Swimming Blogs - Alex Kalish

A new habit I have developed, other than actually 'putting out' (navy term for working hard) in practice, is to grade myself on a scale of 1 to 5 on how much effort I put into work out. Because of previous years of degrading habits, I had swum last year against the coaches, that is everything they said, every set, I wanted to stick it to them. If they thought I would swim well, I would swim terribly, if they thought it was too much for me to handle....then I would actually swim ok. But on the whole I developed a bad attitude for getting better. In an environment of extremely talented individuals, I, when I was younger, had done well through hard work.

To illustrate this, when I was 12-14 I developed a drive to do more yards than anyone else. Every single practice at the end of our customary 200 warmdown, I would flip and do half a lap before flipping and returning to leave the water. True I looked like an idiot, but I did more yards every single day. And that got me going. Don't get me wrong, there were times where I would miss portions of sets, due to ability level, goggle malfunction, or what have you, but everyday I would log how much I missed then complete that amount at the end of practice. As a result I dropped tremendous time in my events across the board. I became the first member of the team to break 5 mins in the 500 at the age of 13. I got a best time in every meet I swam in from the age of 12 - 14. True some would call this leveling out, but it wasn't a level out in ability. I still dropped time. But the way I approached it wasn't what it once was.

Back to the reason behind grading and barking on a daily basis. Last year if I had been barking, on my current scale I would have been either 1 or if it was a good practice a 2 bark day. I could count on one hand the number of 3 bark days from all of last year. The way I approached practice was more of a drag than an opportunity. Over the summer, I realized what I had become. I stayed in Philly for a course and our coach offered practice every morning, I started off attending each one. As the weeks dragged on, I would attend 2 maybe 3 of the 5. Clearly something was wrong. If I kept up that pattern this year I would be inelidgible due to our teams standards. Last year, I may have been at practice, but I wouldn't doubt that I only really swam 2 or 3 days practices a week. I realized something had to change.

The most motivating time in my life I think was over the summer during CORTRAMID (a four week cruise for all Midshipmen where you spend a week with each of the communities: Surface Warfare, Submariners, Aviation, and finally Marines). There was a lot of down time, and granted I didn't really work out. But everything came together really during a 3 mile Marine Corps Regulation hike with 60 lbs bags on our backs, in Boots and Utilities. I developed blisters the size of silver dollars on my heels due to the loose fitting boots. But I stuck it out, I put out too, it was a really mentally challenging (and to a lesser degree physically challenging) time. I didn't really grasp what had changed until long after returning home and starting to swim again. But practice became a means to be better. It became a means to express myself and my values. The values that I hold so dear to my heart I had been neglecting to demonstrate myself. As such I went back to the real me.

The motivating thing about Marines is their work ethic and drive. Everything is in their eyes. The drive, the zone, their place of zen, whatever you call it, it is the same place where when you get up on the blocks for a relay representing your country and you are behind by a body length and a half to the world record holder, you somehow manage to find, through this place and some probably unhealthy amount of adrenalin, to outsplit that person and win. It is this place that while I cannot even attempt to say that I reach every day at practice, I at least have been striving to get there. To put my body through pain, and when I want to give up, when my muscles are cramping, I can't breathe, my foot siezes up, and my goggles fill with water, I keep going. And that is a 3 bark day. Beyond pain, beyond my own thoughts about what I could handle, that is a 3 bark day. My average practice this year so far has been just over 3 barks.

To the barks themselves. They are simply gutteral yells during the final lap or two of warm down, to signify how hard I worked that day. The fiercer the barks the better. The louder the better. The feeling after 3 barks, turning back over onto my front to finish the lap of warm down is that zone. Looking back on the work for the day, I can say that I worked past my potential, past what I thought I could handle. And so far the only way I have been going forward, is by going backward. And nothing, nothing compares to a few good yells after an obscene amount of hard work.