Ready Room: Bill Boomer

In this 20-minute interview, Bill Boomer, a world-renowned stroke technician, talks about the changes he has seen regarding the way swimmers are trained. "When I first got into the sport, it was about building engines," he told host Brent Rutemiller. "The sport has changed through the introduction of the nervous system into the practice of the sport." He said in the late 1990s, he saw a shift from swimming large volumes in the water to recognizing the function of the brain in becoming familiar and comfortable in the water. In the interview, Boomer expands on his theory by equating the different training systems to the lives of dogs and cats. He offers tips to coaches on setting up their swimmers to race fast in a workout environment. Visualization is also a key element in balancing the nervous system and enhancing the swimmer's feel of the water. Some of the swimmers he mentions to make his theories more concrete are Gary Hall Jr., Dara Torres, Janet Evans, Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps.
7/2/2010

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