Despite a resounding 143-104 win over Washington State last Friday, the UCLA swim team is only starting to make a splash.
With an unusually late start to the school year and an unusually early meet, the Bruins only had a bit more than three weeks between the start of their preseason on Sept. 15 and their meet on Oct. 10.
The amount of practice time might have been a bit shorter than previous seasons, but UCLA made up for it with higher intensity practices.
“Last year we did some (optional) captain practices and it was more fun,” said senior Jessica Khojasteh. “This year we kind of just got right into it and we were really working hard right off the bat, and it was a big confidence booster.”
Three weeks of practice is still a short preseason, so results at the meet also reflected the work each swimmer put in on her own prior to arriving on campus.
“That was their responsibility, I can’t do anything about it because they’re not at UCLA, they’re home so it’s up to their motivation,” said coach Cyndi Gallagher. “I think those that were motivated got it done and some people figured out that they needed to do more.”
Now that everyone’s back in the pool at UCLA under Gallagher’s watch, the coach said that practice has focused on technique more than usual. To compensate for the increased time dedicated to technique, Gallagher upped the intensity in the pool.
Getting everyone into peak condition isn’t a big worry for the Bruins. The upperclassmen came into the season knowing what to expect and the freshmen’s conditioning isn’t a concern.
“New swimmers always eventually get in great shape because they swim twice a day all year long so I’m not worried about physical fitness,” Gallagher said. “Just kind of getting adjusted to the workload of school, weights, running and intensity of practice.”
To a certain extent, the Bruins said they are still in preseason mentality. In the meet v. WSU, UCLA had many of its swimmers compete in events that aren’t usually their best events.
“Right now we’re just having some meets to get in the habit of racing,” said sophomore Madison White. “It’s to just keep us racing.”
Once the season schedule vamps up, each Bruin will be swimming in her usual one or two events each and every meet.
“If you’re a great athlete, you need to be good at everything; it’s just a different challenge,” Gallagher said. “So it’s boredom, (let’s) change it up. We’re not fine-tuning yet, we’re just still beating them up.”