; were you more of kicker or a puller? Did you have excellent underwater techniques? Did you thrive breathing less or more? What was your stroke count in your specialty stroke or S1 and freestyle? 

If you kept a journal during your career, you might want to take it out and read through it to refresh your memory. Remembering what type of swimmer you were will help you determine what you need to work on which leads us to...

3. Gauge your current physical condition and reconcile it with what you used to do.

Before thinking of and putting your workout on paper, find out what type of condition you are in. Go to the pool and swim a normal competition style warm up. I suggest you do a 400-300-200-100 combination of swim-pull-kick-swim. After which, do some time trial sets for your 50 and 100 freestyle and S1. If you are daring, time your 100 and 200 IM as well. You will have a pretty good idea of where you are standing after that. 

While you swim, take note of the things you cannot do easily anymore. Once you dive in the pool, your movements are automatic no matter how much time you spend away. As automatic as some of your movements are, notice what you strain to do this time around. Be it your trunk rotation, catch, stroke recovery, tumble-turn or any specifics, keep them in mind. You will have to factor these in when you make your own workouts later.

4. Take it easy then work yourself up.


When I swam for the first time a couple of week ago, the worst mistake I made was thinking I could pick up where I left off. I knew from experience that I could not do that but the snob in me was too determined to convince myself that I was still capable of all the things I used to do. The result? Sore muscles all over and a pretty nasty headache.

No matter how much of an elite athlete you once were, keep in mind that you spent quite sometime away from the pool. As our coaches always said, even a day away from swimming makes it difficult to stay on track on the path to achieving your goals. What more if you are gone for more than a couple of months?

Take it easy your first time out. Get your comfort and water-feel back before even considering subjecting yourself to tough endurance and speed swims. Unless you are planning to jumpstart your path to competitive swimming, slowly and easy is the name of the game.

5. Do not shortchange yourself.


The difficulty about swimming alone--if you do train alone now--is that you rely solely on yourself. There is no coach to watch you on the pool deck nor do you have teammates to compete with or even have the comfort of someone suffering the same workout. That said, the temptations are greater. When you feel fatigue, an almost insatiable desire to no longer push yourself to finish the sets in. It will take great amounts of maturity and focus to rise above such temptations when you train alone.

The thing to remember is to never shortchange yourself. I will not tell you to cut down on your workouts; as a former athlete, you ought to understand well enough the consequences of such actions. But what I will tell you is to never settle for anything less than what you think and know you deserve. At the end of the day, the only fool you are kidding is yourself every time you give in to the temptation of slacking off. Which leads me to my last advice.

6. Always remember what you are swimming for.


Never forgot why you are swimming again and what you are swimming for this time around. Whether it be because you are mounting a comeback or losing a few pounds, always keep in mind your reasons every time you take the pool. Remember them especially when the temptation to quit is strong. It may be easier said than done but keep that fire alive and burning white-hot. That drive to accomplish whatever it is you set out to do will be your best friend during your quest to regain your aquatic fitness.

Keep track of your progress too. Write about it, keep it in mind, post it on your wall; do whatever it takes to record what you are going through. Trust me; this will be more helpful to you in more ways that you could possibly imagine during that long winding road to get back in shape.

I hope that this post can help all of you former swimmers wanting to return to the pool anytime soon. If you have any comments and suggestions about regaining that pool fitness, leave a comment and I'll get back at you as soon as I can.

On a personal note, I am on my second week of my own swimming program. It's been tough but I feel that I am on the right track. With the right amount of dedication, discipline and diligence, I think I will be able to make this work.

Take Your Mark!

Team USS: The First Member

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I might feature swimmers who are truly unsung swim stars. To be perfectly honest, I know a lot of swimmers who deserve the title more than I do (I just claimed it before anyone else did). After much debate, I have finally decided to feature someone who deserves recognition for his achievements! 

This student-athlete will be the first member of what I like to call Team Unsung Swim Stars or Team USS. Early next month, get to know this inaugural member and standout swimmer. Read about his swimming story, motivations and future goals. Learn his favorite swimming moment and what he aspires to be when he finally hangs up his suits. And, if he is willing to share them, discover things which he keeps personal. 

Check back in a couple of weeks to find out who the first member of Team USS is!

Take Your Mark!


To find out more about Team USS click on the properly labelled tab above or here.

Swimming FAQs

I have been around long enough to face all kinds of questions regarding swimming. When someone finds out that I am a swimmer, especially a new acquaintance, questions about swimming as well as being a swimmer always find their way in our conversations. Most are the general stuff while others involve certain myths which I could only shake my head in disbelief. It is understandable, of course. Swimming has yet to be the commercial sport akin to basketball and football. Therefore, very few understand the competitive nature of the sport which influences the behavior of swimmers the world over. Until swimming does become (hopefully) a sport recognized and understood by millions much like basketball, I will use this opportunity to answer some frequently asked questions about swimming and swimmers. 

1. How many laps do swimmers usually swim a day in to be as slim as they are?

    

In all my years, I have never really kept track of the number of laps I swam because I wanted to get slim or have the finely sculpted muscles flaunted by world-class swimmers. I kept track of the laps because I wanted to get better at my sport and be as fast as I could possibly be. To that end, swimmers usually swim anywhere from 3000 meters to 10,000 meters a day depending on which part of the season they are in. If they are preparing for a big meet say the UAAP, NCAA or National Championships, daily workouts would range from 8000 to 10,000 meters and will gradually go down to around 2500 to 3000 meters the closer the meets get. If it is the off-season, workouts are designed for stamina and stroke maintenance which would total anywhere from 2000 to 3000 meters. The slim bodies just comes as a by-product of all the hardwork and sacrifices they make in honing their crafts.  

*3000 meters = 120 laps in a 25 meter pool, 60 laps for 50 meter pool

*10,000 meters = 400 laps in a 25 meter pool, 200 laps for a 50 meter pool

2. If I am not really into competitive swimming but I wish to swim just to get fit, how many laps do you think I should be doing? How often do I swim too?

Swimming has been considered as the best cardiovascular exercise known to man; when you swim, every major muscle group of the body is completely utilized and worked on. In contrast to running, swimming is also the "safer" cardio exercise since there is no unnecessary stress on your knees or the soles of your feet when you swim. Moving on, slow and easy would be the basis of any suggestion regarding the number of laps you swim as well as how often you should swim. Start by swimming 20-30 laps of freestyle for three days a week. Once feel that it is becoming too easy for you and that you are starting to get comfortable in the water, increase the number of laps you do by 10. Keep on increasing the number until you can do 100 plus laps. 100 laps ought to be a manageable goal to anyone who does not have a competitive swimming background. 

3. When aiming for that magic 100, do you have to swim non-stop? 

No, you do not have to swim non-stop during you swims. You can opt to do that but trust me when I say that you are setting yourself up for unnecessary boredom. What I would recommend is doing what competitive swimmers usually do. Breakdown your targeted total laps into short, manageable sets which will give you enough time to catch your breath and rest. If your goal is to do 40 laps, break the 40 down into five sets of eight laps or 5x200 meters. That way, you get adequate amount of rest in between sets. It is up to you if you want to do speed or stroke variations. The most important thing to remember is to make it easy and simple for yourself. As I said before, swim your laps slow and easy.

4. Do guy swimmers shave their legs and armpits on top of their heads? Will shaving those body parts really give you an advantage during a race?


I cannot really give a straight answer for this because it really depends on the swimmer. Some do shave or wax their excess body hair in as much as other do not. During my last two years in the UAAP, I finally decided to have my armpits and legs waxed. Since I was going to wear a Speedo LZR Racer full bodysuit in 2009 and an LZR Elite Jammer in 2010, I decided to go the whole nine yards and finally adhere to this "ancient" swimming ritual. What the hell? I thought told myself. As for the million dollar question if my waxing helped, well, I would like to believe that it did at the time. Though I cannot support this with hard, scientific facts I can attest to feeling a bit smoother in the water which I assume is an indication of lesser drag. So yeah, shaving or waxing helps. It probably will not lead to a drastic improvement of your best time; at most, maybe a few hundredths of a second. Psychologically, it should be helpful--a placebo, if you will.

5. Do all swimmers follow certain diets year-round? Or are most much like Michael Phelps with his alleged 10,000 calories a day diet?


In all my years of swimming, I have never met any swimmer who adheres to a strict diet. Most of my teammates eat like a disposal unit; place food in front of them and they will devour it without thinking twice. I even had a teammate who could eat a regular spaghetti meal after eating two pieces of chicken, five pieces of lumpiang shanghai, a cheeseburger and five cups of rice. And his stomach does not even get big even after eating all of that food! Truth is, I spent most of my glory years before sports nutrition became mainstream. It was only during the twilight years of my career that the advent of sports nutrition came about so I missed that ship, figuratively speaking. Going back to the question, I would say that swimmers these days consider what they eat more than my generation did. While some are indeed following Michael Phelps' prodigious appetite, I would not be surprised at all if most swimmers follow some sort of diet which will help them swim faster and last longer.

I sincerely hope that I sufficiently answered these swimming FAQs. If you have anymore questions about swimming or the life of a swimmer, feel free to leave a comment or two and ask away.

Take Your Mark!

Swimming & The Silver Screen: The Covenant

Click here to watch the trailer.

Synopsis: The Covenant is a supernatural action film involving the fictional Sons of Ipswitch. To their peers,  Caleb Danvers (Steven Strait), Pogue Perry (Taylor Kitsch), Reid Garwin (Toby Hemingway) and Tyler Simms (Chace Crawford) are merely best friends who treat each other as brothers. Hailing from old-rich families, the four attend Spencer Academy and are the standout swimmers in the varsity. What most do not know is that they are descendants of an ancient bloodline of warlocks who have limitless powers both unnatural and supernatural. Once they "Ascend" on their 18th birthday, they gain more potent magical abilities than what they already wield. However, use of these powers ages them rapidly, a terrible price they must pay if they overindulge in their extremely powerful and seductive magical abilities. When the last surviving descendant of the fifth family suddenly emerges and seeks vengeance, it is left to Caleb, the oldest and most powerful of the four to defend his brothers and ensure the survival and secrecy of their Covenant.

Review: Injecting my swimming review in this movie is pretty simple. As mentioned earlier, all four main characters as well as the antagonist are the elite swimmers of their school. While the crew uses actual swimmers as doubles, the swimming scenes, particularly the Caleb-Chase freestyle showdown is quite believable and realistic. If it were really Steven Strait and Sebastian Stan actually swimming in that scene then kudos to them. Their stroke mechanics and technique were convincing performances for elite swimmers they are supposedly portraying. However, the butterfly race of Taylor Kitsch is what irks me that most. When Taylor swims the fly, he takes his first stroke arms straight at the recovery phase. However, when the shot sis focused, Taylor has bent elbows when recovering. To the untrained eye, this difference is uncatchable. However, too bad for them, I was a butterflier so the differences stood out in my eyes.

The Verdict: I'll give this movie a C for giving swimming its due but failing to deliver a climax the audience deserves after a relatively good rising action. Minus the butterfly race, the time trial scene captured the intensity of an actual race complemented by believable swims of the two actors. As for the movie itself, well, it could have been better. The story suffers from numerous plot holes and was a bit anti-climatic with regard to its final warlock duel between Caleb and Chase. I expected to see all four brothers fight against their enemy in a fantastic magical battle of epic proportion. But, of course, it was not meant to be. However, the build up to the climax is truly worth seeing and more than compensates for its lackluster ending. 

Overall, The Covenant is one of those bad movies you might and most probably will add to your guilty pleasures list. It is a fast-paced, no brainer supernatural film you can enjoy for its simplicity and eye-candy actors and actresses.

The Chase Down

The Chase Down. This occurs when the anchoring swimmer makes up the huge lead the opposing team has built by littering chasing them down and getting to the wall first. It is common knowledge that in any freestyle relay, there exists two aces in the requisite four man team. Of the two, one is known to be an elite freestyler, the other a complete wild card. Usually, either of these two are the ones chasing down the opponents and delivering that decisively dramatic win.

During my career, I was blessed to be part of two dramatic relay teams. The first one happened when I was in high school, competing in the 4x100 medley relay. Down by a considerable margin after the backstroke and breaststroke, I proved to be fast enough to catch up and overtake the opposing UP and UST swimmers in the butterfly. Our freestyler extended the lead and ultimately delivered the win (Incidentally, that win was the final gold medal for the Ateneo High School in 2005--the year of our first UAAP championship. It was only fitting that we ended the meet with such a dramatic yet dominant victory.)

The second one happened during my junior year in college back in 2009. It was in the 4x50 meters freestyle relay. I swam the lead off leg followed by Chem Ocampo, Jan Formalejo then our captain Jonas Ramos. I won't go into detail anymore about what happened. No words could truly describe the intensity and drama of that race even after you watch it over a hundred times. That said, here's the video. Sit back, relax and take part of the drama!

Hope you enjoyed that as much as we did!

Take Your Mark!