A Masters Coach Remembers COVID-19

These days it can be hard to remember what swimming was like just after the pandemic erupted in March 2020. It seems like we’re experiencing some willful amnesia or collective PTSD after those crazy times.

Different parts of the country responded differently to the outbreak. Clubs with outdoor facilities probably didn’t experience as many changes to their routine as clubs (like mine) that practice in poorly ventilated concrete box-like buildings.

My club got back in the pool about three months after the initial closures, but only after our facility managers instituted a plan with a thousand restrictions and protocols designed to slow the spread of the virus.

In the spirit of mass therapy, let’s relive those hellish times with a healthy dose of humor and humanity.

Performing a health check and taking attendance for possible contact tracing. With no coffee klatch after practice, these so-called health screenings turned out to be a nice social time before we all got wet. And for the first time, I think everyone learned everyone else's name. Of course, we all learned everyone’s average temperature, too, which was a little TMI. We worried about Cliff who was somehow always under 94, and Wanda was either over 99 most days or she took her temp in the car between sips of coffee.

Reliving the second grade. When I was 7 years old, we walked single file to the lunchroom, we asked permission to use the bathroom, and everyone was terrified of being tardy. Similarly, after I checked everyone for a runny nose, they walked into the building single file based on their lane assignment. If they needed to go potty, they had to check with me in case someone else was in there. Late arrivals were sent away with no swim. It all made me a nervous wreck and seemed demeaning to adults. But we all complied because we love to swim, and our pool was the only show in town.

Leaving gear on deck during practice. If the spot where I told them to camp happened to be in a puddle of water, the only solution was to bring a camp chair. We had quite an assortment, from a 40-year-old aluminum folding chair to a modern origami masterpiece. My favorite was an Amazon purchase, which I’m sure looked great in the picture but turned out to be best suited for a 6-year-old. The eight-inch triangular seat strained under the weight of a swim bag and sitting on it wasn’t possible.

No more showers at the pool. Resourceful team members would bring a jug of hot water and pour it over their heads after practice. A Navy shower uses three gallons of water. A coronavirus shower uses only one.

Only three in a lane: two at one end, one at the other. We got so used to this crazy set-up, I thought it was going to be hard switching back. On sets with short intervals, the first swimmer started in the shallow end at the top, the second swimmer left from the deep end at :10, and the third swimmer left from the shallow at :20. Crazy, but it worked! There was plenty of space between swimmers, and there was no bunching up between swims.  However, between writing out the workout at each end of the pool, then cleaning the board when I left, and writing it out again, twice, for the noon practice, I was going through a dry erase marker every three or four days.

Signing up online. The demand was high for our limited lane space. On Friday at exactly 8 p.m., I would send out a link to SignUpGenius. By 8:10 p.m., most of the slots for the following week were filled. I made good use of this enthusiasm for my weekly emails by hiding the link somewhere in the middle of my team news and people started reading about the schedule changes and new members. Bonus!

So now it’s summer 2022, and we’re pretty much back to normal. Two years and no outbreaks on the team. Members who work in health care still avoid the locker rooms, and folks with young kids or vulnerable family members at home still wear their masks. But the spacing dots are gone from the sidewalk outside, and we’re not disinfecting the ladders and starting blocks anymore. The coffee group has started gathering after practice again, and we have a full social calendar this summer. Through it all we’ve come out a stronger and closer group, the only positive of the experience. Good riddance, COVID.