A lot has happened over the last few months.
I have been overseas for 6 weeks in Europe racing and training, we
have had a few meets in Australia and the whole year has been pretty
much spent training...
When I meet people they usually ask me:
(A) Why do I swim?
(B) Why do swimmers spend so much time staring at the black line
when most of our races only last from 20 seconds to 2 minutes?!
(C) What keeps you going when you have so many set backs with
injury's?
All of those answers can be easily answered by two words.....
"Commonwealth Games!!!" But let me go into a bit more detail...
Firstly why swimmers spend so much time training... What a lot of
people don't understand is how technical and scientific swimming has
actually become over the years.
Although I don't swim an many kilometres a week as I used to when I
was younger, I actually spend more time training than I ever have...
Just a lot smarter.
Years ago training used to be a "toughest survive" scenario, people
who couldn't handle to training sets simply didn't make it.
Swimmers, no matter what speciality (sprint/distance) would all do
the same training. Sometimes getting up to 100km a week in hard
training, which is insane! And the core reason that swimmers used to
train that much is to get what we call "Feel" for the water. Having
"feel" for the water is the most important part of swimming I
believe, a lot of people think we simply just in the the water and
thrash are arms as we have been trained to do. But there is a lot
more to it than that, just like a cricketer practices his strokes in
between delivery's; swimmers practice technique day in and day out.
The more time swimmers spend in the water, the better we can "feel"
the pressure we are putting on the water, the angle at which we are
entering/exiting the water and also where we are creating/reducing
resistance on the water. That and the old motto "practice makes
perfect" is basically why we train so much, to practice perfect
technique so that when we get in that water and race, we are not
just moving our arms really fast.... We are swimming at high speeds
with hydrodynamic technique more efficiently that anyone else.
Thanks to science and increasing technology, we can no watch above
and underwater footage of our swimming, get very accurate bio
mechanics to tell us our speeds and velocity for starts turns and
free swimming too.
Secondly and more importantly why do I swim, and what keeps me going
when the going gets tough? Simple, major meets when I get to
represent my country doing what i love.
Meets like the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games are
experiences unlike any other for sports people. Even having been to
2 Olympic Games and 1 Commonwealth Games already, I still find it
hard to explain what it is that makes the experience so great. I
also haven't been able to find anything else that can replicate the
feeling.
There is nothing like standing in there, wearing the green and gold
tracksuit in front of thousands of screaming people, knowing that
you only have 48 seconds to achieve your dreams after years of
training. There is also nothing like seeing your name on the
brightly coloured scoreboard with the simple (AUS) next to your
name. But probably most importantly, and what feels the best. is
when you touch that wall, when all those years of training, all that
hard work pays off. Whether it is Gold, Silver, Bronze or even just
a Personal Best. It is the moment that you touch the wall that it
makes everything seem worth while. Looking up and seeing your
parents in the crowd, the screaming fans decorated in green and
gold, the whole Australian team with eyes on you. That pressure,
that excitement, the glory is what we live for.
No matter how tough training can be, no matter how many injury's I
get.. All I have to do it think about those moments and it is easy
to stay motivated
HOPE YOU ALL WILL WATCH THE AUSTRALIAN SWIM TEAM AT THE UPCOMING PAN
PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS IN USA IN AUSGUST AND THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES
IN DEHLI IN OCTOBER!
I have been overseas for 6 weeks in Europe racing and training, we
have had a few meets in Australia and the whole year has been pretty
much spent training...
When I meet people they usually ask me:
(A) Why do I swim?
(B) Why do swimmers spend so much time staring at the black line
when most of our races only last from 20 seconds to 2 minutes?!
(C) What keeps you going when you have so many set backs with
injury's?
All of those answers can be easily answered by two words.....
"Commonwealth Games!!!" But let me go into a bit more detail...
Firstly why swimmers spend so much time training... What a lot of
people don't understand is how technical and scientific swimming has
actually become over the years.
Although I don't swim an many kilometres a week as I used to when I
was younger, I actually spend more time training than I ever have...
Just a lot smarter.
Years ago training used to be a "toughest survive" scenario, people
who couldn't handle to training sets simply didn't make it.
Swimmers, no matter what speciality (sprint/distance) would all do
the same training. Sometimes getting up to 100km a week in hard
training, which is insane! And the core reason that swimmers used to
train that much is to get what we call "Feel" for the water. Having
"feel" for the water is the most important part of swimming I
believe, a lot of people think we simply just in the the water and
thrash are arms as we have been trained to do. But there is a lot
more to it than that, just like a cricketer practices his strokes in
between delivery's; swimmers practice technique day in and day out.
The more time swimmers spend in the water, the better we can "feel"
the pressure we are putting on the water, the angle at which we are
entering/exiting the water and also where we are creating/reducing
resistance on the water. That and the old motto "practice makes
perfect" is basically why we train so much, to practice perfect
technique so that when we get in that water and race, we are not
just moving our arms really fast.... We are swimming at high speeds
with hydrodynamic technique more efficiently that anyone else.
Thanks to science and increasing technology, we can no watch above
and underwater footage of our swimming, get very accurate bio
mechanics to tell us our speeds and velocity for starts turns and
free swimming too.
Secondly and more importantly why do I swim, and what keeps me going
when the going gets tough? Simple, major meets when I get to
represent my country doing what i love.
Meets like the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games are
experiences unlike any other for sports people. Even having been to
2 Olympic Games and 1 Commonwealth Games already, I still find it
hard to explain what it is that makes the experience so great. I
also haven't been able to find anything else that can replicate the
feeling.
There is nothing like standing in there, wearing the green and gold
tracksuit in front of thousands of screaming people, knowing that
you only have 48 seconds to achieve your dreams after years of
training. There is also nothing like seeing your name on the
brightly coloured scoreboard with the simple (AUS) next to your
name. But probably most importantly, and what feels the best. is
when you touch that wall, when all those years of training, all that
hard work pays off. Whether it is Gold, Silver, Bronze or even just
a Personal Best. It is the moment that you touch the wall that it
makes everything seem worth while. Looking up and seeing your
parents in the crowd, the screaming fans decorated in green and
gold, the whole Australian team with eyes on you. That pressure,
that excitement, the glory is what we live for.
No matter how tough training can be, no matter how many injury's I
get.. All I have to do it think about those moments and it is easy
to stay motivated
HOPE YOU ALL WILL WATCH THE AUSTRALIAN SWIM TEAM AT THE UPCOMING PAN
PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS IN USA IN AUSGUST AND THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES
IN DEHLI IN OCTOBER!
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