What's with all the Negative Vibes?




In 1970, one of the best WWII movies to come out was a movie called Kelly's Hero's. The movie took a lighter tone versus the more dramatic tone of some other great WWII movies such as The Dirty Dozen and Patton.


Kelly's Hero's was a story about a private (Clint Eastwood) who overheard a drunk German officer talking about all the bars of gold that were being held at a bank behind enemy lines. Clint was to a point that he knew the war would be over soon, and perhaps now was an opportunity to enrich his life after the war - so along the way he enlisted the help of some others to help him retrieve the gold before the Allied forces stepped in and took it for themselves.

One of the characters he enlisted was another "misfit" of a tank platoon (Donald Sutherland) who had decided that he, and his enlisted fighters had seen enough of the war and decided to venture off into more "remote" areas where they could enjoy life a little longer.

Eastwood enlisted other characters along the way such as Gavin MacLeod, Harry Dean Stanton, Telly Savales, Don Rickles, and Jeff Morris, it appeared that Gavin MacLeod always appeared to exemplify the negativity of the situation, forcing Donald Sutherland to respond at one point to Gavin's comment on a situation, "Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "


I use this as an example to illustrate how I see USA Swimming coaches choosing to look for the negative as it relates to USRPT versus seeing the positive that could come from implementing such a program.


If one was to look at USRPT from an OBJECTIVE point of view, I'm still trying to determine "where" the negatives lie for the SWIMMER.


Race Pace Training is demanding - for both the swimmer and the coach, but it appears to me that COACHES are being selfish by not considering the benefits to the swimmer. Here are just a few:


1. Accountability
2. Goal Planning
3. Shorter Practices
4. Instructional Benefit
5. Injury Prevention
6. More time with Family / Friends / School
7. Meet Preparation


These are just a few of the benefits as it relates to implementing USRPT or a Race Pace Training structure within the swim club.


I think it's time that USA Swimming to embrace the benefits to the SWIMMERS and begin accepting that Race Pace Swimming is far more beneficial to swimmers than traditional practices.


Let's knock off the negativity and dig just how great a Race Pace Swimming program could be.