Archith Murali, the captain of the boys’ swimming team, took time to talk to the BOSM English Press about the team and how they have been preparing for BOSM. He gave us an interesting insight into the team’s training regimen, among other aspects.
Having conducted recruitments in the second week of August, the team began training for BOSM soon after; however, it took around a week to settle into a regular routine. He explained that the team has been practicing for around two hours a day, consisting of a 30-minute warm-up followed by an hour in the pool. While the team mainly focuses on freestyle, they make sure to devote a significant portion of the hour to their 2nd and/or 3rd stroke. On average, a swimmer on the team completes an average of 2200m to 2600m -long workout during their evening sessions, which Archith says, generally prove to be quite strenuous. The evening sessions are guided by a coach who is a regular employee of BITS and has been with the team for several years. In addition to this, Archith mentioned that the team trains on alternate mornings of the week for an hour each. These sessions are conducted on the landside, and involve intense arm, leg, and core workouts. As BOSM gets closer, the team has begun using the morning session to practice dives and turns.
Talking about the technicalities involved in the sport, Archith notes that swimming is a sport where speed, endurance and technique are important in their own right. Contrary to what most people think, being fast enough to win might not always get one a medal. Simple instances like not turning legally at the end of a lap, or sustaining a dive for too long before breaking out of the surface, could disqualify a swimmer. The team will participate in around 29 events this BOSM. Among the 17 events for boys are 50m, 100m, and 200m races in freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. Some of the tougher races include the 400m and 800m freestyle, and the 200m Individual Medley.
When asked about the team’s performance in BOSM last year, Archith said, “The team did reasonably well, getting quite a few medals. I think this year’s performance will be much better as the recruitments went really well. We got a bunch of really good first years; some of them have been playing at the state level.” Rather than decide on the final recruits right after a timed trial, the team first shortlisted around 20 potential recruits who practiced with the team for around a week to attain a reasonable level of fitness. After this period, around seven top swimmers were inducted.
In other walks, Archith is a part of the English Press Club. He also juggles between a few internships that demand a total of around 10 hours of his time every week. While he does not have a great penchant for academics, he spends some of his time learning about things he’s interested in. Although Archith enjoys swimming, he is not intent on pursuing it after college and wants to focus on his other passions. Prior to college, he had not participated in any major competitive swimming events; he only swam occasionally during school events. He picked up swimming in college to “get out of the heat” and to “cool off” amid the hot and harsh weather of Pilani. Having gotten into the team, he stuck with it and eventually become its captain. He added that swimming is a “useful physical activity” and enjoys it in the midst of a busy college schedule.
Archith says that captaincy has been a good experience thus far, having learnt a lot about team management and how to get things done within the team. Archith believes that the team members must know their peers’ capabilities so that the right decision can be made while deciding who is best suited to participates in which event. Archith finishes off by saying that being the captain has made him a more responsible person as he has to make sure the entire team is practicing regularly and properly, which is no small task, and apparently takes more work and responsibilities than he first imagined it would.