By: Luke Hernandez
March 5, 2024
Swimming is hands down, no discussion, no debate the hardest sport that exists. Races range from 50 yards all the way up to 500 yards. Now being able to go all out for 50 yards or pace yourself for 500 yards is quite a challenge in and of itself. Being able to either pace yourself and go all out definitely doesn’t come easily either.
I interviewed Jack Langeland from the swim team and one of the questions he was asked was what an average practice consists of. He responded saying “We start with a 1000-yard warm-up, 800 yards of drills, 2000 yards of working stuff, and a 200-yard cooldown.”
Another component that swimmers have to deal with is tapering. Tapering normally happens the week leading up to a big meet and swimmers aren’t supposed to do much of anything at home and practices become easier as the week continues leading up to said meet. I asked Gabe Langeland how he spends his time at home during taper and he said “Usually I try to eat somewhat healthy with a lot of carbs, I rest a lot, and don’t do a lot of hard work. Also, I play Fortnite quite often.”
On the other side of the pool, the divers are practicing at the same time. I interviewed Brodie Brown, a diver for the Hamilton dive team, and he told me what an average divers practice is like. He says he starts with warm-ups so he stretches, does line-ups, and fall-ins to work on entry into the water. After the warm-up, he says that they practice their diving and he says “We try new things and try to improve on our dives every day.” He also said that practices for divers can range anywhere from an hour and a half to two and a half hours.
These swimmers and divers have very different and difficult practices and it definitely shows. Hamilton has a large number of swimmers and 2 divers going to the state meet on Friday, March 8, and Saturday, March 9.