There was a time not so long ago when Aaron Clark would have described his swimming style as sort of “slapping at the water.”
But not anymore.
A junior on Emporia High’s swim team, Clark has a powerful stroke that pulls his muscle-lined body through the water faster and faster with each passing week. It is that form that has already produced State-qualifying times in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races, and he’s getting faster.
“His times right now are what I thought they’d be at the State meet,” EHS swim coach Bob Yevak said.
It’s amazing what having a bar removed from your chest can do for your swimming form.
“It was probably the most painful thing I’ve ever gone through,” Clark said. “With the bar in my chest, that was really tough. My stroke was shortened, and I wasn’t able to go as fast as I knew I could.”
During the first week of school back in August, Clark had a bar removed from his chest that had been inserted during the summer before his eighth-grade year to help correct a condition known as pectus excavatum. Clark was born with a concave chest, and it was a serious threat to his health.
Usually, treatment is not needed to correct the condition, and most people can lead normal lives without risk. Such was not the case for an athlete like Clark.
A routine physical before his eighth-grade year determined that Clark’s condition — he was originally diagnosed with asthma — was severe enough to warrant surgery. It was either surgery, or no sports — ever. A break from doctors orders could have cost Clark his life.
“The doctor said my lungs could have collapsed if I was hit playing football or something, and I could have died,” he said. “The doctor said I couldn’t do any sports unless I had the surgery done.
“I was definitely scared.”
So Clark had the surgery, and for three years, he lived with a bar in his chest that was designed to expand his ribcage so his lungs and muscles could develop properly. Sports of any kind were definitely out during his first year with the bar.
“The rehab for that was really tough,” Clark said, “because I was out of sports — and all physical activity — for two months after the surgery.”
It wasn’t until Clark’s freshman year that swimming entered the picture. Yevak approached Clark at church and asked if Clark was interested in joining the team, and Clark eventually agreed. A month before the start of the 2004-05 season, Clark became a swimmer.
But there was still the matter of a bar being inside of Clark’s body. He could not do most of the swimming strokes, as they caused the bar to tear at the muscles lining his ribcage. He often got tired more easily than his teammates, since his lungs and chest muscles were still developing.
Another more long-term problem also occurred. The bar that was expanding his chest took away Clark’s need to breathe as a normal swimmer would.
“The thing was, it (the bar) always kept his chest expanded, so breathing wasn’t a problem,” Yevak said. “He never had to work at expanding his chest out on his own to breathe as a swimmer would.”
Though he made it to State as part of a relay team his freshman year, Clark’s swimming career was slow to take off. He didn’t qualify as an individual in his first two years at EHS, and when the three seniors who were part of the relay team graduated, a trip to State as a sophomore never happened.
Still, because all the other strokes hurt him too much, Clark focused on the one stroke that was the least painful: the freestyle.
“I couldn’t really do any stroke expect for freestyle because the bar would tear at my chest muscles and on my sides,” he said. “I guess I got real good at the free.”
Finally, the bar was removed from Clark’s chest this past year, and it brought about a complete transformation. Clark dedicated himself to the weight room more so than he ever had or could before, and without a bar restricting his growth, Clark’s muscles grew, his lungs developed and he learned to breathe as a swimmer.
The growth has produced dramatic results in the pool. On Jan. 9 at the West Invitational in Topeka — Emporia High’s first swim meet in nearly a month — Clark qualified for State in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races, winning each race.
“I just don’t know what got into him,” Yevak said. “He knew he could do it. It was such a mental thing, especially for him.”
Then, two days later at last Thursday’s home invitational, Clark won both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events, and even dropped his time in the 100 from his State-qualifying 51.64 seconds to 51.01.
“He’s come a long way,” Yevak said.
There’s no more slapping at the water for Clark these days. Instead, his swimming stroke is such that he is able to set goals, like getting better qualifying times for State in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races, qualifying in the 200-yard free and making it to the finals of those events once he gets to State.
Those goals are possible now thanks to the bar that he lived with for three years, as inconvenient and painful as it might have been at the time.
“Without that bar, I’m able to move more freely, and my stroke flows. My body is able to rock with the water, and I’m able to go,” he said. “My body gets in a rhythm and I just go in the flow of things. It’s different from anything I’ve ever felt.
“Having that surgery done has definitely helped me do what I’ve done, and I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been in my whole life. Now I’m able to grow and continue in swimming.”