Humor, Clear Goggles and Health in the Fast Lane with Bill Winters, EP 252

Do you love your fins or paddles? Ever wondered how a Masters swimmer in his late 50s keeps up in the fastest lane with the "young guns"? Tune in to our conversation with Bill Winters, who shares his journey from collegiate competitor at Auburn to a dedicated member of SwimRVA Hammerhead Masters Coached by Jay Peluso. Bill opens up about the importance of swimming for longevity and health, even humorously admitting his struggles with maintaining a perfect diet. We also get insight into his creative adaptations in the pool, like using hand paddles due to a bad back, and the supportive culture of Masters swimming that keeps him motivated. His witty exchanges are sure to bring a smile to your face.

Learn the advantages of clear goggles (for indoor swimming) and how Bill learned a good reason to have a happy disposition. 

But it's not just about technique and competition; we dive deep into the joy and lifelong benefits of swimming. Celebrating the idea that swimming should be a constant in your life, we emphasize the significance of pressing pause instead of retiring from the sport. Whether you’re a young swimmer or someone rediscovering their love for the water, this episode is a heartfelt reminder of the community and connection swimming fosters. Join Host Kelly Palace as she chats with Bill Winters for an inspiring and humorous discussion that will leave you eager to head to the pool and maybe even find your own humor and Health in adult swimming. 

Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.

You can learn more about the Host and Founder of Champions Mojo at www.KellyPalace.com

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to the award-winning Champions Mojo, hosted by two world record-holding athletes and health life and leadership coaches. Be inspired as you listen to conversations with champions and now your host, kelly Pallas.

Speaker 2 0:15

All right, I'm doing an on-deck interview with my training friend, bill Winters, and we are at SwimRVA and I really, bill, think I'm still out of breath, are you?

Speaker 3 0:24

Oh yeah, I'll wait, and we are at Swim RVA and I really, bill, think I'm still out of breath, are you?

Speaker 2 0:26

Oh, yeah, I'll wait, literally, I think. My heart rate is still up. We just got out of practice, a beautiful long course practice, and Bill is in the fastest lane. He's wearing his Auburn sweatshirt here. So, bill, welcome to Champions Mojo.

Speaker 3 0:40

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 0:41

Yes, and the reason that I'm having you is because so many people have told me I should interview you.

Speaker 3 0:49

Wow, yeah, I know that's surprising. I don't say a lot normally.

Speaker 2 0:52

But I've heard you're really funny, you have a good sense of humor and I figured that out when I sent you a few little pre-interview questions and you answered them with really very funny. But I want to go back to that because I think humor is so important today in our lives. And let's just start out. What are you doing here? Every time the doors open for Master Swimming, you're here. What does that for your life? What does that mean?

Speaker 3 1:19

Honestly, it's about longevity. I just want to try to stay healthy and live as long as I can for my wife and my kids and maybe our kids in the future. So it's not about competing, it's about just trying to stay healthy. And it's a small thing I do in the grand scheme of things, because I'm not the healthiest person otherwise.

Speaker 2 1:39

Oh, tell us about that.

Speaker 3 1:41

I like to eat ice cream and I like to have my Coke with dinner, and every once in a while grand once in a while I like to have McDonald's, which my wife hates, but my diet is not the best.

Speaker 2 1:56

It balances out.

Speaker 3 1:57

It balances out, yeah.

Speaker 2 1:59

At one time, though, you did compete a lot. You swam at Auburn, you made it to.

Speaker 2 2:03

NCAAs. You swam at a really high level and, like I said, you're in the fastest lane and I'm not talking a fast lane of most master's practices, I'm talking a bunch of young guns. You're my age pretty much, and the lane that you're swimming in we've got a lot of guys in their 30s and 40s and they're fast. What motivates you, besides longevity, to swim at that high level? Because if you're just swimming, you could swim over three or four lanes easy.

Speaker 3 2:33

That's a good question, I think ultimately it comes down to it's what I was born with, and I really think that I've never been a gifted swimmer. I'm not an athlete of any other sort. I really think that I've never been a gifted swimmer. I'm not an athlete of any other sort, and when my mom and dad got me involved in swimming I grew up with three sisters in a small town in upstate New York I had a lot of energy and they were looking for a place for them to channel that energy and I just immediately took to it and I can't explain why.

Speaker 3 3:10

I can't explain why when I was eight years old, I would stand by the door and tell my mom we got to leave for practice in five minutes. But that is just something that has stayed with me my whole life. If I'm going to do it and I don't do it in other things, but for swimming it's an environment that I'm comfortable in, and why not try to be as fast as I can? Now I have physical limitations that I didn't have being in my late 50s, Like I have a bad back, which is why I pull as much as I do.

Speaker 2 3:41

Well, that's the question that everybody wanted me to ask you. Is it true you were born with hand paddles on?

Speaker 3 3:47

I was not born with hand paddles on, but they became a permanent apparatus when I made my quote unquote comeback about two and a half years ago to swim RVA.

Speaker 2 3:59

And I love fins. I wear fins a lot and I know a lot of people do, and I love hand paddles. But isn't that the beauty of masters that you can wear any piece of equipment you want. You can go on a slower interval. What do you love about just the Masters culture?

Speaker 3 4:21

Yeah, I think it's that exact thing. Jay our coach always says Bill, are you pulling? And my answer like 55 and over can do what they want, Because I'm normally the only one 55 and over.

Speaker 1 4:37

I said, the rules are different. I know it's different for Masters in general, but over 55, do what they want, because I'm normally the only one 55 and over.

Speaker 3 4:39

I said the rules are different. I know it's different for masters in general, but over 55, then rules change. Over 60, maybe rules change again.

Speaker 2 4:45

Yeah, that's true. That's true. I think that's actually. We need to implement that. I like that, yeah, like you have to do it if you're no.

Speaker 3 4:54

You age up and you get more privileges.

Speaker 2 4:58

Even you age up and you get more privileges, even in Masters, even in Masters. Your humor, like I said, when you filled out this form, I think you titled the show, which I may use. I don't know the man who Likes Hand Paddles or something along those lines, and one of the PR photos for this show is you and your hand paddles after practice. But seriously, a lot of people can't wear hand paddles because it hurts their shoulders. But I want to get to your humor part. But your back? You said how does that balance with your back?

Speaker 3 5:31

Yeah, that's funny because other than I have a. So I had a herniated disc in my 20s and it's just lingered there for literally the last 30 years. And when I swim without a buoy, in particular, it just puts a lot of pressure on my lower back. I've learned to deal with it in the last 20 years without wearing a buoy and paddle so much, but as I've gotten older it's gotten less and less disc space. I used to be 5'8" and I'm not quite 5'8 anymore.

Speaker 3 6:03

So just doing that helps alleviate the pressure. But I say that back to your question. Is that really I've been incredibly blessed as a swimmer to not have any other kind of physical injuries. I've never had shoulder problems. I've never had any other kind of problems related to swimming which most swimmers cannot say and people ask me that about the shoulders and for whatever reason, I can pull as much as I want and it does not bother my shoulders, never has.

Speaker 2 6:35

I think part of that is you have a very efficient stroke, having swum a lot of yards or meters with has. I think part of that is you have a very efficient stroke, having swum a lot of yards or meters with you. I've watched your stroke underwater and I think when people have a really efficient stroke and they're just balanced your shoulders are balanced you don't get as many injuries. Maybe that's loosely a loose interpretation, but I believe that. So you're lucky.

Speaker 3 6:56

I am lucky. I believe that.

Speaker 2 6:58

Yeah, I've never had a shoulder surgery and I was in the 20,000 meter a day club back in the day, which I'm sure you were probably too but I believe in the hanging which you hang from a bar and that's really helped me and I always promote that on the show. But all right, back to humor. What, where did you get your sense of humor and what role does it play in your life?

Speaker 3 7:21

I don't really know. I think my dad always had a jovial personality. He's long deceased, or I say long deceased. He passed away about 17 years ago and it's funny. I'll relate that to the little grandbaby we have at our house and my wife has been sharing pictures of me with the baby and holding her and whatnot and just having fun with her, and my sisters got in these photos and they responded that Bill loves babies. Responded that Bill loves babies, and so I don't know. There's something about being a father and being a parent that makes you realize how important it is to be happy for your kids, and so that just has stuck with me as I've gotten older. And just try to have fun as much as you can. Life is hard enough as it is.

Speaker 2 8:18

Wow, that is really beautiful and deep. It's nice to be happy for your kids Now that's really great and for your grandkids.

Speaker 3 8:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:27

So I noticed that you wear clear goggles and I wear clear goggles. We swim indoors, let's make that clear, and Sarah Sostrom, the great Swedish, maybe the greatest woman swimmer of all time, wears clear goggles. But there is a Instagram and TikTok thing with swimmers saying the young kids think clear goggles are creepy, saying the young kids think clear goggles are creepy. So what are you about to say that clear goggles are creepy or not?

Speaker 3 9:00

There's no way clear goggles are creepy. I think clear goggles are the absolute best for indoor swimming, because swimming is a 360 environmental sport. It's not only the way your skin feels in the water and the way the how cold the water is or how the air is around it, but when you wear clear goggles it provides visual acuity that dark goggles cannot provide. There's you can see better, there's more. It just overall enhances that aspect of being able to compete. So, especially in my racing days, I always love to pull out a brand new pair of clear goggles because there was nothing like it in the world. And I've swum with dark goggles too. But I'm telling you it just there's in my mind that nothing ever beat clear goggles and if I'm going to keep swimming, I'll keep swimming with clear goggles.

Speaker 2 9:54

Yeah, I totally agree with you. And, being swimming a mile, the number of turns I spot with clear goggles and not dark. If you miss by your toes, miss by a small inch, then you might miss your record by an inch. That's right so yeah, and if Sarah wears them, then she's totally cool. Absolutely so that's a great answer, and so I just thought we fellow clear goggle wearers could answer that Stand together.

Speaker 2 10:21

For the Instagram trend, that seems to say. The question was they were asking a bunch of young kids, what creeps you out? And they said clear goggles.

Speaker 3 10:32

Well, to me that intimidates swimmers.

Speaker 2 10:33

Yeah, that's what we're going to say. It's intimidating.

Speaker 3 10:36

Yeah, because they can see our eyes. They can see our focus. Yes, yeah, I love it. That scares them.

Speaker 2 10:41

Yeah, yeah. We are coming up on the Olympics this summer and the Olympic trials Anything you're particularly looking forward to.

Speaker 3 10:50

I'm going to Olympic trials.

Speaker 2 10:51

You are going to Olympic trials? Oh, tell us about that.

Speaker 3 10:53

Yeah, so we're leaving on Sunday. We're driving to Indianapolis my wife and my youngest son, who's 16, and my in-laws. My father-in-law was a swim coach his whole life and so we got tickets through the Hanover hurricanes and we're going to three days Tuesday, wednesday and Thursday. So I'm just looking forward. Honestly, I'm looking forward to swimming, but I'm looking forward to two other things. One, just seeing Lucas Oil Stadium with a swimming pool in it. I was lucky enough to be in Omaha years ago and actually snuck into the building and looked at the pool then and that was really cool. I actually have some photos of that, so I'm looking. I'm interested in how that compares to what Omaha did. And then the other thing I'm looking forward to is I have arranged for my youngest son to swim with Josh Davis and he's putting on some swim clinics or swim sessions, so I've got my son signed up for four of those sessions. So I'm looking forward to just him having an experience of swimming with other kids around the country.

Speaker 2 12:04

Oh, that's so cool. Is Josh doing it in the Olympic pool or somewhere? No another off Ruth Lilly something and during the partially they're having the US Masters Nationals, but you're not going to swim in that.

Speaker 3 12:16

No, you're not competing. My competing days are that.

Speaker 2 12:19

They're done, you never say never, that's right.

Speaker 3 12:22

I just say maybe when I turn 60, I'll think about it.

Speaker 2 12:24

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 12:33

So is there anything that I have not asked you that you would like to share with our community? I have been incredibly blessed by the sport of swimming and I've never made NCAA finals. I never made an Olympic team. I think the sport of swimming gives back to me in ways that I hope many people who never competed at the highest level can take with them and have with them their whole lives. Like I said to you in my pre-interview questionnaire, I've been very lucky to be able to swim in the Maui Channel Relay. Four times I went to the, I did the Waikiki Rough Water Swim and somehow, even though it was my first open water swim I can't remember I finished second or third in my age group. So I had this walnut dish.

Speaker 2 13:30

Wow, nice yeah.

The Lifelong Love of Swimming

Speaker 3 13:37

Like a real beautiful award. Exactly, and it was the 25th anniversary of that swim, so again that's an anomaly for my overall success in swimming. But I would just say that if you love swimming or you just like being in the water, just keep doing it, because there's no downside to it.

Speaker 2 13:55

Yeah, you know, what always bothers me is when these kids announce that they're retiring from swimming. I wish they would just say I'm going to press pause versus I'm going to retire, because swimming is a lifelong sport. We should be doing it our entire lives, all right. Thanks so much, bill, for taking the time, and I'll see you in the pool. Absolutely Thank you, Kelly, so much.

Speaker 1 14:18

Thank you for listening to the Champions Mojo podcast. Did you enjoy the show? We'd be grateful if you would leave us a five-star review on iTunes to help others find us, and we'd also love to hear from you. We're on all social media platforms or you can reach us at championsmojocom.