This profile is one in a continuing series on community members who are involved in the world of sports.
In 2008, Michael Phelps made Olympic history by winning eight gold medals in Beijing. Since that time, swimming has begun to gain ground on its formerly much more popular land-based counterparts as more elementary- and middle-school-aged children dive into the world of competitive swimming.
Since 2005, Westside Aquatics has helped train competitive swimmers from Malibu and other local areas to realize their dreams. Last July, Sam Yang, 13, and Logan Hotchkiss, 12, two of Westside Aquatics’ best swimmers, competed at the Southern California Junior Olympics in the fastest age-group swimming meet in Southern California. This year, Hotchkiss and 10-year-old Farah Stack have qualified for the champions in their respective age groups and are in the hunt for the Junior Olympics in February.
A year ago, Brian Timmerman joined Westside Aquatics to help train the Malibu swim team, and he recently talked with The Malibu Times about his experience training Malibu’s aspiring swimmers.
What has the recent media exposure garnered by swimmers such as Michael Phelps and Dana Torres done to interest younger generations in swimming?
More kids are swimming on swim teams all across the country thanks to Michael Phelps and other swimmers who are now national celebrities. His performance in Beijing was the greatest athletic feat ever, and there is an excitement around our sport right now thanks to him.
How do you help your swimmers balance the strains of year-round practice and competition with their schoolwork and other activities?
The balance is that school comes first. If you are doing well in school, getting your work done on time, then you get to swim. Swimming is a rigorous sport that takes hours of training each week. It forces the kids to be dedicated to school, to manage their time well, in order to swim. Go to any college in the country, the sports team with the highest GPA is the swim team.
What is a swimmer’s typical training regimen?
We try to get the younger swimmers to increase their swimming commitment as they get older, adding to the length of practice and number of practices per week. By age 13 or 14, swimmers who want to compete at a high level need to commit to swimming six days per week, year round. Elite high school swimmers swim eight practices per week, before and after school.
How do you keep a young swimmer focused over the course of an entire year, rather than just a season as in other sports?
We take short breaks for the holidays in December, in spring, and then a week or two off in August/early September. We compete once a month, Saturday and Sunday, so competing is a commitment but we have lots of weekends off. We encourage our swimmers to compete, but we don’t make it mandatory. Competing is fun, time well spent with teammates and family.
What is it like for the kids to see their hard work pay off and be able to compete in the Southern California Junior Olympics?
Having our swimmers compete at the highest levels of the sport (including the Junior Olympics last summer) is what our team is all about. In Malibu, our swimmers are young and developing. Logan swam at JO’s at the end of his first year of competing. [We give] our swimmers the opportunity to compete and have fun and see where their goals and dreams will lead them.
What sorts of professional opportunities are there for young swimmers as they get older?
Professional opportunities for swimmers, despite Phelps, are few and far between. I’ve coached swimmers to the national level. At the beginning of each season, I ask my swimmers what they want to be when they grow up. In 15 years of coaching, not one swimmer has ever said “professional swimmer,” and I think that’s healthy. For swimmers, the dreams of success are there, but also with a dose of perspective about living a balanced life.
What is the best advice you can give to a young swimmer?
My advice to young swimmers is that swimming takes time. It takes years to master the techniques and skills of swimming. Enjoy it each day and you will feel the swimmer in you develop as a part of the person you are developing into.