Ron Aitken On What Makes His Current Generation of Sandpipers THE Sandpipers

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2023 issue of SwimSwam magazine. Subscribe here.

We often talk about athletes as “late bloomers.” A swimmer who doesn’t come around to show their full potential until late in high school or after the start of their college career. But coaches can be late bloomers, too. That moniker might fit for Ron Aitken — despite having been the head coach of the Sandpipers of Nevada for the last 29 years, his 29th year of coaching might just be his most successful one yet.

In the past, the Sandpipers have produced notable swimmers here and there, as sprint breaststroker Cody Miller swam for them in the late 2000s and went on to become a 2016 Olympic medalist, sprint freestyler Blake Pieroni who ended up medaling at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, and distance freestyler Erica Sullivan stayed with them through the 2021 Olympics and won silver at Tokyo in the 1500 free. But none of those swimmers as individuals lived up to the current momentum that Aitken’s club has in the desert — a group that has earned a combination of Olympic qualifications, World Championship medals, NCAA-winning times, and World Junior Records all before they became legal adults.

Names like 18-year-old Ilya Kharun, 17-year-old Bella Sims, 17-year-old Katie Grimes, and 16-year-old Claire Weinstein are what Aitken describes as “a combination of all the swimmers before them.” They’re all versatile, multistroke talents that are accomplishing things that older swimmers in the “peak” of their careers haven’t been able to pull off, and they’re putting the Sandpipers under a national spotlight as not just a top age group club, but as one of the places to be as a swimmer.

It is the accolades of his current swimmers that have Aitken getting named as a coach on international teams like the 2022 U.S. World Championships team, being one of the few club coaches in a college coach-dominated atmosphere.

So, what’s Aitken’s recipe for success? After talking with the Sandpiper girls’ trio of Sims, Grimes, and Weinstein, SwimSwam sat down with Aitken, and he discussed with us some of the things that make this group of Sandpiper swimmers the Sandpipers.

Backstory

After nearly three decades of doing the same job, how does Aitken keep going?

Aitken’s first coaching gig came back in 1994, two years after he had graduated from the University of Nevada. A friend of his had asked him to help out with the Sandpipers, offering him a position as the coach for the 8-and-unders. At that time, he had no experience coaching, so he wasn’t sure of how to get them to swim faster or improve their technique. But he did come to a revelation that has stuck with him ever since: swimming had to be exciting.

“I realized that kids needed to have fun, because they weren’t gonna come to practice if they weren’t having fun,” Aitken said. “So, I learned how to make it fun for kids to come to practice.”

As the years passed, Aitken continued to climb up the swim coaching rankings. In 1997, he was named the head coach of the Sandpipers. In 1999, he became the head coach of the swim team at nearby Bishop Gorman High School (after two years of coaching, he handed off his position to Sandpiper assistant coach Michael Kinross). In 2006, he added a new layer to his swim career when he opened the Bodyline swim shop out of his garage (he has since then moved the shop to a strip mall and hired someone to run the store). Slowly but surely, the Sandpipers grew from a club of 40 to 400 swimmers.

However, with success in Aitken’s current job came growing opportunities in other places, and there was one offer that he almost gave up the Sandpipers to take. Around 2005, there was a coaching position available to him that was closer to his hometown of Santa Paula, California, and he nearly left Nevada for it. But his contemplation of leaving in that moment was what made him realize that the Sandpipers was where he truly belonged.

At that time, Aitken’s club was highlighted by a group of up-and-coming 13/14-year-old stars, which included the likes of future Olympian Miller among others. If he left, he would never be able to help his swimmers live up to their potential, and he’d have to start all over somewhere new after spending so long building the Sandpipers from the bottom up.

“I’d have to reprogram a whole club team and get everyone to buy into what I’m doing,” Aitken said. “I’d be really dumb to leave this group of people coming up, and so I decided that it’d be better for me just to continue to grow the program the way I’m growing it.”

In addition, with Aitken’s wife eventually working at a nearby school district in the Las Vegas area and his son going to college at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, leaving the Sandpipers would mean leaving his immediate family. And as the Sandpipers grew more and more successful over the years, those other job offers just didn’t feel like they were worth it — he was in the best place that he could be.

“This program just keeps getting better, and I think there’s a lot of people in the country that would love my job,” Aitken said. “Why would I want to leave a place where a lot of people would want my job? I don’t think there’s a lot of better jobs out there than the one I’ve got.”

After 29 years and counting as the Sandpipers coach, he has seen his program reach heights never seen before in club swimming. With his swimmers and the sport of swimming constantly evolving, it was way too soon to stop.

Coaching at International Meets

The first time that Aitken established himself as one of the nation’s top coaches was in the summer of 2021, when he qualified three of his swimmers — Katie Grimes, Bella Sims, and Erica Sullivan — onto the 2021 U.S. Olympic team. However, that wasn’t enough for him to be named as a coach for Team USA, and his only option was to travel to Tokyo as an outsider looking in.

Aitken was allowed to be with his swimmers in Tokyo, but he had to face many limitations. There were certain meetings that he wasn’t allowed to attend, and he couldn’t be in the Olympic Village where all the athletes lived. In fact, he had nearly missed Grimes’ 800 free final because he was stopped by security while trying to enter the pool, which had happened due to an ID issue that wouldn’t have been a problem if he had been an official coach.

However, Aitken knew he had to push past all the troubles of not being an official coach, knowing that being there was his top priority. He had seen Sullivan struggle at past international meets without his guidance, and he didn’t want his swimmers to go through that during the biggest competition of their lives. In addition, talking to Bob Bowman, who had been in Aitken’s position when he coached Michael Phelps, also made him feel better.

“I had to keep telling myself that I was here for my swimmers,” Aitken said. “It’s not about me, it’s about them. And I made the best situation every single day to make sure that they were doing exactly what they needed to do and that they were having a good time. They didn’t see the difficulty that I was going through.”

A year later, when Aitken was named an official coach on the 2022 U.S. World Championships team upon the qualification of Grimes, Sims, and Weinstein, his experience was much better. Because it was his second year on a national team and because he was a “real” coach now, he felt that national team swimmers, advisors, and coaches trusted him more, whether it was to run warmup, track down splits, or manage various things.

As an official coach, USA swimming members were confident that Aitken wouldn’t just take care of his own swimmers, but the entire team as well. For example, throughout his time at training camps, he’s gotten the opportunity to work with Indiana’s Annie Lazor and Lilly King, Katie Ledecky, Chase Kalisz, Zach Harting, and Todd DeSorbo’s Virginia swimmers.

Aitken was one of the two out of six coaches on the Worlds team that were age group coaches, with the other one being Bruce Marchionda, who was then the coach of TAC Titans swimmer Claire Curzan. In addition, there was not a single age group coach that was on the 2021 Olympic team. Because of this, Aitken feels that he’s constantly in a “tug of war,” having to prove he belongs in these types of coaching environments all the time.

“We’re in a unique situation where we’re lucky enough to have kids that may be on these teams,” Aitken said of club coaches on international teams. “You almost feel like you’re not someone that they’re gonna expect to see every single time. We’re obviously doing things that are beyond the norm.”

Training

Aitken’s four best swimmers, Sims, Weinstein, Grimes, and Kharun, are all highly versatile, especially in short course yards. Sims and Grimes dominate in freestyle, butterfly, backstroke and IM, Kharun can do sprint butterfly and distance freestyle, and Weinstein has swum the 50 up to the 1650 free at major meets. This versatility came about because Aitken knew better than to pigeonhole young, developing teenagers into certain events — they had limits and potentials that haven’t been discovered.

For example, even if the event conflicts with the 400 IM and 1500 free, Aitken thinks the 200 back is one of Grimes’s best races and that she has at least a 2:07 in her right now (her best time is a 2:09.52). Weinstein doesn’t really shine in nonfreestyle events, but with her upper body strength getting better since she moved to the Sandpipers a year ago, Aitken thinks she has potential in the 200 fly.

“She’s continuing to make improvements [in the 200 fly],” Aitken said. “Last year, she swam her first 200 long course butterfly and went 2:16. I can see her potentially going 2:10 this year, and I’ve got two more years to work with her on that.”

Despite allowing his swimmers to race what they want at big meets, Aitken chooses events for them at small meets, which is another way he develops versatility. This also allows for him to reduce competition among his swimmers (the Sandpiper girls’ trio specifically), as in major meets, they typically swim the same events and are always against each other.

“Local meets are where my age group mentality comes in, where I want them to swim off races.” Aitken said. “They don’t like breaststroke because they think it’s embarrassing, and they don’t want to get beat by somebody that they don’t want to get beat by. But I want to see them in suits, improving in each race from the 50 to the mile and all the 100s/200s of every stroke, just for me to understand where they are in development.”

“If my mindset is to train kids for the 500 free and the 400 IM, I need to make sure that they are improving in all four strokes. That’s why I make sure they’re doing the local meets, swimming events they’re not used to. It’s good to be uncomfortable sometimes.”

The Sandpiper swimmers are incentivized by off events — if they go all out and swim a best time, Aitken promises that they’ll never have to swim the event again if they don’t like it.

An example of how “off event” racing worked out was through Kharun, who doesn’t enjoy swimming anything longer than a 200. However, at Winter Juniors back in 2021, Aitken made him swim the 500 free, as it was crucial for improving his finishing speed in other races.

“I said, ‘Look, if you can post a time that’s really respectful, you’re gonna get a lot of respect in your races, and no one’s gonna count you out about finishing anything.’”

Kharun ended up posting a personal best time of 4:20.55 in that 500 free race to place ninth overall. The improvements in his finish have been evident since then — for example, his last 50 was his fastest nonopening lap when he set his most recent best time in the 200 fly.

Despite the Sandpipers swimming a variety of events at meets, Aitken has them doing the same practices 90 percent of the time. And despite the stereotyping of his club as one that does thousands upon thousands of yards all the time, Aitken wants to dispel the distance rumors. He thinks that in terms of volume, the Sandpipers are in “the middle,” and that clubs doing 80,000-90,000 yards a week will cause swimmers to be ripe for burnout. In fact, the Sandpipers only go over 70K yards a week eight times a year.

Aitken’s statements echo what the Sandpiper girls’ trio said about their training — it’s not as intense as people make it out to be.

So, what does a typical Sandpipers training week look like? They do three doubles and three singles every week, with dryland, buckets, and pulley system work being thrown in as well. Many of their double sessions include a high-intensity aerobic practice followed by a shorter sprint practice, and strokes and events are alternated throughout the week. Notably, Aitken likes to format their training around the Olympic event schedule.

“I try to line them up closer to what the Olympic format will be,” Aitken said. “They’re gonna have to come out of the 800 and then swim the 200 the next day, so I’m trying to set their bodies up to race well.”

Another unique aspect of the Sandpipers is that they regularly train and swim at altitudes, which makes going back to sea level feel a lot fresher — if they can swim fast in difficult conditions, they can swim even faster in ideal ones.

All of the Sandpiper training gets formatted in a yearly 22-month cycle that goes from the fall to big meets like U.S. Trials, Worlds, and the Olympics over the summer, with Paris 2024 being the ultimate end goal.

To build toward that end goal, Aitken does PowerPoint-like analyses and holds “goal meetings” every four to six weeks with his swimmers, which are done for the purpose of breaking down race strategies for events that they will focus on during big meets. Those goal meetings are also where Aitken can discern what makes each of his swimmers stand out.

What Makes the Sandpiper Trio Unique?

So, what does make each of the Sandpipers stand out? When I asked this question to Sims, Grimes, and Weinstein, they didn’t know the answer. But Aitken was able to pinpoint all the little things about them that made them different from each other.

As the oldest of the group, Sims is the best at analyzing her practices and knowing exactly what she needs to execute in her swims to get better. This characteristic mirrors that of Sullivan, who was able to take exactly what she had discussed at her goal meetings into the 1500 free final at the Tokyo Olympics.

Outside the pool though, Aitken describes Sims as “24/7 high energy.”

“She’s just having fun and joking around all the time, but then she pushes off the wall and goes as hard as she can.” Aitken said. “She could be out of breath and just chat it up on the walls as fast as anybody else, and just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.”

Grimes is the quiet one out of the bunch, thinking more than she talks. She has high standards and sets lofty goals, but also doesn’t get easily influenced by what the people around her are doing, knowing what’s best for herself.

“She’s the more down-to-business girl,” Aitken said. “She could probably go a world record time and she’d be like ‘oh, you know, it wasn’t what I really wanted to do’. She’s tough on herself — she comes to work with her briefcase and she’s ready to go.”

Sometimes though, Grimes will show an “out-of-nowhere” type of humor, such as when she says an unexpected line in an interview.

Weinstein, Aitken says, falls right in between Sims and Grimes, being “laser-focused with a little bit of joking in between as well.” By far, she’s the biggest swim nerd of the three, constantly studying herself and the sport. She’s big on journaling, and can recall the exact time she did at a certain time and place.

“She can break down times like no other, and understands a lot better than most people when it comes to splits,” Aitken said. “She’s really big on her feel — it’s got to be perfect. She’s not confident until I get her to feel the water the right way, while the other girls never really talk about feel, they just go race.”

When everyone on the Sandpipers is equally as competitive as each other inside the pool, it is their humor and personality that separates them apart outside of it.

“There’s a certain humor that Bella, Katie, and Claire have, but they all want to achieve the highest goals they can achieve,” Aitken said.

What’s Next?

Short term, Aitken and the Sandpipers are working toward trials, Worlds, and eventually the Olympics. But then there’s the million-dollar question: What happens when his swimmers have to leave him one day, and how much faster can they get in college, considering that many of them are already swimming faster than the top NCAA swimmers? Have they hit their ceiling too early?

“Some people will say Ron’s kids don’t get faster in college,” Aitken said. “I don’t believe that. I had Erica [Sullivan] until she was 21, and she improved every year. It’s not about the age or taking them to the next level, it’s about the right coach, the right place, and the right program and these kids will get better.”

College is an “open discussion” with Aitken, and his first priority is that his swimmers are going to a place where they’d be happy even if they don’t swim. In addition, it’s also important for him that his swimmers trust their future coaches and have a support system that’s just as big as the one they have at home.

“College has got to be a place where you can see yourself finishing school and being happy there no matter what happens in swimming,” Aitken said. “What are you coming out of there when swimming is over? That’s really important.”

However, Aitken acknowledges the fear of not improving in college after reaching such a high level. That fear is part of the reason why Sims is still undecided about going to college in the fall of 2023 or staying at home to take an Olympic redshirt year, and it’s also the reason why Grimes hasn’t decided on a school despite being the top recruit in the class of 2024.

“We’re full support of Sims being the happiest she can be,” Aitken reflected. “It’s a tough decision. I mean you’re 18 years old, and you want something new. Florida’s doing great with the athletes they have, but there’s still the question mark regarding all the athletes that have gone from their club team to college and are not successful. So, it’s a huge gamble.”

With Grimes, Aitken tells her, “When you’re ready, you’re ready, and then you’ll know and just go from there.”

As I said in my Sandpiper feature, Aitken’s swimmers have already accomplished nothing short of incredible regardless of where they end up in the coming years. He’s built the club from the bottom up for the last 29 years, and this group of 400 or so swimmers out of Las Vegas doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.