Suddenly the high school team I coach and I find ourselves in the final week of practice for the regular season. Our last dual meet is this Friday, with the district, regional and state championship meets following over the next several weeks. But for a number of our swimmers, this is it. And as such, our head coach is encouraging our male athletes to shave. Yes, to shave. Now, the word "shaving" in swimming actually has a double meaning, but both are in the context of preparing for a big meet.
In one sense, shaving refers to reducing the number of yards per practice. This is generally done somewhat gradually, and in a specifically timed manner. Throughout the season, swimmers are pounded with yardage in an effort to both continually break down and strengthen muscles, as well as develop a hearty aerobic base. Between hefty practices, their bodies have little time to rest, so many experience soreness, fatigue, even malaise, etc. But with an important meet nearing, coaches will shave, or "taper" practices shorter and shorter to give swimmers and their fatigued bodies an opportunity to rest and more fully recover. And in essence, because their bodies are in the routine of turning over such great amounts of energy and effort to keep up with the grueling practice regimen, suddenly when less work is required, swimmers experience an overabundance of energy that is then expected to be used to go faster than ever before in the important meet. There's also a fair amount of excitement over having a two-hour practice instead of two-and-a-half; then one-and-a-half hours, then one. It's mental shaving as well, I suppose. But there's also literal shaving. As in shaving cream, razors and boys. High school boys will typically get together and shave at least their legs, to complement the shaved practice yards. Sometimes boys will get carried away and do their arms, chests, heads, feet, backs, etc as well. Boys do get carried away at times.
On a basic level, one could make the argument that shaving one's appendages decreases drag (on some more than others) by removing excess hair from the skin. And it's true, the drag coefficient probably does decrease somewhat. But honestly, I think the number is nominal. It's not a big difference. What IS a big difference is the feeling: the tingling, the intangible-tangible sensation of shaved skin against the suddenly much cooler air and water, the tiny cuts made in the skin by the razor exciting surface-level nerves that have been disrupted for perhaps the first time ever. I say tangible because you can feel the difference between hair and no hair. That's simple - it's there, then it's gone. But "intangible" because you can't quantify how much of a difference it will make in terms of time in the race. Having a shaved body, plus shaved yardage, could drop you half a second in one race. Or it could spark a spectacular meet, a series of sensational swims with huge chunks of time just melting off personal bests like meat off a perfectly slow-roasted pork rib. You don't know. And that's exciting. So this week at practice will be something of a transition. District's isn't until next week, so we won't get into full-blown shaving or tapering, put sets will become more race- rather than yardage-oriented. And there will be more reminders to stock up on razors and shaving cream. Fun.
I started this blog over the summer, while coaching for a community summer league team. Well, that season finished. And I didn't write much about it. Too bad. We move on. Now, I'm back coaching again. This time, with a high school team. This time, I will write more. I will.
I've never coached at the high school level before, though I have coached high school-age swimmers in summer league, so I'm not too worried. Kids are kids; swimming is swimming.
I'm a little late to the practice party, having had to wait for the requisite county TB test results, paperwork processing, background check, and concussion training to all sort themselves out. But yesterday I got to join the team, the head coach and the other assistant coach out on the deck. I was pretty stoked. Fortunately, I'm just in time for the first dual meet: Friday night versus a district opponent.
Everyone always says this about people younger than them, going through life stages they've already been through, but I have to say, the kids look smaller than I remember everyone being when I was on a high school team. Nothing against them, it's just my observation.
Tomorrow and Friday should be interesting. The personnel of the team will change somewhat from the first few practices of this week. That's because club swimmers who spend most of the week practicing with their respective club teams will suddenly appear. There's actually a rule for it: club swimmers are only required to attend 1 high school practice per week to be eligible to swim in meets. It's nothing new - was the rule when I swam - and swimming may be one of the only high school sports where this is the case.
Why is it the case? Because most likely, a club practice (a year-round USA Swimming team) will offer more lane space, more challenging workouts, a more consistent skill and talent level in each lane, and better (read: higher paid) coaching. My club coaches preferred if we didn't attend any high school practices - in their opinion, you would get the same benefit as an hour-long nap, maybe less.
Unfortunately, consequently, I never felt much connection with the team as a hole. I had my handful of friends, but I wasn't there for the day in, day out interactions. The other swimmers didn't know what I'd worked on, and I didn't know what they'd worked on. But when the races started, none of that mattered.
Because swimming is an extremely individual sport. Out of it you get EXACTLY what you put into it. Talent will only get you so far, practice yards will only get you further if you DO THEM. And if you work hard, your times will drop, you will become competitive, you will win races. And those victories are yours first, then the team's. Obviously, you want to help the team out, and scoring points by winning races helps accomplish that. But aside from a select few programs, teams as a whole don't think about going to the regional, state and national levels of high school swimming to compete. Individuals do.
That's not to say individuals shouldn't embrace the team aspect of the sport. High school is the best time to do that. Make some new friends. Bond over this common interest that sets you apart from so many of your class mates. And have fun. I remember club meets being the most boring, noncompetitive, bland events ever. But high school meets? Loud, obnoxious, emotional - fun.
High school = fun. Really? Did I just say really that? S'pose so. For now.
