Thank You, Charlie

Before Fitter & Faster grew to become some of the recognizable academic platforms in swimming, I watched David Arluck idea it, construct it, and launch it over 17 years in the past.  Now Fitter and Faster is deeply woven into the material of our sport.  This yr alone greater than 40,000 swimmers throughout all 50 states and Canada will take part in Fitter & Faster’s in-person academic platform. That attain is staggering. But the actual measure of Fitter & Faster will not be solely scale. It is impression.

David’s letter beneath captures that impression fantastically. At the College Swimming Coaches Association convention in Chicago, David had the sort of encounter that reminds a founder why their work issues. It was private, sudden, and deeply related to the mission David got down to construct all these years in the past. I hope you take pleasure in David’s letter.

THANK YOU, CHARLIE

Over the previous few days, I used to be in Chicago on the College Swimming Coaches Association convention.

I had loads of nice conversations with coaches, business leaders, and individuals who care deeply about the way forward for the game.

But one interplay stood out in a approach I didn’t count on.

I met a current Tufts University class of 2025 graduate named Charlie Duffy. He began an organization referred to as Our Team Forever, targeted on connecting present school athletes with alumni for mentorship. Charlie was considerate, pushed, inquisitive, and asking the sort of questions that present he’s critical about constructing one thing significant.

As quickly as we met, he talked about that he had attended Fitter & Faster camps when he was youthful. He remembered who his clinicians have been (Tyler Clary & Giles Smith) and why that they had such an impression on him. After 17 years of constructing this firm, listening to particular tales like that by no means feels routine.

What additionally instantly stood out to me was the group round him. Charlie was spending the convention with two shut associates – one from Purdue and one other from MIT. All three had completely different paths, grew up in other places, attended completely different colleges, and finally got here collectively via swimming.

They weren’t there working for him. They have been there supporting their pal as a result of they believed in him and cared about what he was constructing. In a world the place so many relationships grow to be transactional, there was one thing genuinely refreshing and significant about seeing three younger individuals related by years of friendship, shared experiences, and honest help for each other via this sport.

Over the subsequent couple of days, we stopped to talk with one another a couple of extra occasions and at all times appeared to have one thing to speak about. Then on the ultimate day of the convention, Charlie got here by the Fitter & Faster sales space and located me once more.

He had gone again to his mother and father’ home – simply outdoors Chicago – and introduced again a framed photograph from his time at one in all our camps as a result of he needed to indicate it to me.

It was such a easy gesture, however it hit me in a robust approach.

Seventeen years in the past, I began Fitter & Faster with the idea that this sport wanted extra alternatives for swimmers to study, join, be impressed, and create experiences that will stick with them lengthy after the camp ended. Over time, we’ve had tons of of 1000’s of contributors and watched 1000’s of swimmers transfer via the game – into school applications, onto nationwide groups, into teaching, enterprise, medication, expertise, and each different stroll of life possible.

I hear success tales usually, and I’m extremely pleased with them.

But this felt completely different as a result of it wasn’t about athletic achievement or recognition. It was private.

Here was a younger man who had gone on to attend an incredible college, construct lifelong friendships via swimming, and begin a enterprise of his personal. He didn’t want something from me. He wasn’t attempting to impress anybody. He merely went out of his strategy to share one thing significant as a result of his expertise with Fitter & Faster had stayed with him all these years later.

In that second, I wasn’t being reminded why I began Fitter & Faster. I already know why I do that.

But Charlie and his associates gave me the chance to cease for a second and really really feel it.

That’s a really completely different factor.

What I noticed in these few days is strictly what I consider swimming is meant to be about.

Not simply quicker occasions.

Connection. Friendship. Shared experiences. Mentorship. Learning from others. Being impressed. Creating reminiscences and relationships that final lengthy after an athlete leaves the pool.

That’s what I need Fitter & Faster to contribute to this sport.

Yes, we train abilities and method. Yes, we assist swimmers enhance. But I additionally hope we create experiences that stick with individuals for all times. And my hope has at all times been that our impression on the game and its individuals will proceed lengthy after I’m gone.

Most of the time, whenever you spend years constructing one thing, you don’t absolutely get to really feel the impression it’s having. You simply preserve shifting ahead, attempting to do good work and assist as many individuals as doable.

But each every so often, somebody goes out of their strategy to present you what you’ve constructed really meant to them.

So I wish to thank Charlie and his associates sincerely for his or her time, their vitality, their curiosity, and their kindness. I’ll at all times bear in mind our conversations and what they delivered to me this week in Chicago.

They gave me an actual second to really feel why I began all of this within the first place – and why I proceed to work as exhausting as I ever should preserve it robust for the swimming neighborhood and generations to return.

Sincerely,
David

Fitter and Faster has supported of SwimSwam information for 15 years. Fitter and Faster additionally helps almost each organisation and non-profit within the swimming neighborhood, from ASCA to CSCAA to ISHOF David Arluck is engaged.