Jasmine Tosky: Quality Over Quantity

Feature by Megen Donovan

STANFORD, California, October 13. THE "learn from experience" approach of Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics plays a key role in reigning Swimming World Magazine Female Co-Swimmer of the Year Jasmine Tosky's success as she prepares to move on to college swimming.

If Tosky has a race or meet she is unhappy with, head coach Tony Batis sees it as an opportunity to evaluate and learn from the situation. Batis wants Tosky and all of his athletes to analyze their performances by asking themselves what they can do differently or better. He commends her for her ability to asses a situation if she has a setback, to take a deep breath and move forward.

"She has a clear understanding of what it takes to maximize her potential," Batis said.

Batis works with Tosky throughout each swim season to set and achieve goals. Rather than picking time goals, the coach-athlete pair focuses on a broader training mindset. They look at what Tosky is doing in workouts and what she can do to improve each season and beyond. Batis will give his swimmers test sets to see where they are physically. He and Tosky will also sit down on occasion to check how she is emotionally handling the goings-on of the season.

"We always set up goals. They're set from a short term and long term perspective," Batis said. "Throughout the year we have check points. I don't think there is one specific talk that we have."

She carries a mature and analytical attitude towards workouts and meets into how she weighs pros and cons of the colleges she is considering. PASA tends to have high intensity workouts in a relatively low amount of yards per practice, what she calls "quality-oriented." She likes to have a variation of different types of sets.

When looking into the swim programs at California, Southern California, Florida and Stanford, she considers each coach's practice regimen. She wants to see what types of workouts she feels would benefit her throughout her college career. Tosky also wants to try new types of workouts or sets.

"I'm looking for a swim program that is original and they put quality over quantity when it comes to yardage," Tosky said. "If there is something new that the coach does in their practices that are new to me, then I will look into that."

Tosky keeps a positive outlook during her college search and decision-making. She feels that Batis' training program prepared her to move on to collegiate swimming.

"I do feel confident going into college," Tosky said. "I don't think it's going to be a huge struggle. It's definitely going to be challenging, different and hard, but those things will be easy to overcome just with work and time."

The California senior has had many opportunities to travel with her team and swim with the National Team. Tosky said she feels pressured when she goes to international and National Team meets, however it is only pressure she puts on herself. She believes that experiencing these big and international meets more than once helped do away with meet jitters. She looks forward to the fun of college meets.

"I guess the college meets aren't going to be anything scary," Tosky said. "They're just going to be fun. That's what a lot of my friends in college say."

Batis thinks that Tosky understands and appreciates the opportunities she has been given.

"She has taken a big picture view of what she has to do and how she wants to do it," Batis said. "She gets to go places and do things people her age don't get to do. And I think she has a respect for that and enjoys those opportunities to the fullest."

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