With the summer sun barely rising and the morning fog not yet fully dissipated, the pool at the Student Activities Center is already bustling with people ““ shivering in the cold weather, yet fully stripped down to their swimsuits.
While most of Westwood is still sound asleep, these swimmers stand wide awake while summoning the courage to dive into the pool for a routine 6 a.m. workout. However, what’s surprising is that they are not NCAA swimmers, and their attendance at practice isn’t mandatory.
Instead, they are all part of the UCLA Bruin Masters Swim Club, an adult program offered by UCLA Recreation, which involves structured workouts from coaches offering valuable training assistance.
Former UCLA women’s swim team assistant coach Erika Stebbins has recently taken on the role of coach for the Masters swim team and believes that the transition is running very smoothly.
“I think the one joy for me is working with people that love swimming,” Stebbins said. “I think there is always that curiosity about what things they can do better in regards to technique, and there’s a willingness within this group to make changes, to do things differently and to have fun.”
Offering four workouts throughout the day, the Masters program differentiates itself from other swim teams in that it is geared toward swimmers of all ages and all levels.
“There’s definitely a wide variety of swimmers (in Masters),” Stebbins said. “We have swimmers that are interested in competing. We have quite a few people that are doing ocean swims during this season. We have a group that’s here basically for fitness, to get those six-pack abs.”
The varying degrees of experience among the swimmers has only helped to increase the program’s popularity, according to Scandinavian professor Patrick Wen, who has been swimming with the team for about 10 years.
“I love Masters swimming, because you have all levels of swimmers,” Wen said. “You have beginners, you have former Olympians, you have (swimmers) of all ages.”
For some swimmers, though, Masters provides an opportunity to add an extra swim workout to their daily exercise. Fourth-year mathematics student Brady O’Bryan is a scholarship athlete on the UCLA triathlon team, but also swims with Masters, sometimes directly after his triathlon swim practice.
“Masters gives me a chance to have a coached workout, pretty much every day of the week,” O’Bryan said. “It’s hard for me to swim by myself and get a good workout. I definitely needed to improve my swimming a lot, because it seems to be the weakest part of my race.”
Similarly, fourth-year economics student and captain of the UCLA women’s club water polo team Adele Young utilized the rigorous daily workouts of Masters to stay in shape for her club sport. In the process, though, she ended up discovering a sense of community and friendship on the team that she wasn’t expecting.
“I started swimming Masters to get in better swim shape for water polo, but I’ve kept doing it because of the people who I’ve met,” Young said. “It’s a great atmosphere filled with a wide array of swimmers. Teachers, students, staff and local residents all come together to participate in something we all enjoy doing.”
While the primary goal of the swimmers on the Masters team might have originally been to participate in organized workouts, there is a general consensus that the friendly, easygoing atmosphere of the program has helped keep people interested in practicing every day.
“A lot of it is just the social aspect of it, and it’s really cool.” Wen said. “After so many years of swimming together, seeing the same people almost every day, you feel like part of an extended family in some ways.”
This notion of an extended family among the swimmers has even helped eliminate the awkwardness that is likely to occur when professor and student swim side by side.
In a way, the Masters program has allowed for people from all different walks of life to come together and share their love of swimming with one another.
“It’s never been awkward swimming with other faculty or students,” Wen said. “I feel like everyone here is on the same page. We’re all here to work out, so it’s never really been an issue.”
On the outset, the Masters Swim Club is simply an opportunity for those interested to hone in on their swimming talents in a structured program. But it doesn’t take long to realize that these swimmers have forged a special friendship with each other while enjoying an experience not so commonly found on campus.
“I think it is way better to swim with a group of people than it is to swim by yourself,” Stebbins said. “To me, (just) swimming laps is boring. Swimming with other people allows for a sense of camaraderie.”