Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Swimming and Diving Blog - Nathaniel Frye
2/8/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Feb. 8, 2011
"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!" This week, swimming and it's taper time!!
To those outside of the swimming world, tapering means the swimmers start acting really weird, shave their bodies, and swim fast times. To those that somewhat know swimming, it is a time to rest the body so times will drop at the championship meet. Finally, to those that live the sport, it is an emotional and physical time where months of sweat, tears, stress, and much work payoff; not a huge payoff always occurs, but sometimes the payoff comes in tenths and hundredths of seconds. This payoff may make people question why swimmers put up with so much if the gains are not always very visible. As a swimmer, I wish the results were bigger, but gains are always impressive because to progress in swimming, so much work and effort is needed to make the slightest gains.
The 2010-2011 Bison swim team is like none I have ever been on before. The level of practice that the team brought to the pool each day this year was like nothing I have ever seen before. As a whole, we were not settling for mediocrity. Only the highest level was being sought after, and it was clear from each practice of the year. Coach Dan Schinnerer once said that Bucknell trains harder than any other team in the Patriot League. After seeing what the team did this year, there is no doubt in my mind that we trained harder than any other team, and as a result, come Patriots, the Bison will be challenging physical and mental limits.
Without Limits, the 1998 film, is about the life of the 1970's running sensation, Steve Prefontaine. In the film, esteemed coach Bill Bowerman quotes, "The hay is in the barn...the hay is in the barn." This is true in the running world as it is in the swimming world. The work has been put in, and now it is time to sit back, relax, rest, shave, and let our bodies do the work and reap the benefits of a year's worth of hard work. One final quote that Bowerman delivered in the film about Prefontaine was, "that the real purpose of running isn't to win a race. It's to test the limits of the human heart. And that he did. Nobody did it more often. Nobody did it better." Translating this to more familiar terms, the real purpose of swimming isn't just to race. It's to test the limits of the human heart. And that they did. Nobody did it more often. Nobody did it better. Nobody did it as well as the Bucknell Bison. They raced hard and swam with more heart than anyone else. So let the rest come, and let Patriots come because amazing things are on the horizon.
Finally, here is something to ponder. As Marc Antony said in Julius Caesar, "Cry Havoc, and let slips the dogs of war."
