THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Grand Junction High School Athletics

One of the oldest adages in sports is "slow and steady wins the race." An adage inside the locker room of the Grand Junction High School swim team, however, it is not. After coaching at Fruita Monument in the 1980s and spending the ensuing years not entirely separated from the sport by offering swimming lessons, and starting summer swimming clubs at her house, Janet Ryan returned to the world of high school aquatics eight years ago at Grand Junction. This time around, her strategy is a little different. The 2018-2019 season marks the second straight in which the coaching veteran is aiming for failure. Just not the kind of failure coaches generally try to avoid. "This is the second year of doing what we call ultra-short race pace training," Ryan said. "Typical training, what I feel, is when you're practicing to practice. We practice to race. Everything is about the race, to our starts, to our underwaters, to our turns, to our finishes. It's all short, quick, fast swimming to mimic what you do when you're up on the blocks for a race." One of the mottos of Ryan's program and its practices is "Race to Failure." The goal of the difficult and fast-paced training, aside from getting athletes as prepared for an actual swim meet as possible, is to push the team's athletes to their limits. In Ryan's ideal world, her swimmers will barely be able to pull themselves out of the water following an event. Because it's specific to simulating events, her new training method is also as individual-focused as it is vigorous. "Whatever your race is, if you're doing a 100 freestyle, you're training for the 100 free," Ryan said. "If you're a 100 breaststroker, you train for that. In our old training, the group as a whole trains. Now, we break it down a little bit, but this is each girl completely having her own sheet, her own times and she trains her own time. "Whatever their specific time is, we break it down and they train that to mimic the race." Last season, Ryan decided that training in short, quick bursts would be a better route than traditional, methodical training. So far, the decision is paying dividends for the Tigers and some of their new stars. One of those new stars, Sarah Cook, who has devoted much of her life in the pool to club teams prior to this season, is having a breakout freshman season. The training certainly plays a part in that, as does her comfort in her environment. "High school is definitely a lot different," Cook said. "The type of training is different than it was at my club. But the overall environment is not that much different." Another standout freshman, Nina English, has likewise spent most of her recent years competing for a club and has had to adjust to being on a prep squad. One difference that stuck out immediately to English? The overall goal. "It's a lot different because I swam club for five years of my life," English said. "There's so many aspects of it that are different, but in club, it's more individual. In high school swimming, it's more of a team sport and I love that." Because of their training and their natural athletic talent, Cook and English seem poised to be leaders in the program for the next four years of their lives. They might also own quite a few records by the end of that period. Cook is already in the record books. On Dec. 15, Cook broke Piper Chamberlin's record in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing in 1:06.27. On Saturday, she claimed her second record from Chamberlin, one that had stood since 1996: the 200 individual medley. Cook finished in 2:12.53, beating Chamberlin's record of 2:13.58 by nearly a full second. Being a record-holder has become one of Cook's main motivations, especially now that she's done it twice and knows the feeling of watching her team explode with enthusiasm when she finishes a race with a new record. "(The thought of breaking a record) actually pushes me more," Cook said. "I'm more determined to try harder and I mentally push myself harder. It gets me closer to achieving it." English, on the other hand, has come close to several school records. She nearly broke the school record in the 100-yard free Saturday, finishing in 55.63 seconds. The school record, 52.38 seconds, was set by Shauna Gilmore in 1981. She also approached a school record in the 50-yard free earlier this season, though she didn't compete in that event this weekend. Still, records or no records, that's not what it's about to English. She prefers to spend as little of her time with records on her mind as possible. "I actually don't think about it a lot the day before, like when I'm having dinner," English said. "I mostly think about it when I'm behind the blocks getting ready. That's when I get the butterflies in my stomach and start to get nervous. But when I get in the water, I go as hard as I can and get out knowing I did the best that I could." Ryan's training isn't record-based, however. It's result-based. And the results for Grand Junction this season have been glowing. The Tigers will look for more success, and perhaps more records, in next weekend's meet at Jefferson County.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Grand Junction High School Athletics

GJ SWIMMING USING VETERAN COACH, FRESHMAN STARS AND NEW TRAINING STRATEGY TO SUCCEED

NATHAN DEAL

The Daily Sentinel | 1/14/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Chancey Bush