The Discovery Of A New Stroke

An interesting thing happened last year.  The swimmer on our team who held the fastest breaststroke times and records in both the 100 and 200 distances, who was his high school teams fastest breaststroker and record holder in the 100 breaststroke , suddenly could not for the life of him "find" his breaststroke.  His stroke felt a little off, and his times were not close to where they were the season before.  It probably didn't help his confidence to get his stroke back on track either, when one of his teammates suddenly "discovered" breaststroke and took over his position and records in the event.  His immediate response was pure frustration.  However, something spectacular come from the events of that season; he discovered a new stroke.

You see, this swimmer has always considered his best events the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM.  The 100 Breaststroke was the first event he qualified for JO's in.  The 200 IM was quick to follow.  They both were also the first events he qualified for Sectionals in.  Although he always swam all four strokes and the IM in meets, he excelled in breaststroke, and that was the stroke he focused on most in practice.  Of all the strokes, backstroke was his least favorite and the one stroke he was furthest away from hitting his senior cuts in.

Interestingly enough, another swimmer on our team who happened to go to the same high school as the other swimmer, became much better in the breaststroke events and started struggling somewhat with his backstroke.  The prior year he was our top backstroker and record holder in the 100 Back.  He was also his high school team's best backstroker.  However, for whatever reason, like the other swimmer but in a different stroke, he quite simply could not "find" his backstroke of the previous season.  This created quite the opportunity for the two of them.  Rather than continuing to struggle to "find" their strokes from the previous season, they started focusing on different strokes.

When their high school season started, they simply switched events; the backstroker became the breaststroker and the breaststroker became the backstroker.  They both worked very hard that season to refine their newly discovered talents, and the end result could not have been sweeter.  Because the swimmer who "lost" his breaststroke worked so hard on backstroke, he not only started getting pretty fast at backstroke, but he also began hitting some of his fasted IM times.  The same went for the swimmer who was now swimming breaststroke.  When their high school swim championships came around, both swimmers placed first in their "new" individual events, each hitting lifetime best times.  They both also set new records for their high school, with the new breaststroker breaking his high school record in the 100 breast, and the new backstroker breaking his school's record in the 200 IM.

Although I consider myself an IM coach and write our weekly workouts accordingly, focusing on all four strokes and the IM; the experience of this past year really emphasized the importance of having swimmers not only focus on all four strokes, but to especially focus on the strokes they think they might not be that great at.  Doing so their IM will assuredly get faster, and who knows, they might just surprise themselves and discover a new stroke.