When a group of 36 women get together and combine two sports into one team, it can be difficult to find a team dynamic – this is the mindset adjustment that UCLA swim and dive has to deal with.
“They don’t do what we do and we don’t do what they do,” said swimming coach Cyndi Gallagher, in reference to the swimmers and divers.
“(The swimmers) don’t jump off the 10-meter, but we have to be one team and we have to work really hard to make sure that everyone has the same goal and keep moving forward.”
This season, to help develop the team’s connection, Gallagher has tried a different method of training by emphasizing team bonding.
Over winter break, the team not only practiced long and hard, but also took time to reflect on how to improve their interactions. Along with motivational talks from alumni and technical advice from USA Swimming specialists, the team took the DiSC personality assessment, which sorts each individual into four different personality types: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness.
“The point is that you have to adapt your behavior for a certain person … so it was a good way for the team to see how to work with each other,” Gallagher said.
This assessment is meant to help individuals work better as a team, and these Bruins have found the DiSC assessment to be very helpful in understanding how to motivate and encourage one another.
“It was really positive,” sophomore swimmer Noelle Tarazona said. “We’ve been working on what motivates people so we are just incorporating what works for other people and we try to keep the team spirit really positive.”
Lately, the team has also put emphasis on reviewing videos. In particular, the swimmers have been filming their strokes and watching old meets to figure out how to improve.
They have found that watching videos can help them catch things that they don’t see while swimming.
“We did a lot of technique work this week and focused on the little things that we learned through watching videos,” said senior swimmer Stephanie Christofferson.
“I think the technique videos that we did helped motivate me (this past meet).”
After being out for the better part of the fall season, Christofferson has seen improvement this winter.
The senior took second place in the 100-yard butterfly and third place in the 200-yard butterfly, coming about one second away from first place and second place, respectively, during her first meet coming out of winter training.
Last week in the meet against Simon Fraser, Christofferson focused on swimming faster as she tried different events, including the 50-yard freestyle.
“We’re kind of in the same phase of lifting really heavy and training a lot but I’m definitely getting more speed in there,” Christofferson said. “My 50s are a little faster in general, and I can see that we’re getting toward the end of the season that way.”
Email Patricio at mpatricio@media.ucla.edu.