Taking Wins Where You Can Get Them

My 15-year-old daughter is slowly, but surely, coming out of her swimming slump. She returned from a high-altitude training trip in Arizona last Sunday and is swimming in the Parkway Summer Sizzler swim meet this weekend. Like many of her teammates, she’s not tapered and really tired from the training trip, but her coach saw definite improvements in her stroke so far at the meet this weekend.

I can’t tell whether her stroke is good or bad because I’m not a swimmer. Like I told her coach, she looks perfect to me all the time.  And the poor thing added 57 seconds in mile the first day of the meet. That wasn’t fun, but true to her nature, my girl kept her chin up and remained positive. She has the utmost faith that what her coaches keep telling her is true. So, she returned to the meet on Saturday and had a couple of good swims. In fact, she was only 8 seconds off her best time in the 800 free, and being in a practice suit, untapered, we considered that a WIN!

The coach says this shows good body position. I say it's a cool picture.

Getting feedback from coaches after a race.

  

Her backstroke is fun to photograph, and is hopefully coming back, too.

She doesn't swim butterfly often b/c it's not her stroke, but I love to get pictures when she does.

And here is her slowly but surely improving backstroke start. Yea! We see progress.

Superfan Parents

So often, we get to read about parents who act like morons at sporting events. I know I’ve written about those kinds of parents, and I’ve certainly seen thousands of keystrokes dedicated to the same. But over the last few weekends, I’ve witnessed first-hand some of the best examples of parents who are “superfans.”

I’m hanging the label superfan on these parents not just because they are fans of a given sport (in this case, swimming), but because they cheer on and genuinely, GENUINELY, wish for, hope for and applaud the success of young athletes who belong to OTHER parents. And they truly feel bad for and try to encourage those athletes who miss the mark for which they were reaching.

My 14-year-old daughter is a competitive swimmer, and she’s been in a bit of a slump for about 12 months. There are some real signs that her “slump” or “funk” may be over, and she’s had three weekends of meets recently in which she’s had some success. Not quite the success she wanted to be having after 12 months of hard work and what she calls “failed swims,” but certainly enough success that she’s feeling hopeful and encouraged and her Dad and I are overjoyed. Throughout her struggles, other swimmers and parents of other swimmers have cheered her on, pumped her up, and all-around encouraged her. It’s been wonderful and it’s meant a lot to us and to her.

The last two weekends, I enjoyed witnessing many of these same parents (plus a few others) do the same for numerous other swimmers within our own club and outside of our club. It was heartwarming. I saw these Moms and Dads hold their breath and then cheer victoriously when swimmer after swimmer achieved their goals. Some of these people were parents of swimmers who’ve already achieved said goal, but some are parents of teens who desperately, DESPERATELY want the same thing for themselves and haven’t gotten there yet. Two Moms in particular were checking times before each race and saying things like, “Okay, cheer for Jane Doe, because she’s only two seconds off. Now, everybody think good thoughts for John Doe, because he’s been trying to get this cut for a year.” Etc. They rallied the fans into the court of whatever kid was in the water. Very cool.

Anyway, I wanted to give a shout-out to all those parents who are doing it right — cheering on their own kids, but also cheering on the kids who are competing right alongside their own kids. And come to think of it: it just so happens that the children of these indivdiuals are doing the same thing down on the deck. Hmmm . . . . . now that’s proof that you’re doing something right, too. Hats off!

Supporting My Frustrated Swimmer

I’ve been a little hesitant to write this post because a Mom blogger always needs to be mindful of the privacy rights of her children. However, my teenage daughter has shared her swimming struggles somewhat publicly lately, and I thought if it would help another swimmer or another parent, then maybe it would be a good thing to share here.

My 14-year-old swims competitively and she is very serious about her sport. She has five sectional cuts, but since she turned 14 last spring, she has been adding lots of time in her events (not a good thing for you non-swimming readers).

Her body changed from the body of a child to the body of a woman, as is the case for many 14-year-olds. With those changes came some problems with her strokes. She worked very hard all summer and early this fall to correct those problems. She NEVER EVER misses a practice — early morning, evening, late afternoon, weekend, holiday — she’s there. She doesn’t back off at practice either — according to her coaches and some of her teammates, she is one of the hardest workers in the pool. She does the dryland work that our swim club provides her, and she continues to compete in swim meets.

We attended a swim meet in Columbia, MO a few weeks ago at which she had hoped to come close to swimming her best times. It didn’t happen. She had big adds in her best events. Because she was feeling good about the progress she had made on her strokes, it was hard for her to experience this again. And because I’d heard some of the positive feedback regarding her stroke work, I also had higher expectations about what would happen this past weekend. So initially, I was was frustrated with the results, too.

But then I had some great conversations with other parents and with one of her coaches, and I have to say, I’m even more proud to be this young lady’s mother. The parents reassured me that this is so very normal. Many of them shared stories in which their own daughters went through the very same thing around the same age. I’d heard this, but it helps to hear it again and again. Not all swimmers go through this, but a lot of them do, and many of them add time in their best events for more than a year. I remember one young lady in our club going through this a few years ago. She had been a “young star”  and then all of a sudden, she was adding time at every meet. At the time, I remember admiring her perseverance and telling my daughter to make a mental note of her work ethic. Of course, I hoped against hope that it “wouldn’t happen to my kid,” but I guess my daughter DID make a mental note, becuase she is now doing exactly what that young lady did. And you know what? That swimmer is one of my daughter’s biggest supporters, joking with her, reminding her of the struggles she endured, encouraging her to keep working hard at practice even when it’s not the popular thing to do. And her parents are among those reassuring me on a regular basis. That helps a lot.

One of the coaches told me that the she’s doing everything she should be doing to pull through this minus one — she needs to readjust her expectations. He said that when she competes in her next meet, she should look to drop off of her times from the meet in Columbia — NOT to drop time off her BEST times. He said it may still be months before she is coming close to swimming her best times. I cannot tell you how much that simple thing helped us. He also said as her parents, our job is to NOT get frustrated with her, but to support her.

He said part of supporting her includes never questioning the program she is following in front of her because she needs for us to believe in what she’s doing and in her coaches as much as she does. We aren’t the kind of parents who question the program. I know there are parents who jump ship to another club the minute their kids start struggling, blaming the coaches or some aspect of the training program for the issue. That’s not us. But it was good to be reminded of this so that we can talk to her about how MUCH we believe in her coaches and in her training program.

So, we just had another meet this weekend, and we did the whole “adjusted expectations” thing. It was so liberating. And you know what — she DID drop from almost all the times she swam in Columbia. She didn’t hit any of her best times — the closest she came was 3 seconds in her 200 free. But she left the meet feeling successful. Her coaches told her that her strokes are back to looking like they should. Now, she just needs to work on doing them faster.

So, if you’re the parent of a swimmer who is going through this, I hope you have coaches who are as wise as our coaches and as willing to comfort and reassure parents. If you don’t, maybe this post will help you support your swimmer through his or her trials.

FINA Bans Tech Suits for 2010

I’ve written so much about the whole tech suit thing here that I felt obligated to update my site with this information. But, I’m going to be lazy and simply post some links for you.

Here’s one article.

And here’s another.

My daughter’s Blueseventy is a year old, so I feel like she’s gotten our money’s worth out of it. But I really feel for the people who have dropped hundreds of dollars in the last few months. How frustrating!

Encouraging the Positive Aspects of Youth Sports

My 14-year-old daughter is competing in the International Age Group Invitational swim meet this weekend in Fort Lauderdale, FL. So far, she’s had one good swim, one decent swim and two disappointing swims. But as I talk to her on the phone, receive her text messages, and offer her words of encouragement when she’s disappointed and words of congratulations when she’s pleased with her performance, I am reminded of the strides she’s made emotionally and maturity wise in the last few years. I give a ton of credit for the character she is building and the person she is becoming to her participation in the sport of swimming and to the influence of her dedicated coaches.

You see, just two years ago, I experienced for the first time just how many life lessons a child can learn from participating in a sport — and most of those lessons are learned when the child has an “off” day in his/her sport.

At the time, my daughter was 12 and had been swimming competitively for six years.  That year, she’d really made some enormous strides in her sport, moving from a “middle of the packer” to a “top of the packer” within her club and age group.  She had decided that she wanted to go to Zones , which is a regional swim meet requiring swimmers to achieve a “Triple A” time, or an “AAA” time standard within USA Swimming, Central Zones. 

My daughter set her Zones goal, and then did the work to achieve the goal. She upped her practice from 2-3 times/week to 4-5/times per week (each practice is nearly 2 hours, so it’s a big commitment).  By the time summer, long-course swim season arrived, she had mostly A times and a few double A’s.  She became even more focused.  She worked really hard.  And she made sacrifices, too, by giving up sleepovers so that she’d be rested for a morning meet, or skipping friends’ birthday parties altogether in order to attend an out-of-town swim meet. 

Then the meet came that was her last shot at her triple in time for Zones.  Her coach anticipated that she would get the time; she EXPECTED to get the time; her friends thought it would happen; and I was fairly certain she’d pull it off. She was within ½ second to 4 seconds away in a number of swimming events. 

Unfortunately, she didn’t swim as well as she expected.  In fact, on the last morning of the meet, her coach pulled her from the relay because she added enough time in her swim to knock her out of the top 4 in her age group for that event.  She was devastated, crying and deflated.  But she still had two more events to swim, plus finals that evening.  I wasn’t sure what to do for her or what to say to her.  I reminded her that what her coach did was fair – the other girls swam better than her that day and they deserved the relay spots.  I also reminded her that she wasn’t swimming her best, and that she could do better.  Then I gave her a hug.  She didn’t feel comforted, and I felt like I was failing, too. 

I walked away from her, cried a few tears myself over my inability to help her, and then went back to talk to her one more time.  Here’s what I said:

“You’ve worked hard for nine months.  You’ve made the deposits into this account, and now you need to make your withdrawals (I read that somewhere in a swimming-related article, so I apologize to the original thought-author).  You came here expecting this to happen, but it’s not going to happen because you expect it.  It’s going to happen because you apply what you’ve learned this year.

“Now, remember something else which is more important.  Swimming a triple isn’t a life skill that will get you anywhere.  But, recovering from this defeat, and rallying yourself so that you can go back out there in your remaining swims and put your best foot forward – now that’s a life skill worth having.” 

My “little girl” made me proud.  She swam her two remaining events and got new best times.  She made it to finals, and got new best times that evening in all three events, as well.  And, she came within 2/100s of a second of achieving her Triple A.

No – she didn’t get her time that summer.  But she rallied, which I think was even more difficult.  And, she remained on the deck after her events to cheer for her friends and teammates (who replaced her on that relay). I didn’t tell her to do that, she just did it. To this day, thinking of how proud she made me by rallying, swimming her best and then sticking around to cheer on her teammates brings a tear to my eye.

Thus, I believe — just as the people at responsiblesports.com believe — that youth sports offer many more benefits than just physical fitness and potential scholarships.

Nike Swimsuits “Approved” by USA Swimming

And the beat goes on — the beat regarding FINA and Swimsuits and Rules, Oh My! Only now, there seem to be considerable “waves” regarding Nike swimsuits — at least in the Ozark LSC. Thankfully, one parent from Ozark decided to go straight to the source — Bruce W. Stratton, chairman of the USA Swimming Rules & Regulations Committee. And she recieved an email written response that makes it CRYSTAL CLEAR that Nike Hydra and Nike Swift knee and leg suits ARE ALLOWED in the pool in USA Swimming competitions.

Here is the parent’s email to Mr. Stratton and Mr. Sheehan:

Mr. Sheehan & Mr. Stratton,

I realize you both have probably been inundated by e-mails regarding the swimsuit issue over the past month, and I am simply a parent, but I must address a local issue that has been out of control (Ozark LSC).  I will pass on the information to our authorities regardless of your answer (and give up my quest if it turns out I am incorrect), but I must pursue what I believe to be an injustice being served to our “in-between” local swimmers (those 13 and over who are not necessarily national level).

Since the initial FINA list came out in May and, subsequently the USA Swimming ruling on June 1, our local USA Swimming officials have been pulling 13 and over swimmers out of their events and heats when they are seen wearing the old model Nike Hydra and Swift suits that extend past their hips (if they are girls) and past their knees (if they are boys).  I have tried to make an argument that the old model textile Nike suits, although not on the original list and now not the new FINA approved suit list, would be covered by the FINA release on June 5th regarding old model textile suits that were previously approved but not necessarily submitted for re-approval because they do not fall into the category of high tech suit.

We are a Nike team and although many publications have been presented to the local Officials Committee in argument against their actions (from FINA, from Mr. Sheehan, from Nike), it is falling on deaf ears.  We have many families of those older, yet not elite level, swimmers who are being told they have useless suits leaving them angry and/or in a financial hardship to purchase “approved” swimwear.

 If either of you can at all give some written direction before our next local meet this weekend (beginning June 26), which I may present to the local Officials Chair (Ozark), that she can in turn use to direct our officials, I would greatly appreciate it.

And here is Mr. Stratton’s response, which again makes it clear that USA Swimming IS allowing these suits to be worn in competition:

FINA issued an updated list on June 22, 2009, but it also does not include any Nike suits.  However, in a statement issued by FINA on June 5, 2009, it stated that suits approved prior to 2009 and made of full textile material such as lycra or nylon are acceptable as long as they don’t have sleeves and that any double layers are stuck together.  This would presumably include the Nike suits to which you are referring and they should therefore be acceptable.  There will be a formal announcement to this effect by the Rules Committee very shortly.  If you need further clarification, please let me know.

Bruce

Bruce W. Stratton

Chairman, Rules & Regulations Committee

398 S. 9th Street, Suite 290

Boise, ID  83702

Personally, I just about can’t believe there was EVER a question by ANYONE — parent, swimmer, or official – as to whether these Nike suits were allowed in competition. But I’m very glad the USA Swimming Rules Committee is going to clear this up via a formal annoucement soon. I hope that will fix the problem for any swimmers competing this weekend.

FINA’s Recent Ruling on High-tech Suits Raises Questions

UPDATE 6/1/09: More here.

UPDATE 5/29/09: More here.

UPDATE 5/28/09: I know I should update this post, but I still don’t have many  more answers and I’ve been crazy busy with the end of school. I’m not ignoring the topic, but I think things pretty much stand the way they did when I first wrote this post. The Blueseventy is still on the “needs to be modified” list and I think there are dozens, if not hundreds, of attorneys involved at this point on behalf of Blueseventy and the other brands that were either banned or are being required to be modified, as well as for the swimmers whose world records are in question, even though they were swimming in suits that were considered legal at the time they set them. The waters are still very muddy.

UPDATE 5/21/09: USA Swimming, as expected, is not taking any action at this time but will support the FINA regulations when it does take action. See the statement here.

Also, Steve Nicolls of Blueseventy left the comment below on this blog.

“Thanks for the posts, nice to see such a proactive community both for and against.
To clear up a few points mentioned below:
1/ Our suit passed the buoyancy and thickness tests, it does not float, and is not a wetsuit.
2/ the materials in the jaked suit are (to my knowledge) not chloroprene like the our blueseventy nero suits or the TYR titan.
3/ We launched a buy back program 2-3 weeks ago I believe, where any suits bought between now and the end of the year we would buuy back at approx 50% of the purchase price applied as a credit on the 2010 FINA legal model.
4/ Interesting the comments re: pockets of air being the reason the suit is fast… one of the most popular strokes for our suit has been breaststroke, while I’ll not admit to being a total swim geek and having intimate knowledge of breaststroke stroke mechanics, my discussions with athletes on product design has been that of all the strokes this is the one that has the most time underwater…. which would kind of mean that buoyancy assistance is not an advantage…thoughts….
If you have any other questions regarding the suits you would like answered please feel free to mail me:
Steve@blueseventy.com Steve@blueseventy.com, check our website, or our blog…

—–

As is the case with most governing bodies, and as is the case with most decisions made by governing bodies, FINA’s ruling Tuesday on High-tech racing suits leaves as many questions as answers.

This article goes into more detail, stating:

“After reviewing 348 swimsuits from 21 manufacturers,” FINA said in a statement, “the FINA Executive decided the following: 202 swimsuits approved, 10 swimsuits rejected for not passing the tests of buoyancy and/or thickness.”

FINA said 136 other swimsuits needed to be modified to meet the requirement that “swimsuit material shall not be constructed to or include elements/systems which create air/water trapping effects during use.”

FINA said the manufacturers had until June 19 to “resubmit the same swimsuit for FINA approval, with the corresponding corrections.”

My personal interest is that my daughter has a Blueseventy, which is not on the approved list. It is among the among the suits on the list that need to be modified. Blueseventy released this statement about the ruling. So I have a lot of questions:

• Can Blueseventy appeal the ruling?
• If Blueseventy makes the modifications to their suit and gets it approved by FINA, what happens to all the suits already purchased (at a hefty price tag, I might add)? Will Blueseventy replace those suits? Pay to modify those suits? Give a credit toward a modified suit?
• Is this ruling effectively immediately? In other words, can swimmers who own suits not on the approved list wear them until all of the appeals, etc., are complete?
• I have a friend who recently bought a Nike Swift — also not on the approved list — can that swimmer wear that suit at summer long-course meets?

Of course, on a more “local” level, USA Swimming has yet to make a ruling on this other than the ruling it made last fall.  Ozark Swimming, our swim club’s Local Swim Committee or LSC, adopted the same rules regarding high-tech swimsuits (aka Speedo LZR, Blueseventy) as USA Swimming.  Here is the wording that was adopted by USA Swimming at the 2008 House of Delegates:

Swimsuits worn for all 12 & under age group defined competition shall not cover the neck, extend past he shoulder, nor past the knee.

You can read this ruling  from last fall here.

I suspect USA Swimming, and thus, Ozark, will wait until all the dust settles and all the appeals and modification deadlines are passed before making any new rulings on the suits. That makes sense, but again, it leaves room for lots of questions regarding the summer swim season. Do the current USA Swimming/Ozark rules stand, which means our swimmers who own Blueseventy’s can wear them in summer competition, particularly big meets like Championships, Sectionals and Zones?

Interestingly, FINA approved the Speedo Lzr, worn by Michael Phelps and several other swimmers who set world records in the 2008 Summer Olympics.

I’ve written a lot about the Blueseventy controversy on this blog, and at my previous blogging site. If you choose to comment on this topic, please do so on this site, as I no longer write at the previous site or moderate comments there.  I will approve comments that leave a valid email addresss (which won’t be published, but is simply requested for verification). I will not, however, publish comments that are personal attacks on my family. Unfortunately, this issue has brought out the very worst in some people, so this clarification is necessary.

New Sectional Cut (without the Blue Seventy)

My daughter got her sectional cut in the mile this weekend. She swam the race in 18:38:something (I can’t remember the last two digits and it’s not posted as of this writing.) She was about 3 seconds below the cut, which is 18:41:59.

There’s been some controversy about the Blue Seventy racing suit she wore when she got her first sectional cut in the 100 back. I wrote about that here, here and here. So, I thought I’d write about the fact that she DIDN’T have it on when she swam this weekend.

Getting a sectional cut in a Nike Hydra!

Unfortunately, after she got the cut in the mile on Friday night, she didn’t do too “swimmingly” during the rest of the meet and had some significant adds in her other races.  She was disapointed in her performance, and I had to remind her that one year ago, she didn’t even have a zone cut, much less four sectional cuts. (Funny how we always raise the bar for ourselves, isn’t it?) Besides, it’s her coach’s job to be disappointed with her, to talk to her about swimming tired and to point out the work she’s going to have to do to improve her turns, etc. It’s my job to be proud of her and to help her enjoy her accomplishments.

Anyway, back to the Blue Seventy. I think some of the controversy regarding the suit is waning. I’m glad.  The whole issue was silly, in my opinion. Fortunately, I’m aware that opinions are like . . . (well, nevermind).

Youth Sports — How much is too much?

I’ve written a lot about my 13-year-old daughter being a competitive swimmer. She’s now training at the highest level for our swim club after having achieved her first sectional cut in August. What that means right now is that she has 21 scheduled two-hour practices between Dec. 19 and Jan. 5.

Last week, as she was getting ready for her second practice of the day, my father-in-law said that he thinks her practice schedule is “too much.” He said he doesn’t think young kids should be pushed so hard. I would agree with him if we were pushing her.  I might even agree with him if I thought her coach was pushing her. But SHE is the one who wants to be present for 21 practices. SHE is the one who decided about a year ago to up her weekly practices from four per week to five  or six per week. SHE also is the one who started seeing the results in the pool as her times began noticeably dropping. And as she matured, her mental game matured as well — she began reading about her sport, learning more about nutrition, hydration and dry-land training, and practicing mental racing strategy before meets. She started listening more attentively and incorporating more thoroughly the suggestions of her coaches.

But things weren’t always that way.  My DD began swimming competitively at age 6.  And the first five-plus years of her swimming “career” looked much different from her swimming commitment today. When she was in our “bronze” training group, several of her friends got moved up to the “silver” group ahead of her. Her father and I didn’t pound on the coach’s door, demanding to know why she hadn’t moved up with her peers. We knew why. When her friends were swimming laps to build endurance, she was taking bathroom breaks. When her friends were doing the drills to improve their strokes, she was swimming to the bottom of the pool and pretending to be a dolphin.  But once her friends got moved up ahead of her, she had a new motivation. Still, it was for purely social reasons that she kicked things up a notch in order to advance. 

As my DD progressed through the next two levels of our swim club, she practiced three times a week, and we often had to insist on that third practice. We had to remind her of her commitment and suggest rewards for attendance (i.e. getting to go to travel meets) and consequences for skipping (i.e. NOT getting to go to travel meets). Some of her peers were practicing five days a week at that point, and I even heard of 9- and 10-year-olds who were practicing six days a week. Maybe we could’ve made our daughter attend more than the minimum practices, but I wonder what purpose that would’ve served.  Certainly, her practice ethic showed at swim meets. She didn’t embarrass herself, but she wasn’t at the top of the pack. Sometimes she made the relay, sometimes she didn’t. She bore the natural consequences of her time, or lack thereof, at practice.

Now, at the age fo 13, the threat of not “letting” her attend a swim practice is just about the only discipline my husband and I have to use to reduce backtalk, improve sibling relations, or motivate the completion of chores. She just WANTS it.

According to this article, by the time girls reach age 13, 70 percent of them will quit soccer and other team sports. Maybe those 13-year-olds were pushed too hard at the age of 8, 9, or 10? According to a CNN.com interview with Cal Ripken Jr., “seriousness occurs naturally in a sport.” He also encourages parents to “just allow the process to unfold.”

Don’t get me wrong — my husband and I have made our mistakes when it comes to being swim parents (and when it comes to being parents in general, for that matter). We’ve failed to hide our disappointment when she adds time at a meet, even when the coach told us it would happen.  We’ve  tried to “coach” her before races, even though neither one of of us ever swam competitively. We’ve compared her to other swimmers, despite advice not to do so.  But we’ve also learned a lot along the way. We’ve got some great “role model” parents in our club — parents of older children who have learned the fine art of supporting their young athletes.  We’ve also got great coaches who offer up words of wisdom, like “Do you know realize how many other swims your son/daughter is going to have between now and the end of college? That (DQ, missed race, etc) is no big deal.”

So I guess my amateur answer to the “how much is too much” question is this: It’s too much if you’re having to push your child to do it. And I think most parents who say their children “need to be pushed” are probably fooling themselves. That’s like saying a child needs to be pushed to play.  Certainly, a child may need to be pushed to finish schoolwork or chores. But a child should enjoy his or her sport. I agree with Cal — seriousness occurs naturally in a sport. If that natural progression is allowed to happen, then I believe there is less likelihood of burnout.

New Sectional Cuts for My Daughter

My daughter achieved two new sectional cuts this weekend at a swim meet at the St. Peters Rec Plex.  She swam the 1000 free in 11:02:54 and the 200 back in 2:13:88.  Congratulations girl!  We’re very proud of and happy for her, as she has been working extremely hard and hasn’t missed a practice in more than three months.

When she got her new cuts, she was wearing her Blue Seventy racing suit, which I wrote about for the first time here.  She wore the suit at the suggestion of her coach.  A large number of other swimmers on our team, as well as other teams, also wore the Blue Seventy for competition this weekend.  Some swimmers in the suit achieved new best times and got new qualifying times.  Some did not. In fact, my daughter was the perfect “case study.”  She achieved new best times in the suit on Saturday, and she added to her best times on Sunday. Like her coach said:  “The suits do not make you fast.  When used properly, they are the finishing part of championship performance.”  (She’s not only a good coach, she’s good at summing things up without wasting words.)  Coach Pete , who writes a blog on Wordpress, tends to agree.  He wrote about it here. 

There has been controversy about these suits within our club and within the sport.  I applaud healthy debate, emphasis on the word ‘healthy.’  Simply put:  FINA has approved the suits, as has USA Swimming and our own LSC, Ozark Swimming, which I wrote about here. More simply put:  If I bought the same golf clubs that Tiger Woods uses, I couldn’t hit a hole in one.  If I wore the same tennis shoes as Michael Jordan, I couldn’t sink a basketball. If my bat was borrowed from Barry Bonds, I doubt if I’d even make contact with the ball, much less hit a home run. I don’t even think the steroids would help me.   The athletes using the equipment in combination with their hard work achieve the results.