Ballard Alters Swim Regimen to Find Speed

With each leg kick, with every determined pull that propels her, Heather Ballard is evolving.

It is a metamorphosis so gradual it cannot yet be measured. It is an evolution so exciting that Cal State Northridge swimming Coach Pete Accardy, a man of reserve, cannot conceal his enthusiasm.

For the first time in his 24 seasons at Northridge, Accardy has recruited a swimmer on the verge of national prominence.

In guiding the Matadors to 13 NCAA Division II championships, Accardy, the Division II coach of the decade (1980s), has transformed dozens of mediocre swimmers into Division II finalists.

Now, he has the opportunity to take a swimmer who has just reached the national level and transform her into a contender for the U.S. Olympic team.

That seems an unlikely transformation, considering Ballard’s undistinguished times in the distance freestyle events. Still, it is hardly the impossible dream, considering the progress she has made after limited training.

The mix of two-a-day swimming practices, weight training, an overhaul of her stroke and a competitive training environment--particularly daily sessions with Matador men’s distance ace Steve Hoffman--could mold Ballard into a 1996 Olympian.

In the meantime, the freshman from Birmingham High is expected to become the first Northridge swimmer to qualify and compete in the NCAA Division I championships, scheduled for March 18-20 in Minneapolis.

The prospect of competing at a higher level does not faze Ballard, who eagerly awaits a potential NCAA championship debut.

“It is more exciting than anything else,” she said. “There’s no more pressure on me. I’ll just do what I can do and see what happens.”

Patience is no mere virtue in Ballard’s case--it is a necessity to be able to compete in swimming’s longest race, the 1,650-yard freestyle.

For more than 16 minutes, Ballard is cut off from the world. The water muffles sound and blurs vision.

In this sensory deprivation tank, there is no relaxation. It is only Ballard versus Ballard, Ballard versus the clock, and Ballard versus the competition--for 66 lengths of the pool.

Although she has posted the fastest times on the Matador team this season in seven of 14 individual events, Ballard lacks sprinter speed. That is why she gravitated to the longer events--the 1,650 freestyle and the 500 freestyle--soon after taking up the sport.

But as she strains to reach national prominence, she needs an infusion of speed to complete her metamorphosis.

“We’re hoping to improve her speed so she doesn’t have to overtax herself to stay in a race,” Accardy said.

“If she can relax early in the race and not lose contact with the top people, then she’ll know she’s in a race.”

In a recent 1,650 duel with Northern Arizona’s April Diez, Ballard fell too far behind, too soon. She trailed by 20 yards after the first 300. Although she did not lose much ground over the rest of the race, she was unable to dent Diez’s lead.

With 65 turns and 65 subsequent push-offs, leg strength is crucial in the 1,650, especially over the final 300 yards when swimmers accelerate their kicking speed from two kicks per stroke to six.

To place in the top eight at the NCAA meet, Ballard needs a time near the 16-minute mark. Her personal best is 16.40.10, and she timed 17:03.57 to place third in the Speedo Collegiate Cup earlier this month.

Ballard’s time at the Speedo meet is promising because she competed in a slow heat. It also was recorded under difficult circumstances. Before the race, she took a two-hour math examination at Northridge, drove two hours to Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach and competed almost immediately upon her arrival.

But perhaps the overriding reason Accardy believes Ballard can improve by a full minute is that she has never lifted weights or had a twice-a-day training regimen.

“I didn’t want to push myself to my limit too early,” she said. “I wanted room to improve.”

Accardy supports Ballard’s approach, although it differs from that of national leaders such as Janet Evans (1988) and Anita Nall (1992), who won Olympic medals as teen-agers.

“Actually, I think Heather was very smart doing that,” Accardy said. “That’s why she has great potential. She hasn’t done the things a lot of swimmers have done before college, the maximum workouts and the maximum yardage. I’m not a believer in pounding these kids. I think we lose more great swimmers than we have in the end.”

Ballard concedes that stroking back and forth, lap after lap, day after day after day, is boring.

“But I guess you’d say it’s something I’m good at,” she said. “So I might as well try to take it where I can.”

To help endure the long training sessions, she sings in her head, solves math problems and memorizes conversations for her German class.

“And when we get to talk,” Ballard said of the Matadors’ infrequent breaks, “we certainly do talk a lot.”

To converse with female teammates, Ballard must chat over rows of lane ropes: She trains with the men.

“It’s fun,” Ballard said. “And I hope I’m not annoying them too much by trying to keep up with them.”

Her intensity and competitiveness might put off some male swimmers, but Hoffman not only understands, he admires Ballard’s methods.

“I’ve never worked with anyone who could keep up with me, as far as girls are concerned, until Heather,” he said.

“She’s the hardest trainer I’ve seen in a long time.”

The sixth of nine children and the oldest daughter of Kathryn and Charles Ballard, Heather followed her older brothers into swimming, including Christian, who swims for California, and Matt, a senior walk-on at Northridge.

Heather swam in her first meet for the Sherman Oaks Swim School when she was 6. Two years later, the Ballards joined the Glendale YMCA team and added another sibling, Gretchen, to the family car pool.

At 14, Heather reached U.S. Swimming’s Junior National time standards and by the spring of 1990 she swam the 1,650 freestyle in a Senior National time standard.

Last spring, she set City Section records in winning the 500-yard freestyle (4:56.98) and the 200 freestyle (1:53.10) for Birmingham.

After visiting USC, Washington, and Ohio State, Ballard chose Northridge even though the Matadors offered only a partial scholarship.

The deciding factors? Proximity to her family and the convincing recommendation of Dale Lundin, her coach at the Glendale YMCA for five years, of Accardy’s abilities to mold champions.

“A lot will probably depend on how much heart she has, and how much of a competitor she is,” Accardy said. “So far, those are pluses for her.”

And she has only just begun.