Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

I shuffled to the front of the convention room nervously. On the one hand, I had nothing to be anxious about. If Frank Busch, head coach of the women's and men's NCAA champions, was anything like I had heard, he would no doubt graciously grant my request to come out and watch a practice. Yet I still approached him with trepidation, armed with the knowledge that I had nothing to offer but so much to gain.

"Coach Busch, I'm Chris DeSantis, an assistant coach with the University of Pennsylvania. I also work for floswimming." I introduced myself. Frank greeted me, and yet I think he sensed there was a question quivering on my tongue.

"Could I come out and watch practice?". The answer was a quick affirmative. Just 5 hours later I found myself on the deck of the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. I had been welcomed at the gate by Augie Busch, assistant coach and Frank's son. I was offered a glimpse of the construction of a new 25x35 pool directly next to Arizona's current 25 yd by 50 meter facility. I was early and I waited pensively. Slowly but surely, swimmers started to trickle onto the deck, followed by the rest of the coaching staff: Rick Demont, Busch and Greg Rhodenbaugh. The swimmers fanned out on mats with medicine balls preparing for a dryland routine.

On this day, Rick Demont explained to me, half the team was missing, swimming at the Cactus Classic in Phoenix. Still, many of the well known players were present: Lyndon Ferns, Ryk Neethling, Matt Grevers, Whitney Meyers and Lara Jackson among others. Rhodenbaugh began the dryland. I gathered that this duty was rotated among the coaches and the swimmer's seemed to greet him with playful dread. In fact, even as they worked their way through the challenging routine, smiles abounded. As well they should: all of the swimmers at the pool that day had either qualified for their country's olympic team or were going to US trials. In that sense the pressure was off, and the trials looming five weeks away didn't appear to be perturbing any of the Americans.

As I fell into a trance during the clockwork rythym of dryland, I was startled back to attention by a soft but audible grunt. I realized that directly in front of me Frank was laying on a mat, going after each of Rhodenbaugh's exercises full bore. He completed the entire routine. It did not appear he was doing this for show, or to somehow motivate his team. Frank Busch just wanted to do some dryland, and he was going to do it right.

Following the completion of dryland warmup was announced, and the athletes entered the pool almost immediately, save for a few stragglers. Frank turned to me.

"They're usually not this rebellious." he said, and then after pausing, he continued "They're usually four times this rebellious!" he chuckled. As workout continued I was given free reign to wander around the deck. Rick DeMont explained to me that the afternoon practice was intended to be relaxed. "Recovery?" I asked but Rick shook his head. The team had swum a tough practice that morning and would be racing in practice the following morning. This particular practice was centered around repetitions of 100s done at a heart rate of 160 pace. Earlier in the day, at the convention, Frank had discussed his use of heart rate in training his swimmer, specifically 160. To him, 160 was a solid equilibrium between comfortable swimming and racing. It was just hard enough to force his swimmers out of their cruising pace, but could be swum for a long period of time. He also saw it as a conduit for technical improvement. Swimmers could not improve their pace by swimming harder- this would elevate their heart rate. Instead, swimmers could only improve their pace in a given practice by improving the efficiency with which they carried themselves through the water.

As practice wore on I realized that none of the coaches had anything written down. No sets layed out, nor were they recording the paces any of the swimmers achieved. I question Greg Rhodenbaugh on this and he carried me through it. He explained that the coaching staff strove for flexibility. They had a fairly specific idea of what they would do, but would narrow it down only based on what they saw in the pool. In his mind it was foolish to plan too much, when inevitably adjustments would have to be made on the fly by the coaching staff. Their flexibility was on display throughout the pool. It seemed that no two swimmers were doing exactly the same thing. Sendoffs and durations were carefully chosen not only based on ability level, but also on level of fatigue and confidence.

The other most noticeable characteristic of practice was the constant chatter. That is not to say there weren't moments of serene quiet, the kind every coach dreams off, when swimmer's heads were underwater or strapped into a snorkle. For the most part during the main set, however, the lines of communication flowed freely. Coaches prodded swimmers for feedback on their levels of fatigue and stroke adjustments. It was technique work done at an uncomfortable pace.

To be certain, not all the talk was robotically devoted to technique. Lyndon Ferns playfully barbed Rick DeMont after he was assigned a 600 pull "I'm not training for the mile!" and Albert Subirats seemed to enjoy needling Greg Rhodenbaugh as he announced sets. In the end, the most amazing part of practice at Arizona was how normal it all seemed. I think I had imagined that at such lofty programs the swimmers and coaches were godly automatons. What I learned was that Frank Busch and his cohort would rather be known for finding simplest way to succeed.