YMCA Makos Learn To Swim Fitter & Faster

Young swimmers from the YMCA Makos swim team recently spent a day with Olympic gold medalist Tyler Clary as part of a swim clinic called “High Performance: Developing the Habits of Champions.”

Mako swimmers of all ages from the towns of Brookfield, Bethel, New Milford, Newtown, Woodbury, and Danbury signed up for the clinic, where Clary shared the story of his own journey to the Olympics and encouraged swimmers to see their own path to success. For the past year, Clary has been working a clinician with the Fitter & Faster Swim Tour, an organization that aims to teach and inspire swimmers of all ages and skill levels through swim clinics featuring some of the best swimmers in the world.

“The goal is to be able to accelerate the learning curve for aspiring young athletes,” said Clary. “I’ve always been the one being trained and trying to learn from everyone around me. I’m now at the point in my career where I get to give that back. It’s incredibly rewarding for me.”

Some time was spent in the pool, doing freestyle drills and working on technique. The rest of the time swimmers heard about Clary’s own experiences as a swimmer.

Clary started swimming at the age of 8 through a parks and recreation program in his hometown. He later joined a competitive swim team. He says he almost quit swimming when he turned 15, but his parents convinced him to stick with it for another six months. That’s when he discovered his full potential. He eventually made it to the 2012 Olympics, where he won the gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke.

“Ask any Olympian what their mindset was like as a kid, and probably 95% of them would tell you they never truly believed they would be an Olympian. Almost everyone started out because it was fun, they enjoyed the people, and liked the sport.”

Clary said that all the swimmers in attendance at the clinic should ask themselves, “Why not me?” He advised, “Find a way to make yourself 10% better than the swimmers around you—whether it’s doing something different in the pool, or making changes in your sleeping habits, eating better, better time management. Then you’ll get to swim for another group, and make yourself 10% better than them.” That mindset helped push Clary forward until he eventually got to swim for the U.S. national team and went to the Olympics.

He also encouraged swimmers to “swim for something bigger than themselves.” Swimmers who are part of a team should not only try make themselves better, but also push everyone around them simply by setting an example of excellence. “Ultimately if you can feed into a mindset like that, it’s going to give back to you.”