Legends Masters Architect and 200 Flyer Extraordinaire: Andy Kroupa, EP 317

Why Morning Swims Work

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I get out on lunchtime or I go in the morning early before and feel good during the day. And that's that's the best thing. So I love inspiring people, doing things that make people healthy and happy, being the leader by example.

Welcome And Meetside Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Champions Mojo podcast, where we bring you interviews and topics to help you live well and swim well, conversations especially meaningful for master swimmers and anyone striving to perform better in the water or in life. We're here to champion you. And now your host, Kelly Pallas.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

We are doing an on-deck interview at the Bumpy Jones Classic Meet in Sarasota, Florida. And it's a nice hot day today. 104 heat index. Water happened to be 83, but I am with my good friend and swimming extraordinaire. Swimmer extraordinaire is what I'm going to call him. Andy Krupa. And Andy, I know what team you are and how old you are and what you swim, but just share with our listeners your name, because maybe I didn't pronounce it exactly right, and your team and how old you are. And maybe start off with what you swam today.

Founding Legends Masters After Covid

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Sure, Kelly. Good to see you. As always, this is the first long course meet of the season for me. I'm Andy Krupa. I swim for Legends Masters Swim Club in Orlando. And I'm excited to be here. And this is the one day, one long course meet that I'm swimming all season. So it's go all in, right? So it's excited. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Great. And we'll get to what you swam today, but I do want to talk about the Legends Masters Swim Club, right? It's because it's LMSC, like local master swim committee. If you masters know that. So you were one of the founders of Legends Masters Swim Club. And tell us how that came about and who's kind of behind it, and maybe we can throw out a big name in there. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Yeah. So we started Legends right out of COVID. We got the name from Legends Swim Camp is run by Rowdy Gaines. So we said Legends would be a perfect name for a master's club. So as the why was winding down during COVID, we kind of said, okay, we're going to wind something up. And so we said, let's do Legends. So we got together, and as a larger group of Greater Orlando, we said, and we talked to Rowdy Gaines and we talked to Scott Bay, who's the coach at Ormond Beach, and we said, let's do this. And we decided we're going to get together. We're going to get a group of people that form Legends. So we we we did the Auburn colors here with the a little bit of Auburn, but also USA flag. So we said, let's get the group together. And we had over 50 people the first year sign up for us. And we swim in local meets as well as international and national meets. So I got back into Masters in 2011 because some of my friends decided they wanted to swim around Key West, my swim Florida buddies. And they said, Andy, come down to Key West and let's do this together on a relay. And I said, you know, I'm not in shape, guys, to do it, but I'll come down there and cheer you on and be your coach. And so I cheered them on and they finished that relay, and it inspired me to come back and get in the pool in Orlando and start competing and start swimming regularly. So 15 years later, I'm still doing it and I love it. It's the best thing that ever happened.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

That's so cool and great. That's a great background. So they're basically three coaches over Legends, which is shall we say it together? Brody Hines. We love Brody, right? Brody's in Dr. Phillips area, and you're in Winter Park. Winter Park. And then Scott's in Ormond. So, all

Best Events And A Fly Set

SPEAKER_01 3:51

right. So when looking through your swim record, one of your best events that I see that just blows me away is a 100-meter long course fly in 106. And that's just incredible. I can't do that freestyle all out. But tell us a little bit about your training. I see Brody's sets, and I don't know if you do those sets, but what is what is your best event or two? And then what is a set that you do that makes you excel at that?

SPEAKER_02 4:20

That's a good question. I like the 200 butterfly. That's always been my event. So I just swam the 200 meter butterfly today, and I am 57 now, so I'm in the middle of the age group. So I'm always going at least one or two times a year, the 200 meter fly, so I can maybe get a top 10. And it's always fun. So the way I swim in Winter Park with our our pool is quite hot right now. So we're always uh battling that with the other aquatic center. But we're we swim about 3,000 yards four days a week. So I swim Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Saturday. And so I try to fit in some fly at the end of some of the I Am or even the freestyle sets, just so I can get that fly in there. One of the sets I suppose we do, it and it's mixed. So we have a volunteer coach, Marilyn Nelson, who swam in in college herself. So she does a great job of mixing up the workouts quite a bit. And I would say one of my one of my favorites is five, one twenty-fives, where I'll go the last 25 fly, go a hard hundred, and then go 25 fly, and then keep the interval pretty tight. So get about 30 seconds rest. That that seems to work me out enough for that 200 meter fly.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

The first hundred freestyle? Yeah. So it's a fast hunter-free and then a 25 fly. Okay. One thing I was going to ask you have you done fly turns

Flat Wall Turns Versus Gutters

SPEAKER_01 5:48

in a flat wall versus the walls we have here, which have an open wall where you can put your hand in the gutter? Because the Olympians, it looks like they're just coming in on a flat wall. Do you notice a difference in those?

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah, I swim that to the flat wall in Seattle at the Long Course Nationals last year for the first time, really. And that was a difference where you touch flat and then you turn. I prefer to grab the wall. But it I had a really good time in that event last year. Maybe it was the pool, maybe it was the flat wall, maybe it was an indoors and not as much heat as today.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Yeah, today was crazy.

From South Dakota To Masters Return

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Okay, so your history of swimming, give us a just a little bit like where did you start out and how did you end up in master swimming?

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Yeah, I started at age nine in South Dakota, Rapid City, South Dakota. One of my friends said, Hey, let's go join the swim team at the local Y. So we rode our bikes down there, and I didn't know how to swim a lap of the pool. I didn't know any of the strokes. The first time I got in, the coach said, Yeah, you better go learn some strokes before you join the team. And but three months later, I guess I was pretty natural at it because three months later I was in the junior Olympics swimming the 50 back and third in the state. So I was like, Yeah, this is fun. I finally found my sport because I went through a couple other sports and just average. So this felt good. And so I I knew when I came to Florida later, my family moved down to Southwest Florida that I wanted to find a place to swim. And that's when I turned into a butterfly when the coach said, We need a butterfly for the relay. Andy, you're the guy. So I it seemed like through through age group, high school, and college, I swam at the University of Tampa, a D2 school, and I was uh two flyer there and on the relay butterfly. I I seemed to be the one that got lucky every time, and I was probably not the top flyer, good enough to be on that that A relay, just good enough. Yeah. Then I took a 20-year, almost 20-year break after college.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

So, University of Tampa and Jimmy Kiner. Did you know that, of course, they just won the Division II nationals?

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Second year in a row. I swam there three years and went to nationals my third year, D2, had such a great time, late 80s, early 90s. And we just a great group. The swimmers there. I think I love watching the D2 swimmers because they're right there. Of course, now they're a lot faster than we ever were back then. They're incredible swimmers. And so it's just great to see the growth of that school. The pool we had is no longer there, and they've got a whole new facility, and a lot of time and effort has been put into the program. And Jim is done an incredible job. And so I really love watching those swimmers and love to give it back to the program.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Yeah, we have been lucky enough to do a couple of master's workouts there in that new facility. And the first day we walked in there, I thought I was in like I had gone to swimming pool heaven. Have you seen it? Have you been in there? Have you swum in it? No, I haven't. Oh, it's covered around with queen palms all the way around it. And the sky is all the skyscrapers are lit. It is just, it's so beautiful, so magical. Ten lanes. It's not 50 meters, but it is incredible. And Jimmy Kiner is one of the nicest people. And he runs a master's workout 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. So you need to drop in. Yeah. Swim with him. What do you do for your real life day?

Work Life Training And Inspiration

SPEAKER_01 9:16

What does Andy Krupa do for your job and kind of for fun?

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Yeah. I work for a large company, traveler's insurance. I'm I manage a team of underwriters for workers' compensation. So from the office, right? I get out on lunchtime or I go in the morning early before and feel good during the day. And that's that's the best thing. So I love inspiring people, doing things that make people healthy and happy, being the leader by example.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

I'm sure you inspire your team with your swimming. Okay, second to last question.

Lunch With Missy Franklin

SPEAKER_01 9:49

What would be a top swimmer, dead or alive, male or female, if you could have lunch with them? Could be any any swimmer anywhere, historic or current.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

I'm gonna say Missy Franklin, because I remember I was volunteer timer with at the Nationals Meet in Orlando that she was in, and she was in my lane. And when she finished her hunter back, she got out and she said, Thank you for timing me. And I was like, You're welcome. You never hear a swimmer say thank you for timing. And I thought she's awesome. I'd love to have lunch with her. And she has a podcast now. So I listened as well as your podcast, of course.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Oh poor, Steve. Yeah, I love Unfiltered Waters. It's a great podcast. If you fellow swimmers haven't heard of it, of course you have, because it's the number one swimming podcast. There are actually a hundred and twenty swimming podcasts, and Unfiltered Waters just is number one all the time. Of course, they enter interview all the Olympians. They got the connections. We were number one in Norway this week. We've no, we've we've been we've actually been number one champions of motion, but we're usually in the we're usually in the top 10. I think we're the only master swimming podcast. So it's nice to talk to our fellow master swimmers.

Family Shoutout And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Okay, Andy, last question. Is there anything that I have not asked you that you would like to share with our listeners?

SPEAKER_02 11:10

I'd like to say hello to my wife. Michelle. And she's a big supporter of what I do and so happy when she's able to come see me swim and my family. I love them. I have two boys. They're into more of the ball sports. They play tennis and golf quite a bit. They didn't get into the swimming like me. I'm really happy for them. And that's all. I just want to share a little bit about my family too.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Yeah, that's beautiful. All right. Thank you so much for being on Champions Mojo, Andy. And we will not see you at the meet tomorrow, but we'll see you at another meet soon. Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Thanks, Kelly.

Leave A Five Star Review

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Thank you for listening to the Champions Mojo podcast. Would you consider leaving us a five star review on Apple? That's like getting a best time for us. Kelly and our team would be so grateful. See you next week for another Boost of Mojo.