Youths learn basics of competitive swim
BRAWLEY — About one year ago, Imperial Valley Desert Aquatic head coach Nikie Lopez had the idea to host a clinic for local swimmers led by former standout athletes that have gone on to swim in college and beyond.
The clinic came together about three months ago and Saturday connected young swimmers with IVDA success stories at the Lions Center here.
Helping lead the clinic were Sammy Estes and Alexa Vasquez, who swim for the club teams at University of California in San Diego and San Diego State University, respectively, Daniel Crabtree, who swims at Mesa College and Brandon Crabtree and Kevin Mendoza, who also swim collegiately and competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials last summer.
“We tried to coordinate it when all the kids would be here,” Lopez said of the group of clinic leaders.
This is the first time IVDA has hosted a summer swim clinic and in its inaugural effort hosted about 50 swimmers for a morning and afternoon of learning and fun.
“My parents are just awesome,” Lopez said, thanking the volunteers that helped bring the clinic together. “I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without all their support.”
The clinic was open to swimmers ages 9 and up and helped strengthen their knowledge in the four strokes, flip turns and getting a good start off the blocks. As each of the clinic leaders specialized in different strokes, the participants had the opportunity to learn different things from each of them.
Matthew Printy said while his favorite stroke is freestyle he enjoyed learning butterfly from Mendoza, who swims at UC Santa Barbara.
“I actually liked learning more about the butterfly from Kevin,” said Printy, a 15-yearold. “It helped a lot being able to learn from him.”
Printy said he recently joined IVDA, which is a year-round swim program, and said he wanted to attend the clinic in order to improve in the sport.
“I learned a lot,” Printy said. “I learned that you have to use your whole body, hips, shoulders, everything to get better.”
Smith Hilfiker said he also enjoyed learning from the different leaders and liked the station that helped him flip turns the best.
“We also learned how to get better starts by jumping farther and diving in a straight line,” said the 11-year-old.
While some of the participants were new to IVDA or perhaps swimming in general, others like Kinzy Duarte have been in the program for a number of years.
“I’ve been swimming for about six years,” said the 9-year-old. “I wanted to come so they could help me get better.”
Duarte said her favorite stroke is breast stroke and enjoyed learning how to improve her back stroke.
“I like swimming because even though we work hard, it’s always really fun,” she said.