With BOSM around the corner, the BOSM English Press sat down with Tanishq Agarwal, the captain of the boys’ swimming team, to discuss their preparations for the fest.
When asked to explain the sport, Tanishq began by drawing comparisons between swimming and athletics. He described swimming as a “low-impact sport” compared to athletics, where one’s joints experienced wear and tear, but also as a sport that was more physically demanding, as one had to constantly exert force under limited breath intake. The sport comprised four strokes: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly. All swimming events consisted of these strokes, and some included a sequence of multiple different strokes. He said that the BITS swimming team had spent their time performing drills to primarily train each player’s main stroke, while also spending time developing the other strokes. They followed a strict regimen that reached peak intensity around halfway to BOSM and then tapered down to avoid exhausting the participants before the competitions. He said he often quoted a senior of his, Ansh Rastogi—‘It’s all in your mind’—to push the team members to practice when they were tired. He added that this mentality drove them to win the championship two editions back, along with securing the runner-up position in the previous edition of BOSM.
Tanishq remarked that the team’s biggest setback was the lack of a dedicated swimming pool on campus, as the swimming pool on campus closed in 2019 and no longer had a functioning pump or other internal mechanisms. He shared that they had to wait two weeks to receive approval to use the swimming pool at the Birla Public School, at which point, they had a month and a half to prepare for BOSM. Moreover, they were significantly constrained by limited access to the swimming pool, which they could only use for about an hour, with transportation to-and-fro being another major issue. He also noted the significant competition colleges like SRCC gave them in previous editions of BOSM, as they have a sports entry pipeline and dedicated on-campus swimming facilities, giving the BITS teams an inherent disadvantage.
Regarding his experience as a captain, Tanishq felt that his juniors found him approachable. He remarked that being a part of the swimming team had increased his love for the sport. He was grateful to his captaincy for improving his interpersonal skills, but he felt the weight of the role had caused him to neglect his academics slightly.
On a parting note, he urged every reader to participate in any sport of their choice, as it would help them both physically and mentally.