Following my visit with Edinboro University, it was nearly straight east through a gorgeous Fall day in NY State for me, as I headed towards Attleboro, MA, to visit Bluefish Swim Club. Bluefish is coached by Chuck Batchelor, and both are probably best known for having produced 3-time Olympian Elizabeth Beisel. I had previously visited Chuck and Bluefish about 9 years ago, and that visit was one of the best learning opportunities I’ve ever had. This time was no different!
Earlier this year, Bluefish lost its traditional home pool at the Attleboro High School, and they quickly found space at a nearby YMCA, a 4-lane pool. With the move from an 8-lane to a 4-lane pool, they split their Senior group in 2, offering the same workout at different times. While that means more deck hours, it also likely means a better chance for every swimmer to get more individual feedback and attention.
Chuck and his wife Christie both mentioned how, while their current pool set-up not the ideal situation, they thrive on finding solutions for these types of scenarios, and that’s when Chuck’s best coaching frequently comes out. After a couple days watching practice, it seems they really haven’t lost a beat, as I saw tons of great swimming being done at every practice!
Talking about Christie, while Chuck is the best-known name in the coaching staff, it is important to note both her and the rest of the staff are no strangers to coaching top-notch swimmers. Likewise, while the aforementioned Elizabeth Beisel is the most prominent name to come out of the club, they have had quite a few great swimmers come through their ranks, and continue to do so!
On the training front, most people I know think of Chuck and Bluefish as standard-bearers for “old-school” training, which is not entirely true. While they do go long at times, they also haven plenty of quality swimming during practice, and I got to see plenty of that in just a few days on deck with them. Even with some lane space limitations, their kids are ready to throw down and go very fast on various distances during practices.
They are also very committed to getting better and stronger out of the water, and really focus on their dryland. This is another area where losing their previous pool has had an impact, as they are still learning some of the best ways to use the space they have available now, but it’s clear they are ready to make the most out of it. One of the days I observed was a circuit, with tons of great work being done both in and out of the water.
Finally, this was another stop where I got to see coaches being very creative with training spaces. On Saturdays and Sundays, their Senior group sets up a pool at 33.3m. Not quite the same as training LCM, but I felt like they were able to keep the intensity up a little more, while still going longer each lap than the traditional 25m, let alone 25y. In this format, Chuck’s creativity really came through and I saw a ton of different ways to use space, including a very fast 400 IM broken!
On my last day, I got to sit down with Chuck and interview him for the upcoming podcast. If you haven’t heard him speak before, he’s a great storyteller – and I guess having great stories to work with doesn’t hurt. This was by far the longest chat I’ve had during this trip, and it was worth every second! Once again, now I can’t wait to get to work on editing all those interviews to make them public.
This was the last stop of my current trip, and I couldn’t have picked a better place to close it off! I had a great time in every stop, and learned more than I could have imagined. I’ll have another post with just trip stats, but other than that this blog should be on a temporary break while I finally get to work on those podcasts.
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