“First and foremost what I want any young swimmer, or parent of a young swimmer, thinking about SPIRE Academy to know is, we educate our student athletes about themselves. That is, the better they know their bodies, love their bodies and understand how their bodies work, the better the experience they’ll have in the water and out. The better they’ll be able to compete. The less they’ll succumb to injury. The easier it will be to handle the mental demands of training and competition. This is possible at a place like SPIRE because it’s immersive, and because every member of the staff is tuned into the individual needs of the student—from teachers to coaches, to administrators. Everyone.”
So says Bobby Kaleal, Director of Performance at SPIRE Academy. His job is to ensure that every student athlete’s mind and body are working optimally, above and beyond the training each receives in their individual sport. Having a dedicated performance coach on staff is just one example of the benefits competitive young swimmers can expect to receive when they attend an immersive, sports boarding school like SPIRE Academy.
It’s an advantage that shouldn’t be underestimated. For any SPIRE swimmer who wants to go on to swim at the collegiate level (which is most swimmers at SPIRE), preparation is key. Collegiate-level swimming will place demands on the student athlete far beyond the sport itself. As such, SPIRE trains to collegiate levels in athletics, academics and life skills. As one example, daily athletic and academic schedules at SPIRE mimic the schedules student athletes will face in college, so when SPIRE swimmers matriculate, they’re ready to perform physically, psychologically and managerially. That is, they’ll be able to handle all of the many challenges collegiate-level swimming will throw at them—from the demands of the sport to the demands of the academics, to the demands of day-to-day living.
“Here at SPIRE, the discipline it takes to be an athlete at the next level is always top of mind,” says Trish Johnson, Director of Admissions at SPIRE. “Showing up to practice on time. Showing up to class on time. Learning how to relax! Hey, we get that these are youth, and that they need downtime. We train our student athletes for all of this. So whether next-level athletics means collegiate sports, semi-pro sports or training for the Olympics, it’s our job to prepare them to take on all of that successfully.”
A big part of this preparation is mindset development, i.e., mental skills training. Athletes are people, too. Just because a competitive swimmer is killing it at competitions, collecting medals and collecting records, it doesn’t mean it’s all psychologically easy on them. Thankfully, in sport today there’s a greater understanding of the psychological demands competition places on a person. This is where Zac Bruback comes in. Bruback is SPIRE Academy’s Director of Mindset Development and—for the comprehensive success of a competitive swimmer—it’s a job every bit as important as head swim coach.
“My title was chosen on purpose,” says Bruback. “SPIRE is not just about skills in the pool. We’re about developing a mindset that translates to various areas of a student athlete’s total development. Managing expectations. Managing pressure. Managing stress. You know, stress impacts recovery. There’s a correlation between stress and the ability to recover from training, as well as the ability to recover from and prevent injury. There’s a far greater understanding in sports of the mind-body connection than there used to be. My job is to help our student athletes manage that connection, and to help them learn to manage it themselves. They’re going to have to do it when they leave here, after all. It all contributes directly to better performance in the pool and in life.”
The competitive swimmer’s total development. A focus on the whole person. This is where immersion comes in. Taking motivated young swimmers and placing them in an environment free from distraction. Living and training on a campus with world-class facilities and world-class staff, wholly dedicated to their developmental needs. This is where SPIRE excels. Again, Director of Performance at SPIRE Academy, Bobby Kaleal:
“It’s a remarkable thing to witness close-up. Whatever the sport, because our boarding school student athletes are isolated—away from many of the distractions of the world—they’re far more apt to reach their peak potential, as athletes and as people. They get academics. They get performance training. They get swim training. They get proper nutrition. They get time to be teens, to recover and recharge. Living at SPIRE Academy, these highly motivated student athletes find themselves blissfully immersed—in themselves and in the activities that mean the most to them. As such, they’re better positioned to end up in the places they want to be, in sport and beyond.”
ABOUT SPIRE ACADEMY SWIMMING
SPIRE Academy Swimming Admissions Guide
SPIRE Academy – https://www.spireacademy.com/
SPIRE Camps – https://www.spireacademy.com/
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Spire Academy has been a SwimSwam partner for over five years.
