Swimming is changing—little by little, day by day, the sport is evolving. For quite some time, my go-to response to the question, “How long ago did you swim?” has been, “Oh, not too long ago.” But I think it’s time to update that response.

When I was swimming—about a decade ago now—there was little room for fun in this grind of a sport. It was characterized by long periods of grueling work toward hyper-specific goals that might not have even been reasonable, with only one or two chances to achieve them

Now, before upsetting too many coaches and parents, let me clarify: there is absolutely still a need for those long periods of hard work in the sport. However, the main change I’ve noticed—largely thanks to the work Fitter & Faster and I have done over the past few months—is the introduction of more frequent fun.

A quick injection of chaos, a few caps handed out to swimmers who step up and race during a club team drop-in, and suddenly the sport feels like it’s
shifting.

My relationship with Fitter & Faster swim camps began when David Arluck reached out to find a way to support the work I was doing. There wasn’t a pre- made contract; I wasn’t an athlete on a roster. Instead, he tried to create something new because he believed in the same vision for the sport that I did.

Initially, we developed a partnership that worked decently well but felt like it was missing something. We brainstormed new ideas to ensure mutual benefit but couldn’t quite pinpoint the solution—until it clicked. What we were missing was the same thing swimming was missing: fun.

The next iteration of our partnership was rooted in fun—shooting from the hip and doing things that swimming, as a sport, typically thought it couldn’t or wouldn’t do. The Dual Meet Tour was already in the works, and David wanted to get involved. What followed—club drop-ins, giveaways, and flying people out to dual meets—was the result of this new, fun-focused approach to our collaboration.

Year one of the Dual Meet Tour and our efforts to create a new atmosphere in college swimming haven’t gone exactly as anticipated. However, for every expectation that wasn’t met, something else filled the gap.

Together, we’ve helped college teams break attendance records at a time when they desperately need good data and memorable moments to showcase to athletic directors. We’ve disrupted the monotony of club training sessions, injected chaos into workouts, and traveled across the country to learn what this sport needs. We’ve taken notes, adapted, and—just in year one—made waves.

We set out to bring fun to a sport that desperately needed it, but what we didn’t realize was that we needed fun in our partnership to make that happen.

Find more opportunities to have fun, more opportunities to race, work hard, and go to a college dual meet near you this season.

This sport needs our (all of us) help to thrive.

-Kyle Sockwell