Jispa had her swimming events this weekend. These are almost
the finals of the year. They work hard through the year to go to this event. They
compete to get in the top six of their events. Jispa’s age group is allowed to
choose a max of four events in which they compete. The top six of the event
gets to compete in the state meet which is being held at Nashik this year. Jispa
is good enough to be selected for the state but she wouldn’t make it beyond
that. Being a part of the Mumbai team is in itself an honour and hence this
becomes the big event for the year.
Jispa has had a mixed year this time. She had a shoulder
injury which threw her training schedule out of gear in December. Post her
rehab her coach rejigged her schedule but she did miss out on a couple of seconds
which she never did make up. Swimming is a complex sport in that way. You keep
pushing and trying and improving strength and technique slowly slowly. You work
and shave off your seconds. The events in which you compete also slowly change
over the years, unless you are a born breaststroker and you simply go faster
than anyone else in that one crazy stroke.
I have always wondered why there are so many events in the
swimming championships. Its like having running races, but first you have the
normal race, then having a race in which you run backwards, then having a race
in which you can only hop, then a race where you can run only with your
arms going up and down like a bird… WTF –
why do you need all these styles in swimming, when eth fastest is the free
style – period. But hell. Breast stroke is a funny stroke, it takes the leats
amount of power to stay afloat but here is where you get naturals and try
harders. Some kids just naturally excel in this stroke and they effortlessly
just go zoom. Jispa was a dead duck in this stroke. It was her worst stroke.
She would excel in the butterfly but go very slow here. She even won a few back
stroke medals. In fact at the start we thought she would be winning back stroke
medals only. In the individual medley where you have to get all the strokes in
the breast stroke we would wonder if had a parachute holding her back when it
came to the breaststroke length. But this year dramatically things changed for
her in the last one month. Her back stroke deteriorated and her breasts stroke
improved. So much so that she flipped her events at the last minute. That was weird.
Coaching is such a technical thing. So many small small
minute changes you need to do in your technique and your daily routine so that you
keep improving. We are happy that Jispa got a sport that she takes so
seriously. But it’s getting increasingly difficult to manage both, but we
figure that later. So soming back – its nice to get a sport to push yourself
in. But the thing is that he coach is a dork. I mean that he is a sweet simple
well meaning guy who doesn’t push his kids too much but he also doesn’t know
how to mentally push them. Jispa took part in the 200 m freestyle event and I was
wondering what she is doing. She would go slow and fast and I thought she paced
herself badly. That was the only event she didn’t qualify in. I spoke to her
afterwards. What was she doing. She said she was conserving. Conserving in a
200 m race. These kids swim for 4kms at a
stretch. 200 is still a sprint. You push hard. The I spoke to her.
“You know Jispa what a wall is? You keep swimming faster and
faster till you reach a wall. Then to break that wall you need to go really
fast and put all your efforts. Now that is a 50 m sprint. You break the wall.
If at all you want to conserve in a race like 200 – you keep swimming harder
and harder till you reach the wall. You were nowhere near the wall, you were
slower than your wall. This was you conserved more than what you needed to. You
have to be near the wall at all times. You may choose not to break it before
the last 50 but then not being near it is a crime.” Jispa nodded. She admitted
that the wall was a little distance away. Then I told her in the IM – stay near
the wall. Push yourself to be near wall at all times. Stay there, never the
wall be too far from you. After the event she admitted that it was probably a
good advice to get.
The wall – I think in all my sports I have always faced the
wall. It is the natural barrier that an athlete
has towards his or her performance. He battles the wall every time. Most sports
are you versus the wall. How close do you keep yourself to the wall and how
much are you ready to risk to break it down. These walls move ahead thanks to
practice and hard work and technique. But they will always be there – finally it
is the mental edge in that lets you see the wall and break it down / or even
simply follow it. In all that we do we must see the wall. The wall is it.
Now isn’t the coach
supposed to give this advice. But the coach is a happy middle class dork. This is
something he will never understand. Understanding the psychology of your kids
and seeing who can take what kind of advice is something alien to him. Understanding
management techniques and having the ability to push the boundaries of his
wards is what the coach is about. I guess I will have to be more involved in
these things. I stay out of it. I don’t want too much clutter in her brain. I
am not so ambitious, but now if she wants to swim on she is going make a lot of
sacrifices. Then she needs to go beyond. She needs a mental edge and an ability
to push herself. She needs to think clearly. The dork will not be enough. Chalo…
more shit that I need to do.
Now listen to this unrelated song.
