Monday, November 22, 2021
By Wilma
Wong
I was at a
UCLA Masters meet when I first met Jamal Hill. I was coaching Luke Pechmann,
who was swimming for Golden Road Aquatics masters team. Pechmann had
finished his 200 IM race against Olympian Mike Alexandrov and Jamal. I remember the day
vividly as Alexandrov, who trained with Jamal at Trojan Elite and called him“ a newbie”
since most of the teammates were Olympians or national level swimmers. Pechmann
invited Jamal to join our team as we were experimenting with USRPT, Ultra Short Race
Pace Technique. During our training time, we recorded every set and Jamal was not
improving like the other swimmers. When he would get out of the pool, he would use
his arms to pull his legs out of the water which reminded me of a client of mine who
had cerebral palsy. One day, I asked him if he was keeping a secret about his body I
should know about. He revealed to me he had a disease called Charcot Marie Tooth.
After reading about the disease, I proposed to Jamal that he should consider joining
the Paralympic team.
Jamal went
home that day and cried for the loss of giving up his Olympic dream. He had not
embraced his disease and switching to a Paralympic dream was disheartening. A few months
later, a visiting British swimmer, Lewis Clifford-Stephenson, saw Jamal dive off the
blocks and told him to join the Paralympics since he was one meter behind after the dive.
When Jamal
walks, people often wonder what his disability is. He has no nerve sensation
from his knees to his toes. Though he has legs, his calves are emaciated consisting
mostly of bone and sinew from atrophy. After the second person told Jamal to train
for the Paralympics, he made the decision to move forward.
In 2018,
Jamal competed in his first US Para Swimming Competition at the California Classic.
He made US National team in his first try and was national champion in multiple
events. By 2019, Jamal had represented the United States at the Para Pan American
Games bringing home a silver in the 50 Free S10 category and a bronze in the first
Para Men’s relay to win a medal.
2020
brought us the pandemic and difficulty finding a pool to train. We needed more time to
train and were grateful for the delay in the Tokyo games. Due to nerve conduction
issues, I had learned over time, I could not train him like my other swimmers.
If I got him to drop time too quickly, his body would shut down and he would be sinking
in the water for months. All the work had to be gradual, with not a lot of time spent
doing long sets. Long sets would wear out his nerves and he would slow down at a rate
greater than most swimmers.
By 2021,
we had ramped up the training using a combination of X3 Bar, Powercore 360, Kaatsu,
VasaSwimErg, GMX7, breath work, and mental training. We used hyperbaric chambers
and float tanks to build resiliency and visualization in the mind and the body. In January
2021, he posted a time of 27.54 in the 50 Free. By Paralympic Trials in June 2021, he
had dropped more than 2 seconds to 25.34 and qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics.
Since I am
a mental performance coach as well as a swim coach, I saw the way Jamal was
nervous at swim meets. He did not want to admit he had any issues until one
meet he
realized he hadn’t brushed his teeth for three days. He finally understood he
needed to find
ways to combat the nerves. He began to have personal bests in almost every event at
all the Para competitions leading up to Tokyo. This was the key to his success in Tokyo to
make one more best time to 25.19 to earn the bronze medal in 50 Free S9 category.
Jamal also
founded the non-profit Swim Uphill Foundation to support swim education for one
million people, primarily in underserved communities. Jamal is currently
training for Paris 2024
and aims to bring home the gold in Los Angeles 2028 for his hometown in Inglewood.
As a coach
of swimmers who have traditionally been thought of as past their prime, I believe we
can extend the life of all swimmers and still be compete at an elite level
while working
and having a family. Swimming does not have to be over after 30. Master swimmers
can continue to drop time using the combination of the right tools and mindset.