Just Keep Swimming

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Sports

June 21, 2019 - 4:01 PM

New Iola Recreational Department swim team coach, Marcia Davis, guides her young swimmers through the fundamentals. REGISTER/ERICK MITCHELL

It’s the dawn of a new swimming era at the Iola Recreation Department. 

Mid May saw the arrival of Marcia Davis and Ali Peters to direct the swimming program.

Davis brings a load of experience. She swam competitively in high school and most recently coached a youth swim team in Minden, Neb., for seven years before coming to Iola earlier this year with her husband, Dan, who is the new pastor at First Presbyterian Church.

Marcia since has taken on with Thrive Allen County as its community engagement director.

Peters, who works at ANW Special Education Cooperative,  also swam in high school in addition to being an NCAA Division 1 athlete for the K-State rowing team. Peters said that her experience as a collegiate athlete taught her important values including a strong work ethic, time management and responsibility. She hopes to showcase that knowledge to her swimmers so they can learn what it is like to compete and create goals for themselves. The implementation of these values has already started.

“A lot of our older swimmers can come for both practices, we have a two-hour time frame,” Peters said. “They can come early to get extra swimming, and we really encourage that because getting an extra practice of anything can only help propel you forward. So I’ve tried to write up a practice plan for them and really encourage them to follow that. So they have the responsibility and the trust that they will follow that plan as close as they can.” 

The pair hasn’t been working together long, nor have they been fully able to immerse themselves with their swimmers. Part of the reason was due to the flood, which postponed the pool’s opening by a week. 

“Just through practice, we’ve learned their names and how much they’ve swum in the past,” Davis said. “We’ve learned what their skill level is on their strokes and working with stroke development on the kids who need a little more help with their strokes.”

“Those who have been swimming for several years already know their strokes pretty well,” Davis said. “Now we are fine-tuning them. We are trying to make them better swimmers and streamline their techniques so they can swim faster and more efficiently.” 

The term “good cop/bad cop” seems to fit this duo. Davis and Peters have their own coaching styles that bring a sort of balance for the swimmers in how they learn. 

Davis said that Peters brings the competitiveness, most likely coming from her days as an athlete at K-State. This allows Davis to focus more on stroke development. Peters said she has enjoyed learning from Davis’s coaching experience. 

“She has experience coaching with swim teams and doing the club sports like this. I have already learned a lot,” Peters said. “Her ability to work with the younger kids is important because maybe I do come off, ya know… I really just want them to learn quick, and she is really good at taking her time with them.”

The duo deal with about 45 kids, but from practice to practice it varies. Both coaches understand they have to be flexible due to other activities their swimmers might have going on in the summertime. The potential for 45 kids in a two-hour period may seem like a lot, but not for Davis and Peters. The two coaches are actually looking to find more swimmers in the Iola area and not necessarily to make it all about competition for the future.

“Maybe if you are not a swimmer and you aren’t thinking about continuing to swim in college, we can show that this training does help you in football, cross-country, volleyball, and your other sports,” Davis said. “Because you are building up that lung capacity and keeping your muscles over the summer toned and ready to go. Sports all have their own specific muscle memory and training that they need, but swimming can enhance that.” 

Despite being the swim coaches for less than a month, improvements seem to already be occurring for their swimmers.

“We had a swimmer who I think is 8 years old, maybe 9, but was scared to swim and wanted somebody to swim with her,” Davis said. “Well then she swam the whole length of the pool and didn’t need anyone to swim with her. That in my book is amazing! We had another little girl who was probably 6, and last week swam with an assistant swimmer and this week she swam by herself. That is a huge improvement.”

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