By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Patrick Park got an early lesson in heightened expectations from first-year Sun Devils swimming coach Bob Bowman.
One day in practice, Bowman asked Park, who swims the freestyle and butterfly, to try his hand at the 50 backstroke in practice. Park impressed himself by swimming a 31.2-second time.
"I was like 'wow that's good!'" Park said, laughing. "'I'm on a roll!'"
Not according to Bowman.
"After that, I was going back to the wall nice and easy. I'm the last one to the wall and when I got to the wall, he's like, 'Get out of the pool!'" Park said.
"I thought he was going to tell me I did such a good job and instead he's like, 'what the heck was that? You’re supposed to be one of the best swimmers here and you have a great opportunity in front of you. You have to show up. It doesn't matter what stroke it is, you have to have that great mindset all the time.'"
Bowman is certainly setting an uncharted tone for the program, but his expectations are higher for Park than most. Park was named the Pac-12 men's swimmer of the month for November after posting nine individual first-place finishes and nine first-place relay finishes. He is the first Arizona State swimmer since C.J. Nuess in December of 2007 to earn the award, and just the third all-time.
At the Art Adamson Invitational in College Station, Texas,
Park clocked a 47.33 in the 100-yards fly and 1:44.72 in the 200-yards fly. He also swam in the 400-yards relay (2:54.84) and 800-yards relay (6:29.91), winning both events with the fastest times in the NCAA at both distances at the time.
"He's got unbelievable natural speed," Bowman said. "He could be at the top of the NCAAs and he could be our first Pac-12 champion in an event."
For Park to achieve such lofty status, Bowman said the sophomore (like many college kids) must manage his life away from the pool so he remains healthy and remains focused.
"I do think he's growing and he's very open to suggestions so he's exactly what I'm looking for," Bowman said.
Bowman and his staff are currently working on a pair of technical aspects of Park's stroke. They want Park to pace himself in the freestyle rather than using a sprinter's stroke, and they have completely revamped Park's kick.
"Typically, somebody uses the dolphin kick underwater, then they would do flutter kick to transition to their stroke," Bowman explained. "With Patrick, he would be going really fast on the dolphin kicks and as soon as he started fluttering, because of the way he did it, he would just stop. He lost all momentum from the dolphin kicking."
Instead of working on the flutter, Bowman and his staff asked Park to take a page out of swimming icon and Bowman pupil Michael Phelps' book. They asked him to eliminate the flutter altogether -- go straight from the dolphin kick to his stroke.
"At first, when (associate) coach Ryan (Mallam) told me to try it I was like, 'I'm not Michael!'" Park said. "But when I tried it, I got it right away and it has definitely been huge for me. It's like a slingshot."
Park has extra motivation this season after spraining his ankle severely a week before the 2015 NCAA Championships last spring.
"I've been swimming with a chip on my shoulder since the summer," he said. "I was so disappointed last season because my relay team was looking to me [to help compete] and we came up short. It was partly my fault for not being able to perform."
Park and his teammates are on winter break until Jan. 16 when they host Wyoming at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, but Park insisted this wouldn't feel anything like a break.
"These next five weeks are go time," he said. "We're using it as a stepping stone and you will see the results when we get to the Pac-12 and NCAA Championships."
With Bowman, an elite staff and occasional appearances from Phelps to buoy the team, Park is certain the Devils are dialed in to the task at hand.
"I grew up watching Michael Jordan but for us swimmers, Michael Phelps and Bob Bowman are the Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson of our sport. Being able to work with those two is a blessing," he said.
"I feel like ASU lost a little bit of its tradition when the guys team got cut in 2008, but little by little, I can see Bob starting to bring some tradition back into this place with his expectations. He expects so much from you and you'd better keep up."