COVID-19 Racing: Returning to the Pool is a Learning Process
In the past few months, many people have been getting back into swim meets and competition. This may not be the normal crowded crash area and social time behind the blocks, but any kind of racing with other teams is a big step back into the swim world we once knew. This past weekend, my teammates and I competed at a three day meet in O’Fallon, Illinois, where we contested a full lineup, without relays. Many of us were just excited to get in the water and learn the pattern of racing and warming up again.
After my first few events, I was extremely discouraged with how I was doing. My coaches made it their goal to get one thing through to us: It’s a learning process and we have to get our bodies used to meets again. This was annoying to hear but after thinking about it, we realized how they were right. By the end of the weekend, a significant add did not necessarily reflect the amount of work being put in at practice. Even during a normal year, a meet during this point of the season would probably produce similar results. While the red numbers on MeetMobile aren’t exactly what we wanted to see, being able to race seven events against familiar faces made up for it.
In terms of how different this meet was, one year ago I would never imagine this layout would ever be the case. Each team was given a space in the rec-plex’s ice rink to socially distance their swimmers. Warmups were shortened to allow every team to have enough room for swimmers at each end of the lanes. Masks were worn until the heat prior had entered the water. This caused an issue for me on the 100 backstroke. We were not allowed to go behind the blocks until the heat was already walking away. This meant we had to get in the water fast. While placing my stuff down, the officials had already blown the whistle and my mask was still on, under my cap. I went to take my mask off and it completely ripped. This, however, was not my main focus. I needed to get into the water and place my feet before they sent my heat without me! This got my adrenaline pumping and was my best race of the meet.
Overall? 10 points for the funny story but none for the stress the quick turnaround brought me. When watching 8 & unders swim at a meet, most people know how they line up each heat of kids so they don’t get mixed up behind the blocks. This was a protocol used throughout the weekend with everyone, even the 18 year olds. This worked quite well and made me feel comfortable as there was almost always six feet between me and the swimmers next to me. This was important to me to know that swim teams were doing everything in their power to make sure these meets were safe so they could keep having them.
By the end of the weekend, we had finally got back into the rhythm of what a meet feels like. Making sure you’re warm in between events, going down early enough to warm up before your race and simply getting into the racing mindset were things we had to re-learn. The best way to describe it is a “learning process.” Retracing the skills we once had down and could do every other weekend wouldn’t come back the first time around. The best way to get back into the swing of things will be to keep our heads up and know we are taking every possible opportunity and making the best out of it.