Speedo Tip of the Week
National Teamer Teresa Crippen helped the University of Florida to an NCAA Championship title in March of 2010. Later that summer, she earned a silver medal in the 200m butterfly at the Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships. Here are the keys to her success:
Determination. This is one that belongs in “Keys to success” for sure. If you’re not willing to put in extra work when no one else is, it won’t play to your favor in the end. You have to want it. You have to be determined to get it done.
Have fun. There are plenty of times when I am swimming with my head down and yelling at the lane line saying, “I don’t want to be in this pool.” But you have to learn how to have fun with it. That really happened at 2010 NCAAs. I enjoyed racing again and being on those blocks, going against people. You have to enjoy swimming, taking your wins and losses together and learning from both.
Listen to your coaches. Don’t fight with your coaches. You can always think, “That doesn’t work for me,” but you have to believe they know what they are doing. As you grow older, you learn to work with your coaches better. That’s something I’m really learning with coach (Gregg) Troy at the University of Florida, telling him what is working and what I feel needs to be changed. That’s important.
Good people. Have good people around you. Last summer, 2009, when I didn’t swim as well as I wanted at World Team Trials, I called my sister, Maddy. I knew she had such great swims in her career, but she also had some swims she didn’t like, so I knew she would understand what it was like to work hard and not get something you feel you were on track to get. It was so nice to have that. I still call (Germantown) coach (Dick) Shoulberg, too. It’s great to have great people behind you who still love you and remind you, when things are tough, that the sun will still shine the next day.
Be your own person, but learn from everyone. Before I started swimming I thought, “No way am I ever doing the 400 IM or 500 free,” because my brothers and sisters did them and those events are so hard and so long. I had to be me doing whatever worked for me. But there I was in the 400 IM at the NCAA Championships. So some of the events they did work for me as well. Having them as a support system – and learning what they did from those events – helps me a lot.
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