Making Waves. Chris Epting

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       A New Coach

      When I returned to the U.S. from Europe in July 1971, it was like coming back to a new life. My mother had packed up the family and moved to Fountain Valley—which is right next to Huntington Beach, where I swam—and I was about to start my sophomore year at Fountain Valley High School without knowing a single person. I was already missing all of the freedom I’d had while traveling abroad with the team.

      As we settled into our new life in Fountain Valley, I was swimming more than ever, constantly thinking about the ’72 Games in Munich. Did I really have a shot? My coach, Flip, seemed to think so, and he was going to make sure that I trained the way Olympians do: frequently and intensely. I was already swimming two-and-a-half-hour practices with him after school every day at the Huntington Beach Aquatic Club, but he felt I needed another session built into the day to get where I needed to be. Since the pool we used in the afternoon was booked in the morning, he found another twenty-five-yard pool in nearby Garden Grove where we could have access.

      These extra practices required me to get up very early in the morning, but I had no problem with that. I was very determined and extremely competitive and, most importantly, I trusted Flip with everything. When he told me to arrive at the pool every morning at 5:30, I was always there on time. He would work with me for an hour and a half, and then I would go home, get changed, and go to school. I did this every single day.

      Flip thought it would be a good idea for me to wear a sweatshirt in the water for the first half of my evening practices. That would create an artificial lag, which would force me to swim harder. The sweatshirt was really heavy, so we compromised and I cut the sleeves off. Now when I swam against the others, I wasn’t as far ahead of them as I usually was. But I wasn’t behind, either; just in the middle.

      There were other training techniques Flip used on all of us that made the whole team stronger. He tied surgical tubing to the aluminum bleachers at Golden West College, which he attached to belts that we wore around our waists. We would then swim out as far as we could and strain to swim against the taut tubing. We would end up swimming in one place for about a minute or two, but it was one of the most intense exercises we would ever do.

      Puffing on his ever-present pipe, Flip also took us outside to do exercises on the grass. Sit-ups, flutter kicks, leg lifts—and then back into the water. And, of course, we all used his famous paddles in the water. Modeled after paddles invented by Benjamin Franklin, Flip’s paddles were plastic rectangles that we strapped onto our hands with surgical tubing. The paddles increased the surface area of your hands, making it harder to push through the water. Those things are still one of the most effective tools for becoming a stronger swimmer. You have to remember that Flip was a true innovator when it came to coaching. He had already helped the careers of many champions, and was a legend at that point. I’m not sure everyone on the team appreciated just how good he was.

      When I think back on it today, this was the time when I was really on my way, though I didn’t know it at the time. But Flip did. He could see my future, and he was doing everything he could to help me realize it.

      Each day, as I swam my laps at the Huntington Beach Aquatic Club, Flip would walk alongside me on the deck, smiling as he said in a singsong sort of voice: “Shane Gould . . . Shane Gould . . . ” It was his way of pushing me, taunting me with the name of the famed Aussie swimmer.

      Flip also taught me an important strategy called negative splitting. It’s something that runners do, too. Basically, it means that you start slow and finish fast. For instance, if you are swimming a 400-meter freestyle and you explode right at the beginning, you will get tired around the 200 mark. With negative splitting, you take it pretty easy until you hit 200. Then, when everyone else is basically dying in the water, you’ll be ready to just take over. Flip was a really big fan of this strategy.