{"id":197781,"date":"2016-04-19T14:54:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T21:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=197781"},"modified":"2017-05-25T08:36:59","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T15:36:59","slug":"forget-about-laps-introducing-speedo-fit-water-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/forget-about-laps-introducing-speedo-fit-water-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget About Laps \u2013 Introducing \u2018Speedo Fit\u2019 Water Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Casey Barrett. \u00a0<\/em>
\nIntroducing ‘Speedo Fit’ Water Training… Featuring Lochte, Missy, Cullen… and Mr. Laird Hamilton<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not often that Ryan Lochte<\/strong>, Missy Franklin<\/strong>, and Cullen Jones<\/strong> are overshadowed when they\u2019re standing around a pool. They\u2019re three of the most recognizable faces in the world of swimming, and on Tuesday morning in New York City the trio was serving as ambassadors for Speedo\u2019s latest initiative. Their sponsor is launching Speedo Fit \u2013 think of it as cross training in the pool. Complete with running shoes, compression shorts, and an assortment of exercises familiar to dry land workouts, but seldom executed underwater.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an interesting though less than revolutionary concept. (Water aerobics, aqua spinning, underwater hockey, they\u2019ve all been \u2018things\u2019 for awhile now\u2026) And that\u2019s just what the event\u2019s main attraction was quick to point out. \u201cThe first underwater cross training was introduced by the Polynesians a couple thousand years ago,\u201d he said. His name is Laird Hamilton<\/strong>, aka world\u2019s greatest Waterman \u2013 and with all due respect to Kelly Slater<\/strong>, the most recognizable surfer on earth.<\/p>\n

Lochte, Missy, and Cullen might be superstar bold-faced names in the Olympic orbit, but Laird has transcended all those pool-bound glories. Seeing him speak to the assembled 60+ media, with the Speedo stable looking on, was a bit like watching Michael Jordan<\/strong> showing up at March Madness. Sure, the players on the court are riveting in their own right, but we\u2019re talking single-name icon here.<\/p>\n

With Laird\u2019s inspiration, coupled with a partnership with human performance gurus, EXOS, Speedo has forged a program that \u201ctakes the laps out of pool training.\u201d For a retired swimmer like myself long burnt out on laps, but who still deeply relishes every moment in the water, this was an appealing pitch. That pitch fulfilled its promise when 18 of the braver media members assembled slipped into Speedo\u2019s \u2018swag\u2019 and tried out the workout ourselves.<\/p>\n

Lochte, Missy, and Cullen hopped in too, standing in the middle of our group and offered some pointers. From the pool deck, EXOS founder and president Mark Verstegen<\/strong>, led us through the drills. Verstegen\u2019s company has trained an impressive assortment of professional athletes \u2013 from \u201cover half of the NFL Combine\u201d each year to a range of Major League Baseball players, loads of Olympians, and plenty of others. It\u2019s hard to imagine a founder who more looks the part of the business he started than Verstegen. Ripped and electric with energy at 46, he\u2019s served as the perfect complement to Laird\u2019s laidback wisdom. Or as one magazine editor in attendance put it: \u201cHe\u2019s legitimized the science behind Laird\u2019s intuitions.\u201d It\u2019s a formidable partnership, and Speedo\u2019s earned some props for looking beyond the laps and the strokes that define \u2013 and sometimes suffocate \u2013 our sport.<\/p>\n

Swimming, they\u2019re saying, is about a whole lot more than butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. Indeed, the most telling part of the event was what wasn\u2019t said. Not once during the morning\u2019s presentation were any of the four strokes mentioned. There was zero mention of anything recognizable as a traditional \u2018swimmer\u2019s workout.\u2019 If not for the three American swim stars there, it might have been easy to miss the connection at all.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a good thing. The sport has long held itself back with its over obsession on competitive swimmers\u2019 notions of what it means to be a swimmer. If you\u2019re not doing laps and racing the clock between a pair of lane lines, then you\u2019re not really swimming, you\u2019re just in the water. Which isn\u2019t the case at all, but we can all get caught up in that assumption. Laird was there to help disabuse us of that thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about breath,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething we take for granted when we\u2019re standing around on land. But when you\u2019re under the water, breath is foremost on your mind.\u201d This from someone who has spent many minutes of his life pinned under mountains of white water. Fall off a giant wave or two and you\u2019ll never take breath for granted again.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Speedo Fit\u2019 program is \u201call about the benefits of water for sustainable high performance,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t just make all athletes better. It makes humans better.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as we wrapped up our aqua workout \u2013 which it must be noted felt nothing like water aerobics \u2013 Laird and Verstegen led us in the most relaxing warm down ever. Everyone grabbed a noodle and a kickboard. We stuck the noodle under our shoulders, the board under our thighs, and we were instructed to just lay back and breathe with eyes closed.<\/p>\n

Lochte, Missy, and Cullen joined us.
\n