Chris Balbo - (Author)

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. When it comes to race day, it is critical to have a plan or strategy for your races. It may seem like a simple element of a race to some, but to others executing the correct race strategy can be the difference between a personal best and the worst swim ...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. So your championship meet has gone one of three ways: amazing, mediocre, and horribly wrong. No matter the outcome, all of these groups of swimmers can be feeling burnt out or like they need more time to process the season. Regardless of the ending, the...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. In late March, the Eastern Zone will be running the long-standing Zone Age Group Championship meet with an entirely new format. In 2016 a task force of coaches from the Eastern Zone was formed to evaluate the current Short Course Age Group Championships...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. Would a coach rather have a few top scorers and some that don't final? Or have all scorers, but none in the championship final? The answer is not simple. Some schools favor one factor over the other, but in most cases winning schools are deep. They do n...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern For most college teams the main season is coming to a close. It’s the most wonderful time of the year aside from “Nike Christmas”. Yardage is decreasing, practices are getting shorter, and finally the coaches let you sleep past 5 a.m. Tapers come in all ...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. Swimming and diving have been two sports rolled into one at the NCAA level for many years dating back to 1924, the inception of the first NCAA Championships. However, these sports could not be more different. Swimming is based on time-- how fast can you...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. The country of Jordan is literally adopting children into the swimming family. The Jordanian Swimming Federation (JSF) has been piloting a swimming program for orphans in the SOS village, which resides in the Jordanian governorate of Irbid. In this vill...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. Regardless of your level - NCAA athlete or club swimmer - it is a fact that training trip week or winter training weeks are significantly harder than most other times of the year. There is no school pressure, meaning there is more time to focus on swimm...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family, friends and relatives. With all this family time, comes tons and tons of food: mashed potatoes, turkey, pies, breads, sweet potatoes, pumpkin bread, mac and cheese you name it. With all foods and desserts com...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern.  In an endurance sport like swimming it can be argued there are finite ways in the pool to get faster. Every second, tenth and hundredth matter, but the pool is not the only place swimmers compete. Athletes and swimmers now focus on competing outside of...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. Joining a college team as a freshman is a daunting but thrilling experience. A new team, new schedule, and new practice methodology. With those changes also comes a different meet format: endless weekends spent racing at dual meets. For those freshmen n...

By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern. Every college swimmer knows October is the grinding month. Midterms are piling up and yardage is racking up as the temperature is going down. Intervals are dropping with endless weekends of dual meets just around the corner. If you aren’t unbelievably s...