Men's Swimmer Dax Hill Q&A
Feb. 6, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas -- TexasSports.com sat down with junior swimmer Dax Hill to talk about a variety of topics including what other sporting event he compares the 200 freestyle to and how he gets ready to compete. How did you get into swimming? When I was six years old, my next door neighbor was on the summer league team and we hung out with him a lot. He kind of got us into it. What are your long-term swimming aspirations? I want to make the Olympic team this summer and then take it from there. I'll still have a year of eligibility left, so I want to come back and hopefully win again. Break down the 200-yard freestyle for us. What is something we might not know about racing the event? Actually, you could compare it to the 400 meter track event, where it's a sprint, but you can't just crank it or you're going to die. When I swim it, I try to stay long and be fast, and take deep breaths to calm myself down. I try not use that much energy. And then at the 125 (yard mark), I kind of build into it and then crank the last 75 (yards). What is the strongest aspect of your 200-yard freestyle event? (The strong aspect of my race is) my kick when I'm rested and then half of my turn. My flip over the top isn't that great, but I'm good at getting my feet on the wall and off the wall with a lot of velocity. What's is your favorite spot in the freestyle relay line-up? Probably anchor. I feel like I swim fast in third, but anchor is a lot of fun because if you finish and win, you get to hit the water and stuff. You get to celebrate. It's cool. Do you have any rituals that you perform before you compete? I try not to warm up in the competition pool. Usually, if there is a diving well where it's hotter, I'll go warm up there. Is the hotter temperature important to your warm-up? I just don't like swimming in cold pools, first of all. But I think it helps you get loose faster. I usually just swim around for a while until I feel good. Then I kick for a while to get my legs warmed up. And then do some 25-yard sprints to get my whole body warmed up. Then I take a hot shower and get in the hot tub, dry off, and dry my suit off. Then I swim.
Do you get nervous before you race or does it depend on the meet or event? It kind of depends. Usually, I get nervous before the 200-yard freestlye because it's probably the easiest event to humiliate yourself in. 100-yard freestyle and 50-yard freestyle, you can go all the way out as fast as you can and you won't die. But the 200-yard free, if you want to go fast, you have to swim it perfectly. Otherwise you're going to get dead last or you'll be first but get caught by everybody in the last 25 yards. Do you have any practice rituals? I like to yell a lot. I'll poke fun at people and I guess be psychical with them. I like to push my teammates around a little bit and get people psyched up. What is the most fun you've had with the team this season? This year's been really rough. We've had some rough meets and we've been tired a lot this year--more than usual, I would say. I think the fun part is going to be this meet (against A&M). We're suiting up for this meet and then Big 12s is going to be a lot of fun. Do your teammates have any nicknames for you? They'll probably laugh. They call me 'the Tiger.' I almost committed to Auburn, so they were like, "Oh, you were almost a tiger!" It started with a transfer, (Michael) McBroom, and I'd make fun of him because he transferred from Minnesota. So I called him 'the Golden Gopher.' That never stuck but 'Tiger' stuck. So I'm stuck with it. If you weren't a swimmer, what other sport would you play? Basketball for sure. I played it all through high school and I kind of closed off my recruitment right before I started getting all my phone calls. Definitely, that would be what I'd be doing. What's your favorite restaurant in Austin? Torchy's. I order the trashy trailer and two bacon and potato breakfast tacos. |
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