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At The Race Club we try to help swimmers become mentally tougher. Mental toughness is necessary to become a swimming champion, as it is in any sport. Some are born with it. Others must learn how to get it.

At University of Texas, Eddie Reese used to rank all of his swimmers on mental toughness from 0-10. He called it the Killer Instinct scale. In order to grade his swimmers, he needed to see how they performed in the Championship meets and particularly during their freshman year. After all, those are the meets that count.

Whatever level you may have been born with on the Killer Instinct scale, we do believe you can improve your ranking on that scale. At The Race Club we teach a five-step process to improve your mental toughness; goal setting, visualization, confidence building, focus, and anchoring.

In our talks on mental training, we often share an inspirational story of one of the many swimmers that we believe are a 10 on the killer instinct scale. One of my favorite stories is of Mike Burton. Many of you have never heard of him, but you should know about him. He was as mentally tough as Michael Phelps, but with a lot less talent.

Mike was from Sacramento, California, and trained under the great coach, Sherm Chavoor. He started swimming competitively at the age of nine as a result of a bike accident. Although he was small and had small hands and feet, he was kind of like Forest Gump. He just kept on swimming, outworking everyone else around him.

By the time Mike was at UCLA in the late 60’s (back when they had a men’s team), he had become the world’s best distance freestyler, holding American and World Records in the 1500 meters. In 1966 at the Spring Nationals in Brandon, Florida, which was the last outdoor short course Nationals ever held, the weather was miserable; cold (38 degree low), wet and rainy. Everyone swam poorly, except Mike. He didn’t care about the weather and broke two American records.

In 1968 at the Olympic Games of Mexico City, after graduating from UCLA, he appeared to have a story-book ending to his illustrious career, winning gold medals in the 400 meter and 1500-meter freestyle events in high altitude. In those days, there was no post-grad swimming program around and no money to support a career. Seemed like a good time for Mike to bow out. He wasn’t finished yet.

In 1972, Mike decided to make a comeback at the age of 25, which was considered ancient in those days. In those four years since Mexico City, the swimming world, led by Rick DeMont, had passed him by. Rick was the new man on the block for distance freestyle swimming. Beautiful technique, awesome kick, amazing work ethic, Rick’s freestyle was like watching a ballet in the water.

At the 1972 Olympic Trials in Portage Park Illinois, Rick won both the 400 meter and 1500-meter freestyle events in world record times. Mike qualified 8^th for the finals of the men’s 1500, barely getting in. Somehow, the next evening Mike miraculously finished 3^rd in the 1500 freestyle final to qualify for the Olympic Team. He received a standing ovation for his comeback effort. Yet no one expected him to win a medal in Munich, except Mike and perhaps Sherm.

In Munich, after Rick won the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle on the first day of competition, it was abruptly taken away from him on the following day because of a positive test for ephedrine, an ingredient found in his asthma medication. He had never been warned that ephedrine was a banned substance nor that it was in his daily medication. Not only did Rick’s gold medal from his 400 get taken away, he was also disqualified from swimming the 1500 on the final day. That mishap likely cost Rick two Olympic gold medals.

The other Team USA swimmer in the 1500-meter freestyle, Doug Northway, did not swim well. In the finals of the men’s 1500-meter freestyle, on the final day of Olympic competition, Mike Burton was our best hope for a medal. He had qualified behind two faster Australians, Graham Windeatt and Brad Cooper. Both Aussies had their eyes on the gold medal.

When the gun went off for the start, Mike went out fast, quickly gaining a body length on his competitors. That was the only race strategy he knew; go out fast and try to hang on. By the 600-meter mark, however, Windeatt had already passed Burton and Cooper was gaining ground on him. The Australians, sitting next to us in the stands, were already celebrating the victory. We were cheering Mike on, hoping he could hang in for a silver medal.

There wasn’t much change in their positions over the next 400 meters, with Windeatt now holding about a body length lead, but after passing the 1000-meter mark, Mike started creeping back up on Windeatt. At 1200 meters, Mike caught the leader and over the final 300 meters extended his lead to win his final Olympic gold medal by 6 meters. It was the most courageous comeback I had ever seen in a swimming race.

That night, I went out with Mike to celebrate his victory. I was so awed by his race, at the end of dinner, I had to ask him this question.

“Mike,” I asked. “How did you do that?”

“What do you mean?” he responded.

“I have seen a lot of swimming races,” I continued. “But I have never seen anyone take it out fast, like you did tonight, get overtaken, and then come back to win so decisively. Where did you find the strength to do that?”

He looked at me like I had just asked the dumbest question possible.

“Gary”, he said. “I have never, ever given up in a race in my life….and I was not going to start tonight.”

When Mike Burton looked at himself in the mirror, he did not see a 5 feet 9 inch swimmer with small hands and feet. He saw a giant. He saw a champion.

What do you see when you look at yourself in the mirror?

Yours in swimming,

Gary Sr.

 

https://theraceclub.com/aqua-notes/the-5-mentally-toughest-american-elite-swimmers-in-history/

Recently, I wrote an article on the benefits of a more vertical arm recovery in butterfly, pointing to the techniques used by Rikako Ikee of Japan and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, as elite examples. Another example of an elite swimmer using this higher arm recovery in butterfly is Olympic gold medalist Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain. I can assure you that all of these swimmers share the common trait of having highly flexible shoulders; being able to extend the shoulders backwards easily and far.

As coaches, we sometimes find young swimmers that demonstrate this extraordinary and remarkable shoulder flexibility that would enable them to use this butterfly technique. The question is should we be teaching the high vertical arm recovery in fly to them? I think we should.

There are two primary questions that we should ask ourselves. Is this technique faster than using a more horizontal arm recovery? Is there more risk of shoulder injury using this technique?

With respect to being faster, I believe that it is. Using gravitational forces, a more vertical approach of the arms to the water will result in more kinetic energy as the hands and arms strike the water. This event should occur precisely at the same time as the second down kick. The greater the kinetic energy in this hand/arm motion, the more propulsion is generated by that down kick. We have tested the butterfly recovery motion both ways using velocity meter technology and have found a higher peak acceleration rate and a greater increase in velocity at this moment from using the higher arm recovery. Laszlo Cseh, one of the fastest butterflyers in the world, doesn’t even use a first down kick, yet generates such a surge in speed from his strong second down kick, coupled with his vertical arm recovery, that he swims really fast.

Does the higher arm recovery in butterfly increase the risk of shoulder injuries? I doubt it. According to Dr. J. Pieter Hommen, an Orthopedic specialist in Miami, Florida, specializing in sports knee and shoulder injuries, most of the shoulder injuries in swimming are categorized as either tendonitis or impingement issues. Both injuries are related to overuse. The tendonitis problems seem to be more related to the pulling motion underwater, where most of the torque on the shoulder joint is applied. Impingement issues seem to be more related to recovery motion or improper placement of the arm in the water after the recovery, but before the pulling motion begins. In his opinion, most of the impingement shoulder problems occur in tight shoulders, not in hypermobile shoulders such as we find in the swimmers doing high arm recovery.

I honestly don’t know of enough swimmers using this vertical technique to be absolutely certain, but at this point, I don’t believe that this recovery motion will put them at more risk of injury. The only downside to using this technique is that it requires more work to do. Like any other technique, the more a swimmer practices it, the better they get at doing it.

I recently had a young swimmer at The Race Club that was able to use the vertical recovery technique really well. Upon returning home, her coach insisted that she not use it, preferring the more conventional horizontal recovery. He insisted that she was not old enough to use that technique.

I would have preferred that the coach would have called me to discuss the matter, but that didn’t happen. If you are a coach and have a swimmer come to one of our camps at The Race Club and return home using some technique that you don’t agree with, are not familiar with, or perhaps don’t understand, please call me. You may be right and I may be wrong, but it is always best to discuss the matter coach to coach. This is not a one-size-fits all sport, yet we try to base all of our teaching at The Race Club on science-based evidence, not just opinion.

This week, in Lanes 2-4 of our Race Club subscription, you will find a webisode highlighting one of these extraordinary Race Club athletes using high arm recovery in butterfly. In this webisode, we also compare her to her sister that does not have such great flexibility in her shoulders using a more conventional arm recovery.

Hope you enjoy!

Yours in swimming,

Gary Sr.

https://theraceclub.com/sc-videos/butterfly-high-arm-recovery/

As swimmers, parents or coaches, we all have our goosebumps moments in sports; moments when we are overtaken with pride and elation over having accomplished something or having witnessed something extraordinary. Goosebumps may have occurred over crushing a goal time, winning a championship race, being elected captain of the team, overtaking a competitor on the anchor leg of a relay….or a million other possible moments. The point is that these moments are the ones we relish the most during our careers. It is from these moments that we look back and say, “Yeah, it was all worth it.”

I have had many goosebumps moments in my life. Three of the most notable were watching my son, Gary Jr, win an Olympic gold medal in the 50 meter freestyle twice. The other was carrying the Olympic flag in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games of Montreal Canada in 1976. That was an indescribable feeling of honor and the highest one I have ever received.

You may wonder how an Olympian gets the honor of carrying the flag in the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Games for the United States. Well, here is how the process works.

First, you must be talented enough to make the Olympic Team. Since there are approximately 600 other extremely talented athletes on the same summer Olympic Team, that alone is not enough.

Second, you must have done something extraordinary as an Olympian. In Michael Phelp’s case, who was selected to be the flag bearer in Rio in 2016, he simply won more Olympic medals than any other human being in history. Others have been selected for qualifying for numerous Olympic Teams (I was just the second person (behind Duke Kahanamoku) to qualify for three Olympic teams in swimming…which today is nothing unusual). Other Olympians, such as Cliff Meidel (2000 Canoeing) and Lopez Lamong (2008 Athletics) were selected on the basis of having made a heroic comeback or overcoming a tremendous obstacle to reach the Olympic team.

Third, you need to be a little bit lucky, being in the right place at the right time. In the two prior Olympic Games of 1972 and 1968, a woman had been selected to carry the USA flag. Perhaps that may have influenced the decision to select a man in 1976?

On the evening before the Opening Ceremony day of each Olympic Games (summer or winter), all of the team captains from all sports are summoned to a meeting room for the purpose of selecting the flag bearer. Not all of the captains of the sports that are represented there will nominate an athlete for that honor, but many do.

In 1976 there were 12 athletes nominated by various team captains to carry the flag and lead Team USA into Montreal Olympic Stadium. Each of those team captains presented his or her arguments as to why the nominated athlete should receive that honor. All nominees were deserving. Since I was one co-captain of the men’s swim team, the other co-captain, Steve Furniss, presented my case. He must have done a great job, because he made me sound a lot better than I could ever remember being. I do recall blushing somewhat during his presentation.

Then we voted. After the first vote, eight candidates were eliminated and we were down to four. Each nominating captain spoke again about their selected candidate. The second vote came down to two athletes, Willie Davenport, a renowned hurdler, and me.

Willie Davenport was competing in his fourth Olympic Games. He had won the gold medal in 1968 in the 110 meter hurdles. A year or so before the 1976 Olympic Games, Willie had suffered from a pulmonary embolus that had nearly killed him. Yet he came back from that adversity and qualified for his 4^th Olympic team. It was an amazing story.

When I heard all of that, I knew I was not going to win. I was still pretty honored to be standing up there with him on that ballot. In fact, the only two votes that I thought I could count on were from Steve and an Olympian named Jan Palchikoff. Jan was captain of the women’s rowing team, but had been a young swimmer on the same team as me in California, years earlier. We were still good friends.

After the final vote, it was announced that I was the winner. I almost fell off my chair. I stood up, and with tears welling in my eyes, told the entire group of captains how proud I was to have been given that honor. It meant so much to me then and the honor of being our standard bearer in the Olympic Games grows greater every year. To have been selected by my peers to lead the greatest group of athletes from the greatest country in the world into the Olympic Games is an indescribable feeling. It is a goosebumps moment.

As we walked out of the meeting, I put my arm around Steve and thanked him. Without his persuasive words, I would never have been elected. I told him that the only two people that I thought would vote for me were him and Jan Palchikoff, who was seated next to Steve.

“I hate to break the news to you, Gary”, he said. “I looked over at Jan while she was casting her vote. She voted for Willie.”

The following afternoon as we prepared just outside the Olympic Village for the march to the stadium, I clutched the flag pole tightly with my arms, with the end of the pole planted firmly against my chest. The red, white and blue stars and stripes waved continuously above my head from the light breeze. We marched for nearly a mile from the Olympic Village before we even reached the Olympic Stadium. The few hundred spectators standing alongside the road on the way clapped favorably as we marched by.

Then we entered into a darkened tunnel which led us onto the track of the stadium. As I was leading the team through the tunnel, I began to see the light of the opening of the tunnel and my hands began to tremble. “God,” I prayed to myself. “Please don’t let me drop this flag”.

The Stars and Stripes were the first thing to appear coming out of the tunnel. Once the crowd saw our flag, all 80,000 spectators stood and let out a deafening roar of approval. I shook like a leaf. Goosebumps formed everywhere. Yet I smiled all the way around that track. I even gave a short wave to Queen Elizabeth who was seated in the crowd. We were told explicitly not to dip the flag to her, as it is a US federal law that we are not to do so for any foreign king, queen or kingdom. I obeyed.

Whenever your goosebumps moments in life occur, relish them. We don’t get that many and you should cherish every one. I know that I do.

Yours in swimming,

Gary Sr.