Joy Parikh, the captain of the boys’ swimming team, took some time out of his packed schedule and outlined his plan for BOSM 2018. Apart from the usual races in all four strokes, ranging from 50m to 400m, there will also be a 4*50 m medley relay and a 4*50 m freestyle relay.
While there are not many fouls in swimming, violation of rules such as, not turning appropriately at the end could disqualify a swimmer. If the offense is not too serious, the event might be redone, depending on the opinions of the coaches present. This year, the BITS team comprises four members each from second and third year along with two members from first year. Since August 6, they have been training for 1.5 hours every morning which will soon intensify to twice a day. Their strategy is to work on improving dive timings and perfecting turns.
The captain was very confident about bagging the golds in relays and is expecting to rake in more medals compared to last year. While they have put up an excellent show at out-station sports meets in places like IIT Bombay and BITS Dubai, Joy claims that the main problem they face is a lack of competitions to go to, as most colleges do not have a swimming pool. As for BOSM, the captain admits that Venkateswara has a good team with competitive timings.
Having found his passion at an early age prompted him to pursue swimming as a sport. The continuous exposure to competition coupled with his hard work, ultimately propelled him to the national level and there has been no looking back.
Being the captain, Joy was not merely thinking about his own performance but the team’s as a whole. Although the responsibility of captaincy did not affect his game, he found the paperwork ‘boring’. According to him, his batchmates were his friends to begin with, but his captaincy required him to exert authority by nagging them to practice. As a result, he considers his experience bittersweet but quite enjoyable.
When the question about balancing academics with swimming was raised, he stressed on discipline. Apart from being in the swimming team, he is in Team Anant and the athletics team. He emphasises on using every second of the day productively. On a similar train, he said that American swimmer Ryan Lochte was an inspiration for him because of the immense work he puts in.
On a different note altogether, the captain commended the functioning of the CoSSAc. There were no issues with inventory and the committee would be providing glucose to the team this year. The ever-focused captain wrapped up by saying, ‘People slack off from training and when a competition comes up, they know that they are not going to win because they lack practice. Wouldn’t you hate knowing that you’re going to lose a race even before it starts?’