Tom Shields Credits Controlled Mindset For League Leading Swims In ISL

Photo Courtesy: Mine Kasapoglu / ISL

Tom Shields seems to be a completely new swimmer this year competing in his second season with the LA Current of the International Swimming League. Shields, who is currently leading the world rankings in both the 100 and 200 fly in 2020, credits his out of the pool work in helping him achieve success in the water. In 2019, Shields had been among the world’s best in both the 100 and 200 fly, but in 2020 he has already surpassed both of last year’s times.

Shields, who opened up last year about a suicide attempt in late 2018, admitted to putting too much pressure on himself to make the 2016 Olympic team. Ultimately his dream of making the Olympics came true, but he didn’t have an identity outside of the water — and it constantly nagged at him for the next couple years while his swimming didn’t meet his expectations. But since then, he has been working every day since then to better his mental well-being.

“I’ve done a lot of work with my therapist and with my wife and working on my brain,” Tom Shields said in a virtual press conference after the Current’s final regular season match in Budapest. “(Coach Dave) Durden was out here the first ten days and I think this was my first non-grand prix trip with him since Rio and I’m really using him as a resource and he’s been much more of a psychologist.

Tom Shields. Photo Courtesy: Mine Kasapoglu/ISL

“So we’ve been working on moving slow, breathing slow, walking slow, moving with intention and I think that has translated into some good swims out here. I’ve been keeping it in my lane. I think I get so lost some times, especially in year’s past – a lot of people do in wins and losses and what this means and that means, but I’m just trying to make the right decisions. I’ve made some good ones here so it has translated to some good times.”

Shields had been swimming well before the pandemic hit, ending 2019 with gold at the Pan American Games and setting a best time in the 200 butterfly in short course yards in March. And even with an extended break from training and racing caused by what the COVID-19 pandemic did to the rest of the world, Shields has continued his momentum to the ISL, where he currently holds the league record in the 100 fly (48.94), and leads the league in the 200 fly (1:49.78), an event which was often his kryptonite if he wasn’t in a good mindset.

But with his new improvements to his mental health, Shields has won the 200 fly every time he dove into the pool in Budapest, joining an exclusive club of four-time event winners.

“I just wanted to get back on the horse,” Tom Shields said of racing the 200 fly at his last ISL meet. “In a 200 short course, I think breaststrokers would feel similar to this, but in fly especially it is a dive 25, and then seven 25s at pace. It is the same thing over and over again. That was my attack plan to just swim very easy and very controlled. I did seven kicks every wall except for the last one where I did six.”

Shields won the 200 fly over the Condors’ Eddie Wang to break his tie with Chad Le Clos at the top of the ISL leaderboard, as those two are likely on a collision course if their respective teams can advance to the final four in late November.

Tom Shields racing in the ISL. Photo Courtesy: MIKE LEWIS / ISL

Heading into this weekend’s semi finals, the LA Current team is ranked fourth in the league, with the top four advancing to the final to vie for the second league title. Although the Current team lost a lot of firepower from last year’s final four team in Nathan Adrian, Jack Conger, Kathleen Baker and Ella Eastin, among others, the team has filled in those gaps nicely with rookies Maxime Rooney and Abbey Weitzeil, as well as some big improvements out of Alyssa Marsh and Dylan Carter, who both train in San Diego under Current head coach David Marsh.

Commenting on what the Current team atmosphere is like, Shields said:

“It’s fantastic. I think the Team Elite group is coming into their own. Everyone was coming into this with a different attack plan coming off of different backgrounds, especially coming off of quarantine and all that so I think that group is really figuring it out. Dylan’s 100 free was a really big confidence boost for him and I think that if there is anything I have learned swimming in meets here, confidence and momentum is going to fuel individual performances so much and it is good to see. We are going to rely on him a lot moving forward and it is fantastic.”

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