Rob Aquatics Masters Swimming Blog » swimmer_profile

Steven Munatones – at the Forefront of Open Water Swimming

Rob D — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 06:45:08 +0000

I met Steven Munatones in person for the first time at a Make-a-Splash event with Cullen Jones in Los Angeles in 2009, as one would expect our conversation went straight to Open Water. Since then I’ve run into Steven on beaches, at conventions, and on boats all over the country and we still cut straight to talking about salt water whenever we’re together. I don’t think I know anyone else who is as knowledgeable, passionate or connected within the Open Water world as Steve. He is one of those people who seems to have some kind of behind the scenes connection to just about every major Open Water event going on in the world. He is also constantly working to promote the sport and push our thinking as to what the sport is all about and what it could become in the future.

I’m sure most of you have seen the name and read some of his work, here’s our chance to get to know the man behind the Daily News of Open Water Swimming and Open Water Source a little bit better…

You probably know more about Open Water Swimming than anyone else on the planet, what is it about Open Water Swimming that fascinates you so much and sparked your passion for the sport?

Open water swimming is, at once, so natural and so unnatural. For people who can swim and enjoy the marine environment, it is natural to look across a lake or river or bay or seashore and imagine swimming from point A to point B. At the same time, we are land-based creatures and swimming across channels and lakes involves inherent risks. Open water swimming – especially marathon swimming – is not only a physical and mental challenge, but swimmers can face sharks, jellyfish, waves, winds, currents, tides, hypothermia and hyperthermia. That is the fascinating part – balancing what you want to do vs. what you shouldn’t do.

The passion that I have for the sport was born as a result of growing up in Southern California where I was impressed with the Catalina Channel swimming community of the 1970s – when swimmers like Lynne Cox, Penny Dean, John York, Cindy Cleveland, Siga Rose and several others were making their initial marks on the sport. Watching these swimmers start or finish and swim off into the horizon enthralled me.

A lot of people know you as the Daily News of Open Water Swimming and Open Water Source guy, but not everybody knows that you’re a pretty legit swimmer in your own right. Give us a quick tour of your personal swim background.

Between water polo seasons, which was my favorite sport, I trained pretty hard, doing all kinds of crazy sets and massive amounts of distances under renowned Olympic coaches Jim Montrella, Jon Urbanchek, Joe Bernal and Ed Spencer. But I always enjoyed swimming in the ocean and won many amateur swims including the 1982 World Long Distance Swimming Championships in Lake Windermere, England, but then ran into a swimmer named Paul Asmuth in the 1980s on the professional marathon swimming circuit. It was a lot easier doing unprecedented solo marathon swims than beat Paul at his peak. I still swim, but I prefer watching others compete and studying how and why they win rather than participate in competitions myself.

You are currently involved on a FINA Open Water committee, what is your position with FINA and what does it entail?

The FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee is a 14-member group of people from 14 different countries. My colleagues on the FINA Committee are experienced individuals who are appointed by their respective national swimming federations to share their passion and expertise on open water swimming for the benefit of the sport in general. From my perspective, we have two primary functions. The first responsibility is to make recommendations on how to improve the sport. To achieve this goal, we meet annually to discuss and make recommendations that are forwarded to the 22-member FINA Bureau and FINA Office to either accept, modify or reject. Our second responsibility is to serve as the referees and advisors for 20 or so FINA World Cup, FINA Grand Prix and FINA World Championship open water events around the world. Practically, this means that when a World Cup, Grand Prix or World Championship event is conducted, the FINA Committee members function as the officials and referees although the World Cup, Grand Prix and World Championship events all have the local race directors and staff.

All of the committee members are volunteers and are asked to attend one meeting a year to share our opinions and at least one FINA event per year. I was fortunate to be asked to attend the famous professional marathon swims in Quebec, Canada last year which are very well-run swims. This year, I will go to the World Championships in Shanghai. During these annual meetings, it is always educational to hear the perspectives of other committee members from Egypt, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, Cuba, Lithuania.

Obviously due to the tragic death of Fran Crippen last year, some changes may be made. But those recommendations are determined by the FINA investigative committee that is a separate group of people and must be approved by the FINA Bureau and FINA Office. So, like others, I am anxious to learn what changes will be made – and how these changes may be the same or different than the changes to be implemented by USA Swimming.

Steven watching the finish of the final leg of the Swim22 Catalina Channel 4 way relay

I’ve also read that you will be working with US Masters Swimming this year, what are you working on for us in the Masters Swimming world?

The first project – a very interesting one – is the organization of the Open Water Swimming Safety Conference in San Francisco on March 18-20. While people in the open water swimming world have met for decades to improve the safety of open water swimming – from the days of the Channel Swimming Association in 1927 to the subsequent formation of British Long Distance Swimming Association – this will be the first time experienced people of different disciplines will get together to specifically talk about open water swimming safety. We have assembled race directors, life guard associations, long-time USMS open water swimming volunteers and some of the most distinguished aquatic safety experts in the world to come together to specifically talk about open water safety. I am hopeful our recommendations and findings will help provide valuable information to other administrators, race directors, coaches, athletes, parents, referees and governing bodies. We are going to cover everything from hypothermia and hyperthermia to equipment, tools and emergency procedures.

I am also planning to help establish open water swimming clinics in various parts of the country. I see a gap between the information provided to the top echelon of the sport – to those athletes who may qualify to the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim – and what is generally provided to age-group and masters swimmers. I am in the fortunate position to share information with some of the world’s most successful and experienced open water swimming coaches in the world, so information on the training methodologies, racing tactics and equipment that is used at the elite level will be provided at these clinics. While not everyone in the sport is necessarily interested in or capable of winning races, I think the information will be of interest to many.

Tell us about the new OpenWaterSource web site that you launched late last year – what is it all about? What is the goal of the site?

The goal of the site is to provide an informational infrastructure to the sport. There are many websites that focus on showcasing individual swimmers, promoting individual races, selling coaching services or offering products. But what I see as missing is objective, factual information – information on open water swimming records, technologies and personalities. There are so many outstanding feats, records and people in the sport that I want to share those facts and their stories with the greater global community. We will be rolling out Openwaterpedia, an expanded Open Water Wednesday, World Swimming Majors and a handful of other initiatives that are all information-based, including programs called “Creating Waves” and “Changing The Tide”. We are going to provide lists of information and a plethora of facts and features about the sport. We launched with 162 pages of information on Day 1 and have been feverishly adding information day-by-day.

Ultimately, we want to enable open water swimming to be seen as both entertainment and an athletic endeavor. The sport is so large and diverse – from Polar Bear Swims to the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim. There are charity swims and stage relays. There are ocean races and open water expeditions and orienteering. We want to cover it all in an entertaining and unique manner.

We will get there, but it just might take years of effort.

I know that you travel all over the world in support of open water swimming, where might we find you this year?

This year, I will go to Brazil, Greece, South Africa, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Cayman Islands, China and lots of places from coast to coast in the United States including San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Ft. Myers, New York and several other cities. As a kid growing up in Southern California, I always wanted to travel. I am achieving that dream.

Steven running an Open Water workout in Huntington Beach

In personal conversations I’ve had with you I know that you’re always looking forward to the future of the sport. What do you think the next big thing for open water swimming is going to be?

The great thing about open water swimming is that there will always be surprises, but some of the things that I am looking forward to include the continued growth in the number of people doing the sport of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. For example, the number of people in the Half Century Club (those who have swum a major marathon swim over the age of 50) is increasing year by year. So is the number of Triple Crown swimmers. This increased number of open water swimmers is going to demand that safety protocols and procedures are enhanced. Split timing and improved timing systems at events is another exciting area, as is our knowledge of feeding, pacing and navigation. The expansion of relays will definitely very interesting to observe and be a part of. This includes Team Pursuit relays, marathon swimming relays in oceans, lakes and rivers. Stage swims will also continue as will swims of extreme distances and … many, many, many, many unprecedented swims.

We are in the Age of Discovery in the open water swimming world. There are so many places that have not been swum before. It is wonderful to be the first person in history to swim a particular waterway – like you did with the Pismo Polar Bear Swim. That experience of being a pioneer – an adventurer – will be experienced by thousands of people around the world over the next decade. Open Water Source wants to recognize all these people, if possible.

The Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Hyde Park at the 2012 London Olympics will be absolutely fantastic, perhaps only to be overshadowed by the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Copacabana Beach at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The sport will look nothing like it does now in 2016. I always say that the sport of open water swimming in 2009 is like the sport of triathlon in 1979. We have not seen anything yet.

And, of course, perhaps one of the toughest competitions in all of human endurance sports is the race to be the first to achieve the Ocean’s Seven. To be able to successfully swim the English Channel, North Channel, Molokai Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Tsugaru Channel, Cook Strait and Catalina Channel will require so many years of sacrifice and effort – it will truly be a superhuman feat. From what I have confidentially heard, there are at least 14 people on their way to be the first.

check out this video of Steven running a workout with some SoCal Open Water Swimmers

Swimmer Profile – David Barra, Open Water Marathon Swimmer

Rob D — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:02:37 +0000

City & State: High Falls, New york

Age Group: 45 – 49 (in USMS terms)

LMSC: Adirondack District Masters Swimming (ADMS)

Team Affiliation: Shawangunk Masters Swimming Association (SMSA)

First off, congrats on an amazing season! Not only did you complete the triple crown of open water swimming in just one season, you swam a bunch of other marathon swims as well! Did you originally plan to do this much swimming or did it just kind of keep growing as you went on with your season?

Thank you. My ’10 season plan developed over the course of 2009 and 2010. I swam a relay with Patricia Sener at Tampa Bay in ’09 and noticed that a bunch of the solo swimmers had English Channel attempts scheduled for the same season. A couple of months later, I met Penny Palfrey and Antonio Arguelles at MIMS; Antonio was planning to complete his second round of the Triple Crown for his 50th birthday and Penny, well Penny is just amazing. She routinely bangs out a few crazy swims each year… so here was my inspiration for the Triple Crown + Tampa Bay. I decided to organize a Maui Channel swim as a way to celebrate the start of 2010 OW season with Terry Laughlin and Willie Miller. We swam an English Channel relay on Sept 19, 2009 together, and were all going to be working a Total Immersion open water camp in Kona, so it seemed like the logical thing to book a pilot and go for a little swim together. The Boston Light swim was something I have always wanted to do, but shorter events (perennial favorites) always seemed to get in the way. This seemed like a “last chance cold water swim” before heading to Dover, and since the water in NY was high 70′s – 80 degrees, I felt like it would be the best choice. Some swimmers thought it was too close to my English Channel window, but I would be doing training swim of that length anyway…. and I would keep it under control, not going all out anyway. It was a great day and such a joy to spend it with my CIBBOWS peeps! Just before the Boston Light Swim, I noticed that there was an opening for the Ederle Swim…. again, something I always wanted to do, and since I was carrying around an extra bit of insulation, thought… no time like the present.

at Coney Island before the CIBBOWS Veterans Day 5k

What kind of swim background do you have? How long have you been focusing your efforts on open water?

I swam competitively in high school grades 9 – 11. We had a rather unimpressive program and a 4 lane 20 yard pool. I worked as a NYC lifeguard for 5 years and learned to love swimming in the ocean, competed (not serious though) in about a dozen triathlons in the early 80′s… I was racing bicycles at the time as well. I began swimming with the Gunks masters in 1998 and began establishing my summer OW tour a year or two later, constantly building and looking for more swims to fit in. In 2008, I swam 24 OW events and broke 50 miles. Last year was more ambitious still:

April 18 Tampa Bay Marathon (2 person relay w/ Patricia Sener)

May 23-24 The Great Travis Trek 64 mile relay in austin (w/ Keith Bell,

Robert Alford, Lynne Smith, Chris Derks and Chuck Wiley)

June 14 The Chesapeake Bay Swim 4.4 mi

June 20 The Mashpee Super Swim 5k (cape cod)

June 26 Liberty Island 2k (manhattan)

June 27 The Aquarium 5k (coney island)

July 11 2mi USMS National Championship (canandaigua, ny)

July 25 The Kingdom Swim 10 mi (Lake Memphremagog vt)

August 1 Golden Gate 1.5 mile

August 2 Cruz Cruise 2 mile (santa cruz)

August 8 Island Beach 2 mi (greenwich ct)

August 9 Grimaldo’s Mile (coney island)

August 15 2mi USMS Cable Championship (lake placid, ny)

Sept 4 Governors Island 2mi (manhattan)

Sept 5 Lake Quassy, CT (3 races; 5 miles)

Sept 6 John Daly Mile (long beach)

Sept 19 English Channel Relay (w/ Terry Laughlin, Willie Miller)

Sept 26 Little Red Lighthouse 5.85 mi (manhattan)

Oct 17 Golden Gate to Bay Bridge 10k (SF)

Oct 21-25 Highland Lakes Challenge 5 lakes, 5 days about 15 miles. (Austin)

(can you see how me and Dave might get along? :) – Rob D)

Swimming around Manhattan

How do you prep your body for a season like this? What does a typical workout look like for you?

I swim with my masters club 5-6 days/week, and practices range from 60 – 120 minutes. My lane averages between 3500 – 5000 yds per practice which is usually a mix of swim/kick/pull stuff. I prefer long aerobic sets with tight intervals, and when I swim on my own, I tend to do mind-numbing sessions like 60 x 150 on 2:00; 180 x 25 fly on 30 sec; 8 x 1000 on 14 min …. stuff like that. I rarely have anyone join me for those sessions. (most people just shake their heads in disgust). I have been averaging between 30,000 and 50,000 yds per week for the past couple of years. Once the water warms above 50 degrees a few of us start the OW sessions. We have a couple of beautiful lakes nearby that permit swimming in small areas for a limited summer season…. other times, we poach. The Hudson River is not too far away and this year, I managed to do a couple of long sessions between Beacon and Poughkeepsie including my six hour English Channel qualifier the water was between 57 and 60 that day… windy too.

Besides the mandatory qualifying swims (4 hr for MIMS, 6 hr for the EC) I included at least one day per week of 12,000 – 15,000 yards except for the week before a marathon. I am fortunate to know a bunch of other swimmers that were training for the long ones this season as well, and we kept the communication lines open. Whenever any one of us was planning a extended practice, there was a pretty good chance that we would have company, and that makes the session much easier and keeps one honest.

Dave and I on the beach

To do this many swims that were this long so close together blows my mind, what is your post swim recovery process?

I was pleasantly surprised to find the recovery was pretty easy. After the long ones, it seemed like I was useless for three days, but after that, I could swim a normal workout again… though a bit slower. I actually think it would be possible to squeeze these swims even closer, like maybe a two week spread between swims. I found the process to recover/rest/build up/taper a bit confusing to both my mind and body. There are such conflicting theories about this amongst my friends and swim gurus… in the end, I just had to satisfy my work ethic and err on the side of more=better. It is likely that some of these swims could have been swum faster given more rest, but I need an outlet for my nervous energy.

having a zen moment in the Atlantic... in December

I know this is a hard question to answer, but which swim turned out to be your favorite this year?

It would be negligent not to share some joyous moments of each of these seven swims, so briefly:

1.MAUI: A cloudless day, humpback whales on the boat ride out to Lanai, bluest of blue water, nearly five hours of swimming in formation and often in perfect sync with my training partners Terry Laughlin and Willie Miller, spinner dolphins (200 of them) auditioning for sea-world on the ride back to the harbor.

2.TAMPA BAY: Casual, low pressure. Got to hang out with Jim Meier and Terry and meet Craig Lenning , and Darren Miller. I did a few training swims with Jim after that (including the 6 hour Hudson swim). I would see Craig again at MIMS and he and Darren would go on to swim the EC. It was great to hang out post swim at Whiskey Joe’s and compare notes for the rest of the season.

3.MIMS: It was wonderful to have so many swimmer friends gather in one place, and I had the added pleasure of introducing a few of them (Susie Dodds, Sakura Hingley, Amanda Hunt, Craig Lenning, Leticia Flores, Isabel Cantu) to Brighton Beach where a bunch of CIBBOWS friends came out to swim in the days leading up to the race.

4.CATALINA: OK, this was my favorite swim this season. The Outrider is quite a well equipped vessel… bunks to rest up on the way out, galley service for the crew, a hot shower after the swim; quite a contrast to all the other boats that guided me. I also had a large and supportive crew: John Humenik, Tobey Anne Saracino, Sharoz Makarechi, Harris Silver, Ian Hodgeson, kayakers Beth Barnes and Peter Phillips, and observers; Jim Fitzpatrick and Tom Hecker. Tobey, John and Harris swam with me a bunch. Jim and Tom were incredibly supportive and stayed really focused on the details throughout the nearly 16 hour ordeal. It really felt like a team effort.

5.BOSTON LIGHT: CIBBOWS had a huge presence at the Boston Light this year, and it was great to spend the weekend with them. Greg O’Connor and Elaine Howley put on a great event. I will certainly be back to swim this one again. The day was sunny and perfect, the water was cold at the start, but warmed up to 62 I think. Some friends were advising me to stay away from this one as it was so close to my departure to Dover, but I wanted to get a cold swim in before I left and this was a perfect opportunity.

6.ENGLISH CHANNEL: The “scene” in Dover is something every open water swimmer should experience. From training in the harbor to the guest houses that cater to swimmers, there really is no other place like it. Freda Streeter and the beach crew are so supportive, and there are always swimmers around to dine with, talk shop, and even swim. The shared pre-swim, waiting for the go day, did you talk to your pilot daily drama adds to the collective suspense. Last year, I swam a relay with Terry Laughlin and Willie Miller and met a bunch of solo swimmers many who happened to swim on the same day we did after a long wait for the weather to clear. After we finished up at Cap Gris Nez, we stopped at all the boats to cheer for our friends, among them were Michael Solberg, Lance Ogren, Paul McQueeny, Lisa Cummins (on her way to a double), Mick Newton….. all made it that day!

7.EDERLE: I always wanted to do this one, and since I was (as Mo Siegel would say) “channel ready”, this seemed like the perfect time. The swim was delayed a week due to severe weather, and the temperature dropped. My pilot was taking readings of 55 – 56 degrees. I think it was more like 57 – 58, and certainly never above 60. This was more like a victory lap than a race for me, though I’m thrilled that all 10 swimmers finished. I believe this is the first time. Morty Berger and the NYC Swim folks really put on a good event that is logistically quite challenging.

Your Catalina Channel swim turned out to be pretty epically hard towards the end. What were you thinking in your head to keep it going once the ocean decided to dramatically increase the difficulty of your adventure?

Well, I knew there was the potential for a bit of epic, as the swimmers before me both left from the mainland, and right up to an hour before we left the marina, my pilot was unsure of which way we should swim. I’m glad we started at Catalina. I had such a great crew. When Suzie Dodds completed her swim in eighteen and a half hours, I said to Tobey, “I could never do that”. Her answer was something I kept in my head: “Yes you can, and if you have to, you will.” Tobey was in the water with me for about 6 hours total… at all the right moments: the start in the dark, the nosey shark incident, and the final push where she came out with another little gem; “Hey, lets go for a swim.” John, Tobey and Harris all joined me for the landing. Everyone would come on the deck during my feeds to shout out encouraging words… that really helped. I wasn’t keeping track of the time, but knew I was way past the expected 9 – 10 hour swim. As much as the currents thwarted me, I was fortunate to have comfortable water temps the whole time. It was 64 degrees at the start, dropped to 62 in the middle of the channel and went up to 67 by the finish… quite odd for the Catalina Channel.

Others have asked this question and I have replied with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP_CSQgBPpQ

swimming Catalina in the Dark

With all the traveling I did this summer I was asked all the time if I was independently wealthy (which I’m not but would like to be!), I’m guessing with your even more dramatic than mine season you got the same line of questions. So to answer the question everyone has… what do you do to support all this marathon swimming?

Well, I’ve always been self employed, so the time off wasn’t much of an issue. I have a marble and granite fabrication shop, and the building business isn’t booming at the moment. I have no pets, no kids, no sports cars, no gambling addiction….. I guess what I’m trying to say is that Clare and I have made choices about the lifestyle we want to lead and we support each other’s ambitions. The cost of these swims does add up (I haven’t put a total $ amount together) but my year still cost less than a year’s tuition at an ivy league college…. a little perspective.

Dave swimming alongside kayaker Beth Barnes

What advice would you pass on for aspiring marathon swimmers like myself who want to graduate to major channel swims like you’re doing?

Stay healthy. Develop an efficient stroke that doesn’t cause you pain. Learn as much as you can about a swim… crew, swim a relay, be a support swimmer, read blogs. Plan early; many of these events book up far in advance. It is not unreasonable to commit to a swim before you are “channel ready”. Network, network, network.

Dave and SF Marathon Swimmer Suzie Dods

Where do you go from here? Now that you’ve knocked out the majority of the world’s most popular marathon swim targets what swims do you have your sights set on now? New channels? Far away lands? Any plans to revisit past conquests for a rematch?

I won’t rule out any rematches. Each of these swims have much appeal and I can’t imagine not revisiting any of them in the future. Now, having said that, I have a list that is quite long of channels, lakes and rivers that I need to explore… some well established swims with governing bodies, and some possible first assents….. stay tuned, I hope it will be a big year!

video taken pre-Ederly Swim by Steven Munatones from the Daily News of Open Water Swimming

Don’t forget Dave is also in the running for World Open Water Male Swimmer of the Year! You can vote for him over at OpenWaterSource.com

Swimmer Profile – Chris LaBianco, Chief Development Officer of the USA Swimming Foundation

Rob D — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:29:56 +0000

Chris after his win at the USMS 1 Mile Champs in North Carolina

Name: Chris LaBianco
City and State: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Age Group: 35-39
Team Affiliation: Blu Frog

Seeing as I’ve lost by a big spread to you personally, I can vouch for you being a pretty fast dude. What kind of swimming background do you have? Who did you swim for and how far did you go with your swimming career?

I started competing on a summer league team when I was seven and joined a year round team at age eleven. I swam age group and through high school with the USA Swimming club team, New Jersey Wave and later with the Berkeley Aquatic Club. I had a few Senior and Junior National qualifying times. I was fast enough to get myself into the South East Conference and to earn a scholarship to swim for Auburn University. No long list of notable swimming accomplishments, but I was ranked in the top five in the country in the early nineties in the Open Water 5K and 15K. I made steady improvement throughout my career and was blessed to swim for a few young coaches who have turned out to be among the best in the country such as David Marsh, Mike Bottom and Jim Wood. I would be remiss not to mention the first coach to throw a kickboard at me… World Record holder and 1980 Olympian Craig Beardsley.

You recently made a valiant return to Masters competition at the USMS 1 mile Open Water Championships with a big win in your age group, congratulations! What inspired you to come back to swimming competitively via Masters?

First and foremost thank you for the kudos, I’m proud to say it only took me 39 years to win a National Title or now two! My return to swimming story is probably similar to a lot of my fellow Masters swimmers. I walked away from the sport after college, joined the working world, got married and had a couple of kids. The next thing you know, at least in my case, it was sixteen years, and legitimately 50 pounds later, so it was time to make a change.

As fate would have it I joined the USA Swimming Foundation team in January of 2008. Among the first Foundation donor meetings I went on I had to join a group of Masters for practice. It was ugly to be honest, I’m not sure how I survived. But the Masters folks were great that day, friendly, welcoming, encouraging etc… so I decided to see what I could do about getting back in the swim of things.

Essentially two and a half years later I get in about 6,000 a day. I’ve lost the weight, and the Masters Open Water Mile National Championship was a great official return to swimming for me. Of course being part of the USA Swimming Foundation family over the last two plus years has certainly helped and I owe thanks to more folks than I can mention for the words of support, suggested workouts and for the taunts about my admiration of chocolate cake.

Chris at the USMS 3-6 Mile Champs lapping some people on his way to winning the race!

What’s your favorite part about coming back to swimming via Masters?

My favorite part of swimming Masters is the fantastic folks you meet along the way. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the competition, the spark of nervous energy before a race, the sense of accomplishment afterwards, the trash talk. But when I’m on the road with USA Swimming Foundation business, I must tell you I’m on the Masters website scoping out places to swim where ever I’m headed.

Thanks to Masters swimming, I’ve got spots to swim in all over the county. If you’ve got a regularly scheduled Masters practice somewhere in the USA, trust me, I’ll soon be standing on your pool deck asking to join you.

Outside of the pool you actually work in the world of swimming as the Chief Development Officer of the USA Swimming Foundation. Tell us what the Foundation is all about and what you do there.

The USA Swimming Foundation has a singular mission and that is to teach every child in America how to swim. Folks might be surprised to learn that drowning is the second leading cause of death among children under the age of 14 in the United States. Or that minority children drown at a rates 2-3 times higher than their Caucasian counterparts. These are alarming statistics. As such, the USA Swimming Foundation was formed in 2004 and started its work to reduce the drowning rate in the USA. Today over 360,000 kids have taken swim lessons with one of our 222 local swim lesson providers teaching lessons in 42 states. As for my position as Chief Development Officer, I have the privilege over overseeing and implementing the Foundation’s Nationwide fundraising efforts that help the Foundation to continue to grow and expand the organization’s mission.

Chris (#13) before the start of the USMS 3-6 Mile Champs

Last year I was lucky enough to hit a Foundation event with Cullen Jones in Los Angeles, are you guys doing a similar tour this year?

Yes, the USA Swimming Foundation Make a Splash Tour with Cullen Jones is back for a second year. Thanks to a great corporate sponsorship with ConocoPhillips the Foundation is busy with a six city tour to promote the importance to teaching every child to swim. 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones is a great spokesperson for the Foundation as he survived a near fatal drowning as child. A typical tour stop includes a breakfast to bring together community leaders, lesson providers and interested parties to hear Cullen’s personal story and learn more about how they can join the Foundation’s effort to reduce drowning rates.
There is a youth assembly program, where Cullen talks directly to kids about water safety and the day’s activities conclude with a private swim lesson for a group of kids with Cullen. Olympians Mel Stewart and Rowdy Gaines both play a pivotal role on the tour this year as well adding their passion for the sport and cause. As of July 1st there are four tour stops remaining for the year Washington, DC July 13; Los Angeles August 2; Oakland, October 15 and New York, November 19. If you’d like to join us on at an upcoming tour stop send me an email at clabianco@usaswimming.org and I’ll provide you with the details.

If somebody wants to get involved with the Foundation what’s the best way for them to do that?

There are a few simple ways to get involved with the USA Swimming Foundation. First and foremost, make a donation. As a charitable organization the Foundation needs financial support to continue the mission. Donations are the life blood of the Foundation’s ability to provide kids with swim lessons. For $30 an individual can join our Make a Splash Nation circle of donors and help change a child’s life by teaching them to swim. Pretty reasonable, if you support the sport of swimming and believe in the benefits it will provide others, make a donation and help provide a lesson for child in need.

Once you become a donor, also join the Foundation cause page on Facebook and tell your friends about us. Host your own fundraiser for the Foundation. You never know, we could feature your story on the Foundation website – swimfoundation.org. Folks can also join the Foundation at an upcoming event, or maybe consider volunteering some of their own time to teach kids to swim.
The Foundation is a big family made up of swimmers, parents, coaches, officials as well as friends and fans of the sport. It is a community of people that believe we can use the sport of swimming to improve lives and communities, join us.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about coming back to swimming after years away from the pool?

I’d say welcome back! Swimming is a sport you can participate in on any number of levels, regardless of your age. I’m turning 40 this year and enjoying it perhaps more now than I did twenty years ago. If you have health and fitness goals, it is a great way to get yourself back on track. Connect with some other swimmers and join them for workouts. Swimming is a great way to reconnect with old swimming buddies as well as make new ones. Before you know it, you will feel better. Every day I swim is a good day and I believe that holds true for a lot of us who get back in the water after years away from it.
Most importantly have fun with it and enjoy the challenge. Remember all the brutal 10,000 yard workouts you used to do? Well you don’t have them anymore so smile and getting in and swim knowing you are doing it for yourself this time around.

LaBi and Me at Lake Water Valley in Colorado after our 6K swim

Swimmer Profile – Bill I.

Rob D — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:35:02 +0000

Name: Bill Ireland
City and State: Venice, California
Age Group: Young Adult (50-54)
Team Affiliation: SCAQ, in West Los Angeles, Culver City and Santa Monica, CA. .

How long have you been swimming in Masters & why did you decide to join?

I started swimming Masters when I was in law school in about 1982, with SCAQ—and nearly 30 years later, I am still swimming with the same group, some of the same coaches and swimmers over all those years, but mostly not. Its hard to remember why I started—I think I was just in the habit of swimming for exercise when I was in law school and I followed some friends to SCAQ. Clay Evans and Bonnie Adair were great coaches and I stuck with them—and it. I’m sure both have wished I had wandered off sometime but I haven’t.

What kind of swimming background do you have?

I was a mediocre high school swimmer and water polo player in San Diego, after being an age group swimmer for La Mesa Swimming Association. I chose to go to a DIII school(Pomona College), where I swam and played water polo. I was better at persevering than performing. I guarded and coached water polo during the school year, and was a beach lifeguard for San Diego City for about 5 summers. I started to compete in open water competitions during my years of guarding, along with swimming the La Jolla Roughwater as an age grouper.

Where do you swim and how often? Do you compete? If you do compete what are your favorite events to swim?

I probably workout 4 to 6 times a week year round, mostly in the pool but I get in the ocean with friends regularly. This last year we managed to swim year round in the local ocean. I compete pretty extensively (but not very successfully) in open water swims, starting in my age group and guarding days. I’ve done a lot of open water races over the last 40 years–I counted and I’ve swum 100 races outside easy driving distance of Southern California—Hawaii, Bermuda, Fiji, Oregon, Ohio, Florida, New York, Maryland, Boston Lighthouse, etc. I’ve done more in Southern California, of course. I do some pool competitions as well, and have swum in about 5 or 6 USMS nationals, and the Stanford worlds. I’m not very good but I’ve had some successes in different places. I do have a lot of swim t-shirts filling my closets.

How does Swimming help you with your lifestyle (health, relationships, etc.)?

It helps me to stay more focused, energetic and relaxed. If I don’t get a chance to swim or get some form of exercise, I’m pretty miserable company. I also have a lot of friends from swimming, which is hard to explain to people who don’t swim. It’s not hard to explain that I have friends—it’s hard to explain why it’s fun to swim with others—and hard to swim by myself.

What do you do for a living out of the pool?

I’m a lawyer—which is pretty common on our masters team for some reason. Sometimes it seems like everyone in our lane is a lawyer.

What do people (coworkers, friends) say when you tell them that you are a masters swimmer?

Huh is the usual answer. The subject usually comes up when I mention that I have done some open water swim race or I am trying to explain how funny it was when our lane leader misunderstood what the coach wanted us to do or when I’m trying to explain why I seek out Masters teams when I’m on the road to swim with(I’ve swum with a lot of different masters teams. I sometimes count things when I’m stuck with nothing to do—and I think I figured out that I had swum with at least 60 different teams—and I thank all of them for letting me join in). Or they ask what was the coldest water I have swum in (53)—and they look at me as if I’m nuts.

How about swimming advocacy? Have you helped run or start a team? Are you involved with your LMSC? Do you have a blog or swimming website you’d like to share?

I’ve done some fill-in coaching and I think I was a non-attending Board member for my masters team in the past, but nothing significant.

Anything else that you want to share? Have a great swimming story? Are you a record holder in your age group? Swimming tips?

I’m the last person to ask for tips—I have pretty terrible technique and habits. I’ve never held a record in any age group and don’t see that changing anytime soon.

One of my favorite swim stories is the first time I did the Waikiki Roughwater Swim—I’d reached the second and final turn buoy. I was being hit in both sides of the head by two swimmers—and I realized that I recognized both of them. I had Pat Dixon, a long-time swimming friend hitting me on one side, and Parks Wesson, another long time swimming friend hitting me on the other side. Both are guys I train with regularly. I realized that we probably could have stayed home, had the same experience and saved some money. But I was still glad we had gone. Both beat me to the finish by the way—something that happens with some regularity.

A big thank you to Bill for submitting a swimmer profile for the site! If you want to read more about other Masters Swimmers check out the Swimmer Profile section of the site. – Rob D.

A Quick Chat with Open Water Adventurer Karen Rogers

Rob D — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:40:13 +0000

In a little less than a month my friend Karen Rogers is going to swim from the Farallones Islands all the way into San Francisco’s Aquatic Park. This is a really gnarly 30+ mile swim that’s only been accomplished by a few and never by a woman, but as Karen will tell you she’s the right girl for the job!

Karen is having a fundraiser hosted by Bob Roper June 27th in San Francisco to help with the expedition. It’s a $25 donation at the door, runs 1pm-6pm, and is taking place at 1000 North Point, Fontana Towers Conference Room in San Francisco. All the info is available here on Facebook. If you can’t make it out to the event but have a soft spot for bold aquatic adventure like I do, you can also make a donation via PayPal on her website: karenmrogers.com (it’s down a little bit on the left hand side)

I had a chance this week to ask her some questions about her upcoming swim, check it out!

Why the Farallones Islands? It’s a pretty bold choice! What drew you to this particular swim and how long have you been dreaming about taking it on?

I am a hometown girl that doesn’t want to travel too far to challenge myself. There is so much great open water swimming in California that I can’t quite get myself to think about anything else. The Farallones is one of the last big open water challenges that hasn’t been conquered by a female and I am just the girl for the job.

When I was in 4th grade my class took a trip to the Farallones. I am not sure who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to take a group of kids out there because everyone including my teacher was sea sick. As we started to head back to SF I thought to myself that it would be easier to swim back. That is the first time the thought crossed my mind.

The Farallones Islands are well known as being “biologically diverse,” what’s the plan to mitigate any trouble with the locals?

I like your term “biologically diverse”, in other words you are really asking about the white sharks. I had the honor to meet and talk with Scot Anderson, biologist and white shark expert that lived on the island for many seasons. He told me that in all of the time he spent on the island there were no shark sightings in July. They are still on vacation near Hawaii or starting their trek back to the Farallones. The rest of the sea life that inhabit the area I deal with during every training swim. I truly believe that I am not very evolved and do not belong on land myself. So, when I am in the water I feel at home and at ease. When I come in contact with my fellow sea creatures it does not bother me.

Spending that much time in the water is a major mental feat on top of being a major physical accomplishment. What goes through your head on a swim that long?

Not much goes through my head on a marathon swim. That is the beauty of this sport. On a daily basis, being a wife and a mother of two teenage boys, there is not much time in which someone doesn’t need me or something from me. When I am in the water it is the complete opposite of my daily routine. All I hear is the water rushing past my head and the rhythmic sound of my breathing. It is a working meditation. I cherish every moment that I am in the water and my mind is blank. The disassociation is my favorite part.

Since the swim is taking place in San Francisco, the water isn’t exactly tropical. What do you do to build up a tolerance for the cold water?

Actually the water in the bay feels tropical to me compared to the water out near the Farallones. The bay at this point is a warm 56 degrees while the water 10+ miles out of the Golden Gate is holding steady at 49. In the past 3 years I have learned that I have an incredible tolerance for cold water. I am not bothered by 49 degrees. I prepare for these temperatures by staying acclimated to the cold water year round. The San Francisco bay is the perfect training ground for cold water swimming.

What’s the frostiest water you can tolerate?

The frostiest temperature I have swum was Lake Tahoe in January 2009, 41 degrees for a 20 minute swim. It was exhilarating.

A swim like this is a pretty big undertaking, what kind of a crew did you need to assemble to make this swim (and all the training swims) happen?

I feel that I definitely have home field advantage here.You are right that this swim is a big undertaking. There is no way that I would be able to do this swim without the help of the South End Rowing Club and its members. The South end has been around since 1873. Some of the south enders have been members for many generations, passing down valuable knowledge about the San Francisco bay. These key players are invaluable to the success of my team.

I am blessed with the help of the great Bob Roper. He organizes all of my training swims. He has worked countless hours helping me because he believes that I am the right girl for the job. A big part of my team is Chris “El Sharko” Blakeslee, experienced English Channel swimmer, surfer and all around great guy. His job is my safety. Sharko is in charge of me when I get in the water, how fast or slow I need to go and he has the ultimate call if I were to be pulled. Additionally I have kayakers, a few pacers, feeder, communications, navigators and a medic on my team.

We’re less than a month out from the swim now, but the date could be anywhere from July 2nd to the 7th. What’s the best way for the rest of us to follow along at home and know which day you end up going for it?

We will know at least 24 hours in advance when the go date will be, all is dependent on wind, fog and waves. Once we know exactly the day, my facebook page, twitter page and website will be updated. Once in the water I can be tracked live via my SPOT GPS in almost real time on google maps. A link can be found on my website. www.karenmrogers.com

Have you picked out the next big challenge yet, or is that still in the works?

Still can’t get my head out of California after this swim, I would like to swim Catalina and the Santa Barbara channel. All of those are stepping stones towards a much bigger goal I have had for many years, swimming the coast of California. Point to point swims along the coast, educating people about the delicacy of our coastline as we move down it. I would like to have my entire team on a bus, eating local food. Really just looking to have a epic California adventure with all of my friends.

Swimmer Profile – USMS Executive Director Rob Butcher

Rob D — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:20:00 +0000

Rob at last year’s Charlotte Ultraswim

Name: Rob Butcher
City and State: Sarasota, Florida
Age Group: 37 years old; 35-39 age group
Team Affiliation: Sarasota YMCA Sharks Masters

I know you’re a pretty fast guy, what kind of swimming background do you have?

I found swimming when I was in high school. It was an escape for me. My step dad was an alcoholic. He was very negative and physically intimidating. I just couldn’t stand being around him so I needed an outlet. Swimming happened to be what I found. I walked on my high school team just hoping to find some fun, and something that maybe was more peaceful than home life. I swam my junior year and instantly connected with my teammates. Many of them swam year round so I stayed with it just so I wouldn’t have to be home.

I knew upon graduation that I was going to move and wanted to go to college. My high school coach swam at Georgia Southern University (GSU) so he made a phone call. Quite honestly, I wasn’t fast enough to swim for GSU but they gave me a chance. I swam all four years for GSU, graduating in 1994 with a BBA in Marketing. I stayed one more year for grad school getting my MS in 1995. I then got an internship with Auburn University working in their athletic department. It was at Auburn that I met David Marsh and Rowdy Gaines, and that opened my eyes to the swimming world. It was also at Auburn that I joined Auburn Masters. After my year long internship at Auburn, I moved to Washington DC to work in the University of Maryland Athletic Department.

While in Maryland, I swam a couple of Masters meet and went times faster than I had when in college. In the summer of 1997, I swam my first USMS Nationals in Orlando. They were the fastest times of my life and got me thinking about the Olympic Trials. I moved back to Florida, to Daytona Beach, and started training under Steve Lochte. Steve was brand new to Daytona and was out to change the mediocre culture of the Daytona team. We were a perfect compliment in that way.

The journey was a wild run and fraught with disappointment but never giving up. My times actually got slower through the rest of 1997, through 1998 and into 1999… until we had a breakout meet in spring of 1999 to quality for the Olympic Trials in the 100 breastroke. The Trials experience was very memorable. There were 84 guys in the 100 breastroke and I was seeded 81st. I ended up I think 50th and went a lifetime best. I turned 28 during the Trials week and knew it was time for me to move on with my professional life.

In January of 2001, I started with NASCAR and worked in the racing industry till coming to USMS. I traveled a lot while with NASCAR and would use Places to Swim of usms.org to find the nearest pool in just about every city.

photo source USMS.org

When did you take over as executive director?

Chuck Wielgus (Executive Director of USA Swimming) and Rowdy were the ones that recommended the USMS ED position for me. I was hired in June of 2008 and at the time was considering opportunities with the NBA, NFL and MLB. In sports, if you have a record of being able to generate revenue there will always be interest. I was involved in some pretty big deals while in racing so that attracted interest. But my hope all along was to follow my passion and be part of USMS.

Now that USMS has moved its headquarters to Sarasota, where do you swim and how often?

I’m a member of the Sarasota YMCA Sharks Masters (SYSM) program. SYSM has terrific team spirit and is supported by the age group program. SYSM has programs to fit all levels and abilities, from the beginner to the triathlete to the competitive Masters swimmers. Rick Walker is the head coach. He’s got the gift of leadership and knows how to motivate.

What are your favorite events to swim? When’s your next race?

There is a running joke in USMS that we only hire breastrokers. Well, most of the staff does enjoy breastroke but we also have Tracy, Mark and Mel who tease us about the safety stroke. My favorite races though are the relays. I think I traveled probably 25 weekends in 2009 visiting USMS programs. Most of the time, I’ll arrange my travel around a meet so I can meet as many coaches and Masters swimmers as possible.

Rob in Indy for USMS LCM Nationals

What do you feel was the biggest achievement for USMS in 2009?

2009 was a milestone year for USMS. We introduced a new logo and brand; we selected Sarasota as our home and opened our first ever headquarters; we went over 50,000 members; and we added critical staff so we can grow and better serve our members. But I would say our biggest achievement was electing Jeff Moxie as board President. Jeff has set lofty yet attainable goals for USMS; we will continue to embrace the volunteer spirit of USMS, we will grow to 100,000 members, and we will define our USMS endowment program and grow it to $10MM.

What’s your vision for 2010? What programs and problems is the USMS staff going to spend the majority of its time on?

Our objective is to implement our Action Plan to meet the objectives Jeff has set out. In 2010, we will continue to invest time and energy into our communication, infrastructure, club outreach and marketing so we can better serve.

Can we look forward to any new member benefits launching in 2010?

We improved the insurance members receive by adding in disability and expanding what is covered. We will be seeking more insurance benefits too for members. SWIMMER magazine is being revamped with more letters from members and content to fit the general interests. Our Streamlines for members, Streamlines for Coaches and Streamlines for Volunteers are wildly popular reads. SwimFest, our annual Masters Coaches clinic experience, will be in San Diego and is generating tons of interest.

USMS is acting as host for the 2010 USMS LCM Nationals in Puerto Rico and I’ve heard talk of USMS hosting other events. Anything currently planned or are you guys looking to get Puerto Rico handled before you move on to other big events?

USMS has incubated the H2Open series. The idea is to support existing open water events with national marketing, national promotion, and national media. 2010 is a learning year for us with H2Open. Looking forward, we are working with the City of Omaha and USA Swimming about hosting our 2012 LCN immediately following the Trials. There are still obstacles but if we can pull this together, I think it would be a signature opportunity for USMS.

Swimmer Profile – Glenn Mills of Go Swim

Rob D — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:44:00 +0000

Name: Glenn Mills
City and State: Chester, MD
Age Group: 45-49
Team Affiliation: Arizona

How long have you been swimming in Masters & why did you decide to join?

I’ve been swimming masters on and off since my mid 30s — entering a meet here and there just to have some fun. I was never really serious about training until the last couple years, and only recently because a swimmer of mine needed a training partner. He’s a young breaststroker who had nobody to swim with, so I jumped back in to race/pace him for about 50% of his practice. I’d pick the 1st, or last part of a swim to do with him, and try to make him keep up with me. As a senior, he went 56.0 in the 100 breast and is headed to the U of Florida, so I guess my swimming served its real purpose. The offshoot of that is that he encouraged me to swim masters to see how I’d do. I even swam a couple USA meets with him, which was very fun.

I know you’re a pretty fast guy, how often do you swim in meets? What events do you hold age group records in right now?

I’ve had a couple (old age) medical issues this past year, so I haven’t been able to swim in as many meets as I’d like. Hopefully that’s all taken care of, and I can get back in more frequently this year. I’d like to compete more, and test other events for fun, but because I spend all my time involved in swimming, if I have some free time, sometimes going to a pool isn’t the best way for me to relax. :)

I honestly don’t know what records I have. I know David Guthrie broke the 200 short course record, which I think leaves me with a couple short course meters WRs in the 100 and 200 breast. I also had the 200 IM short course WR, but it was broken by 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist Alex Bauman of Canada. I just like saying that it was broken by an Olympic Champion… almost makes me sound like I was as good as him… which certainly isn’t the case.

What was your competitive swimming history before you made the move to masters?

I’ve been involved in swimming since I was 5 years old. I swam summer league, high school, college, then went on to coach at every level of the sport — club team, high school, worked as a volunteer at a couple colleges (currently volunteer coach at Navy), ran clinics all over, plus the video production and writing.

Getting involved in masters swimming, wasn’t just about racing, but rather to see old friends again. The swimming was secondary… almost a distraction from the real enjoyment of being around so many great people. In fact, the races kinda get in the way…. they do hurt. I like to be ready to race when I show up, because I do enjoy racing, so I’ll usually be fairly ready if I’m at a meet. Maybe not totally ready, but at least able to race if one presents itself.

When did you launch Go Swim? What prompted you to do so and what is the overall mission of your site?

Go Swim will celebrate its 7th year this fall. Barbara Hummel (my business partner) and I were previously working in the swimming business and wanted to move our focus a bit. We wanted to be free to look at swimming through totally inquisitive eyes. Try everything and find out what the great swimmers really think about while they swim. Rather than limiting people to a specific way of swimming, try to open people’s minds up to discovering the best way for THEM to approach the sport. It’s more along the lines of personal responsibility, and a constant experimentation to discover what really works for you.

Being around the sport for so long, the one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many different styles succeed. Yet too much teaching, in my opinion, is done by a set of “rules” — more along the lines of the teacher forcing the student into their mindset, rather than the teacher adjusting the teaching to give the swimmer what will work best for them.

To force ourselves to think, we figured it was best to challenge ourselves publicly, to put our ideas on stage for people to pick apart. We knew that if we committed to showing some sort of skill, we better think about the validity of it prior to putting it out there. Of course, the initial goal for both of us was to ultimately be the best teachers we could possibly be, and by putting our ideas out openly, we’d be forced to at least try to put out ideas that made sense… in some way. This led us to developing the “Drill of the Week.” We started doing these in our first year, so we figure we’ve written and published nearly 350 drills. They started out as 500k flash files with no voice or sound and we filmed a lot of them in a backyard pool. Today, they’re more “produced.” We shoot them in HD, with footage from above and below the surface, and we do a voiceover. We’re currently using YouTube HD embedding to show the drills. It’s come a long way, and we figure that out of the hundreds of drills we do have online… somebody can find SOMETHING they can use.

Early on, we decided to try to create DVDs featuring great swimmers. We wanted to show what they do… that every swimmer could try to do in their own swimming. We work with each elite athlete to identify six key points they want to put out there for other swimmers. We figure that people will swim, at most, six days a week, so we wanted to give a technique point per day. We want to encourage people to not just go to the pool and approach swimming from a physical standpoint. We want them to approach it from a technical standpoint as well. Just going back and forth without focusing on something technique oriented will get you in better shape, but may not make you faster, or more efficient.

Our first DVD features our good friend Dave Denniston. Our first Olympic Champion was Misty Hyman. We’re somewhere around 25 DVDs now, and will be releasing our first triathlon DVD in the next couple weeks.

I think a lot of the work you do is really cool, what got you into filming swimming?

I was a visual athlete, a visual coach, and a visual teacher. In the early 90s, I had a team at Cleveland State University. It’s one of the best pools in the country. Wally Morton, still the Head Coach there, used to allow me to go down in the basement to use the underwater windows. I’d watch the swimmers under there during practice, and get FRUSTRATED with what I saw. The first real tool I purchased was a Sharp ViewCam. It was a new camera with a 3” screen on the back, rather than a view finder. I’d climb down the ladder to the underwater windows, film a few kids during practice, then climb back up the ladder, stop these kids, and without them getting out of the water, I’d turn the cam around and play back what I just saw. We’d quickly talk about what they’d have to change, and I’d send them on their way.

From there, I’d take the video home, and put it on the computer. I’d extract a clip every 15 frames or so, and print a small book for them to look at. EXTREMELY TIME consuming… but you know, I was making SO much money coaching, it was no problem (little joke there). The kids I was able to do this for learned a lot about how they swam, so I just started always looking for ways that I could show swimmers how to do things better.

I was also fortunate that as a younger swimmer, I was in a stroke film by Ernie Maglischo. I was very honored to be included, and learned a lot about my own stroke because of it.

Everything I do now is simply an outgrowth from those early days of just trying to be a good coach.

I’m always fascinated by some of the angles you get, how do you get the shots that you do above and below the water?

Above water… sometimes very risky and precarious camera holds. I’m afraid of heights, so when I get to a pool that has towers, I know I SHOULD get up there… but don’t necessarily want to. I’ll usually end up lying on my stomach, holding the cam out over the edge, and have that sick feeling that I’m going to drop it in the water.

Under water… a LOT of breath holding. People usually ask what kind of scuba gear I use. It’s simply too heavy to keep up with the people we film. This is when it’s good to be a breaststroker. We spend half our practices under water anyway… so the lungs are generally pretty good. I’ve only gotten myself in trouble once, and the athletes won’t remember because I was too embarrassed. I was filming Kaitlin Sandeno and Erik Vendt. The diving well was 16 feet deep, and I was at the bottom looking up. I didn’t realize how much effort it took me to get down there with the camera, and when Kaitlin started swimming, I knew I was running out of air. I remember looking through the cam and seeing just this GREAT shot of her butterfly and thinking… I can’t miss this. About a second later… I actually started to see spots. I dropped the cam (in water it’s not so dangerous), and tried to stay as calm as possible, but no matter what they say… that’s NOT easy. I think Kaitlin was still swimming by the time I got up and to the side. It took me a minute or two to regain my senses… kinda looked at her, said something like NICE… and went back down to get the cam. It really scared me, and I’ve been in better shape, and listen much better to how I feel when filming now.

Any waterproof camera recommendations for the aspiring amateur swimming film maker? Personally I really want to know what my stroke looks like underwater!

There are SO many great little underwater cams these days, it’s silly for a coach or serious swimmer not to have one. If you have a digital cam, it should be waterproof. Pentax has the W60 and now W80, which are 10-12 megapixels still, and HD video at either 15 or 30 frames per second. We’re talking just a bit over $200. Olympus has a great digital underwater cam as well as Sharp. Depending on your budget, I’m pretty sure you can grab a digital underwater cam for as low as $150.

I was a big fan of the video you did recently with Jason Lezak, how did you get hooked up with him to do the DVD?

Through Jason’s agent, Premier Management Group. We’ve done a lot of work with them over the years, and continue to work very well with them. Fortunately for us, they like our work, and know we always have the athlete’s best interest in mind. Jason was a great guy, and all the athletes we’ve worked with have been great people. We do our best to let some of that come through in their videos… even if it’s just during the credits. We want the videos to teach, but also want a little bit of their personality included.

Screencap from ‘Freestyle with Jason Lezak’

Since Jason is a sprinter it must have killed him to have to swim back and forth all day, how much did you make him swim to get all that footage?

That was a big deal, and we had a great time with that. We scheduled the shoot right after a meet, so he had to up his yards a bit, which helped. However, we went over the entire shot list with Jason, and allowed him to pick WHEN he was ready to go fast. We try to make sure we’re listening as much to the athlete as if we were their coach. If we try to make them go in the order that’s written, we may end up asking them to sprint on the 3rd shot of the day… not good. I think you’ll see in the credits of Jason’s video where he’s asking what shot we’re on… and what we missed from the day before. We try as best as possible to include them in the shot planning, so we get a better end result. Jason would have done anything we asked at any time… that’s just the kind of guy he is… but making sure he also has a good experience with the process is very important to us as well.

What can we look forward to next from Go Swim?

Online and mobile. We’re still a company of two people, but we have more ideas about trying to put useful tools into coaches’ and swimmers’ hands. We’re working with a couple other key companies that have technology that we can tie into to put some good tools into peoples’ hands. There are a lot of great people in the sport, and we’ve been fortunate enough to connect with some true fans of the sport who share our same desire to move things forward.

What’s your favorite drill for someone like me trying to take a few seconds off his 100 fly?

Probably think like Mike. Not Jordan or Phelps, but Barrowman. Early in my coaching, I had a chance to spend some time with Mike Barrowman, and he told me that in swimming breaststroke, there were two kinds… slow and thoughtful, or FAST. So, with that in mind, try not to spend too much time working through the drudgery of long fly. Once you’re practicing fly where you’re struggling to make it to the other end… what are you really learning? Swim shorter distances of fly, mixed with freestyle so that your fly is clean and solid… but try to keep the pace of that fly greater than you normally would.

Learn to use your chest press better, and to allow your hands to stay stable in front rather than leading the body up and down. For that, here’s an old drill shot before the “talky” days… but still valid (if not a little painful)

Check out the full video here

One more quick point… learn how you enter your hands. There isn’t one way, so you owe it to yourself to experiment and try something that may not feel right. Check out the following article and pics about how to enter your hands in fly:

http://www.goswim.tv/entries/5508/butterfly—hand-entry.html

Of course, our standard response to that question is… the best way to improve as a swimmer, is to listen to your coach. What we do is share ideas for you to think about, it’ll be up to you and your coach to determine which ideas are valid for you.

A HUGE thank you to Glenn for taking the time to do this!!! If you’re not familiar with the work Go Swim does I highly recommend you check out the site and watch out some of their excellent videos.

Swimmer Profile – Mary S.

Rob D — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:45:00 +0000

Name: Mary Sweat
City and State: Redmond, Oregon
Age Group: 50-54
Team Affiliation: Oregon

What kind of swimming background do you have? None at all, Age group, High School, College, International Competition, the Olympics?

I was an age group swimmer from the time I was 11-15 years old. I quit at this early age because my coach went to a different team (our rivals no less!) and I decided to engage in silly teenage activities (ahem). Unfortunately, that unsavory lifestyle went on past my teenage years! It’s an absolute wonder that I made it through those years?!

How long have you been swimming in Masters & why did you decide to join?

After quitting some of my bad habits and experiencing major stress at work, I started swimming again after a 22 year break from the sport. The first time I was back in the water I could barely swim 500 yards. Fortunately, my passion for our sport resurfaced quickly and was stronger than ever. I used to swim during my lunch break while my husband made us lunch at our condo across the street from the pool – how cool was that?!?!

I eventually joined USMS so that I could compete in the USMS SCY Nationals in Tempe, AZ in 1994. Yes – my first Masters meet was Nationals! I had never raced with goggles on and I couldn’t find a pool that would allow a lap swimmer to practice diving off the blocks. I must say that standing on those blocks, goggles on tight as they could be and about to swim the 1650 at the SCY Nationals (yikes!)… was an emotional experience to say the least!

Where do you swim and how often? Do you compete? If you do compete what are your favorite events to swim?

I now swim 5-6 times per week with an average of about 5000 meters per practice. Most of the time I practice alone at our local pool. However, my favorite practice is once a week when I drive to Bend, OR (25 miles one way) to swim with the USA-S club coach Mark Bernett. He’s the best – tough workouts, great advice with an unlimited supply of gentle patience for his “older swimmers”.

My favorite events are long distance open water swims. I started swimming open water in 2001 and fell in love with swimming in spectacular venues! Fortunately, the Northwest offers quite the variety of fun and beautiful places for this type of racing.

What do you do for a living out of the pool?

I am a retired geophysicist. I spent 21+ years working for ARCO Oil and Gas. I worked in research and development (seismic modeling, gravity and magnetics, VSP’s and interpretation techniques) for the first 17 years (in Texas) and then moved to Alaska where I worked in the Exploration department as their liaison with R&D. I had some phenomenal experiences during my career. Then when my husband retired (computer expert) I decided to join him as I didn’t want him to have to play alone! We moved to Central Oregon because we found it to be a huge playground with tons of adventures to be had! We’ve been here since 2001 and aren’t bored yet!

What do people (coworkers, friends) say when you tell them that you are a masters swimmer?

“That’s nice…”

How does Swimming help you with your lifestyle (health, relationships, etc.)?

Goodness – it continues to keep me out of trouble! I have a great place to expend lots of energy in an incredibly wholesome way! The worst that happens is that I smell like chlorine and I run around with wet hair – how bad can that be?!?

Anything else that you want to share? Have a great swimming story? Are you a top 10 swimmer or a record holder in your age group ? Swimming tips?

Yes, I have placed in the Top Ten all but 2 years since 1994. I have some records from the local level to Zone records. As far as national records – no – I’m in the same age group as Suzanne Heim-Bowen – need I say more? The accomplishment I’m proudest of was when I had the honor of being selected for the USMS Long Distance All Star Team in 2003 and 2005.

You run the Go the Distance program which is about to turn 2 years old, tell us about the program and how it got started. Where did the idea come from? What is it all about? How does one get involved? How many swimmers does the program currently have?

The USMS Fitness “Go the Distance” (aka GTD) began in 2007 with 364 participants. In late 2008 we are now at 604 participants and the event continues to grow daily!

It all started a few years back when I was helping a friend with the fitness event named “Virtual Geographic Swim Series”. She asked me to create a “tracking log” for her participants to track how far they swam as they pursued “virtual swims” from all over the world. Being a scientist whose hobby is analyzing numbers, it was a fun project to be involved with. Unfortunately, participation in this event was quite low and the USMS fitness committee deemed it time to consider revamping that event.

I remembered that when I was 8-9 years old that one of my brothers and I had participated in an American Red Cross event at our local pool. The goal was to swim 50 miles. Each time we swam, we logged our mileage and then had to get the lifeguard to sign our card to verify that we did indeed swim that far on that day. Once we reached 50 miles we received a “card” to recognize our accomplishment. If I remember correctly, it took us about 2 months swimming about a mile daily!

Thus, GTD was born. It was designed to be like a “virtual swim” but instead of imagining you were in an exotic place – you just had to swim 50, 100, 150 etc.. The challenge morphed into “how far can you swim in a year”?

The objective of GTD is to choose an appropriate, but challenging, goal of the distance you can swim in a year and to “track your progress” towards your goal. At the end of each month participants are requested to submit their monthly distance via an email to usmsgtd@yahoo.com (that would be me!). Then I enter all of the distances, compute cumulative totals and analyze the data in lots of ways.

Results and recognition of achievements are updated on a monthly basis on the USMS website under the Fitness Section. GTD has “distance milestones” of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 365.25 (average mile a day), 400, 500, 750, 1000, 1250 and 1500 miles. Then when participants achieve one of these milestones they can purchase (at a minimal cost) GTD awards with the specific distance specified on a swim cap, patch and/or certificate.

This event is super easy to participate in. There is no cost (you read that right!) and the only requirement is that you are registered with USMS. A simple email with your name, age as of 12/31/09, your 2009 USMS id and an email address for contact purposes is all you need to send (to usmsgtd@yahoo.com) to register for this event in 2009.

GTD 2009 will have some new features. As of 1/1/09 we will begin tracking time spent swimming (as well as the distance) in addition to your progress towards your personal goal. There will also be “online tracking” available in a USMS members only section of the USMS website. Details will be available soon for this exciting new feature!

The objective of this event is to recognize ones’ progress towards their personal goal(s). There is no time limit for the distance milestones so speed does not count – just the effort to attain the next goal. We wish to recognize participation and achievement of goals with this event.

A big thank you to Mary for sharing a little about herself and the Go the Distance program. More information regarding this event can be found at http://www.usms.org/fitness/content/gothedistance (updates for GTD 2009 should be available soon!). Any questions can be directed to your GTD pal, Mary Sweat, at usmsgtd@yahoo.com

You can read more masters swimmers profiles here. If you would like to be profiled on the site or know an exceptional masters swimmer that would make for some good reading let me know! Check out more details on the program here or email me at rob@robaquatics.com

Swimmer Profile – Marcia A.

Rob D — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:12:00 +0000

Name: Marcia Anziano
City and State: Denver, CO
Age Group: 60 – 64
Team Affiliation: Colorado Masters Swimming

You got into swimming later in life than a lot of other masters swimmers, when did you get started in the pool and what drew you to swimming?

I was living in Malta at the time, 1994. We had moved there for my husband’s work. I had a daughter in 8th grade and she started swimming with one of the local Maltese teams. I would take her to and from workouts, and in the process I met a woman that did triathlons and asked if I would train with her. She assumed that I knew how to swim because my daughter swam. So when I told her that I did not swim, she said that her coach would teach me. That was the beginning. I was 49 years old at the time. I grew up with two fears, water and bugs. I still don’t like bugs, but I love the water. I think I loved water as a child too, as there are many old photos of me in a galvanized tub, but that was not swimming. At the beach I was always required to wear a large orange life vest.

How long have you been swimming in Masters & why did you decide to join?

While in Malta, my friend and I started the first Masters team in that country, the Manta Rays in 1994. For one of my very first meets, we went to England, swam at the Crystal Palace, the former National pool. It was quite an experience. We went on to host meets on the island, and had attendance from other countries in Europe. When I returned to the States, mid 1995, I did some lap swimming for about a year, but then joined a local masters workout group. I realized then that to improve you need both coaching and motivation from other swimmers.

Where do you swim and how often?

I currently train with two workout groups. I train on Monday (distance) and Friday (sprint) with the Highlands Ranch Masters. On Tuesday and Thursday, I train with the Inverness Masters where I also coach several workouts each week. On occasion I train a fifth day on the weekend either on my own or with a group of friends.

When you get the chance to compete what are your favorite events to swim? Tell us about your first openwater swim race, Linda told me that you have a good story for this one!

I love the distance events. The 1650 and the 1500 have always been my best events. Linda is referring to my first open water race. While I was in Malta, having started swimming in February, I competed in a 5000 meter swim from the island of Gozo to the island of Malta. While it may seem like I would have swam in the sea often, we really trained primarily in the pool. There were 5 of us competing that day, 2 men and 3 women. I was allowed to compete as I was American, my friend (that got me into swimming) was competing as she was British, and the third women was Maltese. She wanted to be the first Maltese woman to swim the Gozo Channel, so therefore we were allowed to join in.

We went to Gozo on a boat, and when I jumped in the water, I started to get sea sick and so I got back out. I always will remember my daughter, a teenager at the time, and on board the boat that was to accompany me, telling me that I better get back in and start swimming as she did not get up at 4:30 a.m. for nothing. I got back in and swam to Malta. The race was actually broadcast on the radio, so friends were at home listening to my progress. We were swimming in the same channel with the ferry boats that connect the islands. They had been notified of our race. We were each accompanied by a local fisherman. I will always remember that race. And there were people there at the end waiting for us to finish. And finish I did. It was that race that taught me the effects of swallowing salt water!!

How does Swimming help you with your lifestyle (health, relationships, etc.)?

Swimming has truly changed my life. I grew up in a small town and girls did not do athletics. I was a tap dancer. I was always a bit over weight. As an adult I dabbled in running, step aerobics, all the usual things. But nothing has the appeal of swimming. I always say that you make your best friends in the pool, there are no false pretenses. We are what we are, and we all love the same thing.

What do you do for a living out of the pool?

I am retired from almost 40 years of software development. I got involved with computers right after college and continued to work with the mainframe platform for all those years. As retirement neared, I decided to get involved with coaching. I want to be able to share my sport with others. I have attained my ASCA Level II and Masters Certifications and coach Masters on a regular basis. I also work with adults that are learning to swim, as I think that I have a better understanding of what they are going through.

Marcia Swimming in the Maui Channel Relay

What do people (coworkers, friends) say when you tell them that you are a masters swimmer?

They were always very amazed. But they loved hearing about all the things that I participated in.

You currently serve as the Chair of the USMS Fitness Committee. Can you tell us about what it is the committee does and what it has planned for the future?

The focus of the committee is to provide information on the benefits of swimming for adults and programs of interest to all swimmers, as many of the members of USMS never compete in pool or open water events. The committee publishes monthly articles on the USMS web site on the benefits of swimming. In addition, we have two ongoing programs. One, known as Go the Distance, is a distance tracking program. You simply submit the distance that you swim each month. There are milestones along the way, and when you reach those milestones, you can get caps and patches that reflect the distance that you have swum. The second program is the Check Off Challenge. Each year this event has a t-shirt that you purchase. It has all of the pool events that are contested listed on the shirt. As you complete each event, you simply make a check mark on that box. You do not have to do these in competition, but can do them in a workout, a non threatening environment. The shirt is just a way to get one to think about these events and challenge themselves to give them a try. We plan to continue these programs and are looking into ways to enhance the Go The Distance program to attract more swimmers.

How would somebody go about getting involved with a committee like yours within USMS?

Normally what happens is that a person will attend the USMS Convention, held in September, as a delegate for their local LMSC. At that convention they can attend any of the committee meetings that they have interest in. At the end of the convention, delegates are asked to fill out a form with the committees in which they are interested. Then the executive committee uses these forms to fill out open committee slots.

Anything else that you want to share? Have a great swimming story? Are you a top 10 swimmer or a record holder in your age group ? Swimming tips?

I have achieved 48 individual and 17 relay USMS Top Ten times. I was the National Champion in the 1650 in 2006, and placed first in both the 10K Postal and the 10K Open Water swims in 2006, achieving All American Status.

I would say that the best thing about swimming is that you can always find something to work on and improve. At every practice, I try to focus on one aspect of my swimming. The past couple of weeks, the focus has been on keeping my head down, and now (after attending a clinic over the weekend) I am focusing on my kick (or lack thereof). Many people think that it must get boring just swimming back and forth, but that is not what we are doing. When training, you always have a focus and a goal, that is what keeps you coming back, that and the fun you have with all your other crazy wet friends.

** A big thank you to Marcia for sharing with us! I think she’s a great example for anyone that thinks you can’t learn to swim as an adult. This just in… you can and you can be very successful at it! I shared her story with my girlfriend to help motivate her to keep coming to the pool with me.

You can see more masters swimmer profiles here, and if you would like to learn more about the swimmer profile program click here or send me an email at rob@robaquatics.com.

Swimmer Profile – Henry H.

Rob D — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:26:00 +0000

Name: Henry Halff
City and State: San Antonio, TX
Age Group: 65–69
Team Affiliation: Masters of South Texas

Henry swimming the 200 fly at Worlds in 2005

How long have you been swimming in Masters & why did you decide to join?

I have been a Masters swimmer since 1999. I decided to join after doing an hour swim and talking to our coach, Susan Ingraham about the club.

What kind of swimming background do you have? None at all, Age group, High School, College, International Competition, the Olympics?

I was a runner for almost 20 years until a biking accident sidelined me. During that time, I swam laps to keep from running too much. I never swam competitively until I joined Masters.

Where do you swim and how often? Do you compete? If you do compete what are your favorite events to swim?

Our team has three workout locations. My main workout group practices at the Josh Davis Natatorium (named for our local Olympic champion) in the Virgil T. Blossom Athletic Center in San Antonio. I occasionally join a group that works out at the Jewish Community Center here in town. Both pools are SCM. We also practice in an LCM pool at Blossom during the Summer.

I try to make four workouts per week, and every meet that I can. I usually show up at Zone Championships and at local and state Senior Games. I make it to Nationals when I can. My favorite events are distance freestyle and butterfly.

How does Swimming help you with your lifestyle (health, relationships, etc.)?

Swimming helps in many ways, but mainly, a workout affords me the opportunity, for one hour, to shed all of my worldly concerns and focus entirely on what I am doing at the moment.

What do you do for a living out of the pool?

I am semi retired and self employed. When working, I do research on instructional uses of computers.

What do people (coworkers, friends) say when you tell them that you are a masters swimmer?

If I run into a swimmer we ask each other about favorite strokes and events. Other people tell me that swimming is very good exercise, to which I reply that I’m in it for the fun. One woman told me that she found swimming to be a very relaxing activity. I replied, “You’ve never worked out with our team.”

How about swimming advocacy? Have you helped run or start a team? Are you involved with your LMSC? Do you have a blog or swimming website you’d like to share?

I am the webmaster for our club’s site (and am currently way behind on updates). Naturally, I give out the URL to anyone I met who has the vaguest interest in swimming.

Anything else that you want to share? Have a great swimming story? Are you a record holder in your age group? Swimming tips?

I can’t say enough good things about our club. The coach, Susan Ingraham, is the 2007 USMS coach of the year. She has brought the team from a handful of swimmers to something like 140 members from all over South and Central Texas. We all have a strong sense of striving and have a great time in the pool. We’re always competitive in pool competitions; we have strong showings in every postal event, and we can show up in force in some open-water swims.

I own most of the team records in my age group, mainly due to the sparsity of men in my age group. I have no national or zone records, but I was top 10 in 2007 in the 200 fly and 1500 free (both LC). I’ve also got a few patches for long-distance postal events.

Here are two swimming stories.

During relays at a zone championship, one of our team members wandered off just before our start. I swam the first leg of the race (a 200 yd freestyle), and then got back up on the block to swim the third leg for our missing member. No one noticed. When we told our coach, she said, “I didn’t hear that!” As far as I know our time still stands.

At a LC zone championships in Houston, our team and the local team were fairly close in points toward the end of the meet, but were definitely behind. A bunch of the locals, figuring that they had the meet in the bag, decided to skip the last event, a 1500 free. We fielded a bunch of swimmers for that event and took first place by 30 points—victory by showing up.

Tips? It seems to me that everyone swims differently. To find your best way, listen to every good swimmer and coach that will give you advice, look at every video that you can lay your hands on, time yourself with different stroke techniques, and work out the one that is best for you.

**A big thank you to Henry for talking about masters swimming with us! Henry introduced me to a cool site for those of you that are like me and have an appreciation for butterfly. Check out the Butternuts, a club for those that have gone 500 yards or more of consecutive butterfly. Henry is a member himself at 600m of fly! I’ve added this to my list of goals for 2009. If I manage to do it it’s going on my business cards and popping up completely unprovoked in conversation for pretty much the rest of my life :)