UIC swimming coach Noelle Wilhite’s role in injury prevention

No pain no gain, right?

Wrong. According to Noelle Wilhite, assistant varsity coach for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams at the University of Illinois at Chicago, an athlete’s performance will suffer if an injury is left untreated.

Wilhite said there are ways to help prevent injuries in swimmers by designing creative training programs. Wilhite has coached swimming for 13 years and triathlon since 2003. She uses her triathlon training and coaching background as a way to cross train her swimmers.

“If I know today is an aerobic conditioning day, I can have some of that be dryland. Lets go jump rope and do some med ball stuff and plyometrics, and then get in and swim and then do a little sprinting,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said cross training not only avoids stroke repetition, but also helps prevent injuries and keeps athletes focused to counteract the burnout of swimming laps everyday.

“The more you do that one activity, the higher risk of injury. It not only keeps them mentally stimulated, interested, and also improves their athleticism. But it certainly prevents injury,” Wilhite said.

Starting the season with aerobic-based conditioning and slowly increasing the volume of swimming, introducing equipment and sprinting later on in the training programs to prevent injuries is important said Wilhite.

According to Wilhite, shoulder injuries are the most common problem swimmers face.

“The freestyle stroke can lead to shoulder injuries if the mechanics aren’t correct. I’d say that’s another thing we really try to be diligent about—stroke mechanics and skill and drill work because proper stroke technique leads to less injuries,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said head coach, Paul Moniak and her highly recommend athletes to condition and train during their off season to keep a high-level of physical fitness. Depending on the situation, Wilhite would tell an athlete who has a history of injuries to decrease their swimming and work on cycling, running and different dryland activities.

“We advocate a lot of cross training, so that maintaining fitness, even touching the water a couple times a week, the body gets a break from the repetitive movement,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said she encourages athletes to inform their coaches of any injuries or irritations they may have to treat injuries as quickly as possible to avoid lifetime injury.

“Living with chronic pain is no way to live,” Wilhite said.

Ultimate Swimming coach Pierre Ruffin empowering black and Latino swimmers

“My coaches used to always tell us to remember that you were just as good as everybody else.”

Pierre Ruffin, head coach of Ultimate Swimming, a year-round competitive swim club in Hillside, Ill., described the challenges of being one of the few African-American coaches for Illinois Swimming. Back in the 1950s and 1960s when racial discrimination was the norm, Ruffin said athletes had to produce great results to prove they were just as good as a Caucasian athlete and coach.

Ruffin said he was often questioned at swim meets for why he was standing on the deck since only officials, coaches, athletes and volunteer timers were allowed on the deck.

“I could understand at the time because they didn’t realize or understand that there were black coaches or black coaches trying to get involved in the sport at that time,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin-- like the author of this blog, a club coach for Illinois Swimming said athletes are not special because of their race, ethnicity or gender, but because of their talent.

“The only special thing about you is your ability to swim like everybody else, your ability to work hard, your ability to be able to say, “Here I am. I can do this and get out and prove it” and that’s the only way I think you can really help minorities in this sport of swimming,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin said he hopes to pave a way for future coaches.

“When other minority coaches want to get involved with swimming, I feel that they will, because of what I’m able to do, it’ll make it easier for other people to give them an opportunity to coach and be a head coach and not feel that just because I’m a minority, I’m unable to do this or to do that or to train their kids and bring them to a level of excellent swimming,” Ruffin said.

Chicago water polo coach, Brian Ruiz, pushes his athletes to succeed

Ruiz, a water polo coach, has been working for the Chicago Park District (CPD) since 2002. Ruiz is a former CPD athlete who grew up within the park district.

Ruiz teaches them “not only water polo skills, but life skills” by talking to them one on one. 

Ruiz says that by playing water polo, athletes learn to be respectful, disciplined and courteous. Ruiz's definition of a success story is “a kid that comes in and works hard, doesn’t have the best life, I know I grew up with a lot of kids that were dealt a bad hand, parents, family, where their family members were in gangs. My success story for me would be a kid put into a situation, where he can succeed with minimal help.”

Ruiz spoke about encouraging his athletes to eat right and stay away from Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Many of the challenges with coaching is getting the athletes to keep a healthy diet for not only better performance, but for their own benefit. “The generation now,  parents are more health conscious and are trying to give their kids better food. Better food translates into healthier kids, and into better athletes.”

Ruiz says that growing up and living in the city definitely gave him an edge.
“You have to deal with a lot of elements that are unexpected.”
Ruiz says coaches in the city have to deal with gangs, shootings, and people from different walks of life.
“You have to have thick skin to grow up in the city.” Ruiz says that living in the city gives someone an edge.
“If they can take that edge and translate it into the water positively, then that’s a win for me.” 

Ruiz says the most rewarding aspect to be a coach “would be having the kids use the techniques you teach them and applying them. Just watching the fruits of your labor. But not only that, if you teach them to be respectful... and you see them mature as players, and as human beings.”

Ruiz has many years of coaching experience, has a real-life connection to his athletes, both in and out of the water. Ruiz says he continues to make a difference in the lives of inner-city kids that just want to play water polo.