boomer boom, The

Swimming Technique, Jul-Sep 2000 by Melina, Lois

There's been a boom in Bill Boomer's ideas on coaching. The former coach at the University of Rochester has thrown out the conventional approach to swimming fast and has given coaches and swimmers a whole new language for discussing technique.

Dara Torres had only swum two laps on her first day of training after a seven-year layoff when Stanford coach Richard Quick lowered a kickboard into the water to stop her.

"We don't swim like that any more," he said.

Quick is one of a growing number of coaches who is taking a different approach to swim technique based on ideas being communicated by Bill Boomer, former head coach at the University of Rochester.

"Bill Boomer has had a dramatic influence on our program," said Quick. "I have completely changed the focus of how I teach competitive swimming."

Torres said Boomer's approach to the technical aspects of swimming was difficult to understand at first. However, she says those changes have been a significant factor in the success she's already achieved in her comeback.

Quick credits Boomer's ideas with having a significant impact on world record holder Jenny Thompson, and National Resident Team coach Jonty Skinner says Boomer is welcome to pull Skinner's swimmers out of the water at any time to make suggestions on their technique.

Indeed, at meets like the Janet Evans Invitational a year ago last July, the World Cup in November, and the U.S. Open in December, Boomer could be seen on deck near the warmup pool making suggestions to some of the top swimmers in the world.

"Dara and Jenny won't go anywhere without him," says 1996 Olympic gold medalist Josh Davis.

Davis, and fellow Olympic gold medalists Amy Van Dyken and Annette Salmeen, are among the swimmers who have benefited from Boomer's approach.

Davis said he had been reading articles by Boomer and trying to apply his ideas to his own swimming even before University of Texas coach Eddie Reese invited Boomer to give a clinic to the Texas swimmers in 1993. Davis has been consulting with him ever since-- usually about once a year at a national or international meet.

"I'm so glad I worked with him for two days before Pan Pacs," says Davis. Boomer spent a couple of days with the U.S. team at its training camp outside Sydney before the 1999 Pan Pacific Championships.

Unlike team coaches who have to be concerned about all aspects of their athletes' training-from what they're eating to how they're sleeping-- Boomer has the luxury of focusing only on an athlete's technique.

"My coach Eddie Reese got the engine as strong as possible," Davis said. Boomer can concentrate on finetuning. At the Pan Pac training camp, for example, Boomer talked to Davis about details like where to focus his energy, reminding him to use his stomach and hip muscles rather than his shoulder muscles.

"It's nice to be around a fresh set of eyes," says Davis, who placed fifth in the 200 free at Pan Pacs with a

1:48.98.

Who Is Bill Boomer?

It would be a mistake, however, to suggest that Boomer is a Mr. Fix-it who can patch up the rough spots in a swimmer's technique. Nor is his approach something that coaches an use on Tuesdays and Thursdays while using conventional training techniques the rest of the week. Boomer is talking about a fundamentally different approach to swimming.

Ask five different coaches to describe Boomer's approach, and you are likely to get five different answers.

Quick says the Stanford program now teaches swim technique "from the inside out," working first on the "core body posture, line and balance" before working on what the arms and legs are doing.

Ross Gerry, assistant women's swim coach at Stanford, says Boomer looks at swimming with the eyes of a choreographer rather than a coach. "He sees rhythm and the origins of the rhythm."

Mike Walker, co-head coach of the women's swim team at Cal, says Boomer "is a specialist in the behavior of humans in water."

Brad Burnham, assistant coach of the women's swim team at UCLA, says Boomer is applying ideas from physics to the sport of swimming.

Skinner calls him a "visionary" for his ideas about balance and flotation in the water.

They all agree, however, that Boomer has thrown out the conventional approach to swimming fast and has given coaches and swimmers a whole new language for discussing technique.

Boomer's Roots

If Boomer's ideas are unconventional, it is in large part because he did not have a background in swimming before becoming the swim coach at the University of Rochester in 1962. He was a graduate student working with the track and soccer teams when the swim coach retired and the athletic director asked him if he'd like the job. Boomer said yes, even though he'd never even seen a swim meet.

As a former competitor in track, soccer and basketball, Boomer said he felt at home on land, but not in water. He felt he needed to have "a relationship with water" before he would be able to communicate with swimmers about how they should move in the water. So, the first summer after he took the job, he spent time floating and swimming in a 16-yard pool, trying to feel the rhythms of the water. Eventually, he said, "I felt the oneness with myself in the water that I'd always felt on land."