Regional swimmers making the connection via Zoom
Published:Wednesday | April 15, 2020 | 12:23 AMAkino Ming/Staff Reporter
What started out as a programme of land strengthening exercises for members of the Kaizen Swim Club in Kingston is quickly turning into a regional training session for swimmers as swim coach Rory Alvaranga tries to fill the void in the swimming community imposed by the restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Alvaranga, with the help of Dr Dialo Brown, started land training sessions with the help of Zoom video communications for members of his Kaizen Swim club to strengthen their weak areas as they observe the Government’s regulations to avoid large gatherings. All the island’s sporting facilities, including swimming pools, are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Soon after the first session, other locally based swimmers along with members of the Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Cayman Islands swim teams have found the concept attractive and joined in as Brown, via a Zoom videoconference, takes them through their paces.
Alvaranga said the concept came about after a discussion between himself and his coaches as they wanted to find a way to be sure that the swimmers in the club were doing the land activities that were assigned to them.
“The first weekend we had 14 people and last weekend we had 29, because I extended the invitation to the Jamaican swimmers on the Carifta team. We also had members of the Grenada swim team, Trinidad swim team, and the Cayman Islands.”
MOTIVATING CHILDREN
He continued: “I also wanted to motivate the children to get active and get an interaction between the children in a time when they are forced to stay inside.
“Dr Dialo Brown is a physiotherapist and one of the things that I want my swimmers to do during this time of not swimming is to do strengthening exercises because sometimes there are imbalances and these exercises help when we return to pool action.”
National swimmer, Alisha Stephenson, who lives in the United Kingdom, was grateful to connect with some of her fellow national swimmers.
“I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really nice that we got to connect,” she said.
Meanwhile, the veteran coach said that he is worried that the restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the virus may cause Jamaica to lose some of its best swimmers.
“Swimming is a lifestyle because we have to be in the water constantly or else we will lose that adaptation,” he explained. “Where a track athlete can jog and do some hill sprints to stay in their game, we need the water. But we can’t do that now so we still have to keep the children active,” he said.