No other sport has a postseason like swimming. Because no other sport puts so much science into making it different and better at its biggest competitions.
It starts with the taper that I wrote about earlier. Coaches reduce practice loads at the end of the season to keep swimmers fresh. For example, in Harlem, swimmers go from swimming 8,000 yards a day in practice to about 3,000 yards in the final week of the season.
In other sports, you don't cut your training in half before a big game.
“That's something a lot of people don't understand,” Boylan's coach, Brian McGuire, said. “But you don't want to do weightlifting like you do football or basketball. Swimming is a completely different animal. Your body has all the stored energy that has been depleted for a long time (from long workouts). That’s where the problem becomes.”
more:Taper: How swimmers reach their peak at the right time
But tapering training to keep swimmers fresh is only half of the reason why virtually all swimmers swim the fastest times of the year by division or state. The other half is science.
Here's a behind-the-scenes look at what local swimmers are up to before competing in Saturday's sectionals at Byron.
more:“Whether I like it or not, that's what I'm best at”: James Murray, NIC-10 reluctant long-distance swimmer
cupping
Pools at the end of the year are filled with swimmers whose shoulders and upper backs are covered in large, purple, perfectly round welts. The treatment involves placing a small cup made of glass or plastic over the muscle and using suction or heat to treat it.
“It was interesting,” Harlem senior Evan McDonald said of seeing himself for the first time after trying the process. “I thought it was cool to have it all over my back and shoulders. It felt like I was attacked by an octopus.”
Remember when scientists once debated whether curveballs actually curve? Well, there's also debate about whether cupping actually works. But swimmers of all levels swear by it.
“I didn't know what was going to happen,” McDonald said. “I knew a lot of people were doing it, and I should have done it too. For the first time, I noticed a huge difference. My muscles felt better. I felt better overall. It became faster.”
Vito Scominas, one of Hononega's top swimmers and 14-time NIC-10 champion, thinks cupping can help, but he doesn't know how much.
more:Rockford University swimming state record holder Camden Taylor adjusts to change in form in college
“There are other elements to swimming that are more helpful than fancy cupping, especially in tapers,” Skominas said. “Everyone has their own way of cupping, and they usually cup in areas that are painful. I put it on in a consistent pattern and leave it on for five minutes. The first time I did it in second grade, , I didn't notice any crazy powers or anything. It's like eating vegetables. I don't notice a huge difference, but there might be a difference.”
ice bath
Similar to cupping, this is intended to rejuvenate sore and tired muscles in swimmers. After the Auburn swimmer's final week of practice before sectionals, she does them twice for 10 minutes at a time.
“It's like resetting a muscle,” Auburn coach Dennis Bullard said. “Your heart beats faster, which helps flush out lactic acid. Your shoulder pain won't hurt as much. You may also feel less sensitive in the cold.
more:Former E-Rab Cynthia Parker earns national honor after scoring 30 points in consecutive college games
“They have to shower before the ice bath. If they accept it afterwards, they've just disabled the ice bath.”
“I really hate taking ice baths,” said McDonald, of Harlem. “But do ice baths make a difference? You feel terrible after a hard workout, but you feel much better afterwards.”
shaving
Swimmers are famous for shaving their legs before important competitions. But you may not know that they use naked razors.
“You don't want to put lotion on, because it clogs your pores and takes away the point of shaving, where you can feel the water,” Auburn coach Dennis Bullard said.
Harlem coach Todd Mueller says, “Shaving reduces the resistance of the water on your skin. I shave my legs, torso, and armpits, but I usually leave my arms intact. The arms I want to drag. I want to be able to do that. I don't want my arm to slip in the water.”
diet
Auburn's 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle champion James Murray stopped eating all sweets at the end of the season. McDonald's in Harlem has eliminated not only sugar but also caffeine. Many teams have a pasta party the night before sectionals. The idea, also known to be used by long-distance runners, is that pasta is a carbohydrate that is digested and converted into energy at the perfect time for a big race. Or swim. In Harlem, some swimmers also use their pasta parties as bonding experiences, where they dye their hair.
stimulate the legs
Auburn has some quick restart recovery systems where athletes sit in a chair with their legs in long compression boots. This is thought to allow the body to eliminate metabolic waste products and allow new blood flow to go where it's needed.
hire a massage therapist
Mueller's son, Jeremy, graduated last year after setting Harlem school records in every event. He had been seeing a massage therapist to stretch his tissues, increase flexibility, and relieve tension and stress points. The goal is to treat fascial tissue that, if too tight, can compress muscles, nerves, and blood vessels. “I told his parents about it and then I left it up to the family,” Moller said. “I tell them it's an option and they can go look for it themselves if they want. It's not cheap.”
tech suit
Swimsuits seem like the simplest form of athletic equipment, but the fastest suits can cost up to $600. “And they're good for 10 to 12 swims,” said Auburn's Bullard.
But they make a noticeable difference.
“Anyone who wears a high-tech suit will feel faster no matter what,” Hononega's Skominas said. “I feel like I'm Iron Man.”
High-tech suits last longer than in the past, when you were limited to five or six swims. And the old one still works. But it's not that good. So everyone saves their new suits until the end of the season.
“It’s very tight,” Auburn’s Bullard said. “Water just flows out of them. If they fit well, they take about 20 minutes to put on. I've even seen people break them trying to put them on.”
Visualize a perfect swim
Boylan sends the swimmers into the room to prepare for their sections.
“We do a lot of visualization and mental preparation,” Coach McGuire said. “We try to swim the races in advance. We make predictions. The children sit in a quiet room with a partner or by themselves. When we start the clock, they are able to You'll see yourself swimming the entire race inside. In theory, you'll have seen your race 10 or 15 times before you step into the pool, so you should know exactly how to do it.”
don't deviate too much
If everything seems to change in the last two weeks of the swim season, some say it's too much change. The best of his NIC-10 swim teams try to keep things somewhat the same. Hononega starts reducing the amount two weeks before the state, but it's only putting its foot down on all high-tech items except high-tech suits.
“I try not to overthink things,” Skominas says. “I'm a high school athlete, not a DI college athlete competing in the Olympics. I try to keep things simple.”
His coach agrees.
“Taper hasn't done much different than what he's been doing all season,” Onega coach Darryl McCabe said. “But when it comes to cupping and ice baths, I leave it up to the individual swimmer. If they ask me, I would usually say that if they aren't doing it, they shouldn't do it.
“It's usually better to be consistent, even with something as slight as an ice bath. You don't want to do anything too out of the ordinary if it's not a consistent part of your plan.” So it's going to be completely different. There's more excitement (for divisions and states), but on some level, we want to feel like it's just a normal tournament.”
Contact: [email protected], @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register-Star for more than 30 years, with stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City..
