Attending hours of practice while also preparing for competitions is a regular routine for most sports, including swimmers.

Swimmers endure regular conditioning in practice similarly to the way other athletes train.  

They also focus on more than just their arm strokes in the water.

“Swimming is a full body exercise so we have to condition their whole entire bodies, which includes breathing for them to be successful,” said Head Coach Cara Yeates.

Swimmers said they follow similar endurance workouts to that of sports not found in the water.

Certain techniques similar to resistance training in football are also used by swimmers in their water workouts.

“We have parachutes that [the swimmers] use and tie them around their waist…we also have brick waist belts that they can put on their waist to make them heavier and add some resistance,” said Coach Yeates.

Not only do they follow similar conditioning practices as other sports, but the swim team is divided into competition groups similar to track.

Track separates their athletes into sprint and long distance groups when training and in races and swimmers follow in the same way.

“There are different distances in swimming events, so if they’re swimming a five hundred yard freestyle they’re going to swim a little more to build up their endurance up. If they’re a sprinter…they need to swim faster so we have them do more technique and skill work,” said Coach Yeates.

Much like other sports and athletes, swimmers say they work hard and focus in practice so that they can see progress.

“When you work hard it’s extremely rewarding and [it] shows in races and then in districts and regionals,” said Junior Noah Levine.

After all the work is put into practice, swimmers said they have the same focus as every sports team in Frisco ISD, a chance to compete at the state competition.

“Going to state would mean so much to me and putting in that hard work and seeing those results, that’s so satisfying…that would be the ultimate reward,” said Levine.