Just how tough are you?

I often wonder if swimmers are pampered too much these days and perhaps not prepared to tough it out when that moment of crisis arrives. I believe coaches like Laurie Laurence had it right when he harried his swimmers into doing huge sets and often at times when they were not expected. It was not unusual for Laurie to drag his swimmers out of bed late at night in a swim camp after a gruelling days work and run them on the beach and sandhills for another hour. In this way, he emulated the deeds of one Percy Cerutty, another charismatic coach who worked marvels with his athletes on the sandhills of Portsea. Maybe they did not have it exactly right, for all their champions they too had failures but they showed the World their way was the correct way for those who were prepared to put everything on the line for their sport. It wasn't so much what the actual training effect would be but the toughening up consequence it would have on their minds -"Never surrender."

I remember a swimmer at the Auckland Commonwealth Games who had won the 200m freestyle from an outside lane. His name was Marty Roberts. He was being interviewed after the event and was asked to explain how this remarkable win came about. His reply stuck in my mind for ever.

"I was an average trainer for years, doing only what I thought was enough for me and constantly querying the programme. I was going nowhere so one day I decided to make a commitment to myself and coach. Every thing he told me to do from that moment on, I did without conscious thought". He went on " If he said jump, I simply asked, How high coach? It was difficult for me because I had always questioned the workload, now I just shut up and did the work and it paid off".

Comparing a top swimmers life with that of a professional tennis player comes up with some interesting comments which may turn out to be positive. The usual scenario for swimmers of past eras was to train for one season during the summer months and then compete in a number of lead up meets finally tapering for one big one. There are more "big" ones around these days and as a result swimmers train the year around only taking a week off here and there and maybe a longer regeneration after a really big one like the Olympic games.

The workload on today's swimmers as far as competition goes is much heavier than yesterday's stars contended with and is now approaching the same situation that confronts professional tennis players. Still, I believe there is quite a gap between the two. Tennis players have a solid season competing on a weekly basis from Continent to Continent ignoring such trivialities that concern swimmers like jet lag and tapering. They need to stay in top shape the year around - their very living, their ability to maintain match form, demands it- so they train when and where they can, no matter what the weather.

Track athletes also have a similar season. They too compete on a weekly basis at top meets where they are meeting the best of the World and therefore need to stay in top condition . No breaks for them either. Cyclists have an identical yearly program. Road cyclists in particular follow the huge endurance events in Europe where it attracts enormous crowds and subsequently, huge pay-outs to successful competitors. Australian Cycling coach Charlie Walsh is spoken of in the same breathe as Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan so I can well believe that the Institute cyclists would be on programs designed for stoics and masochists.! So, in comparison to Tennis players, Athletes and cyclists, are our swimmers sooks?

Do we need to toughen up their outlook on training and competition?. In past years many of our swimmers were children and could not be expected to do the work and racing commitments demanded of them today but these days more and more swimmers are opting to continue well into their twenties no doubt because of the financial attraction and the possibility of getting 'set up' for the rest of their lives.

Then we have to consider the requirements of swimmers such as Open water swimmers and the huge distances they compete; the distance pool swimmers from 400 up to 1500 who are now working and racing at speeds that were once considered common only for sprints. These people certainly know all about work and how to maintain it. The question for them is, do they need the same competition that sprinters need? Perhaps not but I do believe that is an aspect that could be addressed by swimmers, coaches and administrators of the sport.

Sprinters. That band of people who are constantly branded sooks for their much lesser input of work, albeit much more painful because of their neuro-muscular make-up, could certainly adopt a policy of upgrading their competition calendar. That great sprinter of modern times, Alex Popov is showing us the way in that regard and competes at regular intervals all over the World without seeming to lose condition or speed.

Not long ago in Australian swimming there was a definite policy within selection circles that because our sprinters, male and female, were not up to scratch with the rest of the world, it was of little value sending away sprint swimmers to compete overseas - a waste of money! A change in that thinking just a few years ago saw our poorly rated sprinters racing the best in the world and now, as a result of that enlightened strategy we can truly say there is depth if not yet right at the top of World domination. Both our swimmers and our coaches, with that experience behind them, have lessened the gap and it could be only a short time until our sprinters will be on a par with our 1500 men.