October 28, 2009 As someone who daily endured the workouts and swam along side Jim Montgomery, Rick Hoffstetter, Jay Hersey, Djan Madruga, Romulo Arantes, John Schulte, et al... and was one of the guinea pigs ;) for some of Doc's theories and workouts... I've never known Doc to be wrong on the big picture issues, and often remembered him correcting himself on the smaller stuff. I also remember him questioning the overkill of 20,000yd/m a day workouts. I also remember him thinking and talking about 10k -14k was just about right at that time... but, that many of the dry land programs were only in their scientific and developmental infancy, so consequently, he had to invent and build stroke specific weight machines and various other weight training stations for the team- from scratch, literally, in his garage. His approach to tapering, drastically reducing the quantity is self-evident- Montreal OG 1976, 12 out of 13 gold medals, 9 silver and 8 bronze. Plus 6 NCAA Championships, and an NCAA record (of any sport) of 142 dual meet, undefeated winning streak.
He also believed in using light weights, not heavy weights in dryland. Only above the necessary amount for strengthening the stoke/arms without sacrificing any flexibility. Building strength and speed without bulk.
Doc believed there was no quick way to the top. He was an innovator and experimentor. He was also never satisfied with the status quo. He was always innovating, always trying new things, and open to new ideas.
You're right. He is timeless. And the theories and ideas he expounded and taught we are still using, exploring and building on, today as we coach through 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012...
Like yourself... I can safely speak for my teammates, we can agree... each day with Doc, we were always impressed, not only with the workout, but, the daily banter, the enormous fun and the constant learning of the science behind what we were doing. There was just an air of importance, of greatness of what was being done and accomplished there through the athletes and training staff.
There is a lot of "gold," (a lot of wisdom) still to be discovered in some of those old speeches with P.Daland, R.Quick, and Schubert also. Keep up the good work.
Submitted by:
Small Stone
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