Head coach for Stingray Swim Club, David Pursley made his intentions clear when it comes to getting swimmers back into the pool for what could be highly contested swim meets this summer.
“We only have the college kids on island for so long,” said Pursley. “Right now we have twelve to thirteen college kids on island training and that would be great to get that exposure for the younger kids that maybe never seen that next level. So if they can watch them race, it’ll make all the difference in the world for those little guys.”
Pursley stayed committed to his athletes throughout the lockdown creating YouTube workout videos with a twisted of comedy. Following the ease on restrictions last month which allowed 6 people to gather, Pursley wasted no time taking advantage of that privilege and started training his athletes in groups of five at Governors Beach. He has now expanded those numbers since June 21st as permitted in the COVID-19 regulations.
“It’s been awesome,” said Pursley. “Now that they’re back together, you can see some life back into them and they’re starting to get excited again, and working hard again. It’ll still be a little bit of a process getting back in shape but just having them back together has been great.”
Pursley said while the pool would be his preference for training his athletes; the current status is a good fitness booster considering the time spend away from the water during the lockdown.
“It’s not so bad swimming in the sea especially in the early phases of the season because we just need to work on general fitness anyway,” said Pursley. “We’re not doing a whole lot of race specific skills which we need a pool for but some of them still do struggle in the sea and they are really looking forward to getting back in the pool in a couple weeks hopefully.”
As for Pursley’s aspirations to get competition rolling for the first time in over three months, he says month (June) end is a considerable time and with government’s announcement that contact sports will be permitted July 19th, Pursley’s wishes may come true.
“I want to do it as soon as we are allowed,” said Pursley. “As soon as they say that it’s safe to do it, I wanna jump in and do a meet so, if that’s July 30 then I want July 30.”
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