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VOL. XVII No. 6

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2001

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CONTENTS National Youth & Age Group Program............................ 1 Ian Thorpe’s feelings about the Terrorist Attack.............. 2 ASCTA Tasmanian Branch – Moving Forward............... 4 Swimming Psychology..................................................... 4 Back to School with Dr. David Pyne.............................. 11

Mix & Match or straight up? A View on Workout Design ...11 Model 14-Day Taper: Transition from Training to Racing ...12 Training for Middle Distance & Distance Swimming Events14 Coach, I can’t get my Heart Rate up (or down)! ...................17 The Physiological Basis of Fatigue.......................................20 How to Monitor Body Composition......................................21

Motivating your Swimmers............................................ 24 Promoting Performance through Injury Prevention ....... 26 Duty of Care – Part 2...................................................... 28 A Swimming Club’s Training Program ......................... 29 The Secret Weapon of Champions ................................. 34 Learn-to-Swim: Back to School with Ron Coleman ...... 37

Learn to Swim.......................................................................37 Teaching the Kick .................................................................38

Learn to Swim ................................................................ 40 Reflective Practice for Swimming Teacher...........................40

Aquatic Programming for Able-Bodied & Disabled Infants: Part 1 ................................................................. 41 Aquatic Programming for Able-Bodied & Disabled Infants: Part 2 ................................................................. 44 Letters to the Editor........................................................ 47 Building the Perfect Swimmer or D-I-Y Genetic Engineering for Swimmers & Coaches .......................... 51 ASCTA Tasmania October 2001 Clinic................... 54 DQ’ed!: Dealing with Disappointment .......................... 55 Prevention & Cure of the Age-Group Syndrome ........... 56 The Official Word – 10 Points of Self-Evaluation ......... 58 Bad Pain vs Good Pain................................................... 59 Analysis of National Results for Australian Athletes..... 60 World Top LC Swimming Performances....................... 62 FINA News .................................................................... 73 WSCA Newsletter .......................................................... 77

Olympic Trials Project ..........................................................77

Team Talk ............................................................................ 82 Unnatural Selection .............................................................. 84 Even My Eyebrows Hurt!..................................................... 87 Boys ..................................................................................... 89 Hormonal Doping & Androgenization of Athletes: Part 1 ... 91 Preparing for the Million Dollar Challenge.......................... 99 Einstein’s Golf Lesson ....................................................... 102

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S W I M M I N G i n A U S T R A L I A – N o v e m b e r - D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 1

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NATIONAL YOUTH & AGE

GROUP PROGRAM

By Leigh Nugent, National Youth Coach

ROLE OF THE NATIONAL YOUTH COACH • Create a National Strategy for the development of

Youth and Age swimmers in the country. • Provide opportunities for Coach Education &

Skill Development. • Through Australian Swimming, create

international competition opportunities for swimmers in the Youth category.

• Identify talented swimmers and coaches and provide the necessary support to fast-track where appropriate.

• Coordinate all activities with the master plan set by the Head Coach of Australian Swimming Inc.

• Provide swimmers and coaches with the skills to be able to perform at an international level prior to selection on a team.

NATIONAL YOUTH PROGRAM STRATEGY

• Develop a plan for the progress of the Age Group

and Youth swimmer for Athens and Beijing. • Set up and conduct National Training Camps for

Age and Youth swimmers. • Coordinate with the State Associations to provide

a national focus on the direction of their swimmer/coach development through camps and competitions.

• Provide support to swimmers and coaches through program visits.

• Encourage multi-state camp initiatives. • Provide new and enhance current national and

international competition initiatives. • Strive to achieve the highest standards possible in

National, State and Home Program activities. • Introduce new and develop currently established

Sports Science initiatives. • Encourage coaches to practice the tried and true,

yet be creative and innovative in their programming.

• Create an environment where experienced and less experienced coaches freely interact with the transfer of knowledge.

• Identify the strengths and weaknesses in our program and institute initiatives to improve or overcome.

THE CAMP PROGRAM

NATIONAL CAMPS • National Youth Camps:

3-4 per year depending on budget. This year, I have targeted Women’s Sprint Freestyle, Women’s Distance, Women’s Medley and Men’s Breaststroke

• National Age Camp (was Tip Top): One camp per year. Mostly National Age Gold Medallists. Girls 13-15 and Boys 14-16. There are usually 50 to 55 swimmers involved.

All of these camps are multi-focused as they provide for the swimmer … a training and educational experience. For the coach, they provide the experience of coaching in a team environment, as well as being subjected to the various skill development and educational experiences that are built into such camps. Educational Components • Sports Science – physiology/biomechanics • Flexibility • Strength and conditioning • Psychology • Nutrition • Career and education • Swimming knowledge STATE CAMPS State Camps have a coordinated National approach but are tailored to suit the specific needs of the State. Each State has a State Coaching Director responsible for conducting State Camps. I work closely with these Directors in developing the Camp Program and content. These camps generally mirror the characteristics of the National Camps. The State Camp Program has a broader structure in that it covers the State Institute swimmers down to the young age grouper in the development squad area. All States are very active in this area conducting a number of camps and activities annually for each category. Multi-state camps are an avenue to value-add to our already comprehensive State Camp Program. It is sound logic to conduct camps with two or more States involved. By doing this, we have improve utilisation of resources – financial, human and facilities. It provides a more stimulating environment for the swimmers and the coaches.


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COMPETITIONS

International competition is an essential component for the development of Australia’s youth into becoming the skilled international performers currently involved in our National team. Thanks to the AOC and Australian Swimming, two new competitions were added to our competition calendar… 1. Sydney Youth Olympics – 18 years and under

– Pan Pac format – held every two years. 2. East Asian Games – held in Asia every four

years. 3. Oceania Championships – has been on our

calendar since 1993 – used to be conducted every four years but now looks like being every two.

4. National Age Series is a proposed annual competition, involving three Australian State Teams and, hopefully, some international teams as well.

NUTRITION PROGRAM

A joint program between ASI and Sports Dieticians Association of Australia has been developed for the National Youth Program. This program will involve a specially trained dietician to live for a week with the swimmers at our National Training Camps. This will allow the dietician to work with a small group of swimmers and interact with them when they are not required for training. Practical and theoretical nutrition advice will be provided in the living environment and will encompass daily nutritional needs – food group requirements, menu preparation, purchasing to a budget, cooking and meal preparation. WEAKNESSES COMPARED TO THE WORLD

IN AUSTRALIA’S SWIMMING

Women’s Backstroke – 100 and 200 Men’s Medley – 200 and 400

Women’s Butterfly – 100 and 200 Men’s Breaststroke – 100 Women’s Sprint Freestyle

Women’s Distance Freestyle 400 and 800 Women’s Medley – 200 and 400

Ian Thorpe’s feelings about the Terrorist Attack

Reproduced from “Swimming World” 22nd September 2001 We have now all seen the horrific pictures from New York and America – spoken to friends and family about this terrible tragedy – and had a tiny amount of time to ponder the inconceivable. I experienced New York. I’m not happy about the fact that I am able to write about it today – grateful – but not happy. If not for it, I would now be travelling, mixing a little business with pleasure. My travels were a high priority for me – it gave me a chance to unwind and let my hair down. Now, as I sit and think about the trip I was to make, it is not important … it doesn’t matter. I find it amazing that, in the blink of an eye, my life changed around me. My thought process changed – as did my priorities. I took a look at my life and what I prioritised as being important … it was scary. I then thought about what I have put off and, even scarier, what I had put on instead. I think we all delay things until tomorrow, and one day there isn’t going to be a tomorrow. I questioned myself … why? Why did it take me, and others around me, to experience an event like this to wake up and do what is right for ourselves and those important around us … get back to the important things in life? Why? I began my travels, arriving in New York late Monday evening. The Greek taxi driver who was driving a friend and me to our hotel was bragging about how great the weather had been. Ironically, it started to pour. I don’t mind sitting in traffic in New York – it means that without looking like a tourist you can look up at the amazing skyline that towers and engulfs you. New Yorkers don’t look up at the buildings. I awoke early the following morning, just in time to go for a run and a walk before my day really got underway.


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I ran from my hotel from midtown to Central Park, and by the time I got there I was surprised by what an incredible day it was. I proceeded to run downtown from the park. I then walked (swimmers can’t run!). I was “feeling” the energy of New York … something I can’t explain nor could anyone else … without experiencing the city. I continued to walk further and further downtown. I reached the WTC plaza and looked to the sky in awe. These twin towers were incredible – a defining landmark in the capital of the world. I walked back to my hotel to get Michelle Flaskas, my manager’s wife. We were looking at going to the top of the tower on this particular day. I had been to the top of the tower, but not on a day like this. I hurried Michelle to get ready to beat all the people and queues. As Michelle got ready, I went back to my room and haphazardly turned on the television, to see one of the twin towers on fire and then the next to be struck by a plane. I quickly ran to Michelle’s room to tell her to turn on the TV, only in time to hear the President announce this disaster as a terrorist attack. We watched in disbelief as these monuments to man burnt and bellowed smoke like two giant chimneys. I could not fully comprehend that what was on TV was outside my hotel and down the street. It was, in some way, that I was involved in this news broadcast because I was in New York. New York is usually a brash, harsh place where most people seem single-minded. It is a place which most outsiders could misunderstand without experiencing it. It is a place where you can be, feel or try to be, anything that you want. I saw a city change. I saw the good that shone from those that are always criticised. New York was like a small country town of millions. People came together – everyone supported one another. Everyone responded to a disaster with a level of the highest distinction in human nature and love … love for each other … supporting those who had loved ones lost or known someone involved in this tragedy. The buildings were so large that everyone in New York knew someone. They were a sign of the strength

of capitalism. Maybe they weren’t big enough as a symbol of the great people and the spirit that they showed in New York. The flow of people that streamed north from the devastation was like a school of fish – one following the other. There were so many faces – in any other circumstance too many to look at – yet on that one day, each one a lasting memory in my mind. One thing that really sticks out in my mind was the night I went down to Union Park on 14th Street. There were hundreds (later in the week it became thousands) of people there, lighting candles in remembrance and in respect of those lost. People singing songs to lighten the mood a little and to help everyone to come together. But it was the individual messages people were writing – some advice to the President – others hatred towards those responsible for this act of terror … but mostly little thoughts of wisdom. This was capped off by a very emotional sight when four New York fire fighters walked past. People rose to their feet to give them a standing ovation. I joined the clapping and cheering, while some cried in appreciation for their fighting spirit and courageous, selfless acts. I had seen now the best New York had to offer. It wasn’t the breathtaking skyline … it wasn’t Wall Street … it isn’t anything that you can build. It was humans themselves and the human spirit that we can all show. I cannot understand completely what people are going through. I was simply there – not involved – just present. I hope that one day we can share in the fact that this will never happen again. Now is certainly a time for justice – but not revenge. Our thoughts are with those who have been lost in this tragedy and our hearts go out for all the Australians who have lost, and to our brothers and sisters around the world who have also lost.


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ASCTA Tasmanian Branch… Moving Forward

By Rachel Kim Rickards ASCTA Tasmanian Branch President

August 2001 Forum The President Tasmanian Branch of ASCTA, Rachel Rickards, with the help of Fiona Redgrove has, in recent months, taken considerable steps towards the development and future success of the State’s coaches and teachers and, on a broader scale, swimming in Tasmania. Also of extreme importance is our commitment to breaching the gap previously formed between coaches and teachers, placing emphasis on the creation of positive working environments and interaction throughout the State. A group of enthusiastic and motivated coaches and teachers from around the State seized the opportunity to take part in a forum promoting the interaction of swimming schools and clubs, networking, expression of ideas, and many other topics integral to the direction of our industry. The forum also provided the chance to form a solid base from which the ideals and future aspirations of our organisation can be derived, while also prompting the continued enthusiasm and education of those involved. Social interaction and the strengthening of relationships within Tasmania’s swimming fraternity was enabled through the staging of such an event, with coaches and teachers of all levels and sectors sharing ideas on a wide variety of topics. As a result, the future interaction of swimming clubs and schools from throughout Tasmania has been initiated – subsequently leading to the development of our sport within all areas. ASCTA Executive Director, Michael Ursu, in attendance at the forum, demonstrated his commitment to the assistance and education of coaches and teachers – while also gaining valuable feedback regarding future directions and associated ideas. Among numerous initiatives discussed was the prospect of forming a committee, those involved listed … Corrina Travers, Fiona Redgrove, Denise Palmer, Gary Penicott, Sandra Yaxley, Steven Morris and Tony White. The next time ASCTA Members will be coming together will be on the 13th and 14th October, when David Urquhart will be giving up his time to come to Tasmania in order to help run a clinic weekend for Coaches and Teachers. The future of the Tasmanian Branch of ASCTA, within all sectors of the association, is undoubtedly bright – with the determination and commitment to future successes and development. Educational clinics involving coaches and teachers are among several current and future objectives, with our short-term goal being for Tasmania to hold an ASCTA mini-conference, encouraging all coaches and teachers to work together for the benefit of swimming. We look forward with optimism and are confident of future achievements.

Swimming Psychology By Craig Townsend

Craig Townsend is Director of “It’s Mind over Matter” in Sydney, Australia, and has worked in the in the area of mental training for swimming, sport and personal development for over a decade. He believes in empowering people and teaching cutting-edge skills to extract the utmost from their talent.

Tip No.21 MAINTAINING FOCUS FOR

A WEEKLONG MEET How can a swimmer possibly remain focused over

a 5-6 day meet? How can you be positive about swimming a final tonight if you’ve only qualified in the heat in 4th place this morning? The answer to these questions is this…

Switch on, then switch off. What I am trying to say is that swimmers require a special mental approach, which I call ‘switch on, switch off concentration’. This means you have to switch your concentration on for a race, but once the race is over you must switch it off again. Switch on, switch off. Then when it’s time to swim another race, you do this all over again. Let me explain how to do this. Before a race, you have to ‘focus’ upon it, to get yourself into the right mental state to swim well. But here’s the part that most people don’t know. Once the race is over, you must mentally switch yourself off and detach from the race (regardless of how you went in the heat swim). You see, if you think about that last swim all day before your next race, you are going to be mentally exhausted by the time you get there! Believe it or not, your mind does not like to think about the same thing all day long, it wants some variety! So if you’re worrying all day about a heat swim that didn’t go so well, you’re not going to be in your best shape for the heat that night, in fact, you’re going to be feeling very tired for that race. Why? Because if your mind controls your body, then it makes sense that when your mind gets tired, then your body is going to feel tired as well! So if you want to have lots of energy, then you need to rest your mind (as well as your body). A rested mind makes the body feel rested, too. So the best thing to do after you’ve ‘switched yourself on’ for a race is to switch off and forget about it for a while. Once the race is over and you’ve warmed down, have some fun. Chat to some friends or your family, watch some of your friend’s races, read a


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book, talk to your coach, have a laugh, go outside for a while … just think about other things for a while to recharge your batteries for your next race. Then as your next race approaches, you take some time to begin ‘switching on’ – visualising the race you want to swim, talking positively to yourself ... then you go out there feeling mentally and physically refreshed, recharged, rejuvenated and ready to blow them out of the water! Don’t get me wrong, however, if you swim a fabulous heat in the morning, ENJOY it for a while! Think about how great you were, how brilliant you feel, how great everyone thinks you are, how those poor unsuspecting swimmers never had a chance against you ... but then, switch off. You can always come back and think about it again later, and there’s the rest of your life to look back on that fabulous achievement. But don’t just think about the race all day, or you will get tired. This is the approach to take when you have long days at the pool – switch on, switch off, and it’s the way to stay ‘tough’ mentally and physically for every single race throughout the meet. Try it. If you take care of your mind, it will take care of your body.

Tip No.22 HOW TO TURN AROUND A BAD DAY

What do you do when you have a meet coming up, but suddenly find that you cannot think one positive thought? Plus, what do you do if you don’t BELIEVE that you can swim a particular time, or beat a certain competitor? The answer lies in your thoughts, and surprisingly, your ‘reasons’. What I am talking about is … the reasons why you think you CAN, versus the reasons why you think you can’t. It’s a constant battle between the two every day you get out of bed. It really is a case of “which one will win today? For instance, if you find yourself feeling a little down about a meet this weekend – all this means is that your mind has found more reasons why you CAN’T do well, than positive reasons why you CAN! Your negative reasons could be a whole range of possibilities – “I won’t do well because of ... the water temperature, sickness, recent slow times, I don’t like the pool, I never been Ian, my dog died last week!” … and so on. This is quite simply a case of: Negative defeated Positive – by 10 reasons to 3! Needless to say, when this happens, you don’t feel very motivated to go out there and show the world

what you can do! In fact, it usually makes you feel unmotivated, tired, slow, depressed, etc., etc. So all you have to do to change this all around is to reverse the process, and start coming up with heaps of reasons why you WILL succeed! Now here is the secret… As soon as you can think of MORE REASONS why you will succeed, than reasons why you might fail, you will succeed. Your motivation and positive energy will come back and you should put in a fine performance. The trick is to program your mind by focusing on the positive reasons, not the negative - and at first this can be very difficult! When you are feeling negative, you often cannot think of any good reasons at all why you’ll succeed! This is very common, so don’t worry, just continue to focus upon the positive reasons, and eventually a few small positive reasons will come to mind ... e.g. “I will succeed because I’ve done well in the past” - not a world-beating reason but at least this is a start! Then, continue to do this, and the longer you do, the more you will find that these positive thoughts will appear more and more until your mind becomes flooded with thoughts of success. Soon you’ll have a whole bag of reasons why you will succeed: “I’ll swim great because ... I feel great today, and ... I’ve done some good times in training, and ... I beat (Ian/Mary) here last year, and ... my coach thinks I can do it, and ... these are my best events, and ... I’m going to show them what I can do” … etc. Once your mind is thinking this way, you are programming your inner computer for success. Remember, your mind works just like a computer, and so your swim is the computer ‘printout’ – yet your computer can only print out the data YOU put into it – garbage in, garbage out, as they say. So feed your mind great reasons why you’ll succeed and you will bring out the best in yourself!

Tip No.23 HOW IMPORTANT IS A

REPUTATION? How important is a swimmer’s reputation? Does it have an effect on other swimmers?

Sure it does, overall a swimmer’s reputation has a huge effect on most competitors – but here is a piece of information about reputations, which you may never, ever want to forget. A swimmer’s reputation is ONLY powerful if you ALLOW it to be! If you take the approach that you are only swimming for second place because you think your competitor is too good, you have fallen into the reputation trap and will probably swim a slow time –


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and yet if you pay no attention to it at all during the race, it will make no difference at all. If you have a reputation yourself, by the way, this is great news, because many competitors are quite intimidated by reputations and will often swim badly against you in meets. This is a fact! It even happens at the very peak of the swimming world. I read a few days ago that Lenny Krayzelburg, the world champion 50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke titleholder, said that he wanted to instil in his rivals the mentality that they were racing for second place, and that when it came to major events like the Olympic games, the gold medal was already gone. This is very clever thinking, despite the fact that it has apparently brought some strong words in reply from other swimmers (who say they refuse to swim for second place). Before I mention why, let me say that I generally would not recommend most Club swimmers to try this tactic unless you have the performances in the pool. The fact is – Lenny’s words carry a lot of weight because of the fact that he is the world champion, and he can back up much of what he says with his performances in the pool. However, by saying this to the other swimmers, all he is really trying to do is place a very tiny seed of doubt in his competitors’ minds that is all that may be required to get a slight edge over them. If his competitors do not beware, these small seeds of doubt can turn into fear, and subconsciously they could find themselves swimming for second place. We’ve discussed in the past how small things such as your mental attitude and your body language can influence your competitor’s morale – and certainly if you can create a reputation for being a strong performer it can make it mighty tough for your competitors mentally. Kieren Perkins has used some powerful mind games in past years to set up an aura of invincibility around his reputation, which seemed to make others feel like they were swimming against a legend instead of just another competitor – however some contenders are now making strong claims to take over his place on the pedestal. Perkins said at the Atlanta Olympics that the mind is so powerful that certain swimmers could actually control the pace of the entire race – he mentioned that when Alex Popov slowed down, the others seemed to slow down as well – almost as if he was orchestrating the whole race himself! This is the power a reputation can have, but if you don’t have a great reputation yet, then this is an

important thing to do; don’t give anyone else’s reputation the time of day. Don’t respect it, forget it – and remind yourself that they will only be as good as their time on THAT particular day, not from the results of the past two years. Reputations can be a big trap if you allow yourself to fall into them, so by all means, cultivate your own reputation, but never worry about anyone else’s at all – because if you pay no attention to it, it will have no power over you.

Tip No.24 REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY CAN TAKE

THE PRESSURE OFF There are champion swimmers who occasionally

use unusual approaches to achieve their goals. Some of these unusual methods may not be great for all swimmers to copy, yet some may find these alternative methods very helpful. Here is an example of an unusual approach, which may (or may NOT) be useful to you. You be the judge. Susie O’Neill admitted this week, after qualifying for the 2000 Australian Olympic team and breaking Mary T. Meagher’s 19 year old Butterfly record, that she uses pessimism to help reach her goals! What this means is that she actually tells herself that she probably WON’T achieve her goals and so there is nothing to feel pressured about – in fact (in her mind) she probably believes that the pressure is really on her competitors! This is often called ‘reverse psychology’, which is where you pretend to yourself that you believe the opposite of what you REALLY believe. If that sounds confusing, you’re right! To help make this clearer, I’ll say it again – you pretend to yourself that you believe the opposite of what you really believe. This can take the pressure off you, and you can place it onto someone else! A highly-rated swimmer who is often under the pressure of being expected to win could find this to be a great pressure-release technique, but be warned – this method will not work for everyone, it will only work for particular swimmers. So it is definitely something to try for smaller races first, and see if it works for you, before you try using it for the big meets. The reason why pessimism can be effective for certain swimmers is this; some swimmers feel that there is already enough pressure on them (from others) to perform, without them having to apply any extra pressure on themselves by also expecting to win! After Susie O’Neill disclosed this fact about her attitude, several others also admitted to using the same method. Pessimism (when used correctly) can actually be a way of mentally relaxing, by


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‘deceiving’ yourself into believing that there is absolutely no pressure on you, and that you can relax and just go for it. This allows you to go out and swim a more ‘relaxed’ attacking race – instead of trying too hard and possibly holding back, which quite a lot of swimmers can often do. It is important to know that this approach would not work for a swimmer who is struggling to find confidence; they would definitely need a more positive, upbeat approach. A negative approach would only reduce their confidence even further, and so this approach must not be used to extreme measures, even by confident swimmers. The ‘pessimistic’ approach can really only work well for swimmers who are already in the spotlight and wish to get away from the pressure a little – and even many of those may much prefer a positive approach. Another benefit Susie O’Neill found from being pessimistic is that it prevented her from ever being complacent after a great swim, she always knows that she must continue to work hard and improve even further. The key is to experiment - find out which mental approach works best for you, and once you find one that works for you, stick with it!

Tip No.25 CREATE YOUR DREAM RACE

I am sure you, like most swimmers, have experienced a time when you felt like you were in the zone, where every action flowed absolutely perfectly and effortlessly. These are times when you feel, even just for a few minutes, like you are the world champion. Well, those times when you felt invincible can propel you towards even greater success in the future!

You can do this by mentally constructing your own “dream race”.

This is something you can use and practice in training, so that when you reach the big meets; you will be ready to put your dream race into action. Here’s how you do it. First of all you need a pen and paper, and then I want you to really think hard through the archives of your memory bank, because I want you to remember the time and the place that you did the ‘best dive you’ve ever made’. Yes, you CAN remember if you try hard enough! Your best dive ever ... think for a moment. OK, once you’ve remembered, write down the word “Dive” on the paper, followed by the location, date and the event where you had this fabulous dive. Now, I want you to think back over all the meets and training you’ve done in the past and remember

the best 50m you ever swam in your life, in your favourite event (or you can even use an entire race, if you like). Then, write it down next to the word “Race” (including the location and event you did this). Now, remember the best turn you’ve ever done (this might take some real brainwork to remember this one, but you can do it if you keep your mind focused on it). Once you remember your personal best turn, write down the location, date and event (naturally) next to the word “Turns”.

OK, we’ve nearly finished creating your dream race.

Now, last of all, remember your most brilliantly powerful finish ever, think of one that really stands out – and write down the time and place of this next to the word ‘Finish’. Your dream race is complete, and you are ready to use it. Now look at the paper and look at the best race segments you’ve ever swum – your best dive, your best laps (you use the 50m lap you wrote down for every single lap of the race), your best tumble turns, and your best-ever finish. OK, now close your eyes, and now join that race all together in your mind, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle of film and video clips. Put them all together as one race, and this is now the movie of you at your absolute best! Mentally play this through your mind regularly, especially at training, and make this dream race your goal to achieve in training and the meets. Then, rewind and play it through your mind again, and again, and again until you know it backwards. When you can do this, you will soon notice your times coming down and the quality of your strokes improving. As time goes by and perform even better dives, laps, turns and finishes, add these to constantly update your dream race, taking out any old race segments which are no longer your best ever.

So if you haven’t done created your dream race yet, go and do it right now.

Use this as your benchmark, the peak of your swimming career that you aspire to achieve all over again. By remembering and using your dream race, it will bring you plenty more in the future!

Tip No.26 MOVING UP TO A NEW AGE GROUP

Do you feel under pressure when you move up into a new age group of swimming competitors?

It seems that many swimmers do. Many seem to feel that any reputation they may have earned in the past age group no longer means anything now that


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they’re swimming against older swimmers, and this really isn’t true. If you were a “performer” in your past age group, then your reputation will follow you into the next one – and don’t worry, everyone will want to know who you are and what you’ve done in the past. Your reputation as a good swimmer will follow you wherever you go, never worry about that. And there is nothing surer than the fact that you will eventually show everyone what you are capable of doing, no matter how long it takes. Of course, it is true that that in junior swimming there is often a physical advantage to the older swimmers of an age-group in size and strength, however I have found that the worst part of ‘aging up’ is that many swimmers mentally give up, because they think they will automatically come last in every race against older swimmers.

Once a swimmer has given up mentally, it wouldn’t matter if they had the talent of Ian

Thorpe or Inge De Bruijn, they simply would not perform.

When the body is being powered along by a mind, which has given up, the body has no option but to give up as well. For your body to perform, your mind must be directed towards a positive goal. So the first thing to do (in this new situation of older competitors) is to look for ways to boost yourself up mentally, or even turn the situation around completely, until you actually find it an advantage to being the youngest in your age group! For instance, have you ever thought that possibly the older swimmers would not enjoy losing to a younger swimmer, and they may be feeling a little pressured to perform better than usual? Really, the new kid on the block should have no pressure to perform at all, as no one really knows what to expect from them in the older age group. Yet the more established swimmers may feel they have their ‘position’ and reputations at risk from some young upstart swimmer who has burst onto the scene! Even if this isn’t the case (yet), these are great scenarios you can play through your mind to help take the pressure off! Also, remember that any sign of ‘unfriendliness’ directed towards you by some of the older swimmers may simply be due to the fact that some of them are feeling a little threatened by your presence! Once again, this is something you should use for inspiration, rather than worrying that everyone does not like you. Something you must always remember is that most highly successful people are NOT liked by everyone, because there will

always be people out there who are simply jealous of their success. In fact, criticism from other people can almost be regarded as a sign that you are making progress!

No one can make it to the top of the heap without having to overcome negativity and criticism from others along the way, this is all just a normal part of being successful. Remember, the more successful you become, the more criticism you’ll attract – this is just part of the price of fame! So don’t automatically assume that the older swimmers have all the advantages, because even if you are not quite up to their speeds yet, you will soon be breathing down their necks! Hang tough and you will succeed.

Tip No.27 BEND YOUR REALITY!

The mind is so incredibly powerful it can actually bend reality so that you will no longer experience a problem you may have been battling to overcome – we’ve already discussed how the mind can overcome pain, nerves, intimidation, negative thoughts and a whole host of other problems. I once heard a true story about a group who became trapped inside a cave whose entrance became sealed by a landslide. Only one person had a watch on, and so to stop the others worrying about how long they had before their oxygen ran out, every TWO hours he announced to the group that ONE hour had passed. This made the others feel that time was going slowly, and that they actually had more air left in the cave than they really did! They were eventually rescued – and had all survived, except for one, the owner of the watch who knew the real time! This shows how we have the ability to bend our reality to suit us better. Another example of this is Leisel Jones, a swimmer who qualified as the youngest swimmer in the Australian 2000 Olympic team. Her coach used to get her to imagine that while she was swimming, she was being chased by a giant sand crab (a common ocean-dweller possessing huge scissor-like arms which can incur a small but painful injury to human skin!). Needless to say, this provided plenty of motivation for her to swim faster – she definitely didn’t want the imaginary sand crab to “nip” her on the toes. She actually credited this simple method for her success after qualifying for the Olympic team. This is another simple case of creating a new reality, and so here is another method you may wish to try, which I have never mentioned before.


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Before I go any further, I must remind all swimmers that because everyone is different, some swimmers may get better results experimenting with their own methods – as there is no ONE method that will work for everyone. Most swimmers have experienced the power of swimming with, or against, the ocean’s (or a river’s) current. Swimming against the current, you feel that you are simply getting nowhere fast! But if you a swimming WITH the tide, you often feel that you are moving at 10 times your normal speed, almost flying through the water with amazing effortless power. This is the feeling you may wish to mentally experiment with in the pool when you are in an outside lane. Rather being psyched out by it, bend your reality so that you feel that you have the tide behind you (and in your lane only), whilst the other swimmers are simply swimming along in still water. Imagine that you are flying through the water effortlessly, pushed along by the enormous force of the tide. This is a simple visualisation technique, which may work wonders for your speed, when normally swimmers are feeling disadvantaged by their lane. It’s similar to another visualisation technique I mentioned in an earlier tip, where you imagine that your lane (only) is lit up with vibrant energy, which energises your body and makes you swim faster. The fact that these techniques work shows very simply that ‘it’s all in the mind’. It’s just a matter of bending your reality to suit yourself, until you eventually feel as if you cannot go wrong. Many swimmers are very sceptical about trying these unusual methods initially, only to be very surprised at the difference in their results! Never be afraid to try something new, it might make all the difference!

Tip No.28 MENTAL TOUGHNESS MAKES

CHAMPIONS Alex Popov and Kieren Perkins have several things in common; both were trying to win the Olympics for the third time in a row, and both are true champions who have earned the title of being “mentally tough”. I read how Popov was meant to be going through huge motivation problems trying to get himself up for a third Olympic Games, and yet soon after he set a new world record to put the world on notice that he is not a spent force. What makes these champions so good? Usually it is a whole bunch of small reasons rather than a couple of big ones – and some of these reasons you couldn’t even put your finger on.

But one of these mysterious intangible qualities they both possess is mental toughness. Mental toughness means to have the ability to pull out your best when your back is to the wall, and when everyone else is counting you out – you are counting yourself in. Mental toughness is extreme persistence.

To simply never, ever give up, no matter how many people say you are “washed up”.

Kieren Perkins was considered a very outside chance of even making the Australian Olympic Team, with the names of Thorpe and Hackett making all the headlines – and yet, surprise, surprise, he was there again. Why? Because even though others doubted his ability to do it again, he never did. He would definitely have gone through some rough times, however, when he would have wondered “am I going to make it?” but in the end he never, ever gave up on himself. He overcame the doubts and fears and pressed on anyway, proving many of the “experts” (who had written him off) to be wrong, as only a champion can do – by winning the Olympic silver medal. It’s inspirational stuff that puts shivers down your spine when you think about it. The same can be said of Popov, who apparently went through some motivation problems earlier, but what did he do? Give up? No, he came back and showed the world what he can do. That is mental toughness, and that is what makes a true champion. I am not saying that champions never doubt themselves. They do – but only at times. But they manage to come up with enough belief in themselves to ride through it, overcome it, and beat it once and for all. So if ever your belief is wavering, don’t worry. All champions waver at times, in a sport as demanding as swimming it is virtually impossible not to – but the fact is, you can ride through it, and beat it. It doesn’t matter how many people write you off

as long as you believe in yourself. When it comes down to it, your own opinion of yourself must ALWAYS be the most important. Do not ever let anyone else’s opinion of you be more important than your own! That’s what champions do, they simply will not take ‘no’ for an answer – they always manage to find a way to get ‘yes’. Always remember … “Whatever you can conceive, and believe, you can achieve”.

Tip No.29 WHO DO YOU SWIM FOR?

Champion swimmers train every day and swim at meets because it is their OWN personal ambition. No one else’s … just their own. Sure, it’s also nice to win for other people, such as parents, coach or


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friends, but if these other people became the MAIN reason why they trained everyday, they simply would NOT succeed … it’s as simple as that. If these swimmers do achieve some results, it would only be through sacrificing something far more important, such as happiness in their own life. This is a major point, because regularly I see swimmers becoming disillusioned with their swimming because they feel that they are striving for goals which are not their own, but someone else’s. Often these swimmers feel pressured to perform, and often feel ‘guilty’ at the very thought of changing their goals to something they might actually want (such as changing events, meets, or even having a break) – all because they feel emotionally responsible to keep someone else happy. The bottom line is this – you cannot succeed unless you enjoy what you are doing. This is NOT to say that you have to enjoy every single moment (there’ll always be some areas which may not be enjoyable), but the overall reason why you get out of bed in the morning must be because you are happy with what you are doing. This is actually a major principle, which applies to ‘life’ as well as swimming – you must either enjoy it, or find a way to enjoy it – if you wish to succeed. No one else’s motivation will ever be enough to keep you going, you must have the motivation inside you already. All champions are self-motivated, driven people, they know what they want and they go after it – and they would never, ever bother trying to accomplish something that did not motivate them, not even if their best friend wanted them to do it. This is because they’d know that it would be a simple waste of their time and energy. It’s important to swim for yourself, and no one else. Because this is only kind of motivation which will succeed, or be for your own benefit. Once again, it is always NICE to win for other people, but don’t make them your focus – or it will steer you in the wrong direction. Always follow your heart and do what makes you happy, and you cannot go wrong.

Tip No.30 THE SECRET TO SUCCESS: HAPPINESS

Do you enjoy training and swimming meets? I hope so. Because here is a fact of human psychology, which many do not realise – humans can ONLY truly succeed at things they enjoy. Why? Because your very own subconscious mind’s purpose (in every life situation) is to move you AWAY from pain, and TOWARDS pleasure! It’s a natural human instinct we simply cannot escape – this is why, for instance, your reflexes instantaneously move your hand off a hot stove

before it begins to burn, because your mind’s job is to keep you out of harm. This also means that to succeed in swimming (and life) we must do one of these two things; we must enjoy what we do, or otherwise, we have to find a WAY to enjoy it.

So if you are not enjoying your swimming, it is essential to ask yourself why – and change

‘whatever it takes’ to get yourself back in the successful ‘Happiness Club’.

If you want to succeed, get happy! Unhappiness, time and time again, has proven to bring failure, because it simply affects every major area of a swimmer’s life – their emotional balance, motivation, perseverance, their relationships with coaches and other swimmers, and every other aspect of their training. Some major reasons for unhappiness I’ve come across with swimmers I’ve worked with included … boredom and lacking variety in their training … a personality clash with a coach or other swimmers in their squad … and being stressed out time-wise through other commitments such as work, school, family and social life. These are all things that can arise in everyday life, however they are also things that can be fixed! There simply isn’t a problem that can’t be fixed completely or improved in some way – the key is to look for the answers. Personality clashes are a classic example. Successful people take responsibility for their own happiness; they don’t rely on everyone else to be nice to them before they can enjoy themselves. Champions rise above these situations and decide that nothing is going to get in their way of what they want – they must either fix these personality clashes, or get away from them, so they can focus and swim in a more positive, enjoyable environment. This is not to say that these problems are not valid concerns – they are! And that is why they should be treated and fixed quickly, before you find your motivation beginning to become affected – this is what all swimmers should do when faced with a problem. If you ever begin to feel that you’re losing your motivation, ask yourself why. If it has to do with your training, or a personality clash, talk to your coach and discuss it with them, to see if her or she can help. If it is your busy schedule, sit down and write out a new one, and see if you can fit in a little more relaxation. Life is too short not to enjoy what you are doing, and once again, if you really wish to succeed, your enjoyment is an essential ingredient - a plain and simple fact.


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Put your own personal happiness at the very top of your priority list – and never, ever let it drop

below number one. Your motivation must always be there before you can make any serious attempt at achieving any goal. This does not mean that you’ll enjoy every waking second of your life (there will always be some areas which are not as enjoyable as others), but the main thing is to overall enjoy what you do. This applies to your life just as much as your swimming! If you love your swimming, then you’re in the driver’s seat – and you can’t go wrong. Don’t change a thing! But if you don’t, find out why, and fix it. Never let anyone, or anything, affect your motivation – because this is the very thing that gets you out of bed every morning! Protect it … treasure it – because it’s an essential part of who you really are.

‘The Mind controls the body, and the mind is unlimited.’

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MIX & MATCH OR STRAIGHT UP? A VIEW ON WORKOUT DESIGN

One way to characterise Australian swimming coaches is to put them into one of two categories in terms of the basic design of their workouts … mix and match or straight up. The ‘mix and match’ coaches often the Individual Medley or Form Stroke specialist, create intricate masterpieces for each workout with tremendous variety – a mixture of all strokes, distances and drills – with a guarantee that the next 50m will always be different from the last. The ‘straight up’ coaches, in contrast, are more often your Freestyle and/or Distance merchants who don’t waste time or whiteboard space with their five-line program that takes 15 seconds to write up, but two and half hours to complete. Why has this difference evolved and what does it mean for preparing the majority of swimmers who don’t swim the 400m Individual Medley or the 1500m Freestyle? The ‘mix and match’ type workout has largely evolved through the efforts and successes of our leading Individual Medley (IM) coaches. For IM swimmers, it is essential that all four strokes are developed in both isolation and combination. Some of the most eye-catching sets that I have seen are built around the creative (almost magical) integration of distances, intensities, work-rest ratios and strokes, all in the one set. I think we would all be proud of putting together some of these works of art. All competitive swimmers should develop and utilise each of the four strokes from an early age. This mixed approach will improve each of the strokes in its own right and be extremely useful in providing a broad background for developing a swimmer’s main stroke to national and/or international level. There are some swimmers who rise through the ranks, even to the national team, who are a short a stroke or two and this is certainly limiting when attempting to design a full range of workouts. For Breaststroke and Butterfly swimmers, a mixed approach is necessary to support the relatively high energetic demands of these particular strokes. For a given speed, Breaststroke and Butterfly requires a higher energy output than either Backstroke or Freestyle swimming. For this reason, it is not possible or desirable to complete the same volume of training with each stroke and consequently Backstroke and Freestyle should be used to support stroke specific work. This situation is changing a


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little at the elite level, with some of the more specialised programs, especially Breaststroke, utilising a higher percentage of form stroke than five or ten years ago. The arguments for mixing strokes centre on the need to develop all the strokes, recruit of all the major muscle groups, practice the necessary transitions in IM swimming (Butterfly-Backstroke, Backstroke-Breaststroke, Breaststroke-Freestyle) and to meet the principle of a varying stimulus to maximise technical and physiological adaptations. This approach also requires the concentration (and commitment) of the swimmer throughout the workout. All coaches would agree that swimmers should continually work on the technical aspects of their swimming and concentrate on the correct pacing of each repeat. Having the swimmers think about their work should keep them focussed on the task at hand and is preferable to going to “sleep” halfway through a set of 1000’s. The counter argument put by the ‘straight up’ coaches is that all this is fine for IM switching but in large volumes is too broken and disjointed for a majority of swimmers. The argument goes that the swimmers (and their physiology) never get a chance to settle into some solid work before the next change is made. Both swimming skills and various physiological capacities may be developed more effectively through the controlled repetition of efforts with the requisite level of technical precision, and metabolic and neuromuscular specificity. The latter aspect would satisfy the requirements of overload and specificity which are fundamental principles govern-ing the adaptations to training. Therefore, the ‘straight up’ proponents contend that is generally better to have warm-ups and main sets undertaken in a simple format. This approach permits each aspect of training to be fully developed in isolation without interference from other forms or types of training. Warm-ups should take a general then specific orientation where some low to moderate intensity straight swimming (up to a total of 2000m) is undertaken initially before more specific drills or pace work is completed. This thinking also applies to aerobic or recovery sessions where simple straight sets are preferred … e.g. 4x800m on 11:00-1,3 alternating Freestyle/Backstroke by 100m intervals; and 2,4 Freestyle pull with fins, all swimming at a heart rate of 140bpm (or 60 beats below max). The ‘straight up’ coaches (and their swimmers) aren’t bothered with the idea of mixing and matching too much in these aerobic sessions … they just want to get in and do the work with a minimum of effort and fuss.

‘Straight up’ swimming also permits coaches and swimmers more opportunity to perfect the technical aspects of the stroke. Everyone would acknowledge that it takes considerable time and patience to learn, refine or change stroke patterns. Movements that have been rehearsed thousands and thousands of times require a great deal of work to eliminate faults and reinforce correct techniques. The straight up converts would suggest that this process is more easily achieved in simple longer sets rather than mixed sets which change frequently in nature. The arguments mounted against the ‘straight up’ philosophy include several performance, physiological and psychological reasons. Many coaches argue that an effective warm-up must include the full range of strokes, drills and intensities, in order to adequately prepare swimmers for the main set(s) of the session. Some swimmers waste the first part of the main set by not being able (ready) to start with the required pace. Coaches and swimmers also point to the potential problems with boredom and lack of concentration as one approaches the 5th 800m Freestyle repeat on an 11:00 cycle. Of course, there is no correct answer to this question. On balance it is suggested that a combination of ‘mixing and matching’ and ‘straight up’ is best for most swimmers in age group or elite programs. More specialised work is recommended, at appropriate times, for elite swimmers and those specialising in the Individual Medley (‘mix and match’) and Distance Freestyle (‘straight up’) events. As always, the situation that coaches find themselves in will play a large role in determining the type of workouts that are needed. Why is it that too much of a good thing is never a good thing?

MODEL 14-DAY TAPER: TRANSITION FROM TRAINING TO RACING

One of the key challenges for a coach is the transition from training to racing. This process, commonly referred to as the taper, is a frequent topic of discussion amongst swimming coaches. Some swimmers, who are amongst the best trainers in your group, may not be able to convert increased fitness (resulting from a well-developed and executed training program) into peak racing speed. A proper taper program may help the swimmer take this next step. This article presents an outline of a standard 14-day taper for a competitive swimmer. It is not intended to be the definitive training program, but simply a means of examining some of the important features of tapering and to provide some ideas for your own planning. The taper is the final part of a season’s preparation and is characterised by a reduction in


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volume of training and the development of race speed. In a full taper for a major swimming competition it is common to reduce the volume of training by approximately a half (50%) to two-thirds (66%) of the peak weekly volume for that preparation. In most elite swimming programs, the weekly volume may reach a high of 60-80km. On this basis, the final two weeks of the preparation should be approximately 0.50x80km = 40km to 0.50x60km = 30km in volume. For minor and less important competitions, coaches may elect to “swim through’ a Meet or just have a “mini-taper” of a couple of days. Whether you are planning a full or mini-taper the principles and guidelines are basically the same – reduce the volume and sharpen the speed of training. There are many factors that influence the structure and dynamics of a taper. These include … the age and experience of the swimmer, event distance, current fitness level and training background. The 14-day program discussed here illustrates some of the features of a taper for an elite swimmer. All tapers need to be tailored to suit each individual swimmer’s requirements. 1. Day: This model outlines the training plan during the final 14 days of a full preparation for a swimming competition. In the final few weeks it pays to focus in on the actual number of days to the meet and use this in the planning of the program. At the elite level, it is a common practice to throw away the normal Sunday to Saturday calendar. Whilst some swimmers grumble at giving up their weekends, a little inconvenience may be rewarded with a complete preparation and, hopefully, enhanced competitive results. 2. Microcycle: One feature that is used frequently in the planning of athletic training programs is the term microcycling. Microcycling refers to the planning of small blocks of training days from as little as two or three days up to seven days (a full training week). A number of microcycles make up a macrocycle (a few training weeks), with several macrocycles making a full mesocycle … i.e. a complete 12-16 week preparation. The process of balancing all these cycles is known as periodisation. A periodised training program involves a number of training cycles in which the volume and intensity of training is varied in order to maximise fitness and performance. 3. AM or PM: During most tapers, either one or two sessions of swimming training are undertaken each day. The usual practice, of course, is to have a morning (AM) and an afternoon (PM) session. On the days where only one session is planned, this can be undertaken in either the AM or PM depending on the usual schedule for the team. A common practice by elite coaches is to synchronise the timing of the

morning session to coincide with the time of the heat sessions at the competition (normally around 0900 hours local time). Whilst this makes good sense, there is no need to go overboard. There are stories (legends) within Australian swimming of coaches having their final few training sessions at some very strange hours just to fit in with the timing of the meet. 4. Type: The type of session is indicated using a classification system that we have used at the Australian Institute of Sport and at the National Altitude Camps during 1994 and 1995. This system involves a simple five-point classification by intensity (and swimming speed)… Level

1 Represents low to moderate intensity aerobic training.

2 Represents moderate to high intensity anaerobic threshold training.

3 Represents high intensity maximal oxygen uptake training.

4 Represents high intensity lactate tolerance training. 5 Represents maximal effort short sprint training.

It can be misleading to assume that these levels only refer to the physiological intensity (energy cost) of a particular training session or set. More importantly, the aim is to increase the speed at a certain intensity or level ... e.g. for Level 3 which is for high quality maximal oxygen uptake (aerobic) work (or heart rate sets as commonly referred to by many Australian coaches) a swimmer might be able to hold 1:05 for 100m Freestyle repeats at a heart rate of 170bpm. With a progression in training and fitness, this swimmer should be able to hold faster than 1:05 at the same heart rate on the same interval. A common mistake is to focus only on the physiological response … e.g. high heart rates … and not the swimming speed (or time per 100m) that the physiological response is associated with. Measuring heart rates is the most practical way of assessing-the physiological response, although more coaches now have access to blood lactate testing. 5. Volume (km): During the taper the volume of sessions is reduced relative to the levels achieved earlier in the preparation (endurance phase). By the final 14 days of the preparation, the volume of sessions should be in the range of 2-5km. This will depend on the coaches and swimmers requirements, and the type of session being planned. For sessions with some quality training, it will be necessary to swim a full 4km to accommodate the warm-up, main set, supplementary sets and swim downs. For shorter recovery (or where some short sprints are undertaken) it should be possible to complete all the necessary swimming in around 3km. 6. Weekly Vol. (km) and 7. Total (km): The final two weeks shown in this model taper have volumes of 36km and 24km for a (neat) total of 60km. This should be well within the capabilities of well-trained national level swimmers. Junior swimmers or those coming off an incomplete


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preparation may need to reduce this a little more. The focus during the taper is on the speed of swimming rather than the distance covered in training. However, it is important to support the high intensity sprint work with some low to moderate intensity aerobic training. Whilst some coaches and swimmers point to successes with the so-called “drop dead” taper, where the training volume is cut right back to just leave the sprint work, most elite coaches would recommend a more balanced approach right up to the day of competition. 8. Key Sets: As a general guide, a list of sets that may be used be on some important days of the 14-day taper, is presented. Note that the sequence of main sets is for an increase in intensity and speed in each three-day microcycle (microcycles 1, 2 and 3). This is known as a descending sequence, which is one popular method of planning. The reverse of this, where the intensity and speed decreases, is known as an ascending sequence. In the same fashion as the reduction in the weekly and session volume, it is normal practice to reduce the volume of individual training sets. This process begins some 4-6 weeks before the meet. By the time of the taper in the last few weeks, the volume of sets will also be reduced by 50-75%. For example, main sets that were 2400-3000m in length during the volume and endurance phases should be reduced to around 800-1200m. It is important to focus on speed during the taper. For most swimming events, this means the utilisation of short maximal effort sprints from 15-50m,

combined with some pace 50’s and pace 100’s at l00-400m race speed. These efforts can be undertaken with either a dive or push start. Times should be recorded and compared with known competitive times and splits. Measurement of stroke rate and stroke counts is also useful. This process is being assisted by the computerised competitive analysis undertaken at the major meets by Dr. Bruce Mason of the Australian Institute of Sport, which documents the stroke patterns during competition. The taper period often includes some “broken” swimming. This is a popular method of training involves the inclusion of very short rest periods into a maximal effort race distance swim ... e.g. for a 200m swimmer this may be done as 4x50m with 10 seconds rest after each 50m, or 2x50m broken for 10 seconds at the 50m for a 100m swimmer. The total time for such work must be faster than normal race pace for effective training. It is also very valuable to conduct some time trials over race distance, as this is, of course, the most specific preparation that a swimmer can perform. A FINAL COMMENT The taper is an important part of the preparation. Like training in general, there is no single program that will suit every swimmer. The features of a taper discussed here may assist you in evaluating your own program and give you some ideas for the 1995/96 summer season.

TABLE 1 – A MODEL 14 DAY TAPER 1 Day 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2 Micro Cycle 1 2 3 4 3 AM

4 Type [1] [1.2] [2] Rest [1] [2] [3] Rest [2] [3] [4] [1.5] [1.5] [1.5] 5 Vol (km) 4 4 4 Day 4 4 3 Day 4 3 4 3 2 2

6 Week (km) 4 12 19 23 30 36 40 10 14 20 22 24 3 PM

4 Type [1.5] [1.5] [1.5] [1.5] [1.5] [1] 5 Vol (km) 4 3 3 3 3 3

6 Week (km) 8 15 19 26 33 36 7 10 17 20 22 24 7 Total (km) 8 15 19

26 33 36

43 46 53 56 58 60

8 Key Sets 5 x 400 [1]

8 x 200 [1.2] 2 x 200 Broken [2]

3 x 800 [1]

12 x 100 [2] 200 Time Trial [3]

5 x 200 [1] 8 x 100 [2] 8 x 50 [3]

1 x 400 Bkn [2] 1 x 200 Bkn [3] 1 x 100 Bkn [4]

4 x 25 [5] 2 x 25 [5] 2 x 25 [5]

Key: 1 = aerobic, 2 = threshold, 3 = Max VO2, 4 = lactate tolerance, 5 = short sprint

TRAINING FOR MIDDLE-DISTANCE & DISTANCE SWIMMING EVENTS

The middle distance (400m) and distance (800m and 1500m) events require a highly developed level of endurance fitness. Historically. Australia has produced many champion distance swimmers. This trend continues with our successes in the Men’s 1500m Freestyle and the Women’s 800m Freestyle events at the international level in the last few years. Despite the great work of our leading swimmers, there is some concern about the next generation of-

distance swimmers coming through. After the top two or three male and female distance swimmers, the standard drops away fairly quickly. The depth in these events appears to be considerably lower than in some of the form stroke and sprint events where the number of competitors in contention is comparatively much greater. Inspection of the current world rankings shows that Australia is in good shape in the distance events. In the Men’s events we have swimmers ranked at (1) Daniel Kowalski 7:50.28, (2) Kieren Perkins 7:50.80, (3) Glen Housman 7:54.66 and (21) Daniel Bates


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8:12.10 for the 800m Freestyle, and (1) Kieren Perkins 14:58.92, (2) Daniel Kowalski 15:02.20, (9) Glen Housman 15:20.32 and (34) David Bates 15:35.91 for the 1500m Freestyle. For the women we have swimmers ranked at (1) Hayley Lewis 8:28.78, (19) Stacey Gartrell 8:42.05, (26) Chloe Flutter 8:45.95 and (48) Christina Thorpe 8:49.56 in 800m Freestyle, and (1) Hayley Lewis 16: 14.71, (8) Stacey Gartrell 16:28.89, (12) Simone Cotter 16:41.17, (13) Christina Thorpe 16:41.69, and (20) Chloe Flutter 16:50.98 in the 1500m Freestyle. On face value, this is a good situation, however we must not rest on our laurels. Success will not be a formality without a substantial and ongoing individual and team effort around Australia. It can take a whole generation of swimmers to regain quality and depth in particular events: witness the Men’s Sprint Freestyle and Backstroke over the last few years. Around the world there has been a move away from distance to shorter sprint-oriented events in the last few years. The times for female swimmers [400-1500m Freestyle], in particular, have plateaued over the last few years. We (and the rest of the world) have not progressed forward from days of Tracey Wickham and Michelle Ford (Janet Evans being the exception) and this is over 15 years ago. These events must surely be ripe for some young women to come in and take them to a new level in the same manner that Kieren Perkins has done in the Men’s events. Our history, current successes and work-oriented training programs have stood us in good stead, however we must be careful that we do not let our hard-earned competitive edge slip away. Endurance work is the comer stone of the training program for the 800/1500m swimmer, and as has been discussed in previous articles, an important aspect of the preparation of all swimmers even the sprinters. I often think of the words of Forbes Carlile ... “speed through endurance”. In simple terms, endurance fitness can be divided, depending on your terminology, into two categories … general endurance and specific endurance. General endurance refers to the capacity to perform submaximal physical activity, like swimming, running, walking, or manual tasks, over an extended period of time. This type of fitness is necessary for the efficient development of specific endurance fitness and then higher quality anaerobic and speed capacities. Specific endurance refers to the capacity to perform higher quality muscular work within the specific time frame of competitive events. For middle-distance and distance swimmers this means a maximal effort over 4-16 minutes for 400m to 1500m events.

The training of endurance fitness is based on two related principles … an understanding of the energy systems that underpin the various training sets, and utilisation of some system to classify different sessions that you use in your program. These two principles must be addressed correctly for effective endurance training and a higher level of competitive performance. All coaches should have a basic understanding of the continuum of energy sources that contribute to different swimming events; these aspects are covered in the Level 2 Coaching Accreditation Course. In terms of endurance swimming (and any endurance activity for that matter) the energy requirements (read training zones) can be divided into three areas… 1. Low-intensity aerobic endurance 2. Aerobic/anaerobic endurance (the so-called ‘anaerobic

threshold’ or ‘threshold’) 3. Anaerobic endurance At various times, each area will need to be addressed in the training program. To develop low-intensity aerobic endurance, a swimmer’s training speed must exceed the so-called ‘aerobic threshold’ (heart rate around 120-140bpm or 60-80 beats below maximum HR) but not the ‘anaerobic threshold’ (HR around 160-170bpm or 30-40 beats below maximum HR). All swimming should be conducted with ‘good’ technique and one often sees low-intensity aerobic work (recovery swimming and warm downs) being undertaken with ‘poor technique’. This type of work will improve the ability to utilise fat as an energy substrate and limit the excessive use of carbohydrate. Don’t neglect the technique of your swimmer. Gennadi Touretski often says that the slowest speed one should swim is the pace where a swimmer can still hold good technique: any slower would see a mechanically inefficient technique. To develop the anaerobic threshold, a certain proportion of training must be undertaken at or close to anaerobic threshold speed (determined by the 5x200m Step Test, the 2000m test, or by the assessment of the coach). The term ‘anaerobic endurance’ is a slight misnomer in that swimming at this speed is dependent on the maximal capacity of aerobic pathways … i.e. the VO2max), and the capacity of aerobic and anaerobic pathways to tolerate fatigue under conditions of insufficient oxygen supply and/or accelerating glycolytic flux. The key is to develop simultaneously the underlying physiological capacity … i.e. aerobic threshold (A1), anaerobic threshold (AT), maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max)) and the respective swimming velocity (time (seconds) per 100m) in each of these areas. It is the latter aspect, the swimming speed at each


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physiological capacity … i.e. functional utilisation) that is correlated most highly with performance. The following example illustrates this point: three female distance swimmers may have maximal oxygen uptakes of 3.2, 3.8 and 4.4 litres per minute. However the determining factor is the speed at VO2max, and a swimmer with a VO2max of 3.8 litres per min-1 who can hold 64.0seconds per 100m (for a predicted 400m time of 4x64 seconds = 4:16.0 400m time) should beat her counterpart with a higher VO2max of 4.4 litres per minute but who can only hold 65.0seconds per 100m at this level (predicted time 4x65 seconds = 4:20.0 400m time). In the last year or so at the AIS we have refined our classification system of training. We have rationalised the old seven point system into an easier to use five point system … [1] Aerobic, [2] Threshold, [3] Maximal Oxygen Uptake, [4] Lactate Tolerance and [5] Sprint. Using the 5-point system, it follows that levels [1] and [2] are used predominantly for continuous swimming or longer slower intervals with short to very short rest periods … e.g. 3x1000m on 14:00, 8x400m on 5:00, or 15x200m with a 10seconds rest interval. The higher intensity levels [3], [4] and [5] involve interval training with the combination of number, distance, intensity, type and rest periods being manipulated as required. This issue has been addressed in detail in a previous issue of Australian Swim Coach. The development of endurance fitness should continue over the entire season or preparation. There is, of course, a particular emphasis on endurance during the initial conditioning phase in the first few weeks. However, endurance training should be maintained and continued right through the preparation up to the major competition. This applies to all swimmers and is, obviously, essential for middle-distance and distance swimmers. All three levels [1], [2] and [3] should be trained through the middle and final parts of the preparation. Physiological principles of recovery should be considered during high volume and intensity phases. Whilst ATP-PC energy stores can be replenished within a few minutes, and excess lactate removed within half an hour, it may take up to 48 hours to replace glycogen within the fast-twitch muscle fibres. This aspect of glycogen replacement and swimming training was dealt with by Dr Bob Treffene in his recent article. One point that should be made is that the specificity of energy supply and consumption during a particular swimming event doesn’t necessarily determine that training programs follow the same percentage breakdown. Whilst most experienced coaches are intuitively aware of this point, it is

worthwhile for everyone involved in swimming, coaches, swimmers, parents, officials and sports scientists, to consider and evaluate their position on this issue. Simple inspection of most elite programs would reveal that more than 80% of swimming training is conducted at levels [1-3] and only a small percentage is performed at the higher intensities [4, 5]. This is even more pronounced for distance swimmers who must undertake larger volumes in total, and larger volumes of specific aerobic work, in their programs. The total weekly training volume (km) is the most common means of quantifying the training load. Simple analysis shows that elite swimmers average somewhere around 40-50km of swimming per week through the training year. Endurance swimmers average about 20-50% more and weekly volumes may peak at 90-100km. However this is after a long build-up and such volumes should not be sustained for any extended period of time. It is far better to reduce the volume to around 60-80km per week and do it with good technique and speed. This is particularly important for younger swimmers who should concentrate on developing good technique in all the strokes within a balanced program of endurance and speed. There are too many young swimmers who have to endure programs of excessive volume and intensity. Many coaches acknowledge that overtraining is a problem, but apparently not in their program. Another important point is that volume should be increased gradually … one rule of thumb is to increase the load by 5-15% per week for both younger (5-10km/week) and older (10-15km/week) swimmers. In one sense, training for endurance events is relatively simple compared to the complex demands of sprint and middle-distance events. The former simply requires building endurance (and associated speed) over a period of time, while the latter necessitates the integration of endurance, power and maximal speed. The notion that endurance swimmers just need loads of work is not far from the truth, but the secret of the best distance coaches is to do this with a high degree of technical precision and the lowest degree of undue stress. The best distance swimmers are the thoroughbreds of the pool, but if you don’t manage them carefully, you could end up with a stable of draught horses. References: 1. Pyne, D.B. (1995). A model 14-day taper: the transition

from training to racing. Aust. Swim Coach 11(11):28-30. 2. Treffene, R.J. (1995). Glycogen replacement rate and its use

in program design. Aust. Swim Coach 11(10):28-31.


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COACH, I CAN’T GET MY HEART UP (OR DOWN) … THE PHYSIOLOGY OF

MEASURING HEART RATES INTRODUCTION The use of heart rate monitoring in swimming is almost universal in programs of all levels. The measurement of heart rate during swimming training is used for two main purposes … firstly, to control the training load (intensity) through the session … and secondly, to indicate changes in submaximal and maximal aerobic fitness levels during the season. A third application is the measurement of resting heart rate to indicate the current stage of the adaptation process. When combined with performances measures such as time, split times, stroke rate, stroke count, stroke mechanics (technique) and other physiological measures such as blood lactate, heart rate is a very useful monitoring tool for the coach. A key consideration, however, is that heart rate or any other measure, should not be used alone and can only be interpreted correctly in light of the other variables. TRAINING ZONES The control and prescription of training speeds by heart rate is the biggest application of heart rate testing in swimming. There are many different classification systems used by leading swimming coaches and sports scientists in Australia and around the world, although the validity of some has been questioned. The system used by the Australian Institute of Sport has been discussed previously in Australian Swim Coach. In recent years, many of the classification systems have been revised in order to accommodate individual differences in maximum heart rate levels. In their original form, the systems called for specific training sets to be defined by distinct levels of heart rate … e.g. low-intensity aerobic (A1) 120-140bpm, moderate-intensity aerobic (A2) 140-160bpm, anaerobic threshold (AT) 160-170bpm, and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) 180-190bpm. These training zones were developed using a model maximum heart rate of 200bpm – for many young swimmers this is reasonably accurate, however for others these zones will lead to a significant under-or-over estimation of the appropriate training heart rate and speed. To overcome this problem, many coaches now give their training heart rates as a fixed increment from maximal heart rate for each individual swimmer – i.e. A1 (60-80bpm below max), A2 (50-60bpm below max), AT (30-40bpm below max), and VO2max (10-20bpm below max). For a swimmer with a maximum heart rate of 205bpm, the zones would be (in bpm)…

A1 A2 AT MV02 125-145 145-165 165-175 185+

For a swimmer with a maximum heart rate of 185bpm the zones would be (in bpm)…

A1 A2 AT MV02 105-125 125-145 145-155 165+

Finally, for short sprint work (25m and 50m) it is more appropriate to focus on the swimming and split times (and stroke mechanics) rather than the associated heart rates. For this type of work, the heart rate monitor should be replaced with the stopwatch. In this situation it is more important to know that a swimmer can hold, for example, 31.0 seconds for 50m Butterfly with a stroke count of 20 and a stroke rate of 38 strokes per minute, than the fact that the heart rate was, say 155bpm. HOW TO MEASURE HEART RATE By far the most common way to measure heart rate has been the self-reported manual palpation (counting) of heart rate by swimmers over a fixed duration (most commonly 10 seconds). Whilst this is the most practical method it is also the most inaccurate. With correct instruction and some experience, swimmers can be become reasonably proficient and accurate with this technique. The older swimmer should be able to calculate his or her post-exercise heart rate with an accuracy of +6 beats per minute. This can give you a reasonable indication as to the relative cardiovascular response to the training set. Remember you are trying to have the swimmers count the number of beats in a given 10 second period (using the pace clock) and this needs to occur as soon as the swimmer touches the wall. The heart rate will start to recover to a lower level within a few seconds of rest. This approach should be accurate enough to identify which training zone the swimmer is in, but more sophisticated measures would be required to indicate small changes in the relationship between heart rate and swimming speed. At the elite level, the most common method for measuring heart rate has been the use of the Precision Heart Rate Monitor, designed and built by Dr Bob Treffene in Brisbane. Many coaches will have used or seen one of these hand-held units in action. In the hands of a skilled operator … i.e. coach or scientist … they give good service and are particularly useful when working with large squads. The monitors need to be well maintained in order to sustain their useful working life. Most coaches will have also seen the Sports Tester-type heart rate monitor, which attaches to the chest and transmits a signal to a wristwatch receiver. These do work reasonably well but with elite swimmers undertaking fairly dynamic work … e.g. dive starts, tumble turns … it is a difficult to keep them in a fixed position on the body and to obtain a clear and reliable signal. A number of other devices have been developed to measure heart rate in


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swimmers but these tend to be limited in two key areas … a lack of accuracy at higher heart rates and a lack of durability in the rough and tumble of the pool environment. ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE CARDIOVASCULAR AND NERVOUS SYSTEMS To understand why heart rate can vary with fitness and fatigue levels it is necessary to examine some basic anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. The nervous system plays a major role in regulating the function of all the body’s systems including the cardiovascular system. The heart rate is, of course, the most identifiable indicator of the activity of the cardiovascular system and a major contributor to the metabolic (power) output of a swimmer. In basic terms the nervous system is divided into two parts … the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (nerves that connect the different organs and tissues with the central nervous system) (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Organisation of the nervous system

Nervous System

Peripheral

SomaticAutonomic

Central * Brain

* Spinal Cord

Sympathetic (Up-regulation) Parasympathetic

(Down-regulation) The peripheral nervous system is comprised of the somatic and autonomic components, with the autonomic nervous system that innervates (serves) the skeletal musculature being further divided into two branches … sympathetic and parasympathetic. These branches often produce opposite physiological effects. During strenuous exercise the sympathetic branch is stimulated, leading to release of adrenaline, increased heart rate, increased blood flow to muscles and eventually increased rates of metabolism and muscular contraction. This sympathetic activity remains elevated for some time after exercise. Problems may arise when sympathetic activity is chronically elevated during prolonged and intense training, particularly where recovery processes are not adequately restoring physiological equilibrium. On the other hand, one of the adaptations to training is for a reduction in sympathetic activity during training at a given speed. This is part of the explanation for the observation that heart rate is

lower at submaximal speed after a successful period of training. WHY CAN’T I GET MY HEART RATE DOWN? (i) At Rest The measurement of resting heart rate is one of the most well known methods to monitor training adaptation. An increase in resting heart rate may be evidence of elevated sympathetic activity … e.g. a swimmer whose resting heart rate is normally around 50bpm … e.g. 48-52bpm … may be experiencing some sympathetic stimulation if the levels are sustained at 55-60bpm over a period of a few days. A single occurrence of an elevated resting heart rate may be attributable to any one of a number of reasons, and action only needs to be taken if the rise is evident over several successive days. Many swimmers use daily training logs and it is good practice for them to record measures such as resting heart rate as well as the length and quality of sleep. The resting heart rate should be taken first thing in the morning and before the swimmer rises from his or her bed. (ii) During Training Experience shows that the swimmer unable to control their heart rate during steady state aerobic work needs further aerobic training. In simple terms, the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, and the aerobic and cardiovascular fitness of the swimmer, need to be improved. Physiological testing has shown that the heart rate-swimming speed relationship is a good indicator of overall cardiovascular fitness. If control of heart rate is lost during so-called steady state or even paced swimming and a consistent elevation is observed … i.e. an upward drift … there will be a concomitant transference from fat to carbohydrate metabolism. An example of this would be a set such as 12x200m Freestyle/Backstroke holding 2:40 with HR of 150bpm on 3:00 cycle… Time: 2:40 2:40 2:41 2:39 2:40 2:42 2:38 2:40 2:41 2:41 2:42 2:38 HR: 137 145 148 151 152 156 159 157 162 166 164 170 One of the goals of low to moderate intensity aerobic work is to improve fat metabolism and this will not be achieved if higher heart rates (and a greater contribution of carbohydrates to energy supply) is evident in aerobic work. The key to improving heart rate and metabolic control is a program of carefully monitored aerobic intervals on short to moderate rest. An example of this work would be a set such as 6x200m Freestyle holding 2:30 pace at a heart rate of 150bpm on a cycle of 3:00. Swimmers should be encouraged to strictly maintain the required heart rate (in this case 150+5bpm … i.e. a range from 145-155bpm) and the


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required time (in this case 2:30). Measurement of blood lactate and blood glucose levels in this situation is useful to determine the extent of metabolic control. After a few sessions of this type, an improvement in the control of aerobic work should be observed. One feature of better (and usually older and more mature) swimmers is their ability to undertake aerobic work at the appropriate intensity and pace. Younger and less disciplined swimmers often do not maintain good control of swimming times and intensities. Starting too fast early and not finishing on strongly, or swimming descending sets … i.e. where the speed gets faster with each repeat … when a steady pace was called for, are common mistakes. WHY CANT I GET MY HEART RATE UP? The inability of a swimmer to get his or her heart rate up during training may be evidence of a disturbance or maladaptation in the parasympathetic nervous system. This is much less common than a training-induced sympathetic disturbance. The parasympathetic nervous system will tend to take over … i.e. compensate for … from the sympathetic system if the latter is exhausted by excessive training loads and/or inadequate recovery. A swimmer may sometimes exhibit the following signs during prolonged intense training: fatigue, lethargy, inability to maintain previous training levels, decreased body weight and, most notably with a parasympathetic disturbance, a decreased heart rate both at rest and during submaximal work (see Table 1). One of the most common signs is an extremely rapid return of the heart rate towards resting levels immediately upon the cessation of work. The lower heart rate can sometimes be mistaken for an improvement in fitness, but the full clinical picture (as the doctors would say) is one of deterioration rather than progress. Whilst we all strive for lower heart rates at a given submaximal speed, the combination of lower heart rates and other classical symptoms suggest a disturbance in the nervous system. Every swimmer and coach knows that a lack of fitness is highlighted by an increase in submaximal heart rates. At the same low to moderate speeds, a swimmer’s heart rate will be lower as they get fitter. Or expressed another way, they can swim faster at the same heart rate. Physiologists use heart rate in this way to track changes in general cardiovascular fitness with standard test sets such as the 5x200m or 10x100m incremental step tests. Table 1: Comparison of the signs and symptoms of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system disturbance in athletes undertaking prolonged and/or intensive training Sympathetic Disturbance Parasympathetic Disturbance Increased resting heart rate Decreased resting and exercise

heart rates

Increased resting blood pressure

Normal blood pressure

Normal recovery of heart rate after exercise

Rapid recovery of heart rate after exercise

Decreased body weight Normal body weight Poor appetite Normal appetite Sleep disturbance Sleep patterns may be normal Irritable and emotional Depressed and apathetic Decreased ability to metabolise

glycogen Rapid recovery (days-weeks) Decreased blood lactate levels Decreased physical work

capacity Slower recovery (weeks-

months) WHAT ARE ‘HEART RATE’ SETS? Within the culture of Australian swimming, particularly at the elite level, the term ‘heart rate set’ is well known to most coaches. Coined by leading Australian physiologist ‘Heart Rate Bob’ Treffene, the term ‘heart rate set’ refers to a high intensity aerobic set designed to improve endurance fitness including the so-called maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). Many coaches would be familiar with the sets of 2000m to 3000m (30 minutes work) at a pace that elicits a heart rate 10 beats from maximum level … e.g. 20x100m Butterfly/Backstroke aiming for 185bpm on a 1:45 cycle (for a swimmer with a maximum heart rate of 195bpm). These sets when properly designed and monitored are a very effective way to improve aerobic fitness. Given their high intensity and associated stress, they need to be introduced and developed gradually in order to avoid excessive fatigue. A maximum of two or three heart rate sets per week is recommended for well-conditioned swimmers. WHAT DO I DO IF THE HEART RATE IS UNEXPECTEDLY UP OR DOWN? The easy answer to this question is MORE RECOVERY. Irrespective of the origin of the disturbance in the nervous system … i.e. sympathetic or parasympathetic … the appropriate course of action is to review and implement appropriate recovery practices. In terms of planning, this may mean the need for a reduction in volume and intensity of training, an increase in the absolute and/or relative volume of low- to moderate-intensity aerobic recovery work. If the majority of swimmers in the squad are breaking down or not responding to training it is prudent to review the short- and medium-term training plans. If a quality session is planned it is a good idea to change this to a low- to moderate-intensity aerobic workout. In more severe cases of fatigue it may be more appropriate to skip the session altogether. The other area to be considered is the aggressive use of recovery modalities such as massage, hot or cold therapies with showers, spas and plunge pools. Replacement of


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fluids and adequate nutrition is also an essential component of the recovery process. SUMMARY 1. The use of heart rate is almost universal within

swimming programs at all levels and is an effective tool to prescribe training loads and monitor changes in aerobic fitness levels.

2. Heart rate is most easily measured by swimmers themselves with self-reported palpitation at the neck or chest. Elite coaches commonly use the Precision Heart Rate Monitor to assess the cardiovascular demands of particular training sets.

3. The regulation of heart rate is governed by the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system. With sympathetic disturbance, heart rates are normally higher, whilst disturbance of the parasympathetic system is characterised by lower heart rates.

4. A lack of fitness will be evident with higher heart rates at submaximal speeds. Further attention to training in well-controlled moderate-intensity aerobic sets should improve cardiovascular fitness.

5. Over stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system can lead to the physiological and psychological signs and symptoms of overtraining … e.g. an increased resting heart rate and/or higher heart rates during submaximal work.

6. An exhausted sympathetic nervous system may result in the parasympathetic system becoming dominant. This may lead to unusual depression of the heart rate at rest and during exercise, with a concomitant reduction in physical work capacity.

7. An understanding of the physiological responses to acute work and prolonged training will assist the coach in interpreting heart rate measurements and ultimately in optimising the training program.

8. The term ‘heart rate set’ refers to a high intensity maximal aerobic (VO2max) set where the intensity of the set is controlled by heart rate (and swimming times). Swimmers are encouraged to swim at the appropriate pace necessary to elevate and hold the post-exercise heart rate at level that is approximately 10 beats below each individual swimmers maximum heart rate.

9. A disturbance in the sympathetic and/or parasympathetic nervous system as indicated by heart rate responses at rest or during exercise should be addressed immediately. Training programs may need to be adjusted and recovery programs emphasised. The timing of the return to full training should be determined on a case-by-case basis.

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF FATIGUE

INTRODUCTION In one sense, competitive swimming is a battle against fatigue on two fronts. Firstly, during competition, it is normally a race between getting to the wall before the onset of debilitating fatigue – the experience of one US swimmer being overtaken in

the last 10m is well known to all coaches. All swimmers can swim 25m faster than 100m race pace – unfortunately only the best swimmers can maintain that pace or something near to it over the full race distance. Secondly, the substantial training loads required to support high levels of competitive performance, are themselves are a battle against fatigue. Endurance can be defined as the ability to resist or delay the onset of fatigue – with fatigue itself defined as the loss of force production or power output. What are the physiological causes of fatigue? Many of the causes have been identified and have received considerable publicity in both the scientific and sporting communities. This is particularly evident in relation to the so-called metabolic causes of fatigue such as depletion of fuels (e.g. muscle glycogen) and the accumulation of metabolic end products (e.g. lactate). These concepts are familiar to most coaches. Whilst experience, scientific research and routine monitoring have shown repeatedly that these metabolic factors can be limiting factors of performance, it is apparent that other factors influence the ability to sustain a given power output (swimming speed). These factors include: the need to maintain homeostasis of fluid and electrolyte levels in the general circulation and within skeletal muscles, regulatory mechanisms in skeletal muscle, neuromuscular fatigue and the often neglected con-cept of Neuro psychophysiology (will power). Metabolic Causes of Fatigue The carbohydrate and muscle glycogen story is well known to most coaches. The body’s reserves of carbohydrates (blood glucose, liver glycogen and muscle glycogen) are relatively limited and will be depleted rapidly during long and/or intensive training sessions. The training and competitive performance of a glycogen depleted swimmer will be significantly limited. Dr David Costill, a leading US Sports Scientist, has conducted a number of studies, which have highlighted the deleterious impact of successive days of swimming training on muscle glycogen levels. Fortunately, the depletion of glycogen reserves can be reversed rapidly with an adequate dietary intake of carbohydrate and the use of high-energy carbohydrate sports drinks during and after training. These issues have been dealt with in detail by Dr Louise Burke in previous issues of Australian Swim Coach. Metabolic End Products One of the main end products of the anaerobic metabolism of glycogen is lactic acid (the so-called lactic acid energy system). This system is an important contributor to the energy requirements of most competitive swimming races. Increased


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dependence on this energy pathway will lead to an accumulation of lactic acid within the muscle and eventually the general circulation (bloodstream) – the accumulation occurs when the production rate of lactic acid exceeds the removal rate. The lactic acid produced dissociates (splits) into the lactate anion and the hydrogen ion. Excessive accumulation of the hydrogen ion – beyond a level which can be adequately handled by buffering systems within the muscle and circulation – will lead to a metabolic acidosis indicated by a reduction in muscle and blood pH. A significant drop in the intramuscular pH will severely limit muscular contraction, as a number of rate limiting enzymes are pH sensitive. This sequence of events has been studied for many years and is well understood by scientists. This work has also led to the examination of the potential benefits of supplements such as bicarbonate and creatine phosphate, which increase the body’s natural buffering capacity, limit the deleterious effects of lactic acid accumulation and thus sustain (or improve) swimming performance. Non-Metabolic Factors The view that the physiological causes of fatigue are simply metabolic in origin may have limited our understanding of the training process of elite swimmers. Attributing fatigue exclusively to depletion of carbohydrates and/or the accumulation of lactate is an oversimplification. Whilst it is known that muscular fatigue is largely influenced by these metabolic processes, there is evidence showing dissociation between a reduction in power output and changes in metabolic variables such as ATP turnover and lactic acid accumulation. Counsilman and Counsilman (1993) point out that the ability to resist fatigue, delay its onset or even increase work output as the swimmer fatigues, involves a complex sequence of physiological events of which energy depletion and waste product accumulation constitute only one link. Most coaches will have observed the phenomena where a swimmer at the end of long hard quality set is able to produce his or her fastest repeat, when presumably, they are becoming quite fatigued. Although some swimmers may save themselves for a big final effort, it is apparent that other swimmers who have been right at the limit are able to find something extra for the finish. Neuro psychophysiology – The Importance of Will Power The answer to this paradox is thought to lie in the relationship between neural, physiological and psychological factors. Study of these relationships has led to the emergence of a new scientific field of study – Neuro psychophysiology and various cousins such as Neuro psycho immunology. Scientists

contend that the ability to combine and optimise the various parts of this pathway – from the central nervous system, to the peripheral nerves, and finally the control of skeletal muscle contraction – may offer an explanation for these phenomena. This concept might also explain the observation that it is always difficult to swim a really fast time trial in training, and it requires a high-level competition for swimmers to perform at or near their best. It appears that the extra sense of urgency, motivation and/or psychological pressure of high-level competition is the catalyst for the full activation of this pathway. To win an Olympic Gold Medal the coach and swimmer must achieve something special. The willpower to sustain intense training over many months and the willpower to beat all opponents to the wall during competition may be one difference between good and great swimmers. The question is how can the psychophysiological pathway be improved or controlled so that it is optimised at the right time? The answer or indeed the parameters to this question are unknown at present. What is clear is that coaches need to be aware of both the physiological and psychological development of their swimmers. If a coach can develop the skills to master and overcome physiological and psychophysiological factors of fatigue in their swimmers in training, the probability of success in competition should rise accordingly. The ability to harness this potential and have a swimmer swim above themselves is the key to international success. Is this one of the secrets of the great Australian swimming coaches … the motivators such as Don Talbot, Laurie Lawrence and Bill Sweetenham, and the cajolers such as Forbes Carlile, John Carew, Terry Gathercole and Joe King? HOW TO MONITOR BODY COMPOSITION One of the most frequently asked questions by coaches is the measurement of body fat (skinfold testing). Skinfold testing is used to monitor body composition and provide an indirect assessment of the proportions of lean body mass (bone, muscle, connective tissue, etc.) and fat mass. It is generally accepted that body composition is one of the factors that contributes to performance. The science of measuring body composition is known as anthropometry. This article deals with the some of the issues relating to skinfold testing and provides a description of how skinfolds are measured. The information is provided in general terms and should not be considered as a definitive or scientific guide to the measurement of skinfolds. How important are skinfolds to performance? This is quite a difficult question to answer. My initial response to coaches and swimmers is that our experience shows that body fat is one of the


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important factors that contribute to performance, but not the only one. We all know of swimmers who have been successful at all levels of swimming, even at the international level, with body fat that was or could have been above desired levels. Having skinfolds under control may provide a small edge that could potentially be the difference that separates the winners, placegetters and also fans. What is the optimal body fat (skinfolds) level for older age group and senior swimmers? Again this is a difficult question to answer and there is considerable individual variation between swimmers. My approach is to provide, initially, some general guidelines for coaches and swimmers based on well-established levels for elite male and female swimmers. When skinfold testing is repeated for a given individual, it is more appropriate to zone in each swimmers individual sum of skinfolds. After skinfolds have been measured several times over a season, it is then possible to establish target levels for each individual swimmer. This is the way that we have worked with the National Team and Australian Institute of Sport swimmers. An important concept in this area is the relationship between body fat and body drag. Body drag is defined as the amount of resistance that the body encounters while moving through the water, and is influenced by body size, the speed of swimming, buoyancy and other mechanical factors. Our concern here is the effect of body size and buoyancy on drag and performance. Like many factors, there is considerable individual variation in the relationship between body fat and performance. Above a certain individual level, an increase in body fat will be deleterious to performance due to increased body drag. Although increased body fat is likely to enhance buoyancy, the increase in body drag will offset any advantage resulting from improved buoyancy. The two other key factors that influence this relationship are gender and distance of the event. Clearly, females carry more fat than males as a biological requirement, and distance swimmers carry more than sprint swimmers. The higher body fat levels of ultra-endurance (long distance) swimmers is obvious to all onlookers. Whilst the measurement of skinfolds has largely been left to the sport scientists it is a fairly easy technique to learn and one that can be mastered with some practice. The only equipment required is a good Set of skinfold callipers (approx $350) and an accurate set of scales (battery operated or mains power that measure to 0.1kg divisions) (approx $250). Simple bathroom scales are a lot cheaper but are too variable in their readings. Although this is a

considerable outlay, the equipment should, if used properly and well looked after, last many years. In the last year, a number of accredited courses have been conducted to teach interested individuals the basic skills of anthropometry … i.e. the measurement of body dimensions … to standards set by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK). The Level 1 course would be suitable for coaches interested in learning these techniques. Contact the Institute/Academy of Sport in your State for further details. I have, with the assistance of Dr. Louise Burke, measured the body composition of all National Team swimmers since 1987. Table 1 shows the mean height, body mass and sum of skinfold levels for our elite swimmers in this period. Based on these results, we can advise coaches and swimmers of the general guidelines that can be applied. It must be re-emphasised that these are guidelines only and the far better approach is to work on each swimmer’s individual level. Each swimmer has a record sheet of their results collected over time. This summary is made available to the swimmer, his or her coach, and when appropriate, the National Head Coach. Confidentiality is important, particularly in the sensitive area of body weight and skinfolds, and scientists and coaches must respect this at all times.

Table 1: Height, weight and sum of skinfolds values for elite Australian swimmers in the period 1988-1994

(8 sites for males, 7 sites for females) Males Females Height (cm) 187.0+6.0 172.9+4.0 Weight (kg) 81.8+7.0 64.8+6.1 Skinfolds (mm) 52.5+9.7 63.3+11.4 To assess body composition, three measures are normally taken: height (cm), weight (or more correctly mass) (kg), and sum of skinfolds (mm). The sum of skinfolds is the total of all the different sites measured. The practice of converting the sum into a body fat percentage is now largely out of favour around the world, although it is still widely used in the USA. It is important to also measure weight with skinfolds. The body weight is divided into two parts (or components): the fat mass and the lean body mass. By measuring skinfolds and body mass it is possible to obtain an indirect estimation of the change in both components. If body weight and skinfold both increase, then it is likely that the increased weight is due to extra body fat. If body weight increases and skinfolds stay the same or are lower, it is likely that the extra weight is lean body mass. If body weight decreases and skinfolds stay the same or are higher, it is likely that the lean body mass has declined (i.e. a loss of skeletal muscle tissue). Your dietitian or sports scientist can be consulted here if further advice is needed.


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How do we measure the skinfolds? Here is a general description of the sites and techniques used for skin-fold testing. All skinfold testing that I have conducted, for the National Team, at National Event Program camps, and at the Australian Institute of Sport, has used 8 sites for males and 7 sites for females. Some other states have used a different number of sites and at slightly different locations. There is an effort being made to standardise the sites across Australia – this should occur sometime in 1995. Again you may need to check with the Institute/Academy of Sport in your state to find out the latest. 1. LANDMARKING Landmarks are identifiable skeletal points, which generally lie close to the body’s surface and are the markers, which identify the exact location of the measurement site. The landmark should be identified with the left hand, usually the thumb. The eight sites most commonly used are… 1. Biceps – half way along in a vertical axis. 2. Triceps – half way along in a vertical axis. 3. Subscapular – below inferior angle of scapula in

an oblique axis. 4. Mid Axilla or Iliac Crest – vertical fold in the

mid-axillary line (armpit) 5. Suprailiac – above hip taken at a 45° angle. 6. Abdomen – vertical fold taken 5cm from right

hand side of navel. 7. Thigh – half way along in a vertical axis. 8. Calf – vertical fold on medial (inside) aspect of

calf at the level of the maximum circumference. 2. TAKING THE SKINFOLD The skinfold should be raised using the left hand between the thumb and the index finger, picking up a fold which contains a double layer of both adipose tissue and skin and avoiding muscle tissue. The fold is held throughout the measurement. The callipers are applied to the fold at a right angle so that there is 1cm between the near edge of the fingers and the nearest edge of the calliper face. The reading of the dial is made two seconds after the complete release of the calliper trigger. In the case of large skinfolds the needle may still be moving at this point. All measurements are made on the right hand side of the body and recorded on the appropriate recording sheet. 3. CALCULATION OF SUM OF

SKINFOLDS Rather than using the doubly-indirect method of estimating percent body fat from body density estimates which are in turn derived from skinfold measurements, it is now common practice to report the sum of skinfolds rather than a percent body fat. The number of sites selected will depend on the

history, current practice or preference of the athlete, coach or scientist. The primary aim is to use skinfolds that are in agreement with those recommended by the ISAK. In this way the axilla skinfold is likely to be phased out because it does not meet ISAK specifications. The sum of skinfolds is easily calculated by adding the skinfold for each of the sites (7 or 8 depending on how many sites were used). One of the most important considerations is to determine what is a significant change in body mass and skinfold. We can all probably relate a story or two where a coach has “spat the dummy” when one of his or her swimmers’ skinfolds or body weight has gone up marginally. Some swimmers, particularly the females, can become upset or paranoid at even the slightest increase. Scientists have now worked out statistically how much the skinfolds need to go up or down to represent a significant biological change. Studies have shown that the so-called technical error of measurement for skinfold testing is normally about 2-3mm. This represents the measurement error attributable to the tester in his or her measurement of skinfolds. Although procedures are standardised there will always be a difference between testers. By allowing a conservative margin of 2xTEM we arrive at the measurement error of approximately 5mm. (This is for fairly lean athletes – the value will be greater for individuals with higher levels of body fat). The crux of the issue is this – if the change in skinfold is greater than the measurement error … i.e. >5mm, then the observed change is likely to be a biological change (i.e. a true and significant increase or decrease in body fat). If the difference in skinfolds is less than the measurement error … i.e. <5mm, then there is no significant biological change in body fat. This is a key concept and must be explained and continually reinforced to swimmers each time their skinfolds are measured. Even experienced and mature swimmers (and coaches!) need reminding here. There are, of course, several factors that influence body weight on a daily basis. These include … the amount and weight of clothing, the recent ingestion of food and drink, hydration status, and any recent visit (or prolonged absence!) to the toilet. These factors, either alone or in combination, may result in body weight changes of up to 2 to 3 kilograms, even in a single day. It is advisable that skinfolds be measured before any training or exercise session. Changes in the distribution of fluid between different body compartments may affect the skinfold readings. To overcome or control for some of these factors it is suggested that weight and skinfolds be measured at the same time (and in the same circumstances) for each testing session.


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Having swimmers make weight and skinfold targets is often a contentious area for the swimmer and the coach. This area requires ongoing vigilance and discipline by the swimmer, coach, dietitian and scientist. Every squad in Australia will have several swimmers (mostly females but often males as well) that do not manage and/or are concerned with the body composition – diet connection. Occasionally there are underlying problems that may not be apparent to onlookers but could be causing significant psychological, medical and performance problems. We speak of course of the various eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa. It is not the intention of this article to deal with the eating disorder story. This can be a complex, frustrating and difficult area to manage. If in doubt, medical and professional staff should be consulted. Whilst the negative side of poor body image, skinfolds and weigh-ins is often given publicity, the positive benefits of a swimmer making weight and skinfold targets should not be underestimated. Many a swimmer has left the skinfold room armed with the knowledge and confidence that they have been highly dedicated and disciplined and is on track to swim fast at the next Meet.

MANAGING COACH POSITION

Onehunga Swimming Club is entering an exciting period of development and in support of this development the Club is proposing to appoint a Managing Coach to be responsible for the planning and implementation of its swimming programs. It is anticipated this will take effect from the beginning of the 2002/2003 season (1st May 2002). The Managing Coach will be responsible for a team of coaches who will assist in the delivery of the programs to achieve the goals of the Club and individual swimmers. There is a strong base of swimmers and additional pool space has been secured at the Epsom Aquatic Centre to complement the Club's community based operations at Jellicoe Pool, Onehunga. We are seeking a highly motivated person to fill this challenging, developing, hands-on position. The successful applicant will demonstrate excellent communication and leadership skills as well as a proven record of successful results with current swimmers. A Level 2 Coaching Certificate or its equivalent is preferable. For expressions of interest and more information please contact Sue Fountain by Email … [email protected] … or telephone +64-09-625-6733 (A/h) or 025-248 2002 (cellular). Alternatively, you may write to… Managing Coach Position, Onehunga Swimming Club

Inc., PO Box 13-879, Onehunga, Auckland 1132, NZ or Fax to +64-09-634 1752

We look forward to your response as soon as possible, thanks.

Motivating your Swimmers Lecture presented by Coach Bob Lawson at NSW ASCTA Clinic

People are always motivated … indeed, they are never unmotivated – unless they are dead. To be sure, they may not be motivated to do what some outsider believes they ought or should do, but motivation is always there. If you attribute the cause of your swimmers training well, or failing to do so to some trait, need or drive – a state over which you have little control – it is all too easy to relinquish your responsibility for their action. Then, instead of striving to set up conditions and find ways to keep swimmers training well consistently, the temptation may be to decide that they really don’t want it badly enough or that they do not have the drive it takes to persist, and subsequently to write off some of your swimmers. But you can impact on your swimmer’s motivation to train. Most (all) swimmers want to do well. They want to swim well. They want to swim extremely fast and they want to win their races. This is worth mentioning because, often when swimmers fail to train well, coaches tend to question how badly swimmers want it and to question their (swimmers) desire. It is easy to slip into this kind of questioning of swimmers’ motivation. It seems to follow that … if a swimmer wants to do well, and if consistent, intense training and comprehensive preparation plays a critical role in determining high quality Meet performance. Then … swimmers should train well. So, why don’t they train well all or most of the time?

1. Lack of direction 2. See no use in training well 3. Have little or no incentive to train well 4. Find training more adverse than rewarding 5. Get distracted from their goal 6. Inattentive to the purpose of training

Let’s look at these factors… 1. People are always motivated, though they may not be

motivated to do what others think they should. Without goals, swimmers have no direction. And unless swimmers’ goals are consistent with those of the program in which they participate, behaviour will not reflect the desired motivation.

2. Swimmers may see no use in training well. It may be misguided to assume that swimmers understand that consistent, intense training and a comprehensive preparation pay performance dividends. Swimmers often fail to see a close relationship between training well and swimming fast at Meets.

AND WITH SOME REASON It is not always the swimmer who trains the best who performs at Meets. In fact, in the younger age groups it is often the biggest, more physically mature


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swimmer who competes most successfully somewhat independently of how well they might train. But, skill acquisition leads to great strides. And, if nothing else, swimmers tend to improve almost every time out while they are growing. As a result, many swimmers fail to learn the relationship between practice and improvement. If swimmers see little or no relationship between training well and swimming fast in Meets, they are not likely to train consistently well – no matter how much they desire to do well in competition. They may also fail to train well because they think that they do not have the capability to reach their goals through diligent training. The diligent training just may not be expected to compensate for a perceived lack of natural talent. Confidence is crucial to motivation. If swimmers believe they lack ability, they are not likely even to try – no matter how badly they want success.

PROMOTE GOOD TRAINING HABITS HELP YOUR SWIMMERS SET GOALS!

What is it you want your swimmers to be motivated to do? Guide your swimmers towards these goals. Goals give them something to train for and help them find the best way to get there. Help your swimmers to set daily and weekly goals for training … this will provide them with an incentive for hard, conscientious workout performances. This gives swimmers something more immediate to shoot for and make daily training sessions more relevant. PROVIDE YOUR SWIMMERS WITH INCENTIVE

TO TRAIN WELL In general, motivation is great when it is anticipated that rewards will be delivered when, and only when, the desired behaviour is performed and should be with minimal delay. The more interesting, exciting, fun and rewarding you can make goal-oriented training … the more likely your swimmers are to produce good training performances. Use your words, actions and enthusiasm to communicate that training can be fun and help them focus on what they enjoy about training and what they get out of it. Swimmers’ self-reaction to their own performances constitutes the principal source of reward. But don’t be afraid to provide some inducements and rewards for reaching training goals. Swimmers may have little or no incentive to train well. What largely motivates swimmers to train well is the expectancy that it will pay off down the road. This pay-off remains tied into Meet performance and not into training. Swimmers may find training more adverse than rewarding. Too many swimmers fail to make training enjoyable. They view training as a necessary evil – the sacrifice they must make in order to succeed in

competition. Many swimmers see training as painful and fear the hurt. Swimmers also learn to gauge their self-worth largely by how well they do and almost everything in swimming is readily measured (especially training). Swimmers may be inattentive to the purpose of training. Swimmers often fail to train well because they just plain fail to attend to what they are doing. Younger swimmers’ attention span is likely to be more limited and they are more likely to be at training because Mum and Dad sent them or it is just what they do at that time of day.

MOST IMPORTANT … SWIMMERS MAY GET DISTRACTED FROM THEIR GOALS

I suggest that swimmers often get distracted from their goals, presuming that swimmers have set goals for practice to begin with. Most swimmers do not. Most swimmers set goals for Meets. Often, any training goals are left quite misunderstood. Peer pressure often demands the average – it rarely promotes excellence. All these things distract swimmers from their purpose. Knowing what we are up against helps point to strategies to promote a desired training performance. This poses other questions. How can I best pave the road to success and remove any obstacles keeping them from going where they want to go?

SHORT CIRCUIT YOUR SWIMMERS’ FEARS! I believe training can be tremendous fun. It just plain feels good to speed across the water. And accepting the challenge of stretching your limits can be exhilarating and truly engaging. But fear of failure interferes with swimmers committing themselves to giving training their all. If they don’t try – there is no risk. Their judgement of themselves is safe in the knowledge that with greater commitment they could have done better. Help them feel confident in the likelihood of success. Make a point of acknowledging their success. Matter-of-factly present them with difficult challenges. Have them train on available criteria, while giving them sufficient opportunity to succeed. In fact, occasional failures that are later overcome by determined effort can strengthen self-motivated persistence. To improve, your swimmers must constantly accept demanding challenges. But if the challenge is too tough or too easy, motivation wanes. Finding a challenge that presents the right probability of success is critical. In general, a challenge that presents a 50-50 chance of success works well.

CREATE A SUPPORTIVE CLIMATE Your swimmers will train much better when others around them are training well. Models are tremendously influential – especially peer models. Don’t underestimate the power of example nor your


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ability to create and mould models. Good training performances flourish in an environment where goal-oriented behaviour is accepted and highly valued by peers. Plan and arrange for an atmosphere that promotes goal-directed training. KEEPING THEIR ATTENTION ON THE TASK AT

HAND!! A great deal of seemingly unmotivated behaviour is due merely to inattention. The basis of keeping their attention lies in having brought meaning to training via good goal setting and having goals with specified standards of performance for every training item. Give them different things to think about and shoot for at different stages of sets and throughout practice. Which goes back to what I said earlier … never let them leave the wall without knowing what to do or why.

IN CONCLUSION Motivating swimmers to train consistently well is no small task. The challenge of training presents swimmers with formidable obstacles. Find specific strategies considerate to individual needs for motivating your swimmers to train well consistently. Applying these principles requires a fair amount of planning, monitoring and adjustment in your program. Frequently point out to your swimmers…

“THE MORE YOU PUT INTO IT … THE MORE YOU GET OUT OF IT.”

FOR SALE 25m HEATED POOL

50 acres of Rich River Flats Irrigation land Well-established Swim School

Large 3-bedroom Home Close to large country city

This is a unique opportunity to purchase an excellent Teaching & Coaching Pool.

Owners retiring. Servicing a large rural area for Swim Camps, Learn-to-Swim, Squad Training, Schools & Adult Fitness … including a highly productive small farm with excellent water entitlement and the enjoyment of country living.

Price: $200,000

Interested persons phone 03 5032 4048 Email: [email protected]

Web Site: www.swanlea.com

PROMOTING PERFORMANCE through INJURY PREVENTION

By Peter Blanch Australian Institute of Sport Physiotherapist

(Reproduced from “The Fast Lane” –

Queensland Swimming – Issue 2)

Peter Blanch is a physiotherapist at the Australian Institute of Sport. A Queensland native, Peter has been testing swimmers at the AIS and on Australian Teams including Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth and Pan Pacific Games for the last decade. In this article he provides 10 simple tips to promote performance through injury prevention that may prove valuable as coaches are beginning to plan out the 2001/2002 Season. Injury prevention is an important part of the training plan of every coach. The best-planned and periodised training program is of little use if the swimmer is always injured and unable to train. Due to the high repetition involved in swimming training, the injuries that are most common are of the overuse variety. This is where the cumulative effect of repetitive actions like pulling or stroking causes tissue breakdown and inflammation (MICROTRAUMA). Regardless of the type of injury, learning to minimise injuries is far better than learning how to treat them! Here are 10 simple tips to promote performance through injury prevention that all coaches can use.

1. DEVELOP A NETWORK OF SPORTS MEDICINE/SCIENCE SPECIALISTS

Get to know your local sports physiotherapist, sports M.D., Sports massage therapist, podiatrist, etc. It is important to develop a network of reliable, suitably qualified, sports medicine backup personnel who know and understand swimming and who you can send your swimmers to with confidence in times of injury. Don’t underestimate your role as a coach in this network! Not all health professionals fully understand the demands of swimming and swimming training. The coach should work closely with the doctor/physio to determine an effective rehabilitation strategy for injured athletes. Imaginative rehabilitation programs can be cooperatively planned and structured into a modified training schedule. This will help ease the frustration that both coach and athlete feels during times of injury.

2. SCREENING Prevention is better than cure! Have your local sports physiotherapist screen your squad for possible problems. Have them look for flexibility limitations, movement patterns, body symmetry, etc., before starting hard training. A 10-minute screening by someone who knows what to look for may save a lot of pain and frustration later in the season. For example, a limited range of motion (R.O.M.) in a shoulder may eventually lead to shoulder pain. A lack of symmetry in the upper back may lead to an uneven stroke and pain and spasm in the neck. The coach’s role in injury prevention is essential. If biomechanical deficiencies are identified and


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rehabilitative programs are suggested, the coach needs to reinforce these as part of the overall training schedule. Finding a skilled professional may not always be easy, but there are standard screening protocols available through the State Directors of Coaching and the A.I.S. that your local sports medicine professional may find useful.

3. STRETCHING Stretching has many roles. We tend, as coaches, to just consider the aspect of stretching during warm up for injury prevention. However, stretching has an important role in performance! Increasing the range of motion of different joints will make for a more efficient swimmer. For example, in the early of the Freestyle armstroke, most of the propulsive force is generated through internal shoulder rotation. If a swimmer is able to exert force through 40 degrees instead of 20 degrees, they are able to generate power through a greater range … there are, of course, upper limits to this increase in range of motion. The body’s joints move through the path of least resistance. If one joint is limited in its ability to perform a motion, this task will be passed along the chain to a point where the movement will occur. Take the swimmer who kicks with tight hips. If the hips cannot supply the motion, the body will compensate by increasing the amount of motion through the lower back. This is not only inefficient, but potentially injury causing. Attention to better stretching technique will ensure better results in increases in the range of motion. Many swimmers perform stretches incorrectly – believing that leaning against a wall with their arms over the heads is enough to reduce injury risk and enhance performance. Most stretches need to be performed with a strong, stable trunk. We are looking to increase mobility around the peripheral joints, whilst maintaining stability in the core. Stretching gives the swimmer the range of motion to efficiently execute the skills of swimming.

4. STRENGTHENING Not in the Arnie Schwarzenegger sense, but a program designed to strengthen the body to limit and reduce injuries. The weights program should be periodised to compliment the overall training program design and the compatibility of strength and endurance needs to be considered – i.e. gains in maximum strength levels in the gym may not be as effective during the general preparation (aerobic endurance) phase of pool training owing to the physiological complications of training strength and endurance concurrently. Skilful swimming requires quite a deal of strength. There is valid argument that suggests swimming itself is sufficient strength work for swimming – i.e. to get strong enough to swim, you swim. However, there are specific benefits that a swimmer can gain from doing specialised strength work. Muscles that stabilise the trunk and scapulae (shoulder blades) can be better worked in the controlled environment of the gym or pool deck.

It is important to perform all stabilisation exercises correctly and with an emphasis on control rather than on lifting the maximum weight possible. The aim should be to develop the ability to produce force at the body’s extremities whilst maintaining a strong, stable trunk.

5. TECHNIQUE Swimming techniques have been developed over a long time to effectively increase force production and minimise resistance. Generally speaking, strokes performed with correct technique are less likely to cause injury because the movements are more efficient. Technique needs to be reinforced and stressed for all swimmers at all levels at all times, and particularly when the swimmer is feeling fatigued. It should be noted that training develops not only the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems, but also the nervous system. It is important to maintain good control of movement patterns – regardless of physiological fatigue. In the case of the tired swimmer continuing to swim in a fatigued state with poor technique, the gains in cardiovascular conditioning may be offset by the decreased stroke efficiency reinforced in the nervous system – i.e. the poor technique is reinforced – and the increased likelihood of injury.

6. BACKSTROKE & KICKING As well as being a competitive swimming stroke, Backstroke has an important role in injury prevention. Butterfly, Breaststroke and Freestyle are all strokes, which place a lot of strain on the muscles, which rotate the arm inwardly. This continual inwards rotation causes stress and sometimes the condition called “rotator cuff tendonitis” (swimmer’s shoulder) eventuates. Using Backstroke works other muscles between long Butterfly and Freestyle sets and helps reduce the load on the muscles and tendons of the shoulder. For example … instead of 20x50 Butterfly on 1:00 … try 2x(10x50) Butterfly on 1:00 with 200 easy Backstroke every 10. Instead of straight overdistance Freestyle (1000’s, 2000’s, etc.), try 100 Backstroke every 500 Freestyle. Note: Backstroke also works inward rotators during the pull phase. Kicking has also been used by coaches in the past to reduce training stresses on shoulders and arms. It is important if using kicking sets between swim sets to give the shoulders a rest, those swimmers using boards cross their arms on the board or don’t use a board at all. Kicking with the arms straight out in front only increases the strain on the point of the shoulder … the very thing the kick set is supposed to be relieving!

7. PARENTAL EDUCATION Parents can be the frontline in injury prevention and management strategy. Regularly hold Parent Education Sessions, where experts such as physiotherapists, nutritionists, doctors, etc., come in and teach parents the basics of injury management and prevention. Topics such as “EATING TO WIN” and “THE R.I.C.E.D. TECHNIQUE” or


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“RECOVERY TECHNIQUES FOR COMPETITIVE SWIMMERS” may help parents understand the important role they play in the preparation of a swimmer.

8. MASSAGE Massage is extremely useful in three forms… 1. Professionally done – i.e. massage therapists or

physiotherapists working directly with swimmers 2. Swimmers massage themselves 3. Parents massaging swimmers It only takes a few sessions with your local sports massage person or sports physiotherapist to educate your swimmers on the benefits of self-massage. Swimmers can be easily taught to massage problem areas – e.g. neck, upper back, triceps, shoulders – if pain or soreness presents. Similarly, parents can be taught the basics of massage and can work with swimmers to massage out spasms in back, neck and shoulders. We are not suggesting that parents can take the place of an experienced, qualified physical therapist (unless one or both of them has spent five years at University studying to be one), but it is not always possible to get in to see a professional immediately the spasm or injury presents. Parents and swimmers, using simple injury management techniques, can keep pool time lost to injury to a minimum. But, as the Panadol ad says … “if pain persists, see your family doctor!”

9. FIRST AID/MEDICAL KIT/ICE The fundamental responsibility of ALL coaches and teachers is the safety of the swimmers under his or her control. An important part of this responsibility is having a well maintained and up-to-date Medical Kit close by at all training sessions … not locked in the club cupboard … and at all swim meets AND being able to administer basic First Aid in case of emergency. Check regularly to see if all medicines, preparations and medications in the First Aid Kit have not gone past the use-by date. A current First Aid Certificate (St. Johns or similar) is a vital part of being prepared for the first line in injury management. Ice should be available at all sessions and meets as part of your injury prevention and management strategy.

10. COACH EDUCATION It is vital that all coaches keep up-to-date with current injury prevention strategies and injury management techniques. Make it a priority to read up on injury prevention and to discuss the issue with sports science/sports medicine professionals at every opportunity. It is difficult (impossible?) to have a 100% injury-free squad program. Swimmers are working hard, pushing themselves to the limits to achieve their best and injuries are an ever-present danger. However, injuries can be minimised and controlled with a sensible injury prevention and management strategy, which is at the heart of your training plan. Hopefully, these 10 tips will help you develop a sensible, safe and effective training program.

DUTY OF CARE – PART 2 Responsibilities of

Coaches/Teachers of Sport “THE JOURNEY” By Ian Dear, Level 2 Candidate

In the previous issue of our journal you were provided with the CORE ESSENTIALS to digest in relation to duty of care. However, it is now time to tie the core elements into “THE JOURNEY” you should consider to ensure that you and your athlete employ actions that minimise risk. Your primary responsibility is the safety of your athletes (see item 73-101 Coaching Tips), but of course keeping the path clear for self-preservation. Whenever duty of care is raised, it is my experience that most presenters are met with the retort … “but I don’t get paid for my work” … or “for what I earn I shouldn’t have to worry about such things”. Please be reassured of the fact that even without any reward once an athlete is committed to your care, your duty of care commences and their safety is your responsibility. Therefore, you move into PHASE ONE – that is, your relationship with the athlete has commenced. PHASE TWO is for you to satisfy yourself as to your ability to communicate with the athlete (language and disability matters) and you must most certainly consider the physical capacity of your athlete, having in mind the program or session (I trust) you have prepared. PHASE THREE could be considered as being your responsibility to ensure that during the course of your relationship with your athlete it is demonstrated that their rights are protected and they are free from all forms of harassment as has previously been outlined to you. One special concern of mine is, particularly during Learn-to-Swim or teaching programs, the propensity of the coach/teacher to “touch” the athlete for limb or body position(s). This type of activity has to be treated with extreme caution and the recommendation is that if your athlete is a minor, the parents/guardian are aware of your physical method of coaching/teaching and, if an adult, permission should be sought from them. Particular care must be taken with a person with disablement in any form. Within this phase you may consider the recommendation of Consent Forms or Permission Slips (remember the form or slip does not mean that you are immune from liability should the pupil be injured – however, it may have some weight in assisting to reduce the liability imposed upon you). Don’t be fooled into believing that video or similar demonstrations of teaching or coaching techniques are foolproof. I can clearly recall during a


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lecture I attended last year being shown a video clip of an American Coach attending to the technique of two female athletes – both of whom were disabled. Whilst I do not, in any way, suggest there was any impropriety intended, it was observed by a number of us present that the positioning of the coach’s hands on the upper thigh of the female athlete was such that one assumes the male coach obtained the athlete’s guardians permission to position the athlete’s limb as he did. In these situations, adopt the “reasonable person test” and ask yourself if your conduct could stand scrutiny by your “neighbour”. The FOURTH PHASE, but by no means the last, would bring you to risk management and this in itself is a minefield. Your attention, in the previous article, has been brought to some of the key elements of a Risk Management Program and this should be closely considered along with the principles of foreseeability. There are excellent publications on risk management and for those whose “daily bread” is gained from Coaching and Teaching, attention to these publications is, in my view, a must. The Association has excellent references in this regard. One I recommend is “Better Coaching” Advanced Coach’s Manual, Second Edition, edited by Frank S. Pyke. Duty of Care is not designed to “take the fun out of coaching and teaching” but in a society that is becoming increasingly litigation conscious, your Association, and others, are “taking care” that duty of care becomes party of your everyday skills and there is preserved the utmost confidence in your and your athlete. Incidentally … whilst it does not necessarily fall under the general heading of “risk management”, make sure that any risk regarding your personal and financial future is protected by insurance. This is a common risk transferral and it is considered a proactive measure that swimming coaches and teachers should adopt.

MMeerrrryy CChhrriissttmmaass

A SWIMMING CLUB’S TRAINING PROGRAM By Len Sterlin

Head Coach Black Lion Swimming Club, England Email from Len … Hello Michael, How are you? I started this season as a Head Coach of one of the clubs in South East of England having tried before to get a job in Australia (without success so far). Please find attached some of my British experience of establishing a swimming program in the club. Some big changes are going on in UK swimming, thanks to Bill Sweetenham and John Atkinson, who also has Australian connections. Best Regards, Len Sterlin … [email protected] The following is our view of building up a swimming club development program that comprises the Multi-Year Training principle. The program presented reflects our club specific circumstances. However it is believed that it can be adjusted to any swimming club coaching and training environment. FOREWORD The program should cater needs of all swimmers of the club, and is based on the Multi-Year Training Plan Of The Swimmer’s Development on acceptance by the Club providing sufficient availability of both pool and land based training space as well as training equipment. The ultimate goal of the Multi-Year Training (MYT) is the optimal development and retention all Club swimmers over the several years period to allow them to develop their FULL potential and reach their GOALS, yet is necessary to achieve top international level performances in competitive swimming. The long-term training principle is the foundation of the Multi-Year Training that stands for… • Gradual improvement • Growth and development of all systems (physiological

and mental) • Improvement in stroke technique • Development of race strategy and conceptual race

thinking • An improved understanding of the spirit and ideas

behind the sport of swimming The current age range for top achievements in swimming is 17-20 years for females and 19-22 years for males. Thus, the extent of long-term training should cover a period from 10-12 years since the average age for commencing purposeful training should be 7-8 years for girls and 8-9 years for boys. However, duration of MYT may differ between individuals according to the age when they start training and their rate of biological maturation.


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ATHLETES’ MULTI-YEAR TRAINING SYSTEM IN A SWIMMING CLUB (Key Points Scheme only) STAGE Duration of Stage Number of Swimmers in

Squad Number of Squads

per Coach Number of Sessions

per Week Duration of session

(hours) Dry Land Sessions

per week 1. 3 years P R E L I M I N A R Y

1st year 20-25 5-6 3-4 1 — 2nd year 15-20 4-5 4-5 1-1.15 1 3rd year 10-15 3-4 5-6 1.15-1.30 1-2

2. 3 years B A S I C A N D P R O G R E S S I V E 1st year 10-15 3-4 6 1.30 2-3 2nd year 10-15 2-3 6-9 1.30-1.45 2-3 3rd year 15 2 6-9 1.45-2 3-4

3. 2 years S P E C I A L I S A T I O N 1st year 15-20 1 8-10 2 3-4 2nd year 10-15 1 9-11 2-2.15 4-5

4. Individually S P O R T E X C E L L E N C E & H I G H P E R F O R M A N C E 4-8 1 12-18 2-2.30 5-6

In accordance with well-known patterns of growth and development of physiological and psycho motoric abilities the following Training Program for age groups swimming has been worked out.

TRAINING PROGRAM FOR AGE GROUPS Age at the beginning of the season

Parameters of preparation 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

● Number of Training Weeks 40-42 44-45 44-45 45-46 45-46 46-47 47-48 47-48 48-49 48-49

Swimming Sessions a Week 3 3-4 4-5 4-6 6 6-9 6-9 8-10 8-10 10-12

●● Dry Land Sessions a Week 3 3 3 1-2 2-3 2-3 3-4 3-4 4-5 5-6

Training Duration a Week (hours) 3-4 4 4-5 8-10 10-12 12-15 12-15 14-18 16-20 18-24

Total Hours per Season 250 250 340 450 500 600 700 650-850 750-950 850-1100

Swimming Volume per Season (km) 200-250 300-350 400-500 450-500 600-750 800-

1000 1000-1300

1300-1600

1600-1800

1800-2100

● The numbers of training weeks specified is a minimum requirement to ensure that the athletes maintain their physical and psychological conditions throughout the season at appropriate level. The Club provides training and coaching for its swimmers all the year round. ●● Dry land training of 9 and under years of age swimmers consists of callisthenics, land-based stroke drills, stretching and light stretch cords stroke imitation drills and usually lasts 15-30 min. Sports pedagogics considers that MYT’s four stages of Initial Physical preparation, Basic Training, Specialisation and Sport Excellence are fundamentals for planning and programming in competitive swimming. However, for the specific club’s needs the following FIVE GRADES are believed to be the most optimal. I. The stage of preliminary physical

preparation, which involves 7-10 year olds (“Pre-Cub Squad”)

This phase is the introductory level of competitive swimming. In order to begin in the novice levels swimmers must be able to swim a minimum of 100m Freestyle, Backstroke and Breaststroke. 1. The focus is almost entirely on teaching

fundamentals and developing basic motor learning skills, balance and coordination in the water.

2. Young athletes should begin swimming on a regular basis no later than age 9 or 10, ideally at age 7 or 8. The novice swimmers train at least twice per week (with three sessions offered) for a minimum of 8-9 months per year.

3. It is important to make swimming fun and enjoyable. The main responsibility for novice coaches is teaching children to love the water and to love the sport of swimming.

4. The coaches emphasise correct skill development fundamentals with low intensity and technique-oriented mileage.

5. It is essential to teach and develop all four strokes and all events. Age groupers should not be permitted to specialise in training or in competitions. 3rd year training athletes (9 years of age) compete 4-5 times a season. Younger swimmers are not allowed to compete at the inter-club level until they master all technical aspects of competitive swimming.

6. Coaches are required to make kicking (with and without kick-board) at high percentage of the training done at the novice levels.

7. Recommended average weekly volume … initially 3.5km then progress to 6km.

II. The stage of basic training, which involves 10 to 12 year olds (“Cub Squad”)

Swimmers are required to swim all four strokes and maintain good technique on low intensity interval work. This phase is a transitional level where the emphasis begins to change from primarily teaching to a relatively equal balance of technique work and physiological development. To enter this squad swimmers must have Competitive Start Award and be able to swim 100m IM and 200m Freestyle, and perform the test of 6x100m Freestyle on send-off time 2min.15sec. A pre-requisite for acceptance is


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that all swimmers are expected to attend and compete in all their age group events in the Club Championships and Regional Championships. 1. The focus is still centred on teaching

fundamentals and developing a strong foundation in all strokes.

2. The number of training sessions per week offered increases to 5-6 and swimmers are required to attend at least 4 per week for a minimum 9-10 months per year.

3. Low intensity aerobic conditioning is emphasised and athletes begin to do more mileage on a weekly basis. A continuous development of fundamental technical skills is of paramount importance at this stage.

4. At this level, the training program focuses on preparation for the 200 IM and 200/400 Freestyle events.

5. A high priority continues to be placed on kicking all four strokes. Swimmers are encouraged to do 50% of their kick training without boards.

6. Stretching and limited land based training are incorporated into the overall program during this stage.

7. Recommended average weekly volume … initially 7km then progress to 12km.

III. The stage of progressive training which involves 11-13 year old girls and 12-14 year old boys (“Junior Squad”)

The quantity and intensity of the training program increases. The program structures for more time to be devoted to physiological conditioning than to teaching fundamentals. To enter this squad swimmers are recommended to be 11 years of age however physical ability is considered and be able to perform Kent County qualifying time in 200m IM, 200m stroke of a swimmer’s choice and 50m stroke different from 200s. A pre-requisite for acceptance is that all swimmers are expected to attend and compete in all their age group events in the Club Championships and Regional Championships. 1. The weekly mileage begins to be an important

consideration. 2. Although low intensity aerobic training is still the

first priority, athletes begin to do more anaerobic threshold work. As swimmers swim faster in training a greater percentage of the time, it is critical that technique is not compromised.

3. At this level, the training program focuses on preparation for the 200m and 400m IM and middle distance Freestyle events. Swimmers do very little specialty work.

4. The number of training sessions per week offered increases to 6-7 and swimmers are required to attend at least 5 per week for a minimum 10-11 months per year. Athletes are encouraged to attend as many sessions each week as possible. Morning sessions during the school holidays are introduced at this level.

5. Coaches pay attention to maintaining aerobic fitness level from one season to the next. Breaks between seasons are limited to avoid significant deterioration of fitness.

6. Land based training is introduced at this level with the emphasis on the development of core body strength and teaching swimmers how to use stretch cords.


IV. The stage of specialisation, which involves 12-14 year old girls and 13-15 year old boys (“Senior Squad”)

The quantity and intensity of the training program increases even greater. For the first time the program structures for specialisation in chosen event(s) whilst further developing physiological conditioning and technical skills. To enter this squad, swimmers must be able to perform Kent County qualifying time in 200m IM, 100m and 200m stroke of a swimmer’s choice and 100m stroke different from chosen events. A pre-requisite for acceptance is that all swimmers are expected to attend and compete in all their age group events in the Club Championships and Regional Championships. 1. The weekly mileage becomes one of the most

important considerations. 2. Although low intensity aerobic training and

anaerobic threshold work is still one of the main priorities, athletes begin to do lactate tolerance-training sets on a regular basis. As swimmers swim faster in training a greater percentage of the time, it is critical that technique is not compromised.

3. At this level, the training program focuses on preparation for the 400m IM and chosen events as well as middle distance and distance Freestyle events.

4. The number of training sessions per week offered increases to 7-9 and swimmers are required to attend at least five evenings and one morning per week for a minimum 10-11 months per year. Athletes are encouraged to attend as many sessions each week as possible. Regular morning sessions during the school year are introduced at this level. Swimmers at these senior levels are encouraged to make a choice between swimming and other activities.

5. Coaches pay attention to maintaining aerobic fitness level from one season to the next. Breaks between seasons are limited to avoid significant deterioration of fitness.

6. Land based training at this level involves the development of core body strength as well as use of equipment such as stretch cords, medicine balls, light weights.


V. The stage of sport excellence, which involves 15-and-over year olds (“Elite Squad”)


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(Followed by the stage of high performance at international level, whose deviation varies between individuals.)

Swimmers with the appropriate attitude, experience, and talent move to this training level on coach’s invitation. The training program becomes very demanding with a heavy emphasis on distance-based physiological training. Therefore athletes are expected to be physically fit and possess good health (regular medical check is recommended). To enter this squad swimmers must be able to perform Southern Counties Qualifying times in four strokes(any distance) or National Qualifying time in one event. A pre-requisite for acceptance is that all swimmers are expected to attend and compete in all their age group events in the Club Championships and Regional Championships. 1. Success over the long-term remains a high

priority. 2. Work on various energy systems is an important

component of the overall training program.

Specialisation of training for stroke and distance becomes the main priority.

3. Weekly and annual mileage completed is an important consideration, together with attention to details and improvement in stroke efficiency and racing skills.

4. Swimmers are still encouraged to train and compete in a wide variety of swimming events.

5. The commitment level required at this stage of the program is very high with swimmers expected to attend 9-11 sessions per week.

6. Strength training with free weights and machines is a standard part of the training program.


A TRAINING SESSION FORMAT The following order is in place for all squads… 1. Land based warm-up (unless dry-land session has

been held prior training in the pool) 2. Training in the pool 3. Stretching on land

COACHING STAFF STRUCTURE

Head Coach

Head Age Group Coach

Squad Coach Lane Coach Squad Coach Lane Coach Squad Coach Lane Coach Head Coach develops and supervises the overall Club Program; Coordinates seasonal and multi-year plans for all training squads; Supervises all squads coaches; Conducts direct coaching of the Elite Squad; Supervises team selections; Coordinates the Club’s swimmers evaluation. Head Age Group Coach works with the Head Coach in developing seasonal plans for various junior and pre-senior training squads and groups; Conducts direct coaching of either Junior Squad or Cub Squad within the context of the seasonal plan; Supervises other squads coaches; Remains in close communication with the Head Coach regarding individual and group progress; Assists in team selections; Evaluates age group swimmers and make recommendations for squad advancement on a seasonal basis; Assumes responsibilities of the Head Coach in his absence. Squad Coaches work with the Head Coach and the Head Age Group Coach in developing seasonal plans for their training squads and groups; Conduct direct coaching of the Pre-Cub, Cub, Junior and Top Squads and other groups within the context of the seasonal plan; Supervise their lane coaches; Remain in close communication with the Head Coach and the Head Age Group Coach regarding individual and group progress; Assists in team selections; Evaluate

their swimmers and make recommendations for squad advancement on a seasonal basis. Lane Coaches work with Squad Coach in developing weekly and daily plans for their squads and/or groups; Assist to the Squad Coach in direct coaching of the Club’s age group squads; Assume responsibilities of the Squad Coach in his absence. PHILOSOPHY OF AGE GROUP SWIMMING PROGRAM The club provides swimmers with experienced coaches who know how to use all the facilities and techniques, are flexible in their training programs and can cater for individual abilities and ambitions. The coaches make certain their athletes swim efficiently, train properly, know how to race under pressure, can control their movements and emotions and can organise the timetables and diets. Working with swimmer parents is essential to help motivate their children. Young swimmers should be challenged but their program increased progressively to ensure they don’t burn out. However, a training program should be sufficiently difficult so as racing conditions where swimmers compete to maximise their personal development and success.


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While girls are still under 13-14 and boys under 15-16 years old they should not be divided into stroke or distance specialists, but should be… • Distance training to develop aerobic foundation

for senior swimming • Poli-stroke training (Individual medley) • Aerobic poli-stroke training which gives a very

good opportunity to teach and coach simultaneously

• Program of testing and time trials corresponding to the content of their training

• Consistent stroke development (both “training” and “racing” skills)

• Constant development of strong, efficient kicking (one of the basic skills)

• Maintenance of rapidity • Continuous flexibility development • Regular practice the basics of racing strategy

(negative split swimming) When working with age group swimmers coaching staff should not wait for a quick “return” of their efforts, but work for longer prospects. Ensure that combined with the proper psychological preparation, health and nutrition our training program greatly improves the chances that majority of the Black Lion swimmers (but not only few God-given talented) will reach their performance potential at the right time of the season and at the right times of their competitive career. To incorporate the main principles of training… • Stress/Adaptation: Physiological changes

(higher level of performance) take place as training adaptation occur.

• Overload: If improvement is to occur the training plan should include a gradual increase in the workload in all areas: in water and on land.

• Specificity: Both dry land and water training regimens should be specific. Long-term studies of age group swimmers confirm the fact that aerobic based exercises (long distance swim) produce long-term developmental benefits. Every doubling of swimming speed increases water resistance as much as four times and creates need for greater strength. Dry land training should be specific: by developing right “swimming” muscles and by right swimming pattern that makes correct stroke technique. That is why both dry land and swimming training sometimes can be more beneficial for young swimmers than only water training.

• Reversibility: Training effects are reversible. When workouts are stopped, or are not frequent enough, loss of training may occur. The state of fitness and stroke technique efficiency should be

permanently maintained by frequent exercises of those qualities. This is especially important for Club’s junior swimmers.

THE CLUB DEVELOPMENT PLAN BLUEPRINT TO 2004 The aim of this plan is to provide a constant inflow of new swimmers into competitive program from “Learn-to-Swim” programs, local schools and other clubs and to significantly improve swimmers’ performance by the end of 2001-2002 season and providing further improvement to their full potential (in long term prospect). The aim would be achieved by… • Building the confidence in swimmers and parents

through regular intensive training. • Creating greater awareness of the benefits of

participating in sporting activity. • Attracting and retaining gifted swimmers over the

seasons to allow them to develop their full potential.

• Developing the mental strength of swimmers and positive attitude toward training.

• Constantly monitoring the dynamics of workloads, sport results and fitness in individuals and delivering this information to swimmers and parents (6-weekly testing).

• Teaching swimmers how to properly perform their training tasks, training strategies and skills.

• Providing swimmers of all age groups with better calendar of sport events.

• Progressively, year-by-year, increasing training demands.

SQUADS COMPOSITION Important Note: In accordance with known patterns of growth and development of motor and psychological abilities and for the purpose of mastering technique training squads usually are formed on the basis of chronological age. However it is taken into consideration levels of individual biological maturity and physiological response to exercise. To ensure long-term success the club aims towards the following training groupings and approximate number of swimmers… Pre-Cub squad Bronze group (Youth level)

6-8 years of age: 20-25 girls + 20-25 boys

Pre-Cub squad Silver group (Youth level)


Pre-Cub squad Gold group (Youth level)


Cub squad (Junior level) 10-12 years of age: 12-16 girls + 14-18 boys

Junior squad (Pre-Senior level)


Senior Squad (Senior level) 12-15 years of age: 10-12 girls + 8-10 boys

Total: 85-112 girls … 91-116 boys Elite Squad (High performance level)

Individually (approximately 10-12 swimmers)


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Peaks of performance… Silver and Bronze groups

Club Championship

Gold group Club Championship, Regional Championships Cub squad Regional Championships Junior squad Regional Championships and Kent County

Championships Senior squad Regional Championships, Kent County

Championships, Southern Counties Championships and Age Groups National Championships

Elite squad Kent County Championships, Southern Counties Championships, Age Groups National Championships, Winter National and Open National Championships, International Swim Meets

TRAINING CAMPS Organise and hold two training camps per year. First … During Christmas holidays outside the local area based at a 50m pool. Second … During summer period prior to major competitions of the season outside the local area based at a 50m pool. Training camp is one of the most rewarding aspects of club coaching. It allows our swimmers an opportunity for adventure and responsibility. Training camp is a great way to build up the feel of team spirit, sportsmanship and being wanted. Both training camps fall on school holidays, cater needs greater number of members than small group of National qualifiers and can provide better preparation for the summer and winter competitions. Training camp should be offered to all club members regardless of age or qualification with the club to subsidise high achieving swimmers. SOCIAL EVENTS Special social program in the club such as… • Sea swimming • Movie nights • Bowling • Fun run • Outdoor games (beware of injury and loss of fitness) • Special events by age grouping … i.e.

10/u years – bus tour to “Gala” or “Open Meet”(TBA) 11/12 years – bus tour to “Gala” or “Open Meet” (TBA) 13/14 years – bus tour to “Gala” or “Open Meet” (TBA) 15/16 years – bus tour to “Gala” or “Open Meet” (TBA)

• Invite the School Principal and teachers to come along to our training session or club championships with morning tea

Scheduling social activities for the club members helps swimmers feel a stronger relation to the Black Lion Team and increases their chances of staying with the club. The Club Program is subject to annual review.

THE SECRET WEAPON OF CHAMPIONS By Ross Swanborough

(Reproduced from Queensland Swimming Association Coaching Newsletter, May/June 2001)

Concentration … Confidence … Will to Win … and Mental Discipline are ingredients that are common among champion athletes in any sport. Author, Ross Swanborough, shares his ideas on how to specifically develop these qualities in your swimmers.

PSYCHOLOGY “I’m all psyched up”, says the champ. What does he really mean? Only in recent years has psychology been applied in competitive swimming. For far too long, the emphasis has been on STROKE MECHANICS and PHYSICAL CONDITIONING. Coaches and swimmers alike have hoped for miracles by merely copying this style, or that. While it cannot be denied that the principles of Stroke Mechanics and Physical Conditioning are not absolutely essential for the making of the champion, without psychology he may never have become the champion. While you concentrate on trying to look like the champion, you are missing the real reason for the champ’s success – i.e. what he has done before the Meet. What you copy is only what the champ has done on the day of the Meet. It does not reveal any secrets of how he got to be the champ. The secret is in his mental attitude to training – to those painful, endless laps – to the hours of analysing performance and stroke correction – to building mental and physical condition – and to careful months of planning for the big day. The quote by Cicero, “Man is his own worst enemy”, is the key to understanding how psychology (mental attitude) brings success. The only enemy keeping you from success is your own weaknesses – not the swimmer beside you – not the current champion – nor anyone else … but you yourself. Your mental attitude should NOT be aimed at defeating other competitors, but rather aimed at DEFEATING those weaknesses within YOURSELF. These weaknesses may be lack of concentration in starting – of skills necessary for a perfect tumble turn – or of mental endurance to complete your training program, even when it hurts. You must concentrate constantly on eliminating these


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weaknesses in YOUR OWN PERSONAL PERFORMANCE during training and having no thought or worry about the opposition. In preparing for a particular championship event, you should not ask, “What time must I swim in order to better last year’s winner’s time?” This attitude is still concerning yourself with other competitors. The question asked should have been … “If I train hard, consistently reducing my present time, what time will I be swimming at the time of the Meet?” If the time predicted happens to be inside last year’s winner’s time, you should swim to that potential, unhindered by thoughts of other competitors. You have really made it when you no longer worry about other competitors, but concern yourself with the new time you are about to swim. To achieve this psychological state, we must use the following tools…

CONCENTRATION … CONFIDENCE WILL TO WIN … MENTAL DISCIPLINE

CONCENTRATION

Proper concentration is absolutely essential for the whole mental approach to swimming. Your confidence, mental discipline and race-tension are determined by your degree of concentration. Concentration does not come easily: effort is required, in both training and competition to achieve it. Concentration should always be directed towards performance and it should always be positive.

CONFIDENCE If you were asked to walk across a six-inch wide plank, which was lying on the floor, you could undoubtedly run back and forth without ever falling off. Now, if the plank was raised several feet off the ground, you could still perform well, but perhaps more cautiously. If the plank was now raised to 10 feet, you would perhaps make the crossing but very slowly, cautiously and maybe nervously. If the plank went to 50 feet or 100 feet, you would probably be unable to perform this simple task. It is the same plank, the same skill required as when on the floor, but a lack of confidence has defeated your ability to perform. John Dryden’s famous quotation, “For they conquer who believe they can”, sums up the importance of confidence to the competitive swimmer. The real key to winning is what goes on in the swimmer’s mind. The only way to build confidence is to think positively about performance. However,

positive thinking must be realistic. In the plank example above, a positive attitude about crossing it at 100 feet is definitely a realistic one. On the other hand, to develop a positive attitude that you could cross the plank at 100 feet, walking on your hands may be totally unrealistic and dangerous. This leads me to the point that whilst most people lack confidence and need to develop it, there are some who are naturally over-confident. These people often become careless and neglect essentials, which has a result similar to a lack of confidence. Every swimmer must develop the necessary level of confidence, which will not fail even under the pressure of competition.

WILL TO WIN It has been given many names such as the tiger, the killer instinct, motivation and competitive spirit. No matter what you call it, some have it and others don’t. It is an aspect of psychology about which very little is known. If you have it, you are lucky, as it is a necessary part of making a champion. Those who have little will to win (competitive spirit), and we all have some; can develop it under favourable conditions. Nothing succeeds like success. The person out to win a club age championship, usually does so because of the zest and drive he or she has for hard, monotonous training which is so essential for winning. The greater the desire to win … the greater is the dedication to hard training. For any championship, be it at club, district, regional, state, national, or world level, the swimmer who is satisfied with swimming last year’s records and times will almost invariable be unplaced in the competition. New goals must be set and the will to win as a tool to achieve the end result. Being confident and possessing that will to win are useless without mental discipline.

MENTAL DISCIPLINE Mental discipline is the ability to repeat performances of a high standard. Say, for example, that you have reached a high standard for your age group, say 72 seconds for 100 metres Backstroke. Any time you swim from now on you should be able to turn in a 72 or better when called on to do so. You may have noticed how the Olympic Champions can, before a race, predict their lap times for an event with incredible accuracy. This is due to mental discipline. The body does as the mind commands. Mental discipline has to be built up and practised in training. It should be obvious then, why


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fooling and half-hearted swims without full and continuous concentration may be a waste of time. You must set your goals, believe in yourself and achieve your goals. Remember that the swimmer who simply goes to the pool for one or two hours each day and expects automatic improved performances is going to be horribly disappointed. Progress only occurs when you make it happen and this depends on mental discipline. A competition between two equally trained swimmers – one with a great mental discipline and the other with little mental discipline – would result in the former being the winner. The reason for this lies in the fact that swimming, unlike most other sports, is purely offensive. There is absolutely nothing a swimmer can do to defend himself against the opposition’s offence. In football a defensive action may be taken by altering the position of certain players. In tennis, you may play the ball to your opponent’s weakness, which may be his backhand. In swimming, there is nothing you can do which will reduce the performance of your opposition. Therefore, the only way you can beat him is to develop an offence, which is greater than his. Your best offence is positive performance. A positive performance comes from your mental discipline, which allows you to ignore distractions. The most common distractions and worries at a Meet are… 1. Rumours that the opposition is swimming super

times. 2. Concern that the opposition may be using new

techniques. 3. Worry that you have drawn a bad lane 4. Frustration that the opposition is bigger than

you. Not one of these thoughts will influence the performance of your opponent, but such thoughts will develop into race tension, which will reduce your own performance. Shut all distractions and worries from your mind and give full, unbroken concentration to your performance. Listen only to your coach. Even well meant advice from others may be a distraction, because it is foreign to what you have been training. Above all, never adopt a new technique during the Meet or do anything not practiced in training.

RACE TENSION

Butterflies, fight and flight reaction, stress, match pressure are some of the many terms used to describe what I call race tension. It is a normal, physiological reaction of the body to nervous excitement. In emotional situations, a hormone called adrenal is released, which speeds up heartbeat, raises blood pressure, heightens the senses, makes stored sugar available for muscle use and slows down intestinal movements. All of these reactions prepare the body for efficient muscular activity. A foremost authority, Hans Selye, in his book “The Stress of Life”, considers stress to be an excellent opportunity for unrealised potential to be developed. Race tension then, can be used to your advantage, allowing you to perform better than ever you could in training.

HOW TO DEFEAT RACE TENSION 1. Set goals in training and train hard to achieve a

better time than last year’s winner. On Meet day, you will know that you can do it.

2. Expose yourself to as many Meets and competitions as possible leading to the big one. You don’t necessarily have to win in these Meets, so long as your times are improving at a satisfactory rate to achieve your goal by the big one.

3. Remember that race tension puts your body into a state of readiness. This is an aspect, which can help your performance.

4. Everyone in the event will be experiencing race tension. Say to yourself, “I’m the best swimmer here and if I’m nervous, just think what the others must be feeling”.

5. Make every thought and action positive. Do not think of the things you must not do but rather what you will do. Picture the whole race, as you will swim it … with you the winner.

6. Your concentration span must last for the whole race.

CONCLUSION

My job as coach will have been successful if you can look back one day and say to me, “He caused us to stop believing that we could become world champions by simply finding the ideal conditioning methods and perfect stroking. The real key is what goes on in the swimmer’s mind.”


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BACK TO SCHOOL with

Ron Coleman

LEARN TO SWIM In the articles I have written on the teaching of freestyle, which now spans a couple of years, I have tried to set up a line of thought. I have… (a) Analysed the stroke and tried to identify an

ideal “copy book” style (b) Endeavour to isolate the key points that make

the stroke work (c) Design a realistic model that is within the

capacity of the beginner (d) Break the stroke down into subskills (e) Provide a flow chart showing a suggested

sequence of teaching of the sub skills (f) Where possible try to give a rationale for all

my suggestions. I have not to this point paid a lot of attention to detailed specific teaching strategies as it would have been out of sequence with the presentation to date. Each subject presented so far depended on one’s understanding of previous material. I will be presenting the material as if the reader is a new teacher. Teaching strategies may differ depending on venue, age of pupil, number in class, etc. TORPEDO FLOAT Description … arms outstretched from shoulders palms facing down fingers and thumbs loosely together, arms parallel to water surface. Read down so backs of ears are between arms, eyes should be looking down and forward about 45 degrees. Legs together and straight toes loosely pointed. Body should be controlled but not stiff. Execution … Learner floats for about 10 seconds. Purpose … This exercise has two purposes. The first is that it is the base body position for Freestyle, as simple as it is, has to be correct. For example if we allow the head to be high we immediately put down pressure on the back end of the body making it more difficult to keep the feet up. Secondly, when it comes to teaching side breathing the head will not be able to rotate as freely. Why allow something that has to be corrected later?

The second purpose is that the Torpedo Float drills into the child’s head that the water supports them. This means that when the learner begins to learn mobility they are more likely to channel their efforts directly into going forward instead of apportioning part of the effort into climbing up on top of the water. To clarify this, it is not unusual to see less competent swimmers dropping legs and pressing down with the hands trying to keep up as well as go forward. This is nearly always because of lack of understanding of the support the water gives. So confidence in holding this float position has an important bearing on everything that is to follow. Also to be considered is confidence to do this in deeper water and the ability to recover from the float to standing or tread water position. It is not unusual to see a learner do a Torpedo Float in shallow water but not in deep water. So it is important that a child be competent and confident in deep water prior to getting serious about learning freestyle. Also we should not assume that a learner could recover from the float position especially if you are teaching adults. So it is worth considering teaching the recovery as well. A simple system for teaching this will be included in this paper. TEACHING THE TORPEDO FLOAT This is the simplest of skills and methods of teaching will vary depending on the circumstances we find ourselves in. A possible progression may be as follows… (a) Visual demonstration – let them see a demonstration of

a good Torpedo Float. (b) Have pupil on side of pool and show position. Use a

couple of key cues ... e.g. ears held between arms, legs together and toes loosely pointed.

(c) In water, with teacher standing beside pupil, child holds teacher’s forearm. Teacher uses other arm to support legs just above the knees.

(d) When body position is right, pupil is instructed to take breath and lower head till back of ears are between arms and hold to count of say 5 then up to say 10.

(e) Teacher assesses confidence by the strength of the grip on the arm and how much support the child is looking for.

(f) When child comes up for breath give encouragement and feedback … e.g. “Good kid, that was good, but this time we try to hold me loosely. I will take my hands away from your legs; you lie there and will count to 10”.

(g) As pupil relaxes and he/she is encouraged to release teachers arm and float alone.

(h) Child then can hold the side of the pool, assumes float position then lets go of side and holds position for about 10 seconds.


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(i) If in standing depth, child puts head down arms out and allows feet to drift up to float position, (or may kick off bottom to give start)

RECOVERY FROM FLOAT IN STANDING DEPTH While many just do it, some pupils, especially adults, do not know how to recover to feet. From float position knees are drawn up and hands press down. This brings feet down. Plant feet on bottom and lift head last. Lifting head before this tends to make the pupil flounder and unbalanced. Recovery to Tread Water: basically the same technique but the tread water kick and hands give the leverage to lift the head. Push Off and Glide Torpedo: While the Torpedo Float gets the child to understand that the water supports them without motion, this gives them the sensation of moving through the water with no other effort except the initial push off. I believe this also adds to the foundation upon which everything else is built. Execution: Child holding wall, puts feet against wall below surface, drops down below the surface and pushes off assuming the torpedo position and glides. Glide should be held for about 10 seconds. Body should be controlled but fairly relaxed. Teaching the Push Off and Glide: Pick a target mark that takes approximately 10 seconds to get to. Having a set mark gets them a definite goal and if you are working with more then one learner it helps keep practice orderly. Have a pupil plant their feet 20-30cm underwater on wall holding on to side with one hand. Have child drop down under water, release hand from wall, bring arms around into torpedo position. Push off and glide just below the surface allowing body to float up and move forward at the same time. Body position is assumed before pushing off. The head must remain down till the goal is reached. While there is not a lot that can go wrong, the instructor should develop an eye for detail and ensure it’s done accurately and with confidence.

TEACHING THE KICK The mechanics of the kick are well documented so I will not go into that side of it. Also the kick of the beginner does not appear to vary from the advanced athlete so no special consideration need be given for technique. If we assume we are teaching a pupil who cannot kick, a teaching sequence may be as follows… (a) Let pupil see a well-executed kick. (b) Pupil lies down on side of pool in “torpedo” position,

legs together toes pointed. Then with scissor movement and straight legs, simulate kick.

(c) Try same laying on back

(d) Try the same kick sitting on edge of pool leaning back on hands, feet kicking at top of the water.

(e) Lie in shallow water 20-30cm (if available) deep (preferably head down) and kick. The shallow water helps control the depth of kick.

(f) Instructor standing in water and pupil holding the side of the pool or a flotation device. Instructor helps guide the depth of the kick, knee bend, etc.

It is worth noting that the following simple guidelines can make life easier. 1. As much as possible, teach with body horizontal and

preferably head down in torpedo position. 2. Use initially a scissor type action then if too much knee

bend ask them to stiffen knees if tool little loosen up. 3. Heels bubbling the surface. 4. Ankles loose. 5. Tempo should be strong at a speed that could be

considered aerobic in energy expenditure. What can go wrong? If the guidelines are followed … not a lot. Common faults that shouldn’t happen if the guidelines are followed are as follows… (a) Over kicking – legs coming high out of the

water. Remedy: Straighten legs and use scissor action with heels bubbling the surface – also this type of kick is so inefficient and energy expensive that if body position is good, they soon drop it.

(b) Cycle kick – this kick uses the upbeat of the kick and the bottoms of the feet for propulsion instead of the down beat and tops of the feet. The kick can be blatantly obvious or very subtle and difficult to detect. It quite often is found in kids with low water confidence. Remedy: (i) Use scissor type action and keep head down. (ii) Make sure child is confident in his/her own ability in deep water.

(c) Knees dropping – usually caused by head being held up. Remedy: Get head down.

The kick is not difficult to teach, but it does need plenty of work in a good body position and given time to develop. TORPEDO AND KICK While, as a general rule, I would try and teach and consolidate each subskill before going on to the next with any seriousness, I would start to work on the torpedo and kick as soon as I was satisfied with the torpedo float, and float and glide. I have found the body position of the torpedo aids the correct development of the kick. It is useful to introduce the torpedo and kick even before we are satisfied with the kick. It can be then used as part of


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your kick teaching strategy as well as a development tool. Teaching Instructor sets a target distance that takes the pupil about 10 seconds to cover. Pupil drops below surface pushes off with a torpedo and glide, then brings in the kick soon after leaving the wall. As soon as the target distance is reached pupil stops, rests then repeats. The target distance is an estimate of how far the pupil can go comfortably without feeling short of air. Setting a target distance serves other purposes. (a) Allows each repeat to be done well (b) Gives them a reasonable challenge to go on one

breath, and time too for reasonable practice time (c) Helps keep practice orderly. I don’t believe trying to get the kids going long distance helps in the early stages of learning. Body position is the key factor here and the more fatigued the pupil is the poorer will be the practice. Keep the repeats shorter but all quality. INTRODUCTION TO BREATHING The breathing technique for Freestyle is a lot more difficult than people generally think. The breath is taken to the side without taking water, the rotation of the head is around the axis, the exhalation has to be made so that (a) A certain amount of air is retained early and increased

as the head rotates back to the side. (b) As the mouth breaks the surface the exhalation is

completed the inhalation begins. (c) Sufficient air is pushed out and enough taken in. (d) The time it takes co-ordinates with the speed of the

arms. All these factors suggest that it is wise to begin teaching breathing as soon as possible. In the published flow chart I suggest it can begin the first day lessons. While it is possible to go right into side breathing, my experience has been that with younger kids or in a group situation it can be prudent to have some introductory strategies that make the job easier. 1. Bobbing and Bubbling This can be introduced as a game. The fact that it is a fun activity tends to make it easy. 2. Execution and Teaching It begins with no more than saying to the kids “We are going to bob down underwater, blow bubbles and bob back up”. Have a look at what you end up with… • Some will not blow out at all • Some will squeeze out a few • Some will blow all the air out on the way down • Some will do a quick bob, others will stay down a long

time There are plenty of ways to show them how to push the air out. Blowing ping-pong balls, blowing

into a hand with water in it. While most will just do it, by doing it some will need help. I find “blowing a raspberry” is something they all know how to do, or have them blow out slowly through lips that are together but loose. Or vibrating our lips with our forefinger like we do after a frustrating day at the pool also gets the message across. Whichever method of inventing genius one uses, we are looking for lips that are loosely held together so that when even a moderate amount of air is pushed through water can’t get in. After trying single “bobs and bubbles” we might tell them to string 5 together then maybe 10. Quite often the repetition gets a rhythm going but for those who don’t, the following helps. • Get them to do little bubbles down and big ones on the

way up. • Allow them only one breath while up. With those two suggestions and a string of repetitions of say 10 at a time they should start to get a reasonably comfortable rhythm. You can say that this is learned when they can go 10 or more bobs, taking one breath when they come up, and not be uncomfortable. Exhalation can be through mouth, nose or both. Where exhalation is through the mouth and water keeps getting up the nose suggest some air be blown out through the nose. 3. Vertical Rhythm Breathing Pupil has chin on the water facing the front. Pupil inhales lowers the head hinging at neck till face is down with water at ears. Exhalation begins as face goes down and trickles out till face is down then as the head begins to lift there is an acceleration of bubbles finishing as mouth breaks the surface when inhalation begins again. The time from one breath to the next will be about the same as what it will be when stroke is learned. I have never considered the time as a problem, long as the inhalation and exhalation is completed correctly. For those who want an approximate time it will be around 1.5 seconds. As stroke is learned it will sort itself out. Vertical Rhythm Breathing, as well as being an easy step to side breathing it can also be incorporated into kicking drills. What can go wrong? • Head too deep • Not deep enough • Lifting the whole body not just the head • Not getting rid of enough air • Getting rid of all of it on the way down • Breaking the surface blowing out all or some air then

taking a breath • Stopping while head is down rather than continuous

movement • Too fast or too slow


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RReefflleeccttiivvee PPrraaccttiiccee ffoorr SSwwiimmmmiinngg TTeeaacchheerr

By John Holden

(Reproduced from “WaterWays”, August 2001) How often do we finish a lesson and say to ourselves… “That could have been better” … or … “why did my method of teaching Backstroke work so well with the green group and was almost a disaster with the red”? Most conscientious swimming teachers are in the habit of lesson evaluation. But what is the use of this practice if no action results from the evaluation to improve your teaching? However, the problem may be long-term and more significant. Take, for example … Paul who is just off the mark with his swimming and finds it easy to swim from A to B but struggles swimming from B to A. You cannot understand why and you want to try and look at the reasons and change things so that swimming from B to A is as easy for Paul as swimming from A to B! It may not be enough to simply rely on your normal lesson evaluation. You may need to try some Reflective Practice. Reflective Practice (RP) is conscious thought and action, which brings about innovation for change through operations, redirection, considerations and re-approach. In simplistic terms, it is a change of heart. By being involved in RP, swimming teachers develop a better understanding between values, problems with individuals, key issues, arguments and closing the gap between theory and practice. You can end up with a solid set of principles to work from. For successful RP, methodology is vital – Lewin (80) presents a spiral system, which is ongoing. The paradigm is Plan, Observe, Act and Reflect, Plan, etc. The advantage with this is that it creates growth and a

new set of values for each problem or parts of a problem can result. The disadvantage is that it is somewhat vague. The NAOMIE principle is based on Lewis but has a more structured approach. It is ongoing and creates growth in establishing values. The pattern is…

Needs Aims Objectives Method Implementation Evaluation needs aims, etc.

The evaluation is the key element or this is the Reflective element. It must not be confused with reflexive, as the latter is more in tune with action, hence Method and Implementation or in Lewin’s system, Act. Closely associated with Reflexive Practice is Action Research and there are a variety of methods such as observation, diary keeping, interviews and questionnaires and case studies. However, observation and interviews are the most common. During evaluation, it need not be complex and a series of questions should be asked, such as …

Did I meet my objectives? What went well? What difficulties occurred? What is or what was good about it or bad about it? What could be learned for future? What needs occur?

What you are engaging in is a deconstructive process so that you can rebuild your fresh approach. Record the familiar … make it unfamiliar so that you can look at it again (Schon). From this point, the teacher can establish new aims and objectives. For example, Bill has been coming to your adult evening classes for eight weeks and still cannot swim. When he kicks his legs with a float, he gets absolutely nowhere and, in addition, he has very stiff ankles. To get him to put his face in the water is a nightmare for him. Bill really is a ‘hard nut to crack’. Does this sound familiar?


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You need a short-term plan of action, which will result in success. Take the positive points first. What is good about it? Bill wants to learn – the evidence is in his attendance. If he did not, he would not have come in the first instance or probably would have dropped off after the first few lessons. You, as the teacher, want him to learn so much that you have decided to make up an action plan. What are the problems? Bill’s confidence and his poor, stiff leg action. Your objectives could now be to get Bill to swim a distance unaided by the end of the term. Aims – to work on his arms more than his legs, to encourage him to move into deeper water (shoulder depth) to increase confidence and perhaps introduce him to another stroke. These objectives and aims may relate entirely to Jenny, who is also in your adult class, but what we are aiming for is a change of direction and reapproach. Of course there are problems with RP. With all teachers today time is of the essence and the more in-depth the problem, the more time consuming it becomes. You may have others in your class beside Bill or Jenny who, at times, need your undivided attention! Another danger is to create a problem, which is not there, and a simple on-the-spot solution is all it takes. We also have to be careful and avoid fixed hypotheses which, by tradition, we cannot alter once research has begun – such as ‘the best way to learn to swim is with arm bands’ or ‘I do not allow free time at the end of my lesson’. However, sound evaluation and RP will benefit the swimming teacher. Reflective Practice need not be complex but some form of methodology is essential to its success and the swimming teacher should stick to the pattern. The rewards can be plentiful for both yourself and your charges.

AQUATIC PROGRAMMING FOR ABLE-BODIED & DISABLED INFANTS

Part 1 By Julie Zancanaro

A DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE

Helping your students to reach their potential. Surely, as Aquatic Professionals that is what we aim to do from our youngest little water babies, through to elite competitors. It could be argued that the younger the student, the greater this responsibility lies squarely on our shoulders, and that we must take every opportunity to develop the full potential of our little charges while they are at an age where outside influences have a major effect on this potential, more than at any other stage of life. Whether or not they have characteristics that prove to be disabling in certain areas of their lives, ALL children have the potential to develop far beyond the heights reached in everyday life. Children who are born with developmental disabilities or developmental delays are ideally involved from birth in a program of early intervention. Early intervention programs aim to enhance the process of development in all areas, but often target a particular area of delay. Developmentally appropriate activities, largely play-based, are designed to help children gain from their environment the information they need to learn and develop – to more fully reach their potential. INTEGRATION refers to the process whereby people with disabilities are given the opportunity to participate to the best of their ability in mainstream programs. Sometimes, it means the program needs to be modified to cater for the varying ranges of abilities and disabilities that may present. As swimming instructors, we are in a unique position. We have… • A stimulating, unique and changeable

environment to work in. • Scope to design play activities based on the

children’s skill and developmental level. • In larger swim schools, the volume of children to

form homogenous groups according to age and stage.

• Parents/caregivers to assist us in implementing the activities.

• Regular attendance at a price parents can afford.


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With such an ideal environment in which to stimulate the development of young children … including those with disabilities … it is essential that we understand the process of early development and empower ourselves with the knowledge and skills to enhance it. Young children develop and change at an incredible rate – in all areas – physically, socially and intellectually. Change is faster and more comprehensive than at any other stage of life. In children who have no apparent disability, a general pattern of development emerges that is common to all children. Children are, of course, very individual and will develop new skills at slightly different ages. For this reason we look for skills to be acquired at a particular stage in their development and within a normal age range, rather than at a very specific age. Even though some children will develop skills a little earlier or later than others, they all follow the same general pattern of development, developing in a particular sequence of skills. All facets of the child develop simultaneously. However, at certain stages, a particular area of skills will seem to dominate the child’s development – once a degree of mastery is achieved the child will move on to a new focus. In very young children (generally involved in the parent and child, play-based components of aquatic programs), looking at these areas of developmental focus provides a programming focus for goal setting and activity design. In my programming I have identified the following ages and stages as a guide for grouping, goal setting and activity design for children up to three years (now being referred to in the industry as infants). DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMING STAGES 0-6 months Dominated by the Sensory System (Information

Stage)

6-15 months Dominated by the Motor System (Movement Stage)

15-30 months Dominated by the Communication System (Interaction Stage)

30-42 months Dominated by the Emotional System (Independence Stage)

(For those working with preschool aged children – 3.5 to 5 years – children of this age are focusing on and rapidly developing in the area of SOCIALISATION. This is one reason why children

of this age are often ready to move out of the Parent-Child program and into a small group without parents. For programming purposes, general age ranges may be used as a guide for grouping most children up to three years. Children who present with individual characteristics outside what we consider to be the normal range, will need to be in a group where you can stimulate them at their individual stage rather than age of development, whilst still giving them the social stimulation they need by being with peers close to their chronological age. This can prove to be quite a challenge and may mean numbers need to be kept lower in these groups but it is important for the overall success of your programming, and particularly important if you aim to meet the individual needs of the child. A child, who has a significant disability from birth, initially has only that disability to contend with. With time, the disability will usually result in delays occurring in one or more aspects of their development – e.g. a child who is born blind is initially only unable to see, however, with time other disabling characteristics may develop such as poor coordination from restricted opportunities to practice mobility – or poor social skills from limitations interacting with peers. These disabling characteristics indirectly result from the initial physical disability, however may be minimised with good early intervention. It is very important that these children are involved in well-designed activities to enhance their development from an early age, and so minimising the occurrence of secondary disabling characteristics. To effectively program for able-bodied or disabled children, it is first essential to have a basic understanding of the normal process of development. It is this process that you will be striving to stimulate and enhance with ALL children in your program. The more complex processes are open to interpretation (and theorists from Freud to Erickson and Piaget have given us great insight into how and why children develop the way they do). The more obvious and easily recorded milestones of a child’s development have also been well documented. Gessell was the first to document a simple staged process orf development and Sheridan has given us one of the most user-friendly guides to developmental stages in her “Stycar Sequences”.


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To cater for the individual needs of children and to program for the general needs of the group, it is essential to understand these stages and to have a good working knowledge of the order in which skills develop. The following is an outline of the programming stages I use. It is essential, however, that instructors and programmers in particular go back to the work of the theorists mentioned above and ensure they have a fuller understanding of developmental processes before attempting to write a developmentally based aquatic program for infants.

0 to 6 months (INFORMATION) FOCUS THE SENSORY SYSTEM

At birth, the brain is like a computer with a program loaded but no data entered. For the first months of life the baby is driven to getting as much data as possible into the still developing brain. Senses are on full alert to gather this data. We aim to stimulate the senses and provide the necessary sensory input. The input is achieved through the kinaesthetic (movement), auditory (sound), visual (sight), proprioceptive (pressure), tactile (touch) and vestibular (position change) systems. CHARACTERISTICS Physical – the nervous system … particularly synapses (connections) in the brain … is still being formed at a rapid rate. Most movements in the early weeks and many in the following months are influenced by reflexes (involuntary, primitive patterns) that the baby will gradually integrate into voluntary movements. Over this period the baby will gradually develop stability, developing control of the head and neck first, followed by the trunk, the arms, the hands and legs. This follows the patterns of motor development – cephalo (head) to caudal (feet); and proximal (close as in trunk) to distal (far as in hands). By six months most will be sitting (some still needing support), rolling and becoming generally very physically active, kicking strongly when sitting or lying. Adaptive – during this stage the baby moves from only being able to recognise and follow close objects with the eyes, to becoming very alert – able to follow an adult’s movements around the room – and able to reach and grasp a small toy and pass it from one hand to the other.

Language – at birth, the baby may turn its eyes to locate some sounds and will tend to startle (part of the MORO reflex) at sudden noise, expressing discontent with loud crying. By around three months the baby will often respond to a familiar voice and may coo when happy. At around six months babies are vocalising quite a lot – laughing, squealing, and making simple vowel sounds. They are very responsive to an adult’s tone of voice and expression. Social/Play – babies are totally dependent at birth and remain so for a relatively long period. Newborns mostly sleep and eat and require support of the head and trunk when carried. They attend closely to their mother’s face during feeding and quite soon start to respond with smiles and vocalisations. By around three months they are showing recognition and enjoyment of familiar routines. By six months they may start to show some reservation with strangers. Apparently obsessed with mouthing them and passing them from one hand to the other to explore. At six months most babies still find it difficult to voluntarily release an object and will do so by pressing it against a firm surface (or the other hand), which stimulates the hand to open and so release. IMPLICATIONS FOR AQUATIC PROGRAMMING This is a time for nurturing and bonding between the child and its primary caregivers, particularly its mother. Although babies at this stage will happily go to strangers, it is important that we recognise the intimacy of the time spent in the water (the closeness, the skin-on-skin contact) and try not to interfere too much with the process. This is a time when most of our goals for the child can be achieved in the warmth and privacy of the family bath. As the child reaches six months, parents may be encouraged to introduce the child to the big pool – but good conditions (appropriate temperature, clarity, chemical balance) will be important. The role of the instructor is that of an educator at this stage. Parents should begin with a warm, quiet, soothing aquatic environment from birth. Talk to them – sing to them – maintain close eye and skin contact – feed them – caress/massage them – sway them gently allowing them to feel the movement of the water.


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Very young babies need stimulation but beware not to overload the senses. Focus on one or two sensory systems at a time. Change position and type of stimulation – e.g. swaying, singing, caressing – often. Whilst reflexive moment patterns will be activated by the infant and by the actions of the carer, it is essential that these are understood and that the stimulation of these reflexes be a consequence and not a goal. We do not understand the purpose and processes of neonatal reflexes and their integration enough to be confident that their purposeful stimulation is of benefit to the child. A mother’s natural instinct is to support and handle her child gently (in a way in which many of the reflexes are less likely to be activated) should be heeded. As the baby grows and develops in the early months, it will enjoy the introduction of more colour, shape, variations in voice tone, music and rhythm, and more vigorous swaying, swishing and splashing. However, a soothing and nurturing atmosphere should still be maintained. AQUATIC PROGRAMMING FOR ABLE-

BODIED & DISABLED INFANTS Part 2

By Julie Zancanaro

0 to 15 months (MOVEMENT) FOCUS THE MOTOR SYSTEM

Babies in this stage are generally very physically active, spending the greater part of their waking hours striving to overcome the challenges of mastering sitting balance, pulling up on furniture, crawling, climbing, and walking. It is during this phase that the child develops a sense of his/herself as a separate entity from familiar adults and will often become upset if familiar adults are out of sight. We have average age ranges to use as a guide but the acquisition of motor skills (as in all areas of development) can vary markedly from child to child and it is the sequence that proves more valuable to us than the timing. Our greatest challenge here is to provide the opportunity and the motivation for the baby to practice and extend his growing repertoire of motor skills, whilst respecting his growing emotional attachment to his primary carers and his reluctance to be separated from them even for a brief period.

CHARACTERISTICS Physical At around six or seven months most babies will have some mastery of sitting and will begin to dislike lying on their back – attempting to right themselves to a position whereby the head is held more upright. This righting reaction is a precursor to the drive to stand and eventually walk. They will pull to standing by holding on to furniture and love to bounce vigorously, taking weight through extended legs. Many babies will crawl backward prior to crawling forward (combat-style on the tummy) at around seven or eight months. Raising him/herself up on all fours follows soon after, with most babies crawling on all fours by around nine months. Balance in sitting is usually quite good by now and the baby soon starts being able to move between crawling and sitting, pivoting and reaching for toys whilst seated. By 12 months most are standing alone momentarily – many are taking their first steps – some are walking well. By the end of this stage we expect the majority of children to show balance reactions in sitting, kneeling and standing and to have a basic mastery of the movement (motor) skills needed to explore and manipulate his/her environment. Adaptive At the beginning of this stage babies are generally able to hold their own bottle and feed themselves with finger food (albeit in a very messy fashion!). By around nine or 10 months, most babies will be able to pick up very small objects like sultanas and string and as they still like to put things into their mouths to explore them, this often poses problems. Leading up to the first birthday babies become aware that objects still exist even when out of sight, so removing or hiding the offending object may result in protest. Thankfully, by this stage, the baby has learnt to release objects at will and understand many simple commands such as “no – no”. It’s not long before most are assisting with dressing by putting out an arm or placing a foot in the shoe. At this stage, although the babies should use both hands freely, occasionally they may show a preference for one hand.


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Language By this stage most babies will begin to use sounds to get a response. They may shout for attention, later starting to babble in imitation of the inflections of adult speech. Some time, around their first birthday, many babies are showing that they understand a wide range of words through performing appropriate behaviours and gestures. It is around this stage that most will start to say “dada” or “mama” appropriately (having babbled “dada” and “mama” earlier). Babies soon start to say “no” meaningfully and discover that it can be a powerful word! It is significant that around the end of this stage many babies will seem to plateau in their language development as they focus on mastering walking. Social/Play It is very significant that at around six months babies are generally beginning to distinguish themselves as separate from their primary carers. With this realisation, most begin to develop some degree of anxiety when separated from these carers – especially their mother. This will often progress to uncertainty about new situations/environments and people and sometimes even fear and insecurity with previously familiar environments. Soon, baby begins to show definite like/dislike of certain people, objects and places. Babies around this age particularly enjoy peek-a-boo – imitating actions and learning new gestures such as waving bye-bye and clapping. Well before their first birthday most babies start testing carers’ reactions – particularly at bedtime or feed time. By now they are generally cooperating in games and love to imitate. They will extend a toy to others but don’t like to give it up. Babies show interest in mirrors but it isn’t until around 15 months that most will recognise themselves. Their play is generally messy and exploratory at this stage and they prefer to play near a familiar adult. IMPLICATIONS FOR AQUATIC PROGRAMMING This is a time for activity – for movement and variety – and especially a time to respect the child’s need and right to have the security of a primary carer acting as his/her primary instructor.

The instructor’s role is one of a facilitator and educator. Babies should not be taken by the instructor for brief practice or games until a real sense of trust has developed between the two, and even then the primary carer should be an active part of the process. This is the time when mum will start to report baby’s excited response on pulling up in the pool car park … some babies will even recognise the preparations going on at home! Conversely, a baby who has had a negative experience may show distress at the same signs of an impending session. Newly acquired movement skills should be incorporated into the pool session and, ideally, instructors may help along the process of development by practicing the skills the baby has not yet mastered. For example – a baby who is learning to sit, will enjoy activities that involve supported sitting … such as sitting on a mat or the edge for entries … or sitting with a carer’s help on a partially submerged mat … to play. Crawling activities are ideal on a mat and if the mat is narrow enough, the instructor may facilitate cross crawling in a baby/child who has not fully acquired the skill. Similarly for standing … activities may be performed on the side … on mats … on large pieces of submerged play equipment or platforms … or simply with the carer supporting the thighs while the baby extends its trunk upright. All of these activities involving weight bearing, stability and balance are potentially easier for the child if the supportive properties of the water are used to advantage. Kicking activities will be invaluable in assisting the child to develop the muscular strength and coordination required for crawling and walking. Pulling will also assist in crawling and also in coordination of the upper limbs. It is important that carers are shown how to motivate children to move through play, but also how to facilitate the movement if the baby does not perform it independently. Programming should be made up of a variety of short activities – no more than a few minutes each. The session should contain active exciting activities, interspersed with restful, quiet periods. Don’t forget that carers often appreciate the sessions as a social outing as well and these quiet


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times allow carers and babies to become acquainted with others in the group. Babies will still enjoy and gain great benefit from the sensory stimulation mentioned in the previous section. Colour, shapes, rhythm, music, and touch sensations (such as splashing – the water swishing past bare skin – and skin-on-skin contact with carers) are essential parts of a good program. Those babies who still enjoying lying on their back will love back floating games, especially those involving swaying, swishing and walking backwards – always maintaining eye contact. Those babies who are experiencing righting reactions and so dislike lying on their back should not be forced to do so. Gentle persuasion with songs, games, gentle or more active swishing, and special little toys only used for floating will help entice them. If they are allowed to sit upright when they wish to, and then gently eased back when happy, most babies will at least partially participate. If approached in this way babies will gradually resume tolerating, and eventually enjoying, the back lay out position. Babies in this stage need variety. They will focus on a toy or lying still for short periods, but will quickly want to go again. Simple action songs and rhymes will enthral them – the more familiar the better – but remember, it is the rhythm and the action that interests them more than the words and the tune (or lack of it!). Large play equipment that allows for variations in position and types of movement will also be popular. Swimming underwater will generally be learnt quickly if a gentle, fun child-centred (Rob McKay) approach is used. These babies often seem to really enjoy the sensation of a free moving face in glide, or kicking freely underwater. Never force children of any age to submerge – listen to them – and watch their faces and body language.

If you prepare them well and use the right approach and motivation, some of their earliest words will be more and again! References: • AUSTSWIM, Preschool Extension Course –

Lecturers Notes, Melbourne: AUSTSWIM INC. • Furono S., O’Reilly K., Inatsuka T., Hosaka C.,

Zeisloft B., 1993. The Hawaii Developmental Charts – Arizona: Communication Skill Builders.

• Kochen C., McCabe J., 1986 The baby swim book – Illinois: Leisure Press.

• Lamon D., Crowley S., 1988 Little Waves Teaching Guide – Canada: H20 Enterprises Inc.

• Milani-Comparetti A: Pattern analysis of normal and abnormal development: the foetus, the newborn, and the child. In Seaton DS, editor: Development of movement in infancy, Chapel Hill, NC, 1981, Division of Physical Therapy, The University of North Carolina.

• Sheridan M., 1980 Children’s developmental progress from birth to 5 years: the Stycar Sequence – Berks: NFER Publishing Company.

• Shortridge S., in Pratt P. and Allen A., 1989 Occupational Therapy for Children – Missouri: CV Mosby Company.

• VanDyk D., 1987 Aquatics for the very young – Melbourne: Nelson Publishers.


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19th October 2001 Dear Michael I have just received the latest edition of Swimming in Australia. The usual very high standard as been maintained. I am particularly impressed with the large number of high quality articles on teaching swimming and water safety. I understand this will be a regular feature of ASCTA’s journal from now on ... fantastic! ASCTA is now a real leader in the Learn-to-Swim industry, when these developments are added to the Convention, National Learn-to-Swim Seminar Tour and the Swim Australia swim school promotion and development program. Keep up the excellent service.

ROSS GAGE – Director, Swim Australia Director, MILO Swim Australia

Phone: 61 7 3202 8453 – Fax: 61 7 3202 8456 Mobile: 0419 280460

Web Site: www.swimaustralia.org.au

10th November 2001 GRAHAM LEES Level 2 Coach – ASCTA 27 Waterford Parade Skennars Head NSW 2478

THANKYOU AUSTRALIAN SWIM CAMPS The opportunity to participate as Coach at this year’s Australian Swim Camp held at Fairholme College, Toowoomba, Queensland through an ASCTA Scholarship, was one of the best weeks I have experienced in my coaching time. A fantastic group of swimmers – approximately 85 – came together to share their time and to be coached by some of Australia’s best coaches and J.T. (John Trembley) from the University of Tennessee, USA. The group of Assistant and Scholarship Coaches were a very friendly and conscientious team and were

organised by Head Coach Shaun Crowe very well. This was very evident on SKIT night when the coaches won the evening unanimously with their awesome tune led by Coach King … certainly a good effort and fun for everyone! It’s a beautiful day and it’s great to be alive rang loud and clear each morning at 6.45am and the day’s schedule had begun. The staff at Fairholme were very committed and made everyone’s stay a good one … especially the kitchen staff who supplied the large contingent of swimmers with a great variety of breakfasts, lunches and dinners to satisfy this very active group. I would like to commend also all the Guest Coaches for their unlimited energy in making the Stroke Sessions … (1) Knowledgeable for Coaches … (2) Workable for Swimmers … (3) Fun for everyone. A wide variety of Progression Drills and Swimming Techniques were delivered to the swimmers who gave 100% attention and effort for all sessions with many youngsters challenging themselves so well during the week. The smiles on their faces after they had swum personal bests at the camp mini carnival on the last day was what coaches love to see. Effort being put in and results following through with great consistency. It was a pleasure to be on deck with J.T., and to see the progression of his swimming drills working in with all ages, 10 to 18 years. When the groups focussed on the Stroke of the Day, the improvements and enhancement of their swimming was so evident each individual was able to see through the video of themselves where they had improved and which areas they need to focus on more. Critique sheets were completed by all coaches on all swimmers on each stroke and proved to be a great reference for swimmers to deliver to Home Coaches for future stroke evaluation. The behaviour dedication to the camp for a large group was outstanding and Coach Crowe emphasised this at the Presentation Ceremonies where parents joined the swimmers to recognise the Awards to all who attended that week. Thankyou to all the coaches and swimmers who made my week an enjoyable one and a great learning curve for my Club swimmers to benefit from in the future. To Shaun Crowe and his Staff have a great 2001/2002 season and to ASCTA thankyou for this opportunity. Yours in Swimming Graham Lees – Head Coach Lennox Head Swim Tech Swimming Club


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BBuuiillddiinngg tthhee PPEERRFFEECCTT SSWWIIMMMMEERR oorr DD--II--YY GGEENNEETTIICC EENNGGIINNEEEERRIINNGG FFOORR SSWWIIMMMMEERRSS && CCOOAACCHHEESS

By Wayne Goldsmith With all the talk about cloning, stem cells, genetic engineering, genetically modified food and computer generated medical technology, the question arises … can you build the perfect swimmer? Let’s pretend we could get into a scientific laboratory and build the perfect swimmer. Just think of the possibilities.

BRAIN Big and very, very smart.

Swimmers are the smartest people in the

world anyway. Who else can count laps, count strokes, take their own time, take their own

heart rate and still do their school homework in their heads while singing

their favourite song underwater all at the

same time?

HEAD Hairless.

Think of all the money our super swimmer could

save on swim caps. Let’s make the head long

and cone-shaped for better streamlining, and make the ears smaller to cut down on resistance.

SKIN Smooth and hairless.

Think of the money our super swimmer could save on razor blades.

Maybe we cover the swimmer in a type of sharkskin material like that found in some of the body suits or

maybe even scales. If they work for fish, maybe they would work for

humans!

EYES Made with a clear lens over them to

avoid the need to wear goggles. No need for eyebrows or eyelashes –

let’s keep them off to improve streamlining.

SHOULDERS Wide, strong and straight ... powerful and stable …

yet flexible.

ARMS Long ... very long ... so

long that the super swimmer drags their

knuckles on the ground as they walk.

And very strong arms capable of reaching out

long and pulling with great power every stroke.

HANDS Big – let’s talk dinner

plate size. Big and strong and wide, but very sensitive so that our genetically modified giant can feel the water better than us “standard

models”. What about making the fingers webbed so they can act like big paddles

when they pull.

CHEST

Strong but shallow. Powerful pecs for perfect performance but not too

deep. We want strength but not big muscles that will just

slow our perfect swimming machine down.

HEART Big and strong.

One capable of pushing a lot of blood around the body with every pump.


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BLOOD Capable of carrying lots

and lots of oxygen to muscles and really good at disposing of lactic acid

when swimming fast.

MUSCLES Strong and capable of

working very fast but also capable of sustaining

speed over long distances.

ABDOMEN

Rippled and six-pack all the way. Strong, powerful abs that act as the stable platform for this swimming machine to take advantage of the power that can be generated his or her long arms

and legs.

LEGS Long and strong.

Flexible and bendable. Legs capable of producing great power and drive, yet maintaining flexible, flowing and supple movements.

FEET

Size 15’s – no let’s make them 20’s.

Big strong feet that are really flexible and act like

a pair of flippers. How about we design the toes to spread out like a duck’s feet when the kick to really produce some

speed? So there you have it – the PERFECT SWIMMER – a human swimming machine capable of breaking world records, leaping tall buildings and winning gold medals in a single bound. The question is, can a normal swimmer become a super swimmer without having to have their genes changed and rearranged? Training is all about re-creating yourself. Training changes your mind and body to such a degree that it has the same effect of modifying yourself as if you were part of the laboratory experiment of some mad scientist. Training helps you rebuild, remake, recreate and regenerate yourself into a swimming machine capable of anything. How?

BRAIN … Training teaches your brain many things. You learn skills like rhythm, balance, and coordination. You learn to do skills and drills and great technique. Your brain is like a PC – it has the capacity to do some amazing things but needs some programs to make it run. Your training is like the programs you put onto the computer to allow you to write, draw, record information and so on. Just like a computer, if you put the wrong information in – you get the wrong results out. Doing drills, skills and technique training correctly is like putting in the right information into your computer (brain). Put the information in correctly – you get amazing results! HEAD … wearing a tight fitting yet comfortable cap has the effect of smoothing out the lines and contours of your scull. You can make your head “longer” and more cone-shaped, by streamlining out of every turn and off every dive. When you think about it, the long, stretched-out arm position of streamlining looks a bit like a “cone head” in the shape your hands and arms form. SKIN … you don’t need scales. Your skin is designed to keep water outside and keep you inside. If you want to get all smooth, try SHAVE DOWNS. (Obviously this is only when you have enough body hair to warrant shaving down). Five tips to shave downs… 1. Make sure the shavers are clean and sterile. 2. Treat any cuts and nicks immediately with

antiseptic cream or powder. 3. Use plenty of clean, warm water and shaving

cream/shave lotion. 4. Practice shaving down a few weeks before the

meet to check how your body reacts to being shaved. Some swimmers get rashes from shave downs.

5. Use an after-shave cream or balm to smooth shaved areas but try not to get any of it on your own hands.

Best time to shave down is the night before the meet or between heats and finals, PROVIDING it does not interfere with your pre-race routine and recovery program. EYES … while swimming training can’t give you x-ray vision or super sight, swimming training does improve your ability to FOCUS. This is not really a vision thing – it is the way you learn to block out noises, crowds, other swimmers and distractions when you are trying to give it your best. SHOULDERS … recent developments in Freestyle and Backstroke technique have seen swimmers and coaches try to turn swimming these two strokes into a “side-to-side” type action. This means the swimmer’s body rotates around a central axis like if it was on a


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skewer or string run down the centre of their body. To achieve this technique – the Popov style or “KAYAK” technique, you need to make your shoulders very strong and stable so that they stay that way as your body rotates and moves through the water. A great exercise to develop KAYAK PADDLE shoulders is the SHOULDER BLADE SQUEEZE. 1. Relax your arms, shoulders and neck. 2. Try to squeeze the lower part of your shoulder

blades together. It helps to imagine someone’s finger in the middle of your back then try to squeeze it with your shoulder blades.

3. Hold the squeeze for 10 seconds, and then relax for 20 seconds.

4. Do it again, this time hold for 20 seconds then relaxed for 30 seconds.

5. The third time hold the squeeze for 30 seconds then relax.

6. Keep your arms relaxed and keep breathing slow and easily all the time.

This is a great exercise because you can do it anywhere, anytime. ARMS … while training won’t make your arms longer, you can develop LONGER STROKES by working on your flexibility and “feel” of the water. Think REACH LONG – PULL STRONG. Having longer arms doesn’t always mean longer strokes – it is what you do with your arms that matters. For example… A swimmer with an arm one metre long can apply pressure to the water for one metre for each stroke IF the swimmer has the ability to feel the water and pull on the water for the full metre. If the swimmer doesn’t feel the water and hasn’t learned to pull the water throughout their stroke, their long arms are no advantage. A swimmer with shorter arms, but with superior feel and stroke technique can actually have longer strokes than the person with long arms! Think of this next time you are on the blocks next to some giant swimmer. TECHNIQUE BEATS TALL!! HANDS … wouldn’t you like to have huge paddles instead of hands? Think of how fast you could move through the water!!!! Great swimmers actually do have big paddles – how? Coaches believe that great swimmers learn to pull the water not only with their hands but also with their WRISTS AND FOREARMS. This has the same effect of making their hands “bigger” and like paddles. You can develop this bigger paddle by doing fist clenched drill swimming. 1. Push off the wall with your fist tightly clenched.

This removes most of your ability to feel the water with your hands and teaches your wrist and forearms to feel.

2. Keep your fist clenched for 10 strokes, and then slowly open your hand, a little at a time, a fraction each stroke over the next 10 strokes, until fully opened.

3. What did you notice? 4. Swim easily to the end of the pool and repeat the

fist drill. CHEST … You can get a lot stronger chest muscles without getting bigger (beach) muscles. The key to body shape and fast swimming is to get stronger without necessarily getting much bigger. This is possible by doing body weight exercises like dips, push-ups and body presses. HEART … The best way to make your heart a SUPER HEART is to do regular endurance training like long slow swims, do sets of 400’s and 800’s and to train long distances with rhythm and relaxation in practices. The fitter you get, the stronger your heart gets and the more blood it can pump with each beat. BLOOD … endurance type training also changes your blood. Your lungs breathe in air from the environment. Your blood then traps the air on special molecules and transports the oxygen to your hard working muscles. The fitter you are, the better your blood is at carrying the oxygen (air) to your muscles and the more oxygen you can get to your muscles, the better you swim! That’s why we call endurance training AEROBIC (pronounced AIR-ROBIC) because it helps your body use the oxygen in the AIR more efficiently. MUSCLES … we know that muscles get stronger when they train but did you know they get SMARTER. There is a thing called MUSCLE MEMORY – which scientists believe explains how muscles (and nerves) actually learn how to do things better. We also know that the best way to make muscles smarter is to teach them how to do things the right way so they learn the three E.E.E’s of movement. – Effective – Efficient – Economical. ABDOMEN … you can develop super abs by doing DAILY abdominal exercises. You use your abs everyday, so you can exercise them everyday. Try the AB POINTS PROGRAM. Pick four basic AB exercises ... sit-ups, crunchies, side sit-ups and leg raises are a good combination. One AB exercise (e.g. one sit-up) is worth 1 POINT. • DAY ONE – Target score = 50 points. To achieve

this score you must do a combination of AB exercises to a total of 50 points (i.e. 50 AB exercises). You can’t do more than 30 of any one exercise. Over the next few weeks, aim to achieve higher target score.

• DAY TWO – Target score = 55 points • DAY THREE – Target score = 60 points.


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• Keep going until you achieve 100 points in a day and see how your abs look and feel then!

LEGS … strong, powerful legs are at the core of fast swimming. Kick sets, running, bike riding and walking can all help build leg strength and kicking power. A good tip in training for SUPER LEGS is to always kick harder and faster in the last lap of all training efforts – drills, distance sets, short sprints, kick sets – everything. By always kicking home fast, your brain and your legs learn that this is the right way to swim well and when it comes to the last lap in your next race they will help you kick your way to success. FEET … all swimmers would like to have fins instead of feet. Just imagine being able to move effortlessly through the water like a fish or dolphin. Until we learn to do “fin transplants” you can do the next best thing. We know that great kickers have fantastic ankle flexibility. We also know that if you do flexibility work everyday, your flexibility can improve. So if you want “FIN FEET” work on your stretching every day – before and after training ESPECIALLY on the exercises to stretch you ankles, feet and calf muscles. Training may not make you taller, web your toes or re-shape your scull bones, but it can change you into an efficient, effective and energetic swimming machine. All you need is the secret formula. Here, exclusively for YOU is the secret formula for turning yourself into a swimming machine… INGREDIENTS • Great technique • Excellent skills • A positive attitude – especially in the tough times • A sensible balanced diet • A balanced approach to life with school, family,

friends and swimming in the right mix • The determination to train hard and give it your

best • The desire to be the best you can be • The confidence to believe that anything is

possible RECIPE • Add all the ingredients and mix together well. • Apply to your body and mind daily until you

achieve your goals FOR MORE ARTICLES AND INFORMATION

SEE THE MOREGOLD WEB SITE – MOREGOLD.COM.AU

ASCTA TASMANIA October 2001 Clinic

By Rachel Rickards President of ASCTA – Tasmanian Branch

A Clinic weekend was held for Tasmanian Coaches and Teachers over the weekend of the 13th and 14th of October. In attendance was David Urquhart, Coach and ASCTA Board Member. It was a strong turn out by Coaches and Teachers from around the State, with the broad focus for the weekend combining both fundamental and technical aspects of swimming coaching and teaching in a variety of different situations. The Clinic centred on input from those in attendance, a forum-like atmosphere was established where a diverse range of ideas and information was shared. Some of the topics discussed included… • Coaches and Teachers working closer together • Professional Development • Strategies to ensure that children continue from

Learn-to-Swim Programs into Swimming Clubs • State Registration for Learn-to-Swim students

who are interested in competing at Race Meets • How to keep swimmers in the sport The weekend provided an excellent opportunity for those involved networking with others from around the State and to socialise and spend time discussing a range of issues on an informal basis after the conclusion of Saturday’s Clinic. A practical pool session on Sunday involved a large number of swimmers from the majority of clubs from throughout Tasmania, giving them all the chance to gain knowledge and experience of a Clinic environment, while also training with one of Australia’s most highly regarded coaches. This informative session was followed by a barbecue lunch to wrap-up the weekend. The Clinic was acclaimed by all as being a highly valuable and worthwhile experience. Much appreciation and gratitude must go to David Urquhart for the wonderful opportunities and wealth of knowledge that he provided.


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DQ’ed!: Dealing with

Disappointment By Becky Short

(Reproduced from Swimming World, August 2001)

It was the most pressure-packed meet of my life. Here I was, a freshman, swimming for Auburn at the Women’s NCAA swimming championships in Long Island, N.Y. Wow! First of all, I had never been to New York, and just arriving in the Big Apple was exciting in itself. Although I knew we had a great team, I felt a little unsure about racing under the pressure I was feeling … pressure to swim my heart out for the team. We were not even supposed to be in the hunt for the team title, but for the first two days of the three-day meet, we held a narrow lead. This was a meet of firsts for Auburn. It was the first time Auburn women had ever led at NCAAs – the first time every swimmer on the Auburn team had earned All-America honours – and when Maggie Bowen broke Summer Sanders’ record in the 200 IM, it marked the first time an Auburn woman had set an American record. We were sky-high! We felt it would last forever. It didn’t. The last event of the third day’s prelims was the 400 Freestyle Relay. All we needed to do was place in the top eight to quality for finals. I was the lead-off swimmer, which made me even more tense and nervous than I had been. I needed to get us off to a strong start. I gripped the block tightly for the start and leaned back slightly, loading my muscles to spring forward. It seemed the starter held us forever, and in anticipation of the start, I flinched forward. It must have been a millisecond before the starting horn went off – certainly not any longer – but flinch I did. To my horror, the horn beeped not once, but three times. Beep-beep-beep!

So many things swirled through my head when I heard those three ominous beeps. “Maybe it wasn’t me”, I told myself. As I slowly swam back to the start, all I could think was, “Please don’t let it be me, please don’t let it be me”, over and over again. I crawled out of the water, not wanting to face what might come next. Still hoping I might not be disqualified, my eyes avoided the official who was approaching me – closer, closer, almost in slow motion. I can’t remember his exact words, but I clearly remember one word … DISQUALIFIED. Immediately, I fell apart inside and ran away. Finding a place to hide, I sat down and wept. One of my coaches, Kim Brakin, found me and told me that I needed to return to the team. That was the last place I wanted to be. How could I face them? How could they love me after such an awful thing? I had let them down so terribly. But when I returned, I found comfort, love and encouragement. Sure, they were upset. Everyone was. We were trying to make history by shooting for the title. But instead of rejection – which I felt I deserved – I found acceptance. I was embraced and encouraged and forgiven by everyone there as well as later by everyone back home in the Auburn family. When Coach (Dave) Marsh first took me aside, I was too ashamed to look into his eyes. This man had worked so hard to build a winning team, and one little flinch on my part had set us back even further from the mark. All I could say was, “I’m sorry”. He reminded me to put my trust in God. The end of the meet was bittersweet. We finished in fourth place – higher than any Auburn women’s swimming team before us. But we did not win. For me, that Meet proved to be a huge learning experience. My mum and dad gave me an inspirational card every day to encourage me. Spring Nationals was only two weeks away, so I had to pick myself up and move on. By the grace of God, I was able not only to lead off a relay there, but also to swim fast enough to qualify for the World University Games. Becky Short, who will be a sophomore at Auburn University this fall, is a member of the USA’s World University Games team.


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PREVENTION AND CURE OF THE “AGE-GROUP SYNDROME”

By Al Dodson Tears … refusal to attend training sessions … sitting out repeats … too many trips to the bathroom during practice … excuses … poor performance … and a desire to quit are all symptoms of the dreaded disease labelled “Age-Group Syndrome”. Young athletes in many different high-pressure situations are victims, but I will address myself strictly to age-group swimmers. Discussion will centre on an overall description of what I call a disease, the causes of this disease, the symptoms, and suggestions for both preventing and curing the problems brought on by “Age-Group Syndrome”.

WHAT IS “AGE-GROUP SYNDROME”? What is “Age-Group Syndrome”? Whom does it affect? What is the result? These may be questions you are asking yourself while you are reading. What I call “Age-Group Syndrome” can be likened to a disease. Causes often can be pinpointed, there are common symptoms, it can be contagious, there are ways of preventing it; it can be cured but it also can be fatal to swimming careers. “Age-Group Syndrome” is a combination of factors that overcomes young swimmers (and other athletes) for various reasons, to various degrees, with differing results. In most cases pressure is the cause. Normally, it affects athletes under pressure but almost all athletes get at least a touch of the disease. The degree of the illness can vary from tears and temper tantrums to severe dislike for swimming and total withdrawal from the sport. Results can be temporary or can be lasting. What has been done prior to the swimmer contracting the illness and how the patient is handled when he/she is infected affects whether the illness is terminal or not.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES? What are the causes of “Age-Group Syndrome”? Each and every day one of us associated with age-group athletics have probably exposed our athletes to the disease. Have you ever applied pressure to the swimmer? Have you ever compared the achievement or progress of one swimmer to that of another? Have you ever criticised the coach in front of the swimmers? Have you pressed the athlete to beat a friend? Have you ever put a swimmer’s achievement or goal above those of the team? Have you ever taken a special activity away because of swimming? Have you ever criticised a swimmer for not beating someone or not placing even though there was great personal improvement? Have you ever paid a swimmer for reaching a goal? Have you ever pushed


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a swimmer to win medals or high point awards? If you have, then you have exposed the swimmer to “Age-Group Syndrome”. I am sure that we have all provided swimmers with some form of pressure. The most blatant can be in the form of threats such as “if you don’t make such and such time standard, then you aren’t going to swim any more!” The most covert can be hidden in the way encouragement is given prior to competition. Often parents and coaches dwell on comparison of the achievement or progress of one swimmer to that of another; this is unfair. Parents with more than one child are probably the biggest offenders, but others compare their children to teammates or members of other teams. Or, how about the father who carries a copy of National Age-Group Time Standards in his wallet? Confidence in the coach is very important in athletics and criticism in the presence of the athlete is the surest way to undermine this confidence. Pushing a swimmer to beat someone has no value and warps the feeling of accomplishment. If a swimmer improves his/her time and loses, there is a feeling of failure; if he/she wins, he/she may be pleased with less than what he/she is capable. Placing an individual above the team also can place the swimmer in an awkward position with coaches and peers. If meaningful activities are taken away from someone because of swimming, then swimming may become a burden. I have heard (and recently) a parent say, “he (or she) might have improved but she lost to...” I think that one of the worst offences is paying a swimmer for reaching his/her goals. If accomplishment alone is not enough, then monetary reward will only temporarily fill the gap. Yes, maybe we have all been offenders at one time or another, but does that make it right? Would we expose our children to other potentially dangerous diseases the way we do to “Age-Group Syndrome”?

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS? My opening sentence outlined some actions or lack of action that can aid parents and coaches in identifying when an athlete has contracted the disease. I mentioned tears, refusal to attend practice, missing repeats, “weak kidneys”, excess excuses poor performance, and a desire to quit as symptoms. Others include … blaming the coach for poor performances, continually coming in late although dropped off on time, continual whining, tantrums and talking oneself out of success. All athletes may show these signs one time or another, so don’t be confused. A one-time occurrence or even occasional slips do not mean an individual has contracted the syndrome. It may be an off day. It may mean that he/she is overtired. If these conditions persist, however, the athlete probably has a dose of “Age-Group Syndrome”.

HOW DO YOU PREVENT IT? There probably isn’t a patented method of prevention. No vaccine that I know of has been proven effective in preventing the illness. Until one is discovered, I would suggest the following… 1. KEEP THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE. Swimming is

only a portion of the athlete’s life. It is an important part, but only a part.

2. REMEMBER, IT IS YOUR CHILD WHO IS COMPETING. Don’t try to live your life through your child. Be proud of your child’s accomplishments, but don’t make it a matter of family pride.

3. DO NOT COMPARE ACCOMPLISHMENTS WITH THOSE OF OTHER ATHLETES. Stress individual improvement with past individual performance not the accomplishments of others. Everyone exhibits different developmental patterns and progress relative to other athletes is meaningless.

4. DO NOT OPENLY CRITICISE THE COACHING STAFF. Swimmer/coach confidence is essential to success. If there is a concern, discuss it with the coach privately. If you are not happy with a program seek out another program, but do not undermine the coach.

5. GOAL DETERMINATION IS THE SWIMMER’S ROLE. It should not be the parent who determines a child’s goals. This should be done by the swimmer with the assistance of the coach. This assistance should include: reality, what must be done to achieve the goals, and direction.

6. STRESS COMMITMENT BUT NOT DENIAL. Important activities should not be denied an individual because of swimming. If this happens, then swimming becomes a burden. This does not mean ignoring commitments. It means giving items priority and finding a program that fits these priorities. If a commitment is made, then it should be honoured.

7. CHOOSE THE PROPER PROGRAM. The program should match the goals, priorities, and commitment of participants. Avoid high-pressure programs. Do not confuse success with pressure. There are many, many quality programs that do not exert high-pressure tactics or that are not stressful.

8. AVOID GIVING THE SWIMMER TOO MUCH TOO SOON. If an athlete reaches all his/her ultimate goals too early, they have little to look forward to. Too many trophies, too many medals, too many trips, too much publicity, and too much excess in anything can lead to lack of motivation.

9. ENCOURAGE, DO NOT PRESSURE. Recognise the subtle differences between encouragement and pressure and act accordingly.

10. BE SYMPATHETIC, BUT DO NOT DWELL ON DISAPPOINTMENT. You can be sympathetic, but realize that if you dwell upon disappointment, you may be blowing this disappointment out of proportion and making it difficult to overcome.

HOW DO YOU CURE IT? What happens if a swimmer is exposed to the disease and does contract it? How can it be cured?


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The cure does not differ greatly from the prevention. You still should utilise points 1-10 of the preventative items. It may, however take more than that. Conversation with the swimmer may help. He/she may not realise what is happening or may not recognise contributing factors. Something that you must realise and respect is that a parent may not be the proper person to speak to the swimmer; a coach or another swimmer may be better. Treatment is long term and the syndrome will not be cured overnight. Causes were of a long-term duration and so is the cure. In summary, “Age-Group Syndrome”, like any disease, is not pleasant and I am sure that we all would like to avoid it. There are precautions that, as parents and coaches, we must take. Above all we must remember that we are dealing with individuals first and swimmers second. If we can prevent what I have termed a disease, the result will not only be better swimmers but more importantly better people.

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The Official Word 10 Points of Self-Evaluation

By Joel Black (Reproduced from Swimming World, August 2001)

When it comes to self-evaluation, honesty is crucial. Keeping self-esteem high can be healthy, but when you really want to get serious about improving your officiating, embellishing the truth is a “false start”. Following is a starting point for a complete self-analysis. How many times, after working a meet, do you drive home thinking your work as an official is done? Perhaps you came out with the vague notion that you had a good meet or a bad meet. How often do you expand on those notions and ask yourself … “Why?” In reviewing the manuals for officials of various sports and listening to the training suggestions of instructional chairmen of different organisations, one thing appears almost conspicuous by its absence … recommendations for any kind of post-game self-evaluation. Indeed, it seems to be the practice of many groups to dissuade officials from ever looking back. Much can be learned by officials who review recently completed work. Only by recognising past errors, and the situations in which they occurred, can officials take the necessary steps to avoid the same mistakes. Don’t ever think your work is done when you walk off the deck. If you are interested in improving as an official, you need to ask yourself the following 10 questions after every meet. Keep in mind that the purpose of these questions is to alert you to any undesirable tendencies in your work or situations that are particularly troublesome. As a result, any question answered, “Yes”, should be followed by the companion questions, “Why?” and “In what situations?” Only you can answer the questions about yourself … others cannot answer them for you. No one but you has access to your experiences. 1. Did I blow any calls? 2. Were there any times when it was fortunate that I

didn’t have to make a call? 3. Did I do everything I could to ensure a just

outcome? 4. Were my calls/decisions consistent? 5. Did I fail to maintain proper control at any time? 6. When did I feel most vulnerable to outside

influences?


~~ 59 ~~

7. Were there any situations where I avoided or usurped responsibility for a ruling at the expense of another official?

8. Was there anything about my signals, gestures or style that evoked an unexpected or unwanted response?

9. Did I uphold, defend or rationalise any improper rulings?

10. Was there a particular aspect of my performance that I could work on at the next meet?

By understanding yourself and identifying your strengths and weaknesses as an official, you open the door for improvement at every meet. If you are committed to improvement and have a desire to succeed in your work, memorise the 10 questions and commit to answering them in detail shortly after every meet. Joel Black is chairman of the North Carolina Swimming Officials and vice chairman of the USA Swimming Officials Committee.

BAD PAIN vs. GOOD PAIN

By Nick Baker Head Coach, Peak Performance Swim Camp

(Reproduced from Swimming World, August 2001) There are two kinds of pain – bad pain and good pain. An example of bad pain is when you injure your shoulder in training from overtraining or because of poor technique. You should never swim with bad pain and you should always tell your coach and parents about it right away! Good pain (other the other hand) is an important part of training. Experiencing good pain will get your body and mind in better shape.

An example of good pain is the pain you feel in your arms and legs when swimming fast or swimming long in practice. Dealing with good pain is never easy, but there are some things that you can try that might make some of the pain go away. They are called “Pain Relievers”, and they are listed below. Pick one or two of your favourite ones and give them a try. If they work, keep using them. If not, try some other ones.

25 PAIN RELIEVERS 1. Look back at your past experiences with pain

and how you overcame it then. 2. Think ahead to when the pain will be over. 3. Think of your friends and family instead of

pain. 4. Say a prayer to help you through the pain. 5. Think stroke. 6. Think pace. 7. Focus on your breathing. Breathing will help

relax you and take your mind off the pain. 8. Think of your swimming heroes during times

of pain. 9. Work with it. 10. Challenge the pain. 11. Don’t think about it. 12. Sing or hum through it. 13. Use positive self-talk. 14. Visualise yourself getting through it. 15. Get mad at it. 16. Think of all the good things that can come out

of the pain you are experiencing. 17. Think of all the other great athletes who had to

endure pain to succeed. 18. Constantly remind yourself of your goals. 19. Count strokes. 20. Encourage your teammates. Encouraging them

will take your mind off the pain. 21. Understand that your teammates are also going

through the same thing. 22. Remember that 9 times out of 10 your mind

will give up before your body does. 23. Tell yourself that things could be worse. 24. Remind yourself of how this will all be worth

it once you achieve your goal. 25. Race in practice. Racing others will get your

mind off the pain.


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ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL RESULTS FOR AUSTRALIAN

ATHLETES Background This report is an analysis of the results of the standings based on Long Course World Rankings performances to August 3, 2001. I intend to draw

only a few conclusions from the results and ask a few pertinent questions. I urge all coaches to do a similar analysis of the results of you own club athletes to gain an honest appraisal of your program’s strengths and weaknesses. This analysis shows how many Australian athletes are ranked in the TOP 50 in each group and for each event

MEN’S EVENTS 2001 through World Championships

50 Freestyle 100 Freestyle 200 Freestyle 400 Freestyle 800 Freestyle 1500 Freestyle Top 10 1 2 4 2 2 2 Top 20 2 3 5 2 3 3 Top 30 4 4 7 4 4 4 Top 50 5 (36) 95.6% 7 (40) 96.1% 8 (46) 96.1% 4 (29) 94% 5 (33) 93.9% 4 (21) 94.6% Top 100 9 10 14 6 11 8 Top 150 14 18 17 9 11 9

50 Backstroke 100 Backstroke 200 Backstroke Top 10 3 2 2 Top 20 3 3 3 Top 30 3 2 4 Top 50 3 (10) 97.6% 4 (43) 96.4% 4 (24) 96.0% Top 100 8 7 9 Top 150 12 11 18

50 Breaststroke 100 Breaststroke 200 Breaststroke Top 10 0 Challenge 0 Challenge 2 Top 20 0 Challenge 3 Challenge 3 Top 30 1 3 3 Top 50 3 (43) 94.6% 4 (45) 94.9% 3 (12) 97.8% Top 100 9 9 7 Top 150 12 12 13

50 Butterfly 100 Butterfly 200 Butterfly Top 10 1 2 1 Top 20 4 4 5 Top 30 4 6 7 Top 50 6 (48) 94.5% 6 (30) 96.3% 10 (46) 95.0% Top 100 9 14 11 Top 150 14 17 15

200 Individual Medley 400 Individual Medley Top 10 2 2 Top 20 3 2 Top 30 3 3 Top 50 4 (43) 96.2% 4 (44) 95.6% Top 100 7 8 Top 150 12 13


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WOMEN’S EVENTS 2001 through World Championships

50 Freestyle 100 Freestyle 200 Freestyle 400 Freestyle 800 Freestyle 1500 Freestyle Top 10 0 Challenge 1 2 1 0 Challenge 2 Top 20 1 1 3 3 1 2 Top 30 2 2 4 5 2 4 Top 50 4 (43) 93.9% 4 (34) 96.4% 6 (47) 97.2% 8 (41) 96.6% 7 (49) 95.6% 7 (44) 94.9% Top 100 9 6 12 12 12 14 Top 150 12 13 18 20 19 19

50 Backstroke 100 Backstroke 200 Backstroke Top 10 1 0 1 Top 20 2 1 1 Top 30 3 2 3 Top 50 4 (43) 94.7% 4 (41) 95.0% 4 (41) 95.7% Top 100 12 11 9 Top 150 18 16 18

50 Breaststroke 100 Breaststroke 200 Breaststroke Top 10 2 2 1 Top 20 3 3 3 Top 30 3 3 3 Top 50 3 (14) 95.9% 3 (12) 96.9% 4 (36) 94.3% Top 100 8 8 9 Top 150 11 16 16

50 Butterfly 100 Butterfly 200 Butterfly Top 10 1 1 1 Top 20 1 2 1 Top 30 2 3 3 Top 50 6 (49) 92.7% 3 (29) 96.3% 4 (41) 94.9% Top 100 10 11 16 Top 150 16 19 20

200 Individual Medley 400 Individual Medley Top 10 1 Challenge 0 Challenge Top 20 2 1 Top 30 2 1 Top 50 3 (37) 95.6% 1 (13) 96.8% Top 100 7 7 Top 150 11 15

• Coaches should look at your own club program and do a similar comparison

• Coaches should target events where there are weaknesses Nationally• Coaches need to look at why your athletes do not progress beyond

age 14/15 • Coaches need to look at why your athletes do not swim faster than

they did several months ago-many of the performances at Open/Age were not bettered from last year’s performances. This is a poor reflection on coaching standards, or else…


~~ 62 ~~

WORLD TOP LC SWIMMING PERFORMANCES

Standings based on LCM World Rankings Performances to August 3, 2001 1 1031 1:44.06 MFR0200L WORLD 01 Ian Thorpe, 82, AUS 2 1027 14:34.56 MFR1500L WORLD 01 Grant Hackett, 80, AUS 3 1022 7:04.66 MRF0800L WORLD 01 Australia, 0, AUS 4 1021 23.44 MBU0050L WORLD 01 Geoff Huegill, 79, AUS 5 1019 59.94 MBR0100L WORLD 01 Roman Sloudnov, 80, RUS 6 1016 27.39 MBR0050L USALC MAR Ed Moses, 80, USA 7 1015 1:54.58 MBU0200L WORLD 01 Michael Phelps, 85, USA 8 1015 30.84 FBR0050L WORLD 01 Xuejuan Luo, 84, CHN 9 1015 28.30 FBK0050L MONAC JUN Sandra Volker, 74, GER

10 1014 2:22.99 FBR0200L CHNLC APR Hui Qi, 85, CHN 11 1013 23.57 MBU0050L WORLD 01 Lars Frolander, 74, SWE 12 1012 24.45 FFR0050L WORLD 01 Inge de Bruijn, 73, NED 13 1011 27.49 MBR0050L USALC MAR Anthony Robinson, 80, USA 14 1010 23.62 MBU0050L WORLD 01 Mark Foster, 70, GBR 15 1010 27.52 MBR0050L WORLD 01 Oleg Lisogor, 79, UKR 16 1009 1:55.03 MBU0200L WORLD 01 Franck Esposito, 71, FRA 17 1009 1:55.03 MBU0200L WORLD 01 Tom Malchow, 76, USA 18 1009 2:10.69 MBR0200L WORLD 01 Brendan Hansen, 81, USA 19 1009 1:56.56 MBK0200L USALC MAR Aaron Peirsol, 83, USA 20 1008 1:45.80 MFR0200L WORLD 01 Pieter vdHoogenband, 78, NED 21 1007 23.68 MBU0050L WORLD 01 Roland Schoeman, 80, RSA 22 1007 25.31 MBK0050L WORLD 01 Thomas Rupprath, 77, GER 23 1006 1:00.18 FBK0100L WORLD 01 Natalie Coughlin, 82, USA 24 1006 27.59 MBR0050L WORLD 01 Mark Warnecke, 70, GER 25 1006 1:00.47 MBR0100L WORLD 01 Domenico Fioravanti, 77, ITA 26 1005 3:14.56 MRF0400L WORLD 01 Netherlands, 0, NED 27 1005 25.34 MBK0050L WORLD 01 Randall Bal, 80, USA 28 1005 2:11.09 MBR0200L WORLD 01 Max Podoprigora, 78, AUT 29 1004 28.51 FBK0050L WORLD 01 Haley Cope, 79, USA 30 1004 2:11.21 MBR0200L WORLD 01 Kosuke Kitajima, 82, JPN 31 1003 28.53 FBK0050L WORLD 01 Antje Buschschulte, 78, GER 32 1003 48.33 MFR0100L WORLD 01 Anthony Ervin, 81, USA 33 1002 4:13.15 MIM0400L WORLD 01 Alessio Boggiatto, 81, ITA 34 1001 7:10.86 MRF0800L WORLD 01 Italy, 0, ITA 35 1001 1:55.68 MBU0200L WORLD 01 Anatoli Poliakov, 80, RUS 36 1001 2:06.73 FBU0200L WORLD 01 Petria Thomas, 75, AUS 37 1000 27.71 MBR0050L WORLD 01 James Gibson, 80, GBR 38 1000 4:01.81 FRM0400L WORLD 01 United States, 0, USA 39 1000 2:11.51 MBR0200L WORLD 01 Regan Harrison, 77, AUS 40 1000 52.25 MBU0100L WORLD 01 Ian Crocker, 82, USA 41 999 1:59.71 MIM0200L WORLD 01 Massi Rosolino, 78, ITA 42 999 1:55.84 MBU0200L WORLD 01 Takashi Yamamoto, 78, JPN 43 998 7:58.69 FRF0800L WORLD 01 Great Britain, 0, GBR 44 998 3:39.58 FRF0400L WORLD 01 Germany, 0, GER 45 998 16:01.02 FFR1500L WORLD 01 Hannah Stockbauer, 82, GER 46 998 2:06.97 FBU0200L WORLD 01 Annika Mehlhorn, 83, GER 47 998 52.34 MBU0100L AUSLC MAR Michael Klim, 77, AUS 48 997 31.23 FBR0050L WORLD 01 Zoe Baker, 76, GBR 49 997 25.49 MBK0050L WORLD 01 Matt Welsh, 76, AUS 50 997 3:45.11 MFR0400L WORLD 01 Emiliano Brembilla, 78, ITA 51 997 21.91 MFR0050L MONAC JUN Alexander Popov, 71, RUS 52 997 1:56.00 MBU0200L ROME JUN Denis Sylantyev, 76, UKR 53 996 4:14.19 MIM0400L USALC MAR Erik Vendt, 81, USA 54 996 28.68 FBK0050L AUSLC MAR Dyana Calub, 75, AUS 55 995 4:02.63 FRM0400L WORLD 01 China, 0, CHN 56 995 1:00.68 FBK0100L WORLD 01 Diana Mocanu, 84, ROM 57 995 2:24.90 FBR0200L WORLD 01 Agnes Kovacs, 81, HUN 58 995 4:14.52 MIM0400L USALC MAR Tom Wilkens, 75, USA 59 994 2:11.93 FIM0200L WORLD 01 Maggie Bowen, 80, USA 60 994 2:25.00 FBR0200L WORLD 01 Beatrice Coada-Caslaru, 75, ROM 61 994 4:36.98 FIM0400L WORLD 01 Yana Klochkova, 82, UKR 62 994 28.73 FBK0050L MONAC JUN Nina Zhivanevskaya, 77, ESP 63 993 23.91 MBU0050L WORLD 01 Jere Hard, 78, FIN 64 993 23.91 MBU0050L WORLD 01 Ewout Holst, 78, NED 65 992 7:51.12 MFR0800L WORLD 01 Graeme Smith, 76, GBR 66 992 26.18 FBU0050L WORLD 01 Therese Alshammar, 77, SWE 67 992 23.93 MBU0050L WORLD 01 Tero Valimaa, 78, FIN 68 991 1:58.07 MBK0200L WORLD 01 Markus Rogan, 81, AUT 69 991 31.37 FBR0050L WORLD 01 Kristy Kowal, 78, USA 70 991 16:05.99 FFR1500L WORLD 01 Flavia Rigamonti, 81, SUI 71 991 2:12.40 MBR0200L CANET JUN Jim Piper, 81, AUS 72 990 2:25.46 FBR0200L WORLD 01 Leisel Jones, 85, AUS 73 990 1:47.10 MFR0200L WORLD 01 Klete Keller, 82, USA 74 990 16:07.05 FFR1500L WORLD 01 Diana Munz, 82, USA 75 988 1:01.25 MBR0100L WORLD 01 Morgan Knabe, 81, CAN 76 988 27.95 MBR0050L WORLD 01 Darren Mew, 79, GBR 77 988 52.69 MBU0100L WORLD 01 Vladislav Kulikov, 71, RUS 78 988 2:12.63 MBR0200L CANET JUN Dimitri Komornikov, 81, RUS 79 987 3:41.18 FRF0400L WORLD 01 Sweden, 0, SWE 80 987 3:37.77 MRM0400L WORLD 01 Russia, 0, RUS 81 987 1:58.37 MBK0200L WORLD 01 Orn Arnarson, 81, ISL 82 987 2:12.70 MBR0200L SCOLC JUN Ian Edmond, 78, GBR 83 987 54.68 FFR0100L CHNLC APR Yanwei Xu, 84, CHN 84 987 25.66 MBK0050L AUSLC MAR Josh Watson, 77, AUS 85 987 1:07.99 FBR0100L AUSLC MAR Tarnee White, 81, AUS 86 986 24.03 MBU0050L MOSCU APR Igor Marchenko, 75, RUS 87 986 1:08.02 FBR0100L RSALC MAR Sarah Poewe, 83, RSA 88 986 1:01.31 MBR0100L USALC MAR Jarrod Marrs, 75, USA 89 986 24.02 MBU0050L AUSLC MAR Burl Reid, 78, AUS 90 985 1:58.54 FFR0200L WORLD 01 Elka Graham, 81, AUS 91 985 8:02.97 FRF0800L WORLD 01 Japan, 0, JPN 92 985 2:00.91 MIM0200L WORLD 01 Justin Norris, 80, AUS 93 985 1:58.57 FFR0200L WORLD 01 Giaan Rooney, 82, AUS 94 985 25.69 MBK0050L WORLD 01 Stev Theloke, 78, GER 95 985 2:12.89 MBR0200L WORLD 01 Davide Rummolo, 77, ITA


~~ 63 ~~

WORLD TOP LC SWIMMING PERFORMANCES Standings based on LCM World Rankings Performances to August 3, 2001

96 985 52.81 MBU0100L WORLD 01 Michael Mintenko, 75, CAN 97 985 4:16.24 MIM0400L JPNLC APR Susumu Tabuchi, 80, JPN 98 984 3:38.29 MRM0400L WORLD 01 Hungary, 0, HUN 99 984 3:38.23 MRM0400L WORLD 01 Canada, 0, CAN

100 984 15:01.43 MFR1500L WORLD 01 Alexei Filipets, 78, RUS 101 984 25.72 MBK0050L MONAC JUN Lenny Krayzelburg, 75, USA 102 983 7:53.95 MFR0800L WORLD 01 Chris Thompson, 78, USA 103 983 31.55 FBR0050L WORLD 01 Megan Quann, 84, USA 104 983 4:16.65 MIM0400L JPNLC APR Jiro Miki, 83, JPN 105 982 1:58.78 FFR0200L WORLD 01 Yu Yang, 86, CHN 106 982 2:13.19 MBR0200L WORLD 01 Daniel Malek, 73, CZE 107 982 54.91 MBK0100L WORLD 01 Steffen Driesen, 81, GER 108 982 28.06 MBR0050L WORLD 01 Remo Lutolf, 80, SUI 109 982 4:08.91 FFR0400L CANET JUN Claudia Poll, 72, CRC 110 982 24.09 MBU0050L GERLC MAY Fabian Friedrich, 80, GER 111 982 2:26.29 FBR0200L MOSCU APR Olga Bakaldina, 85, RUS 112 982 2:13.23 MBR0200L AUSLC MAR Simon Cowley, 80, AUS 113 981 52.97 MBU0100L WORLD 01 Andriy Serdinov, 82, UKR 114 981 1:58.85 FFR0200L WORLD 01 Camelia Potec, 82, ROM 115 981 28.99 FBK0050L WORLD 01 Hinkelien Schreuder, 84, NED 116 981 2:08.52 FBU0200L WORLD 01 Kaitlin Sandeno, 83, USA 117 980 22.18 MFR0050L WORLD 01 Brett Hawke, 74, AUS 118 980 29.00 FBK0050L WORLD 01 Mai Nakamura, 79, JPN 119 980 25.00 FFR0050L WORLD 01 Alison Sheppard, 72, GBR 120 980 22.18 MFR0050L WORLD 01 Tomohiro Yamanoi, 77, JPN 121 980 1:58.95 MBK0200L ZAGR JUN Gordan Kozulj, 76, CRO 122 980 4:09.22 FFR0400L CANET JUN Irina Oufimtseva, 85, RUS 123 980 28.10 MBR0050L STPBG MAY Arsen Malyarov, 79, RUS 124 979 2:01.35 MIM0200L WORLD 01 George Bovell, 83, TRI 125 979 49.13 MFR0100L WORLD 01 Attila Zubor, 75, HUN 126 979 2:26.51 FBR0200L CHNLC APR Nan Luo, 80, CHN 127 979 1:01.32 FBK0100L GBRLC APR Sarah Price, 79, GBR 128 979 24.14 MBU0050L AUSLC MAR Adam Pine, 76, AUS 129 978 2:10.43 FBK0200L WORLD 01 Stanislava Komarova, 86, RUS 130 978 58.72 FBU0100L WORLD 01 Otylia Jedrzejczak, 83, POL 131 978 25.83 MBK0050L WORLD 01 Riley Janes, 80, CAN 132 978 25.82 MBK0050L WORLD 01 Mariusz Siembida, 75, POL 133 978 55.05 MBK0100L BPEST APR Peter Horvath, 74, HUN 134 978 55.03 MBK0100L USALC MAR Peter Marshall, 82, USA 135 977 2:01.54 MIM0200L WORLD 01 Takahiro Mori, 80, JPN 136 977 15:06.13 MFR1500L WORLD 01 Igor Chervynskiy, 81, UKR 137 977 1:59.24 MBK0200L WORLD 01 Viktor Bodrogi, 83, HUN 138 977 55.07 FFR0100L WORLD 01 Katrin Meissner, 73, GER 139 977 26.45 FBU0050L WORLD 01 Anna-Karin Kammerling, 80, SWE 140 977 1:57.68 MBU0200L SHEFF MAY James Hickman, 76, GBR 141 977 1:48.10 MFR0200L GBRLC APR Paul Palmer, 74, GBR 142 977 4:17.62 MIM0400L AUSLC MAR Grant McGregor, 78, AUS 143 976 28.18 MBR0050L WORLD 01 Jarno Pihlava, 78, FIN 144 976 1:59.29 FFR0200L WORLD 01 Martina Moravcova, 76, SVK 145 976 1:48.13 MFR0200L WORLD 01 William Kirby, 75, AUS 146 976 2:13.56 FIM0200L WORLD 01 Oxana Verevka, 77, RUS 147 976 1:59.32 FFR0200L SCOLC JUN Nicola Jackson, 84, GBR 148 976 2:13.79 MBR0200L FRALC MAY Yohan Bernard, 74, FRA 149 976 28.17 MBR0050L JPNLC APR Ryosuke Imai, 78, JPN 150 976 49.24 MFR0100L ITALC APR Lorenzo Vismara, 75, ITA

Rec: 24.99 Lenny Krayzelburg, USA, 1999 1 25.31 1007 WORLD 01 Thomas Rupprath, 77, GER 2 25.34 1005 WORLD 01 Randall Bal, 80, USA 3 25.49 997 WORLD 01 Matt Welsh, 76, AUS 4 25.66 987 AUSLC MAR Josh Watson, 77, AUS 5 25.69 985 WORLD 01 Stev Theloke, 78, GER 6 25.72 984 MONAC JUN Lenny Krayzelburg, 75, USA 7 25.82 978 WORLD 01 Mariusz Siembida, 75, POL 8 25.83 978 WORLD 01 Riley Janes, 80, CAN 9 25.91 973 SHEFF MAY Neil Willey, 76, GBR

10 25.92 972 AUSLC MAR Beau Mannix, 80, AUS 11 25.95 971 WORLD 01 Vyacheslav Shyrshov, 79, UKR 12 25.97 970 WORLD 01 Darius Grigalionis, 77, LTU 13 25.97 970 WORLD 01 Tomomi Morita, 84, JPN 14 26.00 968 WORLD 01 Pablo Abal, 77, ARG 15 26.02 967 GERLC MAY Sebastian Halgasch, 80, GER 16 26.05 965 CANLC MAR Sean Sepulis, 77, CAN 17 26.10 962 JPNLC APR Mizuki Wakabayashi, 81, JPN 18 26.12 961 WORLD 01 Alexandre Massura, 75, BRA 19 26.13 961 JPNLC APR Atsushi Nishikori, 78, JPN 20 26.14 960 WORLD 01 Peter Horvath, 74, HUN 21 26.15 960 GERLC MAY Steffen Driesen, 81, GER 22 26.16 959 GERLC MAY Toni Helbig, 82, GER 23 26.16 959 RUSLC JUN Vladislav Aminov, 77, RUS 24 26.17 958 MONAC JUN Gerhard Zandberg, 83, RSA 25 26.17 958 WORLD 01 Neil Walker, 76, USA 26 26.19 957 EURJR JUL Viktor Bodrogi, 83, HUN 27 26.24 955 CANLC MAR Alexandre Pichette, 77, CAN 28 26.24 955 WORLD 01 Ante Maskovic, 79, CRO 29 26.25 954 ESPLC APR David Ortega, 79, ESP 30 26.25 954 SCOLC JUN Gregor Tait, 79, GBR 58 26.65 931 AIS FEB Raymond Hass, 77, AUS 68 26.78 924 AUSLC MAR Daniel Blackborrow, 84, AUS 87 26.95 915 AUGP3 JUL David Jenkins, 77, AUS 89 27.04 910 AUSLC MAR Geoff Huegill, 79, AUS 98 27.11 906 AUSLC MAR Adam Pine, 76, AUS

102 27.16 903 AUSLC MAR Rahmin De Kretser, 78, AUS 113 27.23 899 AUSLC MAR Edward Roche, 79, AUS 120 27.27 897 AUSLC MAR Cameron Delaney, 80, AUS

MEN

’S 5

0 M

ETR

ES B

AC

KST

RO

KE

132 27.36 892 AUSLC MAR Ethan Rolff, 82, AUS

Rec: 53.60 Lenny Krayzelburg, USA, 1999

1 54.31 997 WORLD 01 Matt Welsh, 76, AUS 2 54.75 986 WORLD 01 Orn Arnarson, 81, ISL 3 54.80 984 USALC MAR Aaron Peirsol, 83, USA 4 54.91 982 WORLD 01 Steffen Driesen, 81, GER 5 54.93 981 WORLD 01 Randall Bal, 80, USA 6 55.03 978 USALC MAR Peter Marshall, 82, USA 7 55.05 978 BPEST APR Peter Horvath, 74, HUN 8 55.08 977 WORLD 01 Markus Rogan, 81, AUT 9 55.21 974 USALC MAR Neil Walker, 76, USA

10 55.26 972 AUSLC MAR Josh Watson, 77, AUS 11 55.32 971 GERLC MAY Stev Theloke, 78, GER 12 55.42 968 WORLD 01 Gordan Kozulj, 76, CRO 13 55.52 965 ROME JUN Lenny Krayzelburg, 75, USA 14 55.63 963 WORLD 01 Vladislav Aminov, 77, RUS 15 55.70 961 EASIA MAY Atsushi Nishikori, 78, JPN 16 55.77 959 EURJR JUL Viktor Bodrogi, 83, HUN 17 55.79 958 USALC MAR Todd Smolinski, 80, USA 18 55.79 958 SCOLC JUN Adam Ruckwood, 74, GBR 19 55.85 957 GERLC MAY Robert Kroll, 79, GER 20 55.85 957 WORLD 01 Keng Liat Lim, 79, MAS 21 55.88 956 WORLD 01 Klaas Zwering, 81, NED 22 55.91 955 SCOLC JUN Gregor Tait, 79, GBR 23 55.93 955 POLLC MAY Mariusz Siembida, 75, POL 24 55.95 954 USALC MAR Tommy Hannan, 80, USA 25 55.96 954 AUSLC MAR Raymond Hass, 77, AUS 26 56.03 952 USALC MAR Michael Gilliam, 79, USA 27 56.04 952 AUSLC MAR Beau Mannix, 80, AUS 28 56.07 951 ESPLC APR David Ortega, 79, ESP 29 56.10 950 FRALC MAY Pierre Roger, 83, FRA 30 56.14 949 EASIA MAY Kunpeng Ouyang, 82, CHN 43 56.35 944 AUSLC MAR Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS 72 57.03 926 AUSLC MAR Leigh McBean, 83, AUS 81 57.18 922 SYDN JAN Ashley Anderson, 84, AUS 89 57.29 919 NSW JAN Cameron Delaney, 80, AUS

119 57.74 907 AUSLC MAR Ethan Rolff, 82, AUS 138 57.96 901 AUSLC MAR Edward Roche, 79, AUS 139 57.97 901 AUSAG APR Andrew Dyson, 82, AUS

MEN

’S 1

00 M

ETR

ES B

AC

KST

RO

KE

145 58.06 899 AUGP3 JUL Daniel Blackborrow, 84, AUS


~~ 64 ~~

Rec: 1:55.87 Lenny Krayzelburg, USA, 1999 1 1:56.56 1009 USALC MAR Aaron Peirsol, 83, USA 2 1:58.07 991 WORLD 01 Markus Rogan, 81, AUT 3 1:58.37 987 WORLD 01 Orn Arnarson, 81, ISL 4 1:58.80 982 WORLD 01 Matt Welsh, 76, AUS 5 1:58.95 980 ZAGR JUN Gordan Kozulj, 76, CRO 6 1:59.24 977 WORLD 01 Viktor Bodrogi, 83, HUN 7 1:59.39 975 WORLD 01 Yoav Gath, 80, ISR 8 1:59.44 974 USALC MAR Marc Lindsay, 80, USA 9 1:59.83 969 WORLD 01 Emanuele Merisi, 72, ITA

10 1:59.99 967 WORLD 01 Raymond Hass, 77, AUS 11 2:00.03 967 SYDN JAN Tobias Oriwol, 85, CAN 12 2:00.18 965 SCOLC JUN Gregor Tait, 79, GBR 13 2:00.53 961 FRALC MAY Simon Dufour, 79, FRA 14 2:00.62 960 EASIA MAY Rui Yu, 82, CHN 15 2:00.64 960 USALC MAR Peter Marshall, 82, USA 16 2:00.64 960 BRALC MAY Volodymyr Nikolaychuk, 75, UKR 17 2:00.71 959 FRALC MAY Klaas Zwering, 81, NED 18 2:00.87 957 EASIA MAY Leigh McBean, 83, AUS 19 2:00.94 956 RUSLC JUN Sergei Ostapchuk, 76, RUS 20 2:00.97 956 WORLD 01 Marko Strahija, 75, CRO 21 2:01.05 955 WORLD 01 Rogerio Romero, 69, BRA 22 2:01.11 954 GERLC MAY Steffen Driesen, 81, GER 23 2:01.34 951 WORLD 01 Kozan Hashimoto, 80, JPN 24 2:01.37 951 AUSLC MAR Josh Watson, 77, AUS 25 2:01.41 950 WORLD 01 Pierre Roger, 83, FRA 26 2:01.42 950 ROMLC JUN Razvan Florea, 80, ROM 27 2:01.46 950 JPNLC APR Takahashi Nakano, 83, JPN 28 2:01.50 949 USALC MAR Bryce Hunt, 82, USA 29 2:01.56 948 USALC MAR Kirk Hampleman, 79, USA 30 2:01.61 948 BARC JUN Peter Horvath, 74, HUN 52 2:02.80 933 NSW JAN Cameron Delaney, 80, AUS 66 2:03.29 927 NSW JAN Andrew Burns, 82, AUS 88 2:03.90 920 QSL JAN Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS 89 2:03.98 919 AUSAG APR Mark Bush, 83, AUS 92 2:04.22 916 WAUS JAN Adam Lucas, 83, AUS 93 2:04.28 915 AUSLC MAR Ethan Rolff, 82, AUS

102 2:04.62 911 NSW JAN Ian Thorpe, 82, AUS 135 2:05.71 898 MELB JAN Mark Pettifer, 83, AUS 137 2:05.82 897 AUSAG APR Ashley Anderson, 84, AUS 146 2:06.10 893 NSW JAN Michael Gigg, 85, AUS

MEN

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147 2:06.10 893 AUSAG APR Daniel Blackborrow, 84, AUS

Rec: 27.39 Ed Moses, USA, 2001

1 27.39 1016 USALC MAR Ed Moses, 80, USA 2 27.49 1011 USALC MAR Anthony Robinson, 80, USA 3 27.52 1010 WORLD 01 Oleg Lisogor, 79, UKR 4 27.59 1006 WORLD 01 Mark Warnecke, 70, GER 5 27.60 1006 WORLD 01 Roman Sloudnov, 80, RUS 6 27.71 1000 WORLD 01 James Gibson, 80, GBR 7 27.72 999 WORLD 01 Domenico Fioravanti, 77, ITA 8 27.95 988 WORLD 01 Darren Mew, 79, GBR 9 28.05 982 JPNLC APR Kosuke Kitajima, 82, JPN

10 28.06 982 WORLD 01 Remo Lutolf, 80, SUI 11 28.10 980 STPBG MAY Arsen Malyarov, 79, RUS 12 28.17 976 JPNLC APR Ryosuke Imai, 78, JPN 13 28.18 976 WORLD 01 Jarno Pihlava, 78, FIN 14 28.22 974 WORLD 01 Daniel Malek, 73, CZE 15 28.25 972 LUX JAN Michael Fischer, 82, GER 16 28.28 971 WORLD 01 Patrik Isaksson, 73, SWE 17 28.29 970 JPNLC APR Akira Hayashi, 74, JPN 18 28.33 968 WORLD 01 Morgan Knabe, 81, CAN 19 28.37 966 WORLD 01 Vanja Rogulj, 82, CRO 20 28.38 965 SCOLC JUN Gavin Brettell, 76, GBR 21 28.40 964 WORLD 01 Hugues Duboscq, 81, FRA 22 28.51 959 WORLD 01 Jose Couto, 78, POR 23 28.53 958 GERLC MAY Bjorn Nowakowski, 74, GER 24 28.56 956 MOSCU APR Sergei Lyubimov, 83, RUS 25 28.65 952 WORLD 01 Phil Rogers, 71, AUS 26 28.66 951 HUNLC JUN Mihaly Flaskay, 82, HUN 27 28.73 947 USALC MAR Patrick Calhoun, 81, USA 28 28.74 947 ITALC APR Olivier Vincenzetti, 78, ITA 29 28.75 946 ZAGR JUN Karoly Guttler, 68, HUN 30 28.77 945 GERLC MAY Jens Kruppa, 76, GER 37 28.84 942 AUSLC MAR Simon Cowley, 80, AUS 43 28.95 936 EASIA MAY Jim Piper, 81, AUS 62 29.19 924 AUSLC MAR Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS 65 29.21 923 NSW JAN Steven McBrien, 77, AUS 82 29.40 913 AUSLC MAR Regan Harrison, 77, AUS 85 29.44 911 AUSLC MAR Patrick Adams, 80, AUS 88 29.46 910 AUSLC MAR Ben Eales, 80, AUS

100 29.52 907 AUSLC MAR Mark Riley, 82, AUS 105 29.55 905 AUSLC MAR Jarrad Church, 81, AUS 116 29.61 902 AUSLC MAR Nathan Crook, 79, AUS

MEN

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RO

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146 29.81 892 MONAC JUN Grant McGregor, 78, AUS

Rec: 59.94 Roman Sloudnov, RUS, 2001

1 59.94 1019 WORLD 01 Roman Sloudnov, 80, RUS 2 1:00.29 1010 USALC MAR Ed Moses, 80, USA 3 1:00.47 1006 WORLD 01 Domenico Fioravanti, 77, ITA 4 1:00.61 1003 WORLD 01 Kosuke Kitajima, 82, JPN 5 1:00.81 998 USALC MAR Brendan Hansen, 81, USA 6 1:01.22 988 USALC MAR Anthony Robinson, 80, USA 7 1:01.24 988 WORLD 01 Oleg Lisogor, 79, UKR 8 1:01.25 988 WORLD 01 Morgan Knabe, 81, CAN 9 1:01.31 986 USALC MAR Jarrod Marrs, 75, USA

10 1:01.47 983 WORLD 01 Darren Mew, 79, GBR 11 1:01.74 976 MOSCU APR Dimitri Komornikov, 81, RUS 12 1:01.94 972 WORLD 01 Hugues Duboscq, 81, FRA 13 1:01.95 971 USALC MAR David Denniston, 78, USA 14 1:01.96 971 AUSLC MAR Simon Cowley, 80, AUS 15 1:02.01 970 MONAC JUN Daniel Malek, 73, CZE 16 1:02.02 970 WORLD 01 Jarno Pihlava, 78, FIN 17 1:02.15 967 EASIA MAY Jim Piper, 81, AUS 18 1:02.16 966 AUSLC MAR Regan Harrison, 77, AUS 19 1:02.16 966 JPNLC APR Ryosuke Imai, 78, JPN 20 1:02.17 966 WORLD 01 Jose Couto, 78, POR 21 1:02.18 966 WORLD 01 Karoly Guttler, 68, HUN 22 1:02.21 965 ROME JUN Patrick Schmollinger, 73, AUT 23 1:02.22 965 WORLD 01 Max Podoprigora, 78, AUT 24 1:02.28 964 JPNLC APR Akira Hayashi, 74, JPN 25 1:02.38 961 ZAGR JUN Vanja Rogulj, 82, CRO 26 1:02.42 960 SPEED APR Adam Whitehead, 80, GBR 27 1:02.44 960 BRALC MAY Eduardo Fischer, 80, BRA 28 1:02.53 958 USALC MAR Patrick Calhoun, 81, USA 29 1:02.54 957 WORLD 01 Jens Kruppa, 76, GER 30 1:02.60 956 WORLD 01 Davide Rummolo, 77, ITA 45 1:03.10 944 AUSLC MAR Phil Rogers, 71, AUS 84 1:03.99 923 NSW JAN Justin Norris, 80, AUS 85 1:03.99 923 AUSLC MAR Robert McDonald, 81, AUS 89 1:04.10 921 QSL JAN Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS 94 1:04.13 920 AUSLC MAR Jarrad Church, 81, AUS 95 1:04.15 920 AUSLC MAR Steven McBrien, 77, AUS

114 1:04.47 912 QSL JAN Jade Winter, 78, AUS 129 1:04.66 908 AUSLC MAR Mark Riley, 82, AUS

MEN

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00 M

ETR

ES B

REA

STST

RO

KE

146 1:04.89 902 MELB JAN Ben Tuckerman, 80, AUS

Rec: 2:10.16 Mike Barrowman, USA, 1992 1 2:10.40 1012 USALC MAR Ed Moses, 80, USA 2 2:10.69 1009 WORLD 01 Brendan Hansen, 81, USA 3 2:11.09 1005 WORLD 01 Max Podoprigora, 78, AUT 4 2:11.21 1004 WORLD 01 Kosuke Kitajima, 82, JPN 5 2:11.31 1002 WORLD 01 Domenico Fioravanti, 77, ITA 6 2:11.51 1000 WORLD 01 Regan Harrison, 77, AUS 7 2:12.40 991 CANET JUN Jim Piper, 81, AUS 8 2:12.63 988 CANET JUN Dimitri Komornikov, 81, RUS 9 2:12.70 987 SCOLC JUN Ian Edmond, 78, GBR

10 2:12.89 985 WORLD 01 Davide Rummolo, 77, ITA 11 2:13.19 982 WORLD 01 Daniel Malek, 73, CZE 12 2:13.23 982 AUSLC MAR Simon Cowley, 80, AUS 13 2:13.79 976 FRALC MAY Yohan Bernard, 74, FRA 14 2:14.11 972 WORLD 01 Morgan Knabe, 81, CAN 15 2:14.49 968 SWELC JUN Martin Gustavsson, 80, SWE 16 2:14.50 968 JPNLC APR Yoshiaki Okita, 78, JPN 17 2:14.77 965 MOSCU APR Andrei Ivanov, 76, RUS 18 2:14.81 964 USALC MAR Kyle Salyards, 80, USA 19 2:14.85 964 USALC MAR David Denniston, 78, USA 20 2:15.15 961 JPNLC APR Taiki Kawagoe, 84, JPN 21 2:15.27 959 WORLD 01 Jose Couto, 78, POR 22 2:15.35 959 USALC MAR Tom Wilkens, 75, USA 23 2:15.50 957 USALC MAR Jarrod Marrs, 75, USA 24 2:15.87 953 WORLD 01 Hugues Duboscq, 81, FRA 25 2:15.88 953 JPNLC APR Akira Hayashi, 74, JPN 26 2:15.99 952 GBRLC APR Adam Whitehead, 80, GBR 27 2:16.01 951 EURJR JUL Thijs vanValkengoed, 83, NED 28 2:16.04 951 FRALC MAY Jean-C. Sarnin, 76, FRA 29 2:16.10 950 FRALC MAY Stephan Perrot, 77, FRA 30 2:16.11 950 VITT8 APR Tony de Pellegrini, 82, FRA 69 2:18.75 922 NSW JAN Justin Norris, 80, AUS 74 2:18.96 919 AIS FEB Grant McGregor, 78, AUS 77 2:19.19 917 EASIA MAY Jarrad Church, 81, AUS 95 2:19.93 909 AUSLC MAR Robert McDonald, 81, AUS

104 2:20.39 904 MELB JAN Ben Tuckerman, 80, AUS 114 2:20.65 901 AUSLC MAR Trent Steed, 77, AUS 142 2:21.66 890 AUSLC MAR Mark Riley, 82, AUS 144 2:21.81 889 QSL JAN Jade Winter, 78, AUS 146 2:21.82 889 AUSAG APR Travis Nederpelt, 85, AUS

MEN

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00 M

ETR

ES B

REA

STST

RO

KE

150 2:21.91 888 AUSAG APR Kieren O'Regan, 85, AUS


~~ 65 ~~

Rec: 23.44 Geoff Huegill, AUS, 2001

1 23.44 1021 WORLD 01 Geoff Huegill, 79, AUS 2 23.57 1013 WORLD 01 Lars Frolander, 74, SWE 3 23.62 1010 WORLD 01 Mark Foster, 70, GBR 4 23.68 1007 WORLD 01 Roland Schoeman, 80, RSA 5 23.85 996 WORLD 01 Ian Crocker, 82, USA 6 23.86 996 GERLC MAY Thomas Rupprath, 77, GER 7 23.91 993 WORLD 01 Jere Hard, 78, FIN 8 23.91 993 WORLD 01 Ewout Holst, 78, NED 9 23.93 992 WORLD 01 Tero Valimaa, 78, FIN

10 23.99 988 AUSLC MAR Michael Klim, 77, AUS 11 24.02 986 AUSLC MAR Burl Reid, 78, AUS 12 24.03 986 MOSCU APR Igor Marchenko, 75, RUS 13 24.09 982 GERLC MAY Fabian Friedrich, 80, GER 14 24.14 979 AUSLC MAR Adam Pine, 76, AUS 15 24.14 979 WORLD 01 Vladislav Kulikov, 71, RUS 16 24.23 974 CANLC MAR Michael Mintenko, 75, CAN 17 24.26 972 WORLD 01 Pablo Abal, 77, ARG 18 24.28 971 WORLD 01 Joris Keizer, 79, NED 19 24.29 970 UKRLC MAR Andriy Serdinov, 82, UKR 20 24.36 966 WORLD 01 Zsolt Gaspar, 77, HUN 21 24.38 965 UKRLC MAR Denis Sylantyev, 76, UKR 22 24.38 965 WORLD 01 Ravil Nachaev, 74, UZB 23 24.45 960 WORLD 01 Oswaldo Quevedo, 75, VEN 24 24.47 959 ESPLC APR Jorge Ulibarri, 75, ESP 25 24.47 959 WORLD 01 Duje Draganja, 83, CRO 26 24.51 957 BRALC MAY Raphael De Thuin, 76, BRA 27 24.53 956 JPNLC APR Takashi Yamamoto, 78, JPN 28 24.53 956 WORLD 01 Javier Noriega, 80, ESP 29 24.55 954 GERLC MAY Stephan Kunzelmann, 78, GER30 24.55 954 WORLD 01 Bryan Jones, 78, USA 41 24.74 943 AUSLC MAR David Carter, 75, AUS 48 24.79 940 AIS FEB William Kirby, 75, AUS 54 24.85 936 MELB JAN Matt Welsh, 76, AUS 68 25.00 927 AUSLC MAR Leon Dunne, 75, AUS 78 25.04 925 AUSLC MAR Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS

111 25.21 915 NSW JAN Zane King, 77, AUS 124 25.26 912 AUSLC MAR Shane Fielding, 80, AUS 132 25.31 909 AUSLC MAR Jason Cohen, 82, AUS 136 25.33 908 AUSGP JUN Tim Dodd, 80, AUS

MEN

’S 5

0 M

ETR

ES B

UTT

ERFL

Y

148 25.40 903 WAUS JAN Robert Sharp, 84, AUS

Rec: 51.81 Michael Klim, AUS, 1999 1 52.10 1004 WORLD 01 Lars Frolander, 74, SWE 2 52.23 1001 AUSLC MAR Geoff Huegill, 79, AUS 3 52.25 1000 WORLD 01 Ian Crocker, 82, USA 4 52.34 998 AUSLC MAR Michael Klim, 77, AUS 5 52.54 992 GERLC MAY Thomas Rupprath, 77, GER 6 52.55 992 WORLD 01 Takashi Yamamoto, 78, JPN 7 52.59 991 FRALC MAY Franck Esposito, 71, FRA 8 52.69 988 WORLD 01 Vladislav Kulikov, 71, RUS 9 52.81 985 WORLD 01 Michael Mintenko, 75, CAN

10 52.92 982 ROME JUN Denis Sylantyev, 76, UKR 11 52.94 981 MOSCU APR Igor Marchenko, 75, RUS 12 52.97 981 WORLD 01 Andriy Serdinov, 82, UKR 13 53.08 978 WORLD 01 Jere Hard, 78, FIN 14 53.09 977 AUSLC MAR Adam Pine, 76, AUS 15 53.19 975 WORLD 01 Tero Valimaa, 78, FIN 16 53.25 973 EASIA MAY Burl Reid, 78, AUS 17 53.50 966 USALC MAR Bryan Jones, 78, USA 18 53.53 965 GBRLC APR James Hickman, 76, GBR 19 53.53 965 WORLD 01 Joris Keizer, 79, NED 20 53.63 963 HUNLC JUN Zsolt Gaspar, 77, HUN 21 53.64 962 MOSCU APR Anatoli Poliakov, 80, RUS 22 53.68 961 EASIA MAY Kunpeng Ouyang, 82, CHN 23 53.71 960 AIS FEB William Kirby, 75, AUS 24 53.89 955 USALC MAR Tommy Hannan, 80, USA 25 53.99 953 ITALC APR Cristian Galenda, 82, ITA 26 54.02 952 USALC MAR Brendan Coyne, 80, USA 27 54.03 952 WORLD 01 Peter Mankoc, 78, SLO 28 54.05 951 USALC MAR Andy Haidinyak, 80, USA 29 54.07 951 USALC MAR Jeff Somensatto, 79, USA 30 54.08 950 AUSLC MAR Shane Fielding, 80, AUS 61 54.74 932 SYDN JAN Joshua Krogh, 82, AUS 64 54.77 931 AUSLC MAR Zane King, 77, AUS 67 54.82 930 AUSLC MAR Jason Cohen, 82, AUS 77 55.03 924 AUSAG APR Nic Williams, 83, AUS 82 55.15 921 MONAC JUN Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS 88 55.18 920 MONAC JUN Grant McGregor, 78, AUS 90 55.19 920 QSL JAN Heath Ramsay, 81, AUS 96 55.22 919 MONAC JUN Todd Pearson, 77, AUS

120 55.41 914 MELB JAN Matt Welsh, 76, AUS 131 55.51 911 AUSLC MAR Greg Shaw, 77, AUS

MEN

’S 1

00 M

ETR

ES B

UTT

ERFL

Y

146 55.66 907 MONAC JUN Ian Thorpe, 82, AUS

Rec: 1:54.58 Michael Phelps, USA, 2001

1 1:54.58 1015 WORLD 01 Michael Phelps, 85, USA 2 1:55.03 1009 WORLD 01 Franck Esposito, 71, FRA 3 1:55.03 1009 WORLD 01 Tom Malchow, 76, USA 4 1:55.68 1001 WORLD 01 Anatoli Poliakov, 80, RUS 5 1:55.84 999 WORLD 01 Takashi Yamamoto, 78, JPN 6 1:56.00 997 ROME JUN Denis Sylantyev, 76, UKR 7 1:56.96 985 GERLC MAY Thomas Rupprath, 77, GER 8 1:56.98 985 WORLD 01 Justin Norris, 80, AUS 9 1:57.68 977 SHEFF MAY James Hickman, 76, GBR

10 1:57.96 973 WORLD 01 Ioan Gherghel, 78, ROM 11 1:58.06 972 AIS FEB Michael Klim, 77, AUS 12 1:58.38 968 SYDN JAN Joshua Krogh, 82, AUS 13 1:58.42 967 GBRLC APR Stephen Parry, 77, GBR 14 1:58.64 965 USALC MAR Jeff Somensatto, 79, USA 15 1:58.68 964 WORLD 01 Andrew Livingston, 78, PUR 16 1:58.69 964 AUSLC MAR William Kirby, 75, AUS 17 1:58.85 962 WORLD 01 Juan Veloz, 82, MEX 18 1:59.10 959 AUSLC MAR Grant McGregor, 78, AUS 19 1:59.11 959 JPNLC APR Hisayoshi Tanaka, 79, JPN 20 1:59.16 958 ATHEN MAY Ioannis Drymonakos, 79, GRE21 1:59.31 956 WORLD 01 Cristian Galenda, 82, ITA 22 1:59.34 956 AUSLC MAR Shane Fielding, 80, AUS 23 1:59.39 955 USALC MAR Andrew Mahaney, 82, USA 24 1:59.50 954 ITALC APR Massi Eroli, 76, ITA 25 1:59.53 954 USALC MAR Duncan Sherrard, 80, USA 26 1:59.54 954 ITALC APR Andrea Oriana, 73, ITA 27 1:59.67 952 FRALC MAY David Abrard, 76, FRA 28 1:59.68 952 CHNLC APR Hongwei Wang, 82, CHN 29 1:59.70 952 AUSLC MAR Greg Shaw, 77, AUS 30 1:59.75 951 EURJR JUL Viktor Bodrogi, 83, HUN 35 2:00.07 947 SYDN JAN Matthew Hall, 81, AUS 44 2:00.55 941 AUSLC MAR Heath Ramsay, 81, AUS 46 2:00.58 941 NSW JAN Zane King, 77, AUS 70 2:01.99 923 AUSLC MAR Trent Steed, 77, AUS

105 2:03.13 909 AUSLC MAR Jason Cohen, 82, AUS 110 2:03.31 907 AUSLC MAR Nic Williams, 83, AUS 128 2:03.78 901 QSL JAN Brendon Hughes, 84, AUS

MEN

’S 2

00 M

ETR

ES B

UTT

ERFL

Y

145 2:04.27 895 AUSLC MAR Michael Higgins, 80, AUS

Rec: 21.64 Alexander Popov, RUS, 2000 1 21.91 997 MONAC JUN Alexander Popov, 71, RUS 2 22.05 988 WORLD 01 Anthony Ervin, 81, USA 3 22.13 983 SHEFF MAY Mark Foster, 70, GBR 4 22.14 982 WORLD 01 Pieter vdHoogenband, 78, NED 5 22.18 980 WORLD 01 Brett Hawke, 74, AUS 6 22.18 980 WORLD 01 Roland Schoeman, 80, RSA 7 22.18 980 WORLD 01 Tomohiro Yamanoi, 77, JPN 8 22.30 972 WORLD 01 Vyacheslav Shyrshov, 79, UKR 9 22.31 971 WORLD 01 Jose M. Meolans, 78, ARG

10 22.31 971 WORLD 01 Stefan Nystrand, 81, SWE 11 22.32 971 ITALC APR Lorenzo Vismara, 75, ITA 12 22.32 971 SCSC JUN Bartosz Kizierowski, 77, POL 13 22.34 969 WORLD 01 Julio Santos, 77, ECU 14 22.35 969 USALC MAR Jason Lezak, 75, USA 15 22.42 964 WORLD 01 Ashley Callus, 79, AUS 16 22.47 961 WORLD 01 Johan Kenkhuis, 80, NED 17 22.49 960 UKRLC MAR Oleksander Volynets, 74, UKR 18 22.53 957 USALC MAR Gregory Busse, 79, USA 19 22.54 956 WORLD 01 Attila Zubor, 75, HUN 20 22.59 953 FRALC MAY Salim Iles, 75, ALG 21 22.61 952 STPBG MAY Leonid Khokhlov, 80, RUS 22 22.64 950 USALC MAR Neil Walker, 76, USA 23 22.69 946 BRALC MAY Edvaldo Silva, 78, BRA 24 22.69 946 MONAC JUN Julien Sicot, 78, FRA 25 22.70 946 USALC MAR Scott Tucker, 75, USA 26 22.70 946 WORLD 01 Ricardo Busquets, 75, PUR 27 22.71 945 AUSLC MAR Michael Klim, 77, AUS 28 22.73 944 SUILC MAR Christoph Buhler, 74, SUI 29 22.78 941 GERLC MAY Torsten Spanneberg, 75, GER 30 22.80 939 AUSLC MAR David Jenkins, 77, AUS 36 22.91 932 AUSLC MAR Todd Pearson, 77, AUS 51 23.01 926 AUSGP JUN Stephen Goudie, 79, AUS 66 23.17 915 AUSLC MAR Adam Pine, 76, AUS 77 23.20 913 AUSLC MAR Nathan Rickard, 79, AUS 84 23.27 909 AUSLC MAR David Carter, 75, AUS

101 23.38 901 SYDN JAN Andrew Dyson, 82, AUS 114 23.41 900 AIS FEB Raymond Hass, 77, AUS 125 23.45 897 AUSAG APR Ashley Anderson, 84, AUS 127 23.46 896 AUSLC MAR Leon Dunne, 75, AUS

MEN

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0 M

ETR

ES F

REE

STYL

E

133 23.49 894 QSL JAN Richard Upton, 74, AUS


~~ 66 ~~

Rec: 47.84 Pieter van den Hoogenband, NED, 2000

1 48.33 1003 WORLD 01 Anthony Ervin, 81, USA 2 48.43 1000 WORLD 01 Pieter vdHoogenband, 78, NED3 48.79 989 WORLD 01 Lars Frolander, 74, SWE 4 48.81 989 WORLD 01 Ian Thorpe, 82, AUS 5 48.90 986 WORLD 01 Michael Klim, 77, AUS 6 49.13 979 WORLD 01 Attila Zubor, 75, HUN 7 49.24 976 ITALC APR Lorenzo Vismara, 75, ITA 8 49.26 976 USALC MAR Jason Lezak, 75, USA 9 49.31 974 BRALC MAY Gustavo Borges, 72, BRA

10 49.35 973 WORLD 01 Torsten Spanneberg, 75, GER 11 49.38 972 WORLD 01 Ashley Callus, 79, AUS 12 49.39 972 USALC MAR Neil Walker, 76, USA 13 49.40 971 VIT11 JUN Salim Iles, 75, ALG 14 49.42 971 USALC MAR Gregory Busse, 79, USA 15 49.43 971 ZAGR JUN Alexander Popov, 71, RUS 16 49.46 970 USALC MAR Bryan Jones, 78, USA 17 49.54 967 USALC MAR Nate Dusing, 78, USA 18 49.54 967 MOSCU APR Andrei Kapralov, 80, RUS 19 49.57 966 ESPLC APR Jose M. Meolans, 78, ARG 20 49.59 966 USALC MAR Scott Tucker, 75, USA 21 49.63 965 USALC MAR Jamie Rauch, 79, USA 22 49.65 964 SWGP2 APR Stefan Nystrand, 81, SWE 23 49.67 963 AUSLC MAR Todd Pearson, 77, AUS 24 49.79 960 WORLD 01 Duje Draganja, 83, CRO 25 49.80 960 WORLD 01 Mark Veens, 78, NED 26 49.89 957 WORLD 01 Lars Conrad, 76, GER 27 49.91 956 LUX JAN Vyacheslav Shyrshov, 79, UKR 28 49.91 956 BRALC MAY Edvaldo Silva, 78, BRA 29 49.99 954 SCSC JUN Bartosz Kizierowski, 77, POL 30 50.03 953 FRALC MAY Romain Barnier, 76, FRA 38 50.20 948 AUSLC MAR David Jenkins, 77, AUS 39 50.25 946 AUSLC MAR William Kirby, 75, AUS 40 50.27 946 AUSLC MAR Adam Pine, 76, AUS 53 50.53 938 AUSLC MAR Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS 55 50.61 936 AIS FEB Stephen Goudie, 79, AUS 84 50.85 929 AUSGP JUN Antony Matkovich, 77, AUS

104 51.12 921 SYDN JAN Raymond McDonald, 84, AUS 109 51.16 920 AUSLC MAR Nic Williams, 83, AUS 114 51.22 918 AUSLC MAR Leon Dunne, 75, AUS 116 51.25 917 AUSLC MAR Jared Clarke, 77, AUS 120 51.28 916 AUSLC MAR Leo Biggs, 79, AUS 126 51.32 915 TGP1 MAY Raymond Hass, 77, AUS 129 51.35 914 AUSAG APR Andrew Dyson, 82, AUS

MEN

’S 1

00 M

ETR

ES F

REE

STYL

E

143 51.43 912 AUSLC MAR Benjamin Denner, 81, AUS

Rec: 1:44.06 Ian Thorpe, AUS, 2001 1 1:44.06 1031 WORLD 01 Ian Thorpe, 82, AUS 2 1:45.80 1008 WORLD 01 Pieter vdHoogenband, 78, NED 3 1:46.11 1003 WORLD 01 Grant Hackett, 80, AUS 4 1:47.10 990 WORLD 01 Klete Keller, 82, USA 5 1:47.58 984 WORLD 01 Emiliano Brembilla, 78, ITA 6 1:47.63 983 ITALC APR Massi Rosolino, 78, ITA 7 1:48.10 977 GBRLC APR Paul Palmer, 74, GBR 8 1:48.13 976 WORLD 01 William Kirby, 75, AUS 9 1:48.29 974 WORLD 01 Nate Dusing, 78, USA

10 1:48.41 972 AUSLC MAR Michael Klim, 77, AUS 11 1:48.41 972 MOSCU APR Andrei Kapralov, 80, RUS 12 1:48.50 971 WORLD 01 Scott Goldblatt, 79, USA 13 1:48.86 966 WORLD 01 Jacob Carstensen, 78, DEN 14 1:48.88 966 AUSLC MAR Todd Pearson, 77, AUS 15 1:48.90 966 ITALC APR Andrea Beccari, 78, ITA 16 1:48.90 966 WORLD 01 Mark Johnston, 79, CAN 17 1:49.15 963 MOSCU APR Stepan Ganzey, 81, RUS 18 1:49.30 961 WORLD 01 Kvetoslav Svoboda, 82, CZE 19 1:49.34 960 WORLD 01 Jose M. Meolans, 78, ARG 20 1:49.44 959 USALC MAR Chad Carvin, 74, USA 21 1:49.45 958 USALC MAR Jay Schryver, 78, USA 22 1:49.45 958 ITALC APR Matteo Pelliciari, 79, ITA 23 1:49.57 957 CANLC MAR Rick Say, 79, CAN 24 1:49.60 956 TXSR JUL Josh Davis, 72, USA 25 1:49.65 956 GERLC MAY Stefan Herbst, 78, GER 26 1:49.65 956 WORLD 01 Edward Sinclair, 80, GBR 27 1:49.70 955 CANET JUN Antony Matkovich, 77, AUS 28 1:49.71 955 AUSLC MAR Raymond Hass, 77, AUS 29 1:49.73 955 WORLD 01 Daisuke Hosokawa, 82, JPN 30 1:49.77 954 USALC MAR Jamie Rauch, 79, USA 46 1:50.75 941 EASIA MAY Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS 53 1:51.04 937 AUSLC MAR Leon Dunne, 75, AUS 63 1:51.41 932 SYDN JAN Stephen Penfold, 82, AUS 69 1:51.55 930 AUSLC MAR Joshua Krogh, 82, AUS 71 1:51.65 929 AUSLC MAR Nic Williams, 83, AUS 83 1:51.86 926 EASIA MAY Leigh McBean, 83, AUS 89 1:52.03 924 NSW JAN Craig Stevens, 80, AUS

109 1:52.37 919 SYDN JAN Andrew Dyson, 82, AUS 133 1:52.93 912 AUSLC MAR Benjamin Denner, 81, AUS

MEN

’S 2

00 M

ETR

ES F

REE

STYL

E

138 1:53.01 911 AUSAG APR Jason Cram, 82, AUS

Rec: 3:40.59 Ian Thorpe, AUS, 2000 1 3:40.17 1028 WORLD 01 Ian Thorpe, 82, AUS 2 3:42.51 1013 WORLD 01 Grant Hackett, 80, AUS 3 3:45.11 997 WORLD 01 Emiliano Brembilla, 78, ITA 4 3:45.41 995 WORLD 01 Massi Rosolino, 78, ITA 5 3:48.72 974 USALC MAR Robert Margalis, 82, USA 6 3:49.04 972 NEDLC JUN Pieter vdHoogenband, 78, NED7 3:49.47 969 USALC MAR Chad Carvin, 74, USA 8 3:50.09 965 ITALC APR Andrea Righi, 79, ITA 9 3:50.13 965 WORLD 01 Dragos Coman, 80, ROM

10 3:50.36 963 WORLD 01 Shunichi Fujita, 82, JPN 11 3:50.47 963 SCOLC JUN James Salter, 76, GBR 12 3:50.53 962 SCOLC JUN Edward Sinclair, 80, GBR 13 3:50.98 959 WORLD 01 Spyridon Gianniotis, 80, GRE 14 3:51.05 959 MOSCU APR Alexei Filipets, 78, RUS

15 3:51.64 955 WORLD 01 Athanasios Oikonomou, 78, GRE

16 3:51.72 955 AUSLC MAR Jacob Carstensen, 78, DEN 17 3:51.78 954 MOSCU APR Stepan Ganzey, 81, RUS 18 3:51.82 954 GBRLC APR Paul Palmer, 74, GBR 19 3:52.15 952 GBRLC APR Graeme Smith, 76, GBR 20 3:52.17 952 GERLC MAY Heiko Hell, 80, GER 21 3:52.55 949 WORLD 01 Rick Say, 79, CAN 22 3:52.60 949 AUSLC MAR Craig Stevens, 80, AUS 23 3:52.75 948 CANLC MAR Andrew Hurd, 82, CAN 24 3:53.25 945 USALC MAR Erik Vendt, 81, USA 25 3:53.46 944 UKRLC MAR Igor Chervynskiy, 81, UKR 26 3:53.55 943 EASIA MAY Kyu-Chul Han, 81, KOR 27 3:53.62 943 FRALC MAY Sylvain Cros, 80, FRA 28 3:53.63 943 USALC MAR Francis Crippen, 83, USA 29 3:54.11 939 SYDN JAN Stephen Penfold, 82, AUS 30 3:54.13 939 USALC MAR Mark Warkentin, 79, USA 69 3:57.32 919 EASIA MAY Andrew Affleck, 83, AUS 97 3:59.05 908 AUGP3 JUL Joshua Krogh, 82, AUS

103 3:59.23 907 AUSLC MAR Travis Nederpelt, 85, AUS 110 3:59.43 906 AIS FEB Michael Klim, 77, AUS

MEN

’S 4

00 M

ETR

ES F

REE

STYL

E

136 4:00.66 898 AUSLC MAR Daniel Lysaught, 85, AUS

Rec: 7:39.16 Ian Thorpe, AUS, 2001 1 7:39.16 1028 WORLD 01 Ian Thorpe, 82, AUS 2 7:40.34 1025 WORLD 01 Grant Hackett, 80, AUS 3 7:51.12 992 WORLD 01 Graeme Smith, 76, GBR 4 7:53.95 983 WORLD 01 Chris Thompson, 78, USA 5 7:56.30 976 WORLD 01 Alexei Filipets, 78, RUS 6 7:56.39 976 USALC MAR Chad Carvin, 74, USA 7 7:57.02 974 ITALC APR Andrea Righi, 79, ITA 8 7:57.52 972 ITALC APR Christian Minotti, 80, ITA 9 7:57.99 971 WORLD 01 Shunichi Fujita, 82, JPN

10 7:58.01 971 UKRLC MAR Igor Chervynskiy, 81, UKR 11 7:59.47 966 WORLD 01 Heiko Hell, 80, GER 12 8:00.72 962 CANLC MAR Andrew Hurd, 82, CAN 13 8:01.15 961 WORLD 01 Adam Faulkner, 81, GBR 14 8:01.20 961 WORLD 01 Dragos Coman, 80, ROM 15 8:01.27 961 ITALC APR Emiliano Brembilla, 78, ITA 16 8:01.51 960 USALC MAR Francis Crippen, 83, USA 17 8:01.69 959 WORLD 01 Masato Hirano, 75, JPN 18 8:01.97 959 SYDN JAN Stephen Penfold, 82, AUS 19 8:02.19 958 WORLD 01 Ricardo Monasterio, 78, VEN 20 8:02.39 957 WORLD 01 Robert Margalis, 82, USA 21 8:02.63 957 WORLD 01 Alexei Butsenin, 76, RUS 22 8:02.92 956 WORLD 01 Nicolas Rostoucher, 81, FRA 23 8:03.54 954 ITALC APR Massi Rosolino, 78, ITA 24 8:04.99 949 AUSGP JUN Craig Stevens, 80, AUS 25 8:06.01 946 ITALC APR Marco Formentini, 70, ITA 26 8:06.96 943 USALC MAR John Cole, 82, USA 27 8:07.18 943 GERLC MAY Thomas Lohfink, 78, GER 28 8:07.53 942 WORLD 01 Spyridon Gianniotis, 80, GRE 29 8:07.55 942 USALC MAR Erik Vendt, 81, USA 30 8:08.35 939 GERLC MAY Thomas Lurz, 79, GER 33 8:08.88 938 SYDN JAN Andrew Affleck, 83, AUS 59 8:16.67 914 AUSLC MAR Travis Nederpelt, 85, AUS 68 8:18.49 908 AUSLC MAR Dylan Rackley, 81, AUS 73 8:19.42 905 AUSLC MAR Grant Cleland, 78, AUS 76 8:19.95 904 QSL JAN Daniel Lysaught, 85, AUS 80 8:20.55 902 SYDN JAN Gavin Shill, 83, AUS

MEN

’S 8

00 M

ETR

ES F

REE

STYL

E

89 8:22.06 897 NSW JAN Mark Saliba, 79, AUS


~~ 67 ~~

Rec: 14:34.56 Grant Hackett, AUS, 2001

1 14:34.56 1027 WORLD 01 Grant Hackett, 80, AUS 2 14:58.94 988 WORLD 01 Graeme Smith, 76, GBR 3 15:01.43 984 WORLD 01 Alexei Filipets, 78, RUS 4 15:06.13 977 WORLD 01 Igor Chervynskiy, 81, UKR 5 15:07.67 974 WORLD 01 Chris Thompson, 78, USA 6 15:07.93 974 ITALC APR Andrea Righi, 79, ITA 7 15:09.28 972 ITALC APR Massi Rosolino, 78, ITA 8 15:11.81 968 ITALC APR Christian Minotti, 80, ITA 9 15:13.00 966 USALC MAR Erik Vendt, 81, USA

10 15:14.62 963 WORLD 01 Craig Stevens, 80, AUS 11 15:14.65 963 FRALC MAY Nicolas Rostoucher, 81, FRA12 15:16.45 960 USALC MAR Robert Margalis, 82, USA 13 15:20.62 954 WORLD 01 Spyridon Gianniotis, 80, GRE14 15:20.73 953 WORLD 01 Ricardo Monasterio, 78, VEN15 15:20.75 953 GREVE APR Heiko Hell, 80, GER 16 15:21.21 953 WORLD 01 Alexei Butsenin, 76, RUS 17 15:21.47 952 USALC MAR Francis Crippen, 83, USA 18 15:22.33 951 AUSLC MAR Andrew Affleck, 83, AUS 19 15:23.71 949 CANLC MAR Andrew Hurd, 82, CAN 20 15:24.48 947 JPNLC APR Shunichi Fujita, 82, JPN 21 15:24.72 947 SYDN JAN Stephen Penfold, 82, AUS 22 15:25.74 945 FRALC MAY Guy-Noel Schmitt, 83, FRA 23 15:25.77 945 FRALC MAY Sylvain Cros, 80, FRA 24 15:26.61 944 USALC MAR John Cole, 82, USA 25 15:27.70 942 JPNLC APR Masato Hirano, 75, JPN 26 15:29.24 940 ROME JUN Takashi Matsuda, 84, JPN 27 15:29.39 940 EASIA MAY Shibin Zheng, 80, CHN 28 15:29.55 939 ITALC APR Simone Ercoli, 79, ITA 29 15:29.70 939 WORLD 01 Dragos Coman, 80, ROM 30 15:30.04 938 ITALC APR Marco Formentini, 70, ITA 54 15:39.48 923 AUSLC MAR Travis Nederpelt, 85, AUS 93 15:50.58 906 AUSLC MAR Grant Cleland, 78, AUS 96 15:50.97 905 QSL JAN Dylan Rackley, 81, AUS

100 15:53.04 902 SYDN JAN Gavin Shill, 83, AUS

MEN

’S 1

500

MET

RES

FR

EEST

YLE

132 16:00.09 890 NSW JAN Mark Saliba, 79, AUS

Rec: 1:58.16 Jani Sievinen, FIN, 1994 1 1:59.71 999 WORLD 01 Massi Rosolino, 78, ITA 2 2:00.45 990 WORLD 01 Tom Wilkens, 75, USA 3 2:00.49 990 WORLD 01 Alessio Boggiatto, 81, ITA 4 2:00.91 985 WORLD 01 Justin Norris, 80, AUS 5 2:01.35 979 WORLD 01 George Bovell, 83, TRI 6 2:01.46 978 WORLD 01 Jiro Miki, 83, JPN 7 2:01.54 977 AUSLC MAR Grant McGregor, 78, AUS 8 2:01.54 977 WORLD 01 Takahiro Mori, 80, JPN 9 2:01.69 975 USALC MAR Robert Margalis, 82, USA

10 2:01.70 975 WORLD 01 Curtis Myden, 73, CAN 11 2:01.97 972 EASIA MAY Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS 12 2:02.17 970 USALC MAR Michael Phelps, 85, USA 13 2:02.45 966 WORLD 01 Brian Johns, 82, CAN 14 2:02.48 966 WORLD 01 Peter Mankoc, 78, SLO 15 2:02.65 964 GERLC MAY Jirka Letzin, 71, GER 16 2:02.66 964 EURJR JUL James Goddard, 83, GBR 17 2:02.71 963 USALC MAR Kevin Clements, 80, USA 18 2:02.85 961 HUNLC JUN Tamas Kerekjarto, 79, HUN 19 2:02.85 961 WORLD 01 Dean Kent, 79, NZL 20 2:02.88 961 USALC MAR Tommy Hannan, 80, USA 21 2:03.04 959 USALC MAR Dan Trupin, 83, USA 22 2:03.11 958 CHNLC APR Kunpeng Ouyang, 82, CHN 23 2:03.19 957 GERLC MAY Christian Keller, 72, GER 24 2:03.34 956 EASIA MAY Xufeng Xie, 78, CHN 25 2:03.41 955 USALC MAR Ron Karnaugh, 66, USA 26 2:03.47 954 SCOLC JUN Adrian Turner, 77, GBR 27 2:03.64 952 FRALC MAY Xavier Marchand, 73, FRA 28 2:03.70 951 RUSLC JUN Roman Ivanovski, 77, RUS

29 2:03.73 951 BRALC MAY Volodymyr Nikolaychuk, 75, UKR

30 2:03.76 951 USALC MAR Joey Montague, 78, USA 43 2:04.43 943 NSW JAN Ian Thorpe, 82, AUS 58 2:05.10 935 EASIA MAY Trent Steed, 77, AUS 87 2:06.26 921 NSW JAN Zane King, 77, AUS 95 2:06.58 917 AUSLC MAR Michael Higgins, 80, AUS

103 2:06.80 914 AUSAG APR Nathan Taylor, 82, AUS 109 2:06.95 913 AUSAG APR Adam Lucas, 83, AUS 110 2:07.00 912 AUSAG APR Andrew Richards, 83, AUS 132 2:07.80 902 AUSLC MAR Mitchell Bacon, 84, AUS

MEN

’S 2

00 M

ETR

ES IN

DIV

IDU

AL

MED

LEY

150 2:08.19 898 SYDN DEC Jim Piper, 81, AUS

Rec: 4:11.76 Tom Dolan, USA, 2000

1 4:13.15 1002 WORLD 01 Alessio Boggiatto, 81, ITA 2 4:14.19 996 USALC MAR Erik Vendt, 81, USA 3 4:14.52 995 USALC MAR Tom Wilkens, 75, USA 4 4:15.20 991 USALC MAR Michael Phelps, 85, USA 5 4:16.24 985 JPNLC APR Susumu Tabuchi, 80, JPN 6 4:16.65 983 JPNLC APR Jiro Miki, 83, JPN 7 4:17.62 977 AUSLC MAR Grant McGregor, 78, AUS 8 4:18.56 972 WORLD 01 Justin Norris, 80, AUS 9 4:19.21 968 USALC MAR Robert Margalis, 82, USA

10 4:19.25 968 WORLD 01 Brian Johns, 82, CAN 11 4:19.30 968 EURJR JUL James Goddard, 83, GBR 12 4:19.72 965 FRALC MAY Nicolas Rostoucher, 81, FRA 13 4:19.80 965 WORLD 01 Curtis Myden, 73, CAN 14 4:19.85 965 JPNLC APR Takahiro Mori, 80, JPN 15 4:19.90 964 GBRLC APR Simon Militis, 77, GBR 16 4:19.99 964 SYDN JAN Chuck Sayao, 82, CAN 17 4:20.65 960 USALC MAR Kevin Clements, 80, USA 18 4:20.83 959 SUILC MAR Yves Platel, 79, SUI 19 4:21.12 957 HUNLC JUN Tamas Kerekjarto, 79, HUN 20 4:21.26 957 JPNLC APR Shinya Taniguchi, 81, JPN 21 4:21.39 956 EURJR JUL Pierre Henri, 83, FRA 22 4:22.02 952 AUSLC MAR Trent Steed, 77, AUS 23 4:22.07 952 ITALC APR Massi Eroli, 76, ITA 24 4:22.18 951 WORLD 01 Dean Kent, 79, NZL 25 4:22.32 951 EURJR JUL Vasilios Demetis, 83, GRE 26 4:22.40 950 USALC MAR Steven Brown, 79, USA 27 4:22.52 949 EASIA MAY Xufeng Xie, 78, CHN 28 4:22.55 949 SYDN JAN Keith Beavers, 83, CAN 29 4:22.66 949 WORLD 01 Michael Halika, 78, ISR 30 4:22.74 948 WORLD 01 Jacob Carstensen, 78, DEN 44 4:24.83 936 QSL JAN Robert Van Der Zant, 75, AUS73 4:28.20 918 EASIA MAY Jim Piper, 81, AUS 74 4:28.46 916 AUSAG APR Mitchell Bacon, 84, AUS 75 4:28.53 916 AUSAG APR Andrew Richards, 83, AUS 95 4:30.11 907 AUGP3 JUL Adam Lucas, 83, AUS

116 4:31.80 897 AUGP3 JUL Shane Fielding, 80, AUS 121 4:31.93 897 AUSLC MAR Galen Gough, 79, AUS 122 4:32.03 896 QSL JAN Dylan Rackley, 81, AUS 138 4:33.34 889 NSW JAN Rhys Beynon, 81, AUS

MEN

’S 4

00 M

ETR

ES IN

DIV

IDU

AL

MED

LEY

147 4:33.73 886 AUSGP JUN Michael Higgins, 80, AUS

Rec: 3:33.73 United States, USA, 2000

1 3:35.35 1003 WORLD 01 Australia, AUS 2 3:36.34 997 WORLD 01 Germany, GER 3 3:37.56 989 WORLD 01 United States, USA 4 3:37.77 987 WORLD 01 Russia, RUS 5 3:38.23 984 WORLD 01 Canada, CAN 6 3:38.29 984 WORLD 01 Hungary, HUN 7 3:38.88 980 EASIA MAY Japan, JPN 8 3:39.94 973 WORLD 01 Netherlands, NED 9 3:41.31 964 WORLD 01 Sweden, SWE

10 3:41.98 960 WORLD 01 Croatia, CRO 11 3:42.74 954 WORLD 01 Brazil, BRA 12 3:42.94 953 MOSCU APR Saint Petersburg, RUS 13 3:43.32 951 WORLD 01 Italy, ITA 14 3:44.30 944 CANLC MAR Pacific Dolphins, CAN M

EN’S

4x1

00M

MED

LEY

REL

AY

15 3:44.65 942 FRALC MAY CN Antibes, FRA

Rec: 3:13.67 Australia, AUS, 2000

1 3:14.10 1009 WORLD 01 Australia, AUS 2 3:14.56 1005 WORLD 01 Netherlands, NED 3 3:17.11 987 WORLD 01 United States, USA 4 3:17.52 984 WORLD 01 Germany, GER 5 3:18.00 980 WORLD 01 Sweden, SWE 6 3:19.37 970 WORLD 01 Italy, ITA 7 3:21.19 957 WORLD 01 Brazil, BRA 8 3:21.63 954 WORLD 01 Russia, RUS 9 3:21.82 952 BRALC MAY Regatas UG, BRA

10 3:22.01 951 WORLD 01 Japan, JPN 11 3:22.35 948 SCSC JUN Phoenix Swim, USA 12 3:23.80 938 USALC MAR Irvine Nova A, USA 13 3:24.02 936 FRALC MAY CN Antibes, FRA 14 3:24.10 936 WORLD 01 Switzerland, SUI

MEN

’S 4

x100

M F

REE

STYL

E R

ELA

Y

15 3:24.26 934 CHARL JUN Circle C Swim, USA

Rec: 7:04.66 Australia, AUS, 2001

1 7:04.66 1022 WORLD 01 Australia, AUS 2 7:10.86 1001 WORLD 01 Italy, ITA 3 7:13.69 992 WORLD 01 United States, USA 4 7:15.60 986 WORLD 01 Great Britain, GBR 5 7:17.29 980 WORLD 01 Germany, GER 6 7:17.80 978 WORLD 01 Canada, CAN 7 7:20.60 969 WORLD 01 Japan, JPN 8 7:22.44 963 WORLD 01 Russia, RUS 9 7:25.19 954 AUSLC MAR Miami, QLD, AUS

10 7:28.47 943 ITALC APR RN Torino, ITA 11 7:28.47 943 USALC MAR U.Southern California, USA 12 7:30.91 935 CHNLC APR Guangdong, CHN 13 7:31.15 934 EURJR JUL France, FRA 14 7:31.74 932 ZAJAC MAY Pacific Dolphins, CAN

MEN

’S 4

x200

M F

REE

STYL

E R

ELA

Y

15 7:32.05 931 ITALC APR Carabinieri, ITA


~~ 68 ~~

Rec: 28.25 Sandra Volker, GER, 2000

1 28.30 1015 MONAC JUN Sandra Volker, 74, GER 2 28.49 1005 WORLD 01 Natalie Coughlin, 82, USA 3 28.51 1004 WORLD 01 Haley Cope, 79, USA 4 28.53 1003 WORLD 01 Antje Buschschulte, 78, GER 5 28.68 996 AUSLC MAR Dyana Calub, 75, AUS 6 28.73 994 MONAC JUN Nina Zhivanevskaya, 77, ESP 7 28.86 987 WORLD 01 Diana Mocanu, 84, ROM 8 28.99 981 WORLD 01 Hinkelien Schreuder, 84, NED 9 29.00 980 WORLD 01 Mai Nakamura, 79, JPN

10 29.11 975 CANLC MAR Jennifer Carroll, 81, CAN 11 29.12 974 JPNLC APR Hanae Ito, 85, JPN 12 29.14 973 CHNLC APR Shu Zhan, 85, CHN 13 29.25 968 GERLC MAY Janine Pietsch, 82, GER 14 29.28 966 WORLD 01 Giaan Rooney, 82, AUS 15 29.30 965 CHNLC APR Nan Liu, 81, CHN 16 29.30 965 MONAC JUN Ilona Hlavackova, 77, CZE 17 29.32 964 CHNLC APR Yingjuan Zhen, 78, CHN 18 29.33 964 SCOLC JUN Sarah Price, 79, GBR 19 29.35 963 CHNLC APR Hui Li, 82, CHN 20 29.38 961 CANLC MAR Michelle Lischinsky, 74, CAN 21 29.38 961 WORLD 01 Anu Koivisto, 80, FIN 22 29.41 960 JPNLC APR Chihiro Ideda, 82, JPN 23 29.44 958 JPNLC APR Ai Fukushima, 84, JPN 24 29.44 958 WORLD 01 Aleksandra Herasimenia, 85, BLR 25 29.48 956 JPNLC APR Aya Terakawa, 84, JPN 26 29.48 956 WORLD 01 Dominique Diezi, 77, SUI 27 29.55 953 AUSLC MAR Sophie Edington, 85, AUS 28 29.55 953 RUSLC JUN Stanislava Komarova, 86, RUS 29 29.56 952 GERLC MAY Daniela Samulski, 84, GER 30 29.59 951 BARC JUN Yuanqing Li, 81, CHN 43 29.88 936 AIS FEB Petria Thomas, 75, AUS 59 30.15 923 AUSLC MAR Rebecca Creedy, 83, AUS 64 30.26 917 AUSLC MAR Clementine Stoney, 82, AUS 68 30.32 914 AUSGP JUN Frances Adcock, 84, AUS 77 30.39 911 AUSLC MAR Belinda Newell, 84, AUS 81 30.43 909 AUSLC MAR Chloe Bennett, 85, AUS 86 30.47 907 MELB JAN Kellie McMillan, 77, AUS 87 30.48 906 AUSLC MAR Jessica Abbott, 85, AUS 91 30.54 903 NSW JAN Sacha Keady, 81, AUS

112 30.74 893 AUSLC MAR Tamara Leane, 83, AUS 114 30.74 893 AUSGP JUN Karina Leane, 85, AUS 121 30.84 888 AUSLC MAR Tayliah Zimmer, 85, AUS 130 30.92 884 AUSLC MAR Yvette Pilgrim, 85, AUS 131 30.93 884 AUSGP JUN Kelly Tucker, 85, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 5

0 M

ETR

ES B

AC

KST

RO

KE

132 30.95 883 WAUS JAN Nicole Seah, 85, AUS

Rec: 1:00.16 Cihong He, CHN, 1994

1 1:00.18 1006 WORLD 01 Natalie Coughlin, 82, USA 2 1:00.68 995 WORLD 01 Diana Mocanu, 84, ROM 3 1:01.07 985 WORLD 01 Antje Buschschulte, 78, GER 4 1:01.28 980 JPNLC APR Mai Nakamura, 79, JPN 5 1:01.32 979 GBRLC APR Sarah Price, 79, GBR 6 1:01.44 977 WORLD 01 Nina Zhivanevskaya, 77, ESP 7 1:01.51 975 GERLC MAY Sandra Volker, 74, GER 8 1:01.74 970 JPNLC APR Hanae Ito, 85, JPN 9 1:01.97 964 WORLD 01 Shu Zhan, 85, CHN

10 1:01.98 964 USALC MAR Haley Cope, 79, USA 11 1:02.06 962 WORLD 01 Stanislava Komarova, 86, RUS 12 1:02.07 962 GBRLC APR Katy Sexton, 82, GBR 13 1:02.08 961 WORLD 01 Dyana Calub, 75, AUS 14 1:02.10 961 JPNLC APR Aya Terakawa, 84, JPN 15 1:02.11 961 USALC MAR Courtney Shealy, 77, USA 16 1:02.11 961 JPNLC APR Reiko Nakamura, 82, JPN 17 1:02.19 959 CHNLC APR Yuanqing Li, 81, CHN 18 1:02.19 959 WORLD 01 Ilona Hlavackova, 77, CZE 19 1:02.40 954 CHNLC APR Yingjuan Zhen, 78, CHN 20 1:02.41 954 FRALC MAY Roxana Maracineanu, 75, FRA 21 1:02.42 953 SCOLC JUN Joanna Fargus, 82, GBR 22 1:02.48 952 CANLC MAR Michelle Lischinsky, 74, CAN 23 1:02.51 951 WORLD 01 Louise Ornstedt, 85, DEN 24 1:02.62 949 WORLD 01 Jennifer Fratesi, 84, CAN 25 1:02.64 948 USALC MAR Diana MacManus, 85, USA 26 1:02.66 948 AUSLC MAR Giaan Rooney, 82, AUS 27 1:02.75 946 EURJR JUL Laure Manaudou, 86, FRA 28 1:02.77 945 USALC MAR Maureen Farrell, 83, USA 29 1:02.84 944 CANLC MAR Jennifer Carroll, 81, CAN 30 1:02.87 943 JPNLC APR Chihiro Ikeda, 82, JPN 33 1:03.03 939 WORLD 01 Clementine Stoney, 82, AUS 41 1:03.32 932 AUSAG APR Sophie Edington, 85, AUS 58 1:03.71 923 NSW JAN Kelly Tucker, 85, AUS 62 1:03.78 921 AUSAG APR Chloe Bennett, 85, AUS 74 1:04.03 915 AUGP3 JUL Frances Adcock, 84, AUS 78 1:04.07 915 AUSLC MAR Belinda Nevell, 83, AUS 80 1:04.16 912 AUSAG APR Karina Leane, 85, AUS 92 1:04.42 906 AUSAG APR Nicole Hunter, 84, AUS 95 1:04.44 906 AUSAG APR Tamara Leane, 83, AUS

107 1:04.55 903 AUSAG APR Lisbeth Lenton, 86, AUS 132 1:04.99 893 NSW JAN Alissa Searston, 85, AUS 135 1:05.07 891 AUSAG APR Nicole Seah, 85, AUS 147 1:05.26 887 AUSAG APR Angela Scott, 86, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 1

00 M

ETR

ES B

AC

KST

RO

KE

148 1:05.28 886 AUSAG APR Hayley Miles, 85, AUS

Rec: 2:06.62 Krisztina Egerszegi, HUN, 1991 1 2:09.94 983 WORLD 01 Diana Mocanu, 84, ROM 2 2:10.43 978 WORLD 01 Stanislava Komarova, 86, RUS 3 2:10.99 971 EASIA MAY Reiko Nakamura, 82, JPN 4 2:11.04 971 SCOLC JUN Joanna Fargus, 82, GBR 5 2:11.16 970 WORLD 01 Jennifer Fratesi, 84, CAN 6 2:11.47 966 WORLD 01 Antje Buschschulte, 78, GER 7 2:11.58 965 WORLD 01 Clementine Stoney, 82, AUS 8 2:11.65 964 SCOLC JUN Katy Sexton, 82, GBR 9 2:11.68 964 WORLD 01 Nicole Hetzer, 79, GER

10 2:11.90 961 SCOLC JUN Sarah Price, 79, GBR 11 2:12.47 955 WORLD 01 Aya Terakawa, 84, JPN 12 2:13.34 945 USALC MAR Jamie Reid, 83, USA 13 2:13.38 945 USALC MAR Lindsay Benko, 76, USA 14 2:13.43 944 SYDN JAN Toshie Abe, 83, JPN 15 2:13.43 944 ESPLC APR Nina Zhivanevskaya, 77, ESP 16 2:13.47 944 EVANS JUL Diana MacManus, 85, USA 17 2:13.72 941 MONAC JUN Yuanqing Li, 81, CHN 18 2:13.86 939 ROMLC JUN Valentina Brat, 85, ROM 19 2:13.99 938 USALC MAR Jessica Aveyard, 80, USA 20 2:14.02 938 EASIA MAY Shu Zhan, 85, CHN 21 2:14.15 936 SYDN JAN Kelly Tucker, 85, AUS 22 2:14.22 935 EVANS JUL Jessica Hayes, 83, USA 23 2:14.33 934 QSL JAN Giaan Rooney, 82, AUS 24 2:14.41 933 FRALC MAY Roxana Maracineanu, 75, FRA 25 2:14.50 932 UKRLC MAR Yana Klochkova, 82, UKR 26 2:14.67 930 EASIA MAY Eun-Jie Bang, 86, KOR 27 2:14.72 930 GERLC MAY Cathleen Rund, 77, GER 28 2:14.82 929 MONAC JUN Arisa Murakawa, 83, JPN 29 2:14.97 927 WORLD 01 Elizabeth Wycliffe, 83, CAN 41 2:15.81 918 NSW JAN Alissa Searston, 85, AUS 55 2:16.24 913 AUSLC MAR Melissa Morgan, 85, AUS 67 2:16.78 907 SYDN JAN Tamara Leane, 83, AUS 69 2:16.86 906 TGP1 MAY Chloe Bennett, 85, AUS 71 2:16.92 906 AUSLC MAR Jennifer Reilly, 83, AUS 84 2:17.59 898 AUSAG APR Karina Leane, 85, AUS

104 2:18.51 888 QSL JAN Belinda Nevell, 83, AUS 110 2:18.84 884 AUSAG APR Sophie Edington, 85, AUS 113 2:18.96 883 AUSLC MAR Anna Campbell, 80, AUS 121 2:19.26 880 NSW JAN Yvette Rodier, 81, AUS 122 2:19.29 879 AUSAG APR Jessica Davis, 82, AUS 126 2:19.47 877 AUSAG APR Kara Clarke, 85, AUS 128 2:19.53 877 WAUS JAN Richelle Jose, 79, AUS 131 2:19.70 875 MELB JAN Tayliah Zimmer, 85, AUS

WO

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AC

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141 2:19.92 872 AUSLC MAR Dyana Calub, 75, AUS

Rec: 30.83 Penelope Heyns, RSA, 1999 1 30.84 1015 WORLD 01 Xuejuan Luo, 84, CHN 2 31.23 997 WORLD 01 Zoe Baker, 76, GBR 3 31.37 991 WORLD 01 Kristy Kowal, 78, USA 4 31.50 985 RSALC MAR Sarah Poewe, 83, RSA 5 31.55 983 WORLD 01 Megan Quann, 84, USA 6 31.71 975 WORLD 01 Brooke Hanson, 78, AUS 7 31.84 969 AUSLC MAR Tarnee White, 81, AUS 8 31.87 968 MOSCU APR Elena Bogomazova, 82, RUS 9 31.88 967 WORLD 01 Agnes Kovacs, 81, HUN

10 31.90 967 MONAC JUN Amanda Beard, 81, USA 11 31.96 964 WORLD 01 Roberta Crescentini, 75, ITA 12 32.02 961 CHNLC APR Wei Li, 79, CHN 13 32.05 960 JPNLC APR Sanae Nawata, 85, JPN 14 32.15 955 AUSLC MAR Leisel Jones, 85, AUS 15 32.15 955 BURGH APR Vera Lischka, 76, AUT 16 32.16 955 GERLC MAY Simone Karn-Weiler, 78, GER 17 32.21 952 USALC MAR Tara Kirk, 82, USA 18 32.23 951 JPNLC APR Ryoko Maruyama, 82, JPN 19 32.28 949 GBRLC APR Jaime King, 76, GBR 20 32.32 947 GERLC MAY Janne Schafer, 81, GER 21 32.34 946 CANLC MAR Rhiannon Leier, 76, CAN 22 32.37 945 WORLD 01 Weilert, 0, URS 23 32.42 943 WORLD 01 Majken Thorup, 79, DEN 24 32.43 942 WORLD 01 Emma Igelstrom, 80, SWE 25 32.45 941 GBRLC APR Kate Haywood, 87, GBR 26 32.49 940 PORTO JUN Svitlana Bondarenko, 71, UKR 27 32.50 939 ITCUP JUN Sara Farina, 78, ITA 28 32.55 937 EURJR JUL Mirna Jukic, 86, AUT 29 32.55 937 WORLD 01 Madelon Baans, 77, NED 30 32.58 935 RUSLC JUN Ekaterina Kormacheva, 82, RUS 53 32.92 920 AUSLC MAR Rebecca Brown, 76, AUS 64 33.08 913 NSW JAN Kelly Denner, 83, AUS 72 33.20 907 AUSLC MAR Sarah Kasoulis, 84, AUS 92 33.43 897 AUSLC MAR Rebekah Rychvalsky, 82, AUS 99 33.49 894 AUSLC MAR Angela Kan, 82, AUS

124 33.77 881 AUSLC MAR Katie Clewett, 84, AUS 133 33.89 876 AUSLC MAR Katharine Bigby, 81, AUS

WO

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135 33.91 875 NZLLC APR Jolie Workman, 80, AUS


~~ 69 ~~

Rec: 1:06.52 Penelope Heyns, RSA, 1999

1 1:07.18 1004 WORLD 01 Xuejuan Luo, 84, CHN 2 1:07.96 988 AUSLC MAR Leisel Jones, 85, AUS 3 1:07.99 987 AUSLC MAR Tarnee White, 81, AUS 4 1:08.02 986 RSALC MAR Sarah Poewe, 83, RSA 5 1:08.02 986 WORLD 01 Agnes Kovacs, 81, HUN 6 1:08.25 982 USALC MAR Kristy Kowal, 78, USA 7 1:08.41 978 USALC MAR Megan Quann, 84, USA 8 1:08.48 977 EASIA MAY Hui Qi, 85, CHN 9 1:08.68 972 MOSCUAPR Elena Bogomazova, 82, RUS

10 1:08.93 967 USALC MAR Amy Balcerzak, 78, USA 11 1:08.93 967 MONAC JUN Amanda Beard, 81, USA 12 1:09.29 960 AUSLC MAR Brooke Hanson, 78, AUS 13 1:09.31 959 WORLD 01 Mirna Jukic, 86, AUT 14 1:09.40 957 WORLD 01 Rhiannon Leier, 76, CAN 15 1:09.42 957 EVANS JUL Tara Kirk, 82, USA 16 1:09.64 952 GBRLC APR Jaime King, 76, GBR 17 1:09.87 947 EASIA MAY Junko Isoda, 81, JPN 18 1:09.88 947 JPNLC APR Yuko Sakaguchi, 79, JPN 19 1:09.96 945 WORLD 01 Simone Karn-Weiler, 78, GER 20 1:10.03 944 FRALC MAY Anne S. Le Paranthoen, 77, FRA 21 1:10.05 943 CHNLC APR Wei Li, 79, CHN 22 1:10.09 943 ITALC APR Roberta Crescentini, 75, ITA 23 1:10.09 943 JPNLC APR Fumiko Kawanabe, 85, JPN 24 1:10.14 941 ROMLC JUN Beatrice Coada-Caslaru, 75, ROM 25 1:10.29 938 USALC MAR Kristen Woodring, 81, USA 26 1:10.31 938 BARC JUN Nan Luo, 80, CHN 27 1:10.34 937 SCOLC JUN Kirsty Balfour, 84, GBR 28 1:10.37 937 ITALC APR Sara Farina, 78, ITA 29 1:10.41 936 CANLC MAR Christin Petelski, 77, CAN 72 1:11.72 908 SYDN JAN Kelli Waite, 85, AUS 74 1:11.73 908 EASIA MAY Sarah Kasoulis, 84, AUS 78 1:11.82 906 AUSLC MAR Rebekah Rychvalsky, 82, AUS 81 1:11.87 905 AUSAG APR Jennifer Reilly, 83, AUS 84 1:11.94 903 EASIA MAY Brooke Martin, 85, AUS

103 1:12.44 893 MELB JAN Angela Kan, 82, AUS 108 1:12.54 891 AUSLC MAR Katie Clewett, 84, AUS 115 1:12.80 885 AUSLC MAR Kate Young, 85, AUS 116 1:12.81 885 NSW JAN Kristy Morrison, 86, AUS 118 1:12.82 885 NSW JAN Bianca Conwell, 80, AUS 131 1:13.04 880 AUSAG APR Amanda Lee, 86, AUS 137 1:13.10 879 AUSLC MAR Lisa Kempa, 83, AUS

WO

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146 1:13.23 876 NSW JAN Kelly Denner, 83, AUS

Rec: 2:22.99 Hui Qu, CHN, 2001 1 2:22.99 1014 CHNLC APR Hui Qi, 85, CHN 2 2:24.90 995 WORLD 01 Agnes Kovacs, 81, HUN 3 2:25.00 994 WORLD 01 Beatrice Coada-Caslaru, 75, ROM 4 2:25.29 991 WORLD 01 Xuejuan Luo, 84, CHN 5 2:25.46 990 WORLD 01 Leisel Jones, 85, AUS 6 2:25.84 986 WORLD 01 Kristy Kowal, 78, USA 7 2:26.29 982 MOSCUAPR Olga Bakaldina, 85, RUS 8 2:26.51 979 CHNLC APR Nan Luo, 80, CHN 9 2:27.12 973 JPNLC APR Junko Isoda, 81, JPN

10 2:27.22 972 ROME JUN Amanda Beard, 81, USA 11 2:27.87 966 MOSCUAPR Elena Bogomazova, 82, RUS 12 2:27.94 965 USALC MAR Megan Quann, 84, USA 13 2:27.96 965 WORLD 01 Mirna Jukic, 86, AUT 14 2:28.10 964 GBRLC APR Jaime King, 76, GBR 15 2:28.35 961 SYDN JAN Kelli Waite, 85, AUS 16 2:28.50 960 WORLD 01 Yuko Sakaguchi, 79, JPN 17 2:28.56 959 CHNLC APR Dan Zhang, 81, CHN 18 2:28.71 958 WORLD 01 Elvira Fischer, 78, AUT 19 2:28.76 957 WORLD 01 Sarah Poewe, 83, RSA 20 2:28.83 956 AUSLC MAR Brooke Hanson, 78, AUS 21 2:29.41 951 EVANS JUL Tara Kirk, 82, USA 22 2:29.76 947 JPNLC APR Ayaka Shimada, 84, JPN 23 2:29.79 947 CANLC MAR Christin Petelski, 77, CAN 24 2:30.35 941 WORLD 01 Simone Karn-Weiler, 78, GER 25 2:30.41 941 EYOD JUL Xenia Vereschagina, 87, RUS 26 2:30.60 939 MVN JUN Kristen Caverly, 84, USA 27 2:30.87 936 SCOLC JUN Heidi Earp, 80, GBR 28 2:31.00 935 GERLC MAY Anne Poleska, 80, GER 29 2:31.03 935 BPEST APR Diana Remenyi, 86, HUN 30 2:31.17 933 SYDN JAN Chiemi Yamamoto, 85, JPN 36 2:31.65 929 AUSLC MAR Tarnee White, 81, AUS 63 2:33.72 908 SYDN JAN Kate Young, 85, AUS 86 2:35.14 894 AUSLC MAR Sarah Kasoulis, 84, AUS 89 2:35.38 892 QSL JAN Katie Clewett, 84, AUS 95 2:35.65 889 AUSAG APR Simone Lucker, 87, AUS 98 2:35.82 888 MELB JAN Angela Kan, 82, AUS

110 2:36.22 884 AUSAG APR Prudence Brown, 85, AUS 119 2:36.55 880 SYDN JAN Brooke Martin, 85, AUS 128 2:36.92 877 NSW JAN Bianca Conwell, 80, AUS 138 2:37.29 873 QSL JAN Caroline Gregory, 84, AUS 139 2:37.32 873 AUSAG APR Jennifer Reilly, 83, AUS 144 2:37.39 872 AUSAG APR Megan McMahon, 82, AUS

WO

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’S 2

00 M

ETR

ES B

REA

STST

RO

KE

145 2:37.41 872 AUSAG APR Amanda Lee, 86, AUS

Rec: 25.64 Inge de Bruijn, NED, 2000

1 25.90 1007 WORLD 01 Inge de Bruijn, 73, NED 2 26.18 992 WORLD 01 Therese Alshammar, 77, SWE 3 26.45 977 WORLD 01 Anna-Karin Kammerling, 80, SWE 4 26.52 973 WORLD 01 Natalie Coughlin, 82, USA 5 26.78 959 WORLD 01 Petria Thomas, 75, AUS 6 26.81 957 DENLC JUN Karen Egdal, 78, DEN 7 27.02 946 WORLD 01 Vered Borochovski, 84, ISR 8 27.02 946 WORLD 01 Otylia Jedrzejczak, 83, POL 9 27.04 945 JPNLC APR Junko Onishi, 74, JPN

10 27.05 944 SCOLC JUN Alison Sheppard, 72, GBR 11 27.10 941 WORLD 01 Yi Ruan, 81, CHN 12 27.12 940 WORLD 01 Urska Slapsak, 72, SLO 13 27.15 939 BARC JUN Martina Moravcova, 76, SVK 14 27.18 937 WORLD 01 Mary Descenza, 85, USA 15 27.22 935 MOSCU APR Elena Popchenko, 79, BLR 16 27.26 933 EURJR JUL Cristina Maccagnola, 85, ITA 17 27.34 928 MOSCU APR Inna Yaitskaya, 79, RUS 18 27.39 925 WORLD 01 Fabienne Dufour, 81, BEL 19 27.40 925 MONAC JUN Johanna Sjoberg, 78, SWE 20 27.40 925 WORLD 01 Natalia Soutiaguina, 80, RUS 21 27.41 924 SHEFF MAY Nicola Jackson, 84, GBR 22 27.41 924 PQCUP JUN Shona Kitson, 77, CAN 23 27.46 922 AUSLC MAR Julia Ham, 79, AUS 24 27.46 922 SWGP1 MAR Judith Draxler, 70, AUT 25 27.51 919 GERLC MAY Daniela Samulski, 84, GER 26 27.51 919 NEDLC JUN Chantal Groot, 82, NED 27 27.51 919 NEDLC JUN Hinkelien Schreuder, 84, NED 28 27.51 919 WORLD 01 Elena Poptchenko, 79, BLR 29 27.53 918 GBRLC APR Rosalind Brett, 79, GBR 30 27.54 917 JPNLC APR Kozue Watanabe, 86, JPN 31 27.60 914 AUSLC MAR Nicole Irving, 82, AUS 33 27.64 912 AUSLC MAR Jordana Webb, 83, AUS 46 27.87 899 AUSLC MAR Sarah Ryan, 77, AUS 49 27.94 895 AUSLC MAR Marieke Guehrer, 86, AUS 61 28.12 885 AUSLC MAR Shelley McGuirk, 81, AUS 69 28.20 881 AUSLC MAR Felicity Galvez, 85, AUS 80 28.31 875 AUSLC MAR Kate Hanna, 79, AUS 87 28.40 870 AUSLC MAR Melinda Geraghty, 79, AUS 93 28.43 869 AUSLC MAR Kate Corkran, 83, AUS

104 28.56 862 AUSLC MAR Linda MacKenzie, 84, AUS 108 28.61 859 MELB JAN Lori Munz, 79, AUS 115 28.65 857 AUSLC MAR Rachel Coffee, 83, AUS 120 28.70 854 AUSLC MAR Lara Davenport, 83, AUS 126 28.73 852 AUSLC MAR Kellie McMillan, 77, AUS

WO

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UTT

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Y

141 28.83 847 MELB JAN Nicole Hunter, 84, AUS

Rec: 56.61 Inge de Bruijn, NED, 2000 1 58.24 990 AUSLC MAR Petria Thomas, 75, AUS 2 58.38 987 NEDLC JUN Inge de Bruijn, 73, NED 3 58.72 978 WORLD 01 Otylia Jedrzejczak, 83, POL 4 58.80 976 CANET JUN Martina Moravcova, 76, SVK 5 58.88 974 WORLD 01 Junko Onishi, 74, JPN 6 59.30 964 WORLD 01 Mary Descenza, 85, USA 7 59.38 962 USALC MAR Natalie Coughlin, 82, USA 8 59.40 961 USALC MAR Shelly Ripple, 80, USA 9 59.43 961 WORLD 01 Johanna Sjoberg, 78, SWE

10 59.63 956 WORLD 01 Vered Borochovski, 84, ISR 11 59.81 951 GERLC MAY Annika Mehlhorn, 83, GER 12 59.89 949 RUSLC JUN Natalia Soutiaguina, 80, RUS 13 59.96 948 WORLD 01 Irina Bespalova, 81, RUS 14 1:00.01 946 USALC MAR Bethany Goodwin, 80, USA 15 1:00.15 943 WORLD 01 Sophia Skou, 73, DEN 16 1:00.19 942 MONAC JUN Amanda Loots, 78, RSA 17 1:00.20 942 WORLD 01 Audrey Lacroix, 83, CAN 18 1:00.25 940 JPNLC APR Saori Haruguchi, 87, JPN 19 1:00.28 940 AUSLC MAR Julia Ham, 79, AUS 20 1:00.28 940 GREVE APR Mette Jacobsen, 73, DEN 21 1:00.29 940 CHNLC APR Xi Zheng, 83, CHN 22 1:00.33 939 ROME JUN Ekaterina Vinogradova, 80, RUS23 1:00.37 938 GBRLC APR Georgina Lee, 81, GBR 24 1:00.42 936 SCSC JUN Limin Liu, 76, CHN 25 1:00.43 936 USALC MAR Rachel Komisarz, 77, USA 26 1:00.46 935 CHNLC APR Yun Qu, 78, CHN 27 1:00.46 935 WORLD 01 Mireia Garcia, 81, ESP 28 1:00.47 935 SHEFF MAY Nicola Jackson, 84, GBR 29 1:00.48 935 AUSLC MAR Lara Davenport, 83, AUS 30 1:00.55 933 WORLD 01 Fabienne Dufour, 81, BEL 51 1:01.20 917 AUSLC MAR Jordana Webb, 83, AUS 61 1:01.43 911 AUSLC MAR Rachel Coffee, 83, AUS 71 1:01.64 906 AUSLC MAR Kate Hanna, 79, AUS 75 1:01.76 903 QSL JAN Nicole Irving, 82, AUS 80 1:01.82 902 SYDN JAN Melanie Houghton, 86, AUS 84 1:01.98 898 AUSLC MAR Felicity Galvez, 85, AUS 85 1:01.99 898 AUSLC MAR Shelley McGuirk, 81, AUS

100 1:02.25 891 AUSAG APR Jessica Schipper, 83, AUS 104 1:02.29 890 AUSAG APR Kate Corkran, 83, AUS 109 1:02.37 888 QSL JAN Linda MacKenzie, 84, AUS 116 1:02.49 885 AUSLC MAR Nicole Hunter, 84, AUS 119 1:02.59 883 QSL JAN Kate Corkan, 84, AUS 122 1:02.60 883 AUSLC MAR Sarah Windsor, 78, AUS 124 1:02.63 882 NSW JAN Stephanie Vance, 85, AUS 127 1:02.65 881 AUSAG APR Megan McMahon, 82, AUS

WO

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’S 1

00 M

ETR

ES B

UTT

ERFL

Y

150 1:02.99 873 AUSLC MAR Linda McKenzie, 83, AUS


~~ 70 ~~

Rec: 2:05.81 Susan O’Neill, AUS, 2000

1 2:06.73 1001 WORLD 01 Petria Thomas, 75, AUS 2 2:06.97 998 WORLD 01 Annika Mehlhorn, 83, GER 3 2:08.52 981 WORLD 01 Kaitlin Sandeno, 83, USA 4 2:09.08 975 WORLD 01 Yuko Nakanishi, 81, JPN 5 2:09.57 969 WORLD 01 Mette Jacobsen, 73, DEN 6 2:09.91 965 WORLD 01 Eva Risztov, 85, HUN 7 2:09.97 965 WORLD 01 Mireia Garcia, 81, ESP 8 2:10.21 962 GBRLC APR Georgina Lee, 81, GBR 9 2:10.62 957 WORLD 01 Shelly Ripple, 80, USA

10 2:10.75 956 WORLD 01 Jessica Deglau, 80, CAN 11 2:11.00 953 MONAC JUN Yana Klochkova, 82, UKR 12 2:11.04 952 SCSC JUN Limin Liu, 76, CHN 13 2:11.41 948 CHNLC APR Yun Qu, 78, CHN 14 2:11.44 948 JPNLC APR Asako Kitada, 83, JPN 15 2:11.64 946 GBRLC JUL Margaretha Pedder, 80, GBR 16 2:11.68 945 WORLD 01 Sophia Skou, 73, DEN 17 2:11.79 944 JPNLC APR Maki Mita, 83, JPN 18 2:11.81 944 ROME JUN Ekaterina Vinogradova, 80, RUS 19 2:11.84 943 CHARL JUN Mary Descenza, 85, USA 20 2:11.87 943 WORLD 01 Elizabeth Van Welie, 79, NZL 21 2:12.00 942 RUSLC JUN Irina Bespalova, 81, RUS 22 2:12.09 941 WORLD 01 Petra Zahrl, 81, AUT 23 2:12.26 939 USALC MAR Emily Mason, 83, USA 24 2:12.29 938 JPNLC APR Hitomi Kashima, 80, JPN 25 2:12.32 938 JPNLC APR Saori Haruguchi, 87, JPN 26 2:12.40 937 AUSLC MAR Nicole Hunter, 84, AUS 27 2:12.42 937 AUSLC MAR Felicity Galvez, 85, AUS 28 2:12.42 937 JPNLC APR Yukiko Osada, 81, JPN 29 2:12.43 937 GERLC MAY Silvia Szalai, 75, GER 30 2:12.48 936 CANLC MAR Audrey Lacroix, 83, CAN 41 2:13.52 925 EASIA MAY Lara Davenport, 83, AUS 52 2:14.62 912 AUSLC MAR Kate Hanna, 79, AUS 54 2:14.67 912 TGP1 MAY Heidi Crawford, 82, AUS 56 2:14.79 910 AUSAG APR Melissa Morgan, 85, AUS 58 2:14.86 910 VICT JAN Rachel Coffee, 83, AUS 62 2:14.94 909 AUSLC MAR Sarah Windsor, 78, AUS 65 2:15.31 904 AUSAG APR Charnelle Crossingham, 84, AUS 73 2:15.70 900 QSL JAN Emily Pedrazzini, 79, AUS 79 2:15.94 897 AUSLC MAR Linda MacKenzie, 84, AUS 81 2:16.03 896 AUSLC MAR Stephanie Vance, 85, AUS 83 2:16.13 895 AUSLC MAR Kate Corkran, 83, AUS 87 2:16.40 892 AUSLC MAR Aimee Cantrell, 81, AUS 96 2:16.85 887 AUSAG APR Jessica Schipper, 83, AUS

101 2:16.94 886 AUSLC MAR Katie Canning, 85, AUS 130 2:18.09 873 QSL JAN Kate Corkan, 84, AUS 135 2:18.19 872 AUSAG APR Tammie Smith, 84, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 2

00 M

ETR

ES B

UTT

ERFL

Y

136 2:18.22 872 AUSAG APR Jessica Luscombe, 85, AUS

Rec: 24.13 Inge de Bruijn, NED, 2000 1 24.45 1012 WORLD 01 Inge de Bruijn, 73, NED 2 24.72 996 GERLC MAY Sandra Volker, 74, GER 3 24.87 987 WORLD 01 Therese Alshammar, 77, SWE 4 25.00 980 WORLD 01 Alison Sheppard, 72, GBR 5 25.10 974 WORLD 01 Tammie Stone, 76, USA 6 25.14 972 JPNLC APR Sumika Minamoto, 79, JPN 7 25.25 965 WORLD 01 Haley Cope, 79, USA 8 25.30 962 GBRLC APR Rosalind Brett, 79, GBR 9 25.40 957 WORLD 01 Katrin Meissner, 73, GER

10 25.42 955 USALC MAR Kari Woodall-Haag, 74, USA 11 25.45 954 WORLD 01 Elena Poptchenko, 79, BLR 12 25.53 949 EASIA MAY Yanwei Xu, 84, CHN 13 25.53 949 EURJR JUL Aleksandra Herasimenia, 85, BLR14 25.53 949 WORLD 01 Olga Mukomol, 79, UKR 15 25.57 947 USALC MAR Colleen Lanne, 79, USA 16 25.57 947 RUSLC JUN Ekaterina Kibalo, 82, RUS 17 25.58 946 ESTLC JUN Jana Kolukanova, 81, EST 18 25.59 946 RUSLC JUN Marina Chepurkova, 80, RUS 19 25.62 944 AUSLC MAR Sarah Ryan, 77, AUS 20 25.66 941 CHNLC APR Ying Le, 78, CHN 21 25.67 941 SWGP1 MAR Judith Draxler, 70, AUT 22 25.71 939 EASIA MAY Xue Han, 81, CHN 23 25.74 937 SCSC JUN Natalie Coughlin, 82, USA 24 25.76 936 AUSLC MAR Michelle Engelsman, 79, AUS 25 25.76 936 MONAC JUN Johanna Sjoberg, 78, SWE 26 25.77 935 WORLD 01 Martina Moravcova, 76, SVK 27 25.80 933 GERLC MAY Vivienne Rignall, 73, NZL 28 25.83 932 USALC MAR Erin Phenix, 81, USA 29 25.84 931 ITALC APR Cecilia Vianini, 76, ITA 30 25.84 931 EURJR JUL Agata Korc, 86, POL 36 25.97 924 AUSLC MAR Jodie Henry, 83, AUS 43 26.04 919 AUSAG APR Sophie Edington, 85, AUS 53 26.15 913 AUSLC MAR Melinda Geraghty, 79, AUS 62 26.22 909 AUSLC MAR Rebecca Creedy, 83, AUS 84 26.42 898 AUSLC MAR Lori Munz, 79, AUS 87 26.43 897 AUSLC MAR Cassie Hunt, 82, AUS 98 26.51 892 AUSLC MAR Elka Graham, 81, AUS

106 26.53 891 AUSLC MAR Sacha Keady, 81, AUS 121 26.61 887 AUSLC MAR Shayne Reese, 82, AUS

WO

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0 M

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ES F

REE

STYL

E

145 26.73 880 AUSAG APR Marieke Guehrer, 86, AUS

Rec: 53.77 Inge de Bruijn, NED, 2000 1 54.18 1000 WORLD 01 Inge de Bruijn, 73, NED 2 54.53 991 GERLC MAY Sandra Volker, 74, GER 3 54.68 987 CHNLC APR Yanwei Xu, 84, CHN 4 55.07 977 WORLD 01 Katrin Meissner, 73, GER 5 55.12 975 WORLD 01 Martina Moravcova, 76, SVK6 55.14 975 WORLD 01 Sarah Ryan, 77, AUS 7 55.19 974 WORLD 01 Elena Poptchenko, 79, BLR 8 55.20 973 USALC MAR Colleen Lanne, 79, USA 9 55.28 971 USALC MAR Lindsay Benko, 76, USA

10 55.28 971 JPNLC APR Sumika Minamoto, 79, JPN 11 55.33 970 WORLD 01 Petra Dallmann, 78, GER 12 55.42 968 USALC MAR Maritza Correia, 81, USA 13 55.42 968 WORLD 01 Johanna Sjoberg, 78, SWE 14 55.61 963 USALC MAR Tammie Stone, 76, USA 15 55.68 961 SCSC JUN Natalie Coughlin, 82, USA 16 55.69 960 PQCUP JUN Laura Nicholls, 78, CAN 17 55.70 960 USALC MAR Courtney Shealy, 77, USA 18 55.70 960 WORLD 01 Cecilia Vianini, 76, ITA 19 55.78 958 GBRLC APR Rosalind Brett, 79, GBR 20 55.83 957 CHNLC APR Ying Le, 78, CHN 21 55.85 956 SCOLC JUN Karen Pickering, 71, GBR 22 55.88 955 USALC MAR Erin Phenix, 81, USA 23 55.89 955 WORLD 01 Yu Yang, 86, CHN 24 55.97 953 WORLD 01 Alison Sheppard, 72, GBR 25 55.97 953 WORLD 01 Otylia Jedrzejczak, 83, POL 26 56.00 952 WORLD 01 Tomoko Nagai, 81, JPN 27 56.01 952 MOSCU APR Elena Popchenko, 79, BLR 28 56.03 951 AUSLC MAR Lori Munz, 79, AUS 29 56.03 951 WORLD 01 Mette Jacobsen, 73, DEN 30 56.07 950 WORLD 01 Luisa Striani, 78, ITA 32 56.13 949 AUSLC MAR Petria Thomas, 75, AUS 34 56.19 947 AUSLC MAR Elka Graham, 81, AUS 52 56.50 939 QSL JAN Giaan Rooney, 82, AUS 61 56.60 936 AUSLC MAR Jodie Henry, 83, AUS

102 57.17 921 AUSLC MAR Melinda Geraghty, 79, AUS 108 57.22 920 AUSLC MAR Cassie Hunt, 82, AUS 122 57.39 916 AUSLC MAR Rebecca Creedy, 83, AUS 126 57.47 914 SYDN JAN Katie Canning, 85, AUS 141 57.54 912 AUSAG APR Alice Mills, 87, AUS 145 57.59 910 AUSLC MAR Shayne Reese, 82, AUS

WO

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’S 1

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ES F

REE

STYL

E

148 57.64 909 AUSLC MAR Kirsten Thomson, 83, AUS

Rec: 1:56.78 Franziska van Almsick, GER, 1994 1 1:58.54 985 WORLD 01 Elka Graham, 81, AUS 2 1:58.57 985 WORLD 01 Giaan Rooney, 82, AUS 3 1:58.78 982 WORLD 01 Yu Yang, 86, CHN 4 1:58.85 981 WORLD 01 Camelia Potec, 82, ROM 5 1:58.92 981 WORLD 01 Claudia Poll, 72, CRC 6 1:59.29 976 WORLD 01 Martina Moravcova, 76, SVK 7 1:59.32 976 SCOLC JUN Nicola Jackson, 84, GBR 8 1:59.47 974 MOSCU APR Nadezhda Chemezova, 80, RUS9 1:59.64 972 WORLD 01 Mette Jacobsen, 73, DEN

10 1:59.65 972 GBRGP JUN Karen Pickering, 71, GBR 11 1:59.65 972 EASIA MAY Maki Mita, 83, JPN 12 1:59.74 971 WORLD 01 Silvia Szalai, 75, GER 13 1:59.81 970 USALC MAR Lindsay Benko, 76, USA 14 2:00.07 967 GBRGP JUN Karen Legg, 78, GBR 15 2:00.37 963 WORLD 01 Natalia Baranovskaya, 79, BLR 16 2:00.64 960 PQCUP JUN Cristina Teuscher, 78, USA 17 2:00.67 959 WORLD 01 Petria Thomas, 75, AUS 18 2:00.70 959 FRALC MAY Alicia Bozon, 84, FRA 19 2:00.71 959 USALC MAR Colleen Lanne, 79, USA 20 2:00.75 958 CHNLC APR Yanwei Xu, 84, CHN 21 2:00.77 958 WORLD 01 Laura Roca, 80, ESP 22 2:00.88 957 GERLC MAY Sara Harstick, 81, GER 23 2:00.93 956 JPNLC APR Eri Yamanoi, 78, JPN 24 2:01.03 955 WORLD 01 Sofie Goffin, 79, BEL 25 2:01.07 954 SYDN JAN Kate Krywulycz, 85, AUS 26 2:01.08 954 USALC MAR Stefanie Williams, 79, USA 27 2:01.10 954 SCSC JUN Marianne Limpert, 72, CAN 28 2:01.13 954 ITALC APR Sara Parise, 82, ITA 29 2:01.13 954 SCSC JUN Natalie Coughlin, 82, USA 30 2:01.15 953 USALC MAR Diana Munz, 82, USA 33 2:01.28 952 AUSLC MAR Lori Munz, 79, AUS 47 2:01.91 944 AUSLC MAR Kasey Giteau, 82, AUS 57 2:02.34 939 AUSLC MAR Linda MacKenzie, 84, AUS 62 2:02.45 938 AUSLC MAR Amanda Pascoe, 85, AUS 82 2:03.01 931 TGP1 MAY Katie Canning, 85, AUS 85 2:03.08 930 AUSLC MAR Sarah Ryan, 77, AUS 89 2:03.12 929 EASIA MAY Tammie Smith, 84, AUS 98 2:03.38 926 NSW JAN Kirsten Thomson, 83, AUS

113 2:03.68 923 AUSLC MAR Heidi Crawford, 82, AUS 127 2:03.91 920 TGP1 MAY Sarah-J. D'Arcy, 77, AUS 129 2:03.96 919 AUSAG APR Zara Kurdzinski, 83, AUS 136 2:04.12 917 AUSAG APR Briody Murphy, 86, AUS 142 2:04.22 916 QSL JAN Rebecca Creedy, 83, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 2

00 M

ETR

ES F

REE

STYL

E

148 2:04.30 915 NSW JAN Felicity Galvez, 85, AUS


~~ 71 ~~

Rec: 4:03.85 Janet Evans, USA, 1988 1 4:07.30 991 WORLD 01 Yana Klochkova, 82, UKR 2 4:08.91 982 CANET JUN Claudia Poll, 72, CRC 3 4:09.22 980 CANET JUN Irina Oufimtseva, 85, RUS 4 4:09.36 979 WORLD 01 Hannah Stockbauer, 82, GER 5 4:10.37 973 WORLD 01 Hua Chen, 82, CHN 6 4:10.61 972 EASIA MAY Sachiko Yanada, 82, JPN 7 4:11.59 966 EURJR JUL Zoe Dimoshaki, 85, GRE 8 4:11.63 966 USALC MAR Diana Munz, 82, USA 9 4:11.67 965 WORLD 01 Camelia Potec, 82, ROM

10 4:11.94 964 AUSGP JUN Elka Graham, 81, AUS 11 4:12.06 963 USALC MAR Ashley Chandler, 83, USA 12 4:12.06 963 FRALC MAY Alicia Bozon, 84, FRA 13 4:12.09 963 USALC MAR Kaitlin Sandeno, 83, USA 14 4:12.36 961 JPNLC APR Sachiko Yamada, 82, JPN 15 4:12.40 961 CHNLC APR Yu Yang, 86, CHN 16 4:12.49 961 WORLD 01 Carla Geurts, 71, NED 17 4:12.85 959 ROMLC JUN Simona Paduraru, 81, ROM 18 4:13.26 956 MOSCU APR Nadezhda Chemezova, 80, RUS 19 4:13.44 955 AUSGP JUN Sarah-J. D'Arcy, 77, AUS 20 4:13.58 954 WORLD 01 Giaan Rooney, 82, AUS 21 4:13.73 953 GBRLC APR Rebecca Cooke, 83, GBR 22 4:14.04 952 EASIA MAY Yan Zhang, 85, CHN 23 4:14.10 951 FRALC MAY Solenne Figues, 79, FRA 24 4:14.13 951 USALC MAR Jessica Foschi, 80, USA 25 4:14.20 951 USALC MAR Kalyn Keller, 85, USA 26 4:14.47 949 AUSGP JUN Linda MacKenzie, 84, AUS 27 4:14.64 948 WIEN APR Sofie Goffin, 79, BEL 28 4:14.87 947 CHNLC APR Jing Zheng, 80, CHN 29 4:14.93 947 CHNLC APR Jiaying Pang, 80, CHN 30 4:14.96 946 AUSLC MAR Kasey Giteau, 82, AUS 36 4:15.60 943 AUGP3 JUL Amanda Pascoe, 85, AUS 39 4:15.75 942 EASIA MAY Tammie Smith, 84, AUS 41 4:15.94 941 EASIA MAY Kate Krywulycz, 85, AUS 68 4:17.61 931 AUSGP JUN Hayley Lewis, 75, AUS 71 4:17.79 930 AUGP3 JUL Kristy Ward, 82, AUS 93 4:18.75 924 AUSAG APR Cassandra Steer, 82, AUS 96 4:18.93 923 AUSAG APR Melissa Morgan, 85, AUS

110 4:19.37 921 WAUS JAN Jennifer Reilly, 83, AUS 115 4:20.01 917 AUSAG APR Briody Murphy, 86, AUS 121 4:20.23 916 AUSAG APR Sarah Bowd, 86, AUS 125 4:20.38 915 QSL JAN Emily Pedrazzini, 79, AUS 131 4:20.86 912 SYDN JAN Katie Canning, 85, AUS 143 4:21.33 909 NSW JAN Charlene Benzie, 81, AUS 148 4:21.67 907 AUSAG APR Jessica Affleck, 86, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 4

00 M

ETR

ES F

REE

STYL

E

149 4:21.69 907 EVANS JUL Brooke Townsend, 80, AUS

Rec: 8:16.22 Janet Evans, USA, 1989 1 8:24.66 991 WORLD 01 Hannah Stockbauer, 82, GER 2 8:28.84 979 WORLD 01 Diana Munz, 82, USA 3 8:31.45 971 WORLD 01 Kaitlin Sandeno, 83, USA 4 8:31.66 971 WORLD 01 Hua Chen, 82, CHN 5 8:33.55 966 CHNLC APR Jing Zheng, 80, CHN 6 8:33.79 965 WORLD 01 Flavia Rigamonti, 81, SUI 7 8:34.10 964 JPNLC APR Sachiko Yamada, 82, JPN 8 8:34.91 962 GBRLC APR Rebecca Cooke, 83, GBR 9 8:35.95 959 CANET JUN Irina Oufimtseva, 85, RUS

10 8:36.75 956 GERLC MAY Peggy Buchse, 72, GER 11 8:36.87 956 WORLD 01 Jana Pechanova, 81, CZE 12 8:37.32 955 GERLC MAY Jana Henke, 73, GER 13 8:38.18 952 CHNLC APR Yan Zhang, 85, CHN 14 8:39.16 950 CCCAN JUL Janelle Atkinson, 82, JAM 15 8:39.78 948 AUSLC MAR Amanda Pascoe, 85, AUS 16 8:40.54 946 USALC MAR Ashley Chandler, 83, USA 17 8:41.23 944 CHNLC APR Xue Li, 79, CHN 18 8:41.35 943 WORLD 01 Camelia Potec, 82, ROM 19 8:42.02 941 USALC MAR Rachel Komisarz, 77, USA 20 8:43.06 938 CHNLC APR Yuetao Huang, 79, CHN 21 8:43.34 938 USALC MAR Adrienne Binder, 84, USA 22 8:43.37 938 EURJR JUL Eva Risztov, 85, HUN 23 8:43.60 937 WORLD 01 Charlene Benzie, 81, AUS 24 8:43.72 937 SCSC JUN Meredith Green, 83, USA 25 8:43.75 936 UKRLC MAR Olga Beresnyeva, 85, UKR 26 8:43.85 936 WORLD 01 Nayara Ribeiro, 84, BRA 27 8:43.88 936 SCSC JUN Kalyn Keller, 85, USA 28 8:44.43 935 JPNLC APR Yumi Kida, 85, JPN 29 8:44.78 934 WORLD 01 Chantal Strasser, 78, SUI 30 8:45.02 933 SCSC JUN Rachel Burke, 83, USA 34 8:45.64 931 TGP1 MAY Hayley Lewis, 75, AUS 35 8:45.75 931 WAAG JAN Tammie Smith, 84, AUS 41 8:46.52 929 AUSLC MAR Kate Krywulycz, 85, AUS 42 8:46.88 928 TGP1 MAY Sarah-J. D'Arcy, 77, AUS 49 8:47.74 925 AUSAG APR Jennifer Reilly, 83, AUS 54 8:48.88 922 SYDN JAN Kristy Ward, 82, AUS 57 8:49.48 920 AUSLC MAR Cassandra Steer, 82, AUS 60 8:50.13 918 TGP1 MAY Katie Canning, 85, AUS 69 8:51.29 915 SYDN JAN Melissa Morgan, 85, AUS 95 8:54.15 907 AUSLC MAR Jessica Affleck, 86, AUS

104 8:55.79 902 NSW JAN Carly Fitton, 81, AUS 106 8:56.21 901 AUSAG APR Briody Murphy, 86, AUS 107 8:56.26 901 AUSLC MAR Kristy Park, 81, AUS 136 8:58.03 896 QSL JAN Emily Pedrazzini, 79, AUS 145 8:59.70 891 SCSC JUN Rachel Harris, 79, AUS 149 9:00.22 890 AUSLC MAR Belinda Wilson, 84, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 8

00 M

ETR

ES F

REE

STYL

E

150 9:00.29 889 EVANS JUL Brooke Townsend, 80, AUS

Rec: 15:52.10 Janet Evans, USA, 1988

1 16:01.02 998 WORLD 01 Hannah Stockbauer, 82, GER 2 16:05.99 991 WORLD 01 Flavia Rigamonti, 81, SUI 3 16:07.05 990 WORLD 01 Diana Munz, 82, USA 4 16:16.80 975 WORLD 01 Amanda Pascoe, 85, AUS 5 16:20.15 970 WORLD 01 Rebecca Cooke, 83, GBR 6 16:21.80 968 WORLD 01 Kaitlin Sandeno, 83, USA 7 16:21.94 967 GERLC MAY Peggy Buchse, 72, GER 8 16:22.41 967 GERLC MAY Jana Henke, 73, GER 9 16:26.60 960 AUSGP JUN Hayley Lewis, 75, AUS

10 16:27.79 959 MOSCU APR Irina Oufimtseva, 85, RUS 11 16:31.60 953 WORLD 01 Sachiko Yamada, 82, JPN 12 16:32.18 952 WORLD 01 Nayara Ribeiro, 84, BRA 13 16:32.29 952 WORLD 01 Nathalie Brown, 83, GBR 14 16:34.22 949 WORLD 01 Hua Chen, 82, CHN 15 16:35.48 947 USALC MAR Meredith Green, 83, USA 16 16:35.54 947 USALC MAR Adrienne Binder, 84, USA 17 16:35.97 946 EVANS JUL Kalyn Keller, 85, USA 18 16:36.02 946 WORLD 01 Jana Pechanova, 81, CZE 19 16:37.56 944 USALC MAR Sarah A. Stein, 85, USA 20 16:38.07 943 SCSC JUN Lauren Costella, 85, USA 21 16:38.71 942 CHARL JUN Janelle Atkinson, 82, JAM 22 16:39.31 942 SUILC MAR Chantal Strasser, 78, SUI 23 16:41.79 938 GBRLC JUL Marion Perrotin, 83, FRA 24 16:42.07 937 ITALC APR Simona Ricciardi, 80, ITA 25 16:42.37 937 GBRLC APR Sarah Collings, 78, GBR 26 16:42.71 936 RUSLC JUN Irina Korovina, 83, RUS 27 16:43.43 935 AUSLC MAR Tammie Smith, 84, AUS 28 16:43.71 935 WORLD 01 Hana Cerna-Netrefova, 74, CZE 29 16:44.65 934 SYDN JAN Morgan Hentzen, 84, USA 30 16:44.92 933 SYDN JAN Melissa Morgan, 85, AUS 38 16:49.08 927 AUSGP JUN Kristy Ward, 82, AUS 43 16:50.57 925 AUSLC MAR Charlene Benzie, 81, AUS 44 16:52.69 922 AUSLC MAR Cassandra Steer, 82, AUS 55 16:57.32 915 EVANS JUL Brooke Townsend, 80, AUS 60 16:59.09 912 SCSC JUN Rachel Harris, 79, AUS 65 17:00.70 910 AUSLC MAR Kristy Park, 81, AUS 73 17:03.81 905 AUSLC MAR Briody Murphy, 86, AUS 78 17:07.26 900 AUSLC MAR Jessica Affleck, 86, AUS 98 17:15.62 888 NSW JAN Bianca Corsi, 85, AUS

100 17:15.79 887 AUSLC MAR Belinda Wilson, 84, AUS 108 17:18.55 883 AUSLC MAR Catherine Ware, 81, AUS 125 17:22.40 878 AUSGP JUN Heidi Crawford, 82, AUS 133 17:24.38 875 AUSGP JUN Sarah Bowd, 86, AUS 137 17:25.70 873 AUSLC MAR Marisa Oppedisano, 83, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 1

500

MET

RES

FR

EEST

YLE

147 17:29.09 868 AUSGP JUN Trudee Hutchinson, 81, AUS

Rec: 2:09.72 Yanyan Wu, CHN, 1997 1 2:11.93 994 WORLD 01 Maggie Bowen, 80, USA 2 2:12.30 990 WORLD 01 Yana Klochkova, 82, UKR 3 2:12.46 988 WORLD 01 Hui Qi, 85, CHN 4 2:13.56 976 WORLD 01 Oxana Verevka, 77, RUS 5 2:13.62 976 ROMLC JUN Beatrice Coada-Caslaru, 75, ROM 6 2:13.86 973 GERLC MAY Annika Mehlhorn, 83, GER 7 2:14.22 969 WORLD 01 Tomoko Hagiwara, 80, JPN 8 2:14.37 967 WORLD 01 Cristina Teuscher, 78, USA 9 2:14.58 965 CANLC MAR Marianne Limpert, 72, CAN

10 2:15.07 960 WORLD 01 Lori Munz, 79, AUS 11 2:15.07 960 WORLD 01 Nicole Hetzer, 79, GER 12 2:15.15 959 EVANS JUL Gabrielle Rose, 77, USA 13 2:15.32 957 ROME JUN Shuang Liang, 83, CHN 14 2:15.62 954 CHNLC APR Yan Chen, 81, CHN 15 2:16.15 948 WORLD 01 Jennifer Reilly, 83, AUS 16 2:16.25 947 USALC MAR Kristen Caverly, 84, USA 17 2:16.40 945 CHNLC APR Shu Zhan, 85, CHN 18 2:16.72 942 USALC MAR Michala Kwasny, 80, USA 19 2:16.99 939 BARC JUN Julie Hjorth-Hansen, 84, DEN 20 2:17.17 937 WORLD 01 Sara Nordenstam, 83, SWE 21 2:17.23 936 FRALC MAY Sophie De Ronchi, 85, FRA 22 2:17.34 935 SCOLC JUN Kathryn Evans, 81, GBR 23 2:17.47 934 USALC MAR Leslie Lunsmann, 84, USA 24 2:17.62 932 NEDLC JUN Hinkelien Schreuder, 84, NED 25 2:17.69 931 BARC JUN Federica Biscia, 80, ITA 26 2:17.75 931 GERLC MAY Sabine Herbst-Klenz, 74, GER 27 2:17.77 931 GERLC MAY Cathleen Rund, 77, GER 28 2:17.77 931 HUNLC JUN Eva Risztov, 85, HUN 29 2:17.81 930 ESPLC APR Tatiana Rouba, 83, ESP 30 2:17.84 930 CANLC MAR Elizabeth Warden, 78, CAN 37 2:18.08 927 AUSLC MAR Leisel Jones, 85, AUS 61 2:19.16 915 AUSLC MAR Megan McMahon, 82, AUS 76 2:19.50 912 EASIA MAY Jessica Abbott, 85, AUS 85 2:19.80 909 SYDN JAN Skye Bloffwitch, 84, AUS 89 2:19.91 907 AUSAG APR Alice Mills, 87, AUS

114 2:20.77 898 AUSGP JUN Brooke Hanson, 78, AUS 136 2:21.31 892 QSL JAN Katie Clewett, 84, AUS 139 2:21.43 891 SYDN JAN Georgina Bartlett, 82, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 2

00 M

ETR

ES IN

DIV

IDU

AL

MED

LEY

145 2:21.55 890 SYDN DEC Bianca Conwell, 80, AUS


~~ 72 ~~

Rec: 4:33.59 Yana Klochkova, UKR, 2000 1 4:36.98 994 WORLD 01 Yana Klochkova, 82, UKR 2 4:39.06 984 WORLD 01 Maggie Bowen, 80, USA 3 4:39.33 982 WORLD 01 Beatrice Coada-Caslaru, 75, ROM 4 4:41.11 973 GERLC MAY Annika Mehlhorn, 83, GER 5 4:41.55 971 GERLC MAY Nicole Hetzer, 79, GER 6 4:41.64 970 WORLD 01 Hui Qi, 85, CHN 7 4:42.98 963 USALC MAR Kaitlin Sandeno, 83, USA 8 4:45.03 953 USALC MAR Cristina Teuscher, 78, USA 9 4:45.22 952 HUNLC JUN Eva Risztov, 85, HUN

10 4:45.94 948 WORLD 01 Tomoko Hagiwara, 80, JPN 11 4:46.05 947 WORLD 01 Ayane Sato, 82, JPN 12 4:46.12 947 USALC MAR Kristen Caverly, 84, USA 13 4:46.29 946 WORLD 01 Jennifer Reilly, 83, AUS 14 4:46.54 945 CHNLC APR Hua Chen, 82, CHN 15 4:46.91 943 MONAC JUN Shuang Liang, 83, CHN 16 4:47.06 942 USALC MAR Madeleine Crippen, 80, USA 17 4:47.15 942 ATHEN MAY Katalin Molnar, 85, HUN 18 4:47.20 941 BARC JUN Hana Cerna-Netrefova, 74, CZE 19 4:47.35 941 MONAC JUN Federica Biscia, 80, ITA 20 4:47.36 941 EYOD JUL Yana Tolkacheva, 87, RUS 21 4:47.55 940 WORLD 01 Oxana Verevka, 77, RUS 22 4:48.51 935 EURJR JUL Diana Remenyi, 86, HUN 23 4:48.54 935 WORLD 01 Paula Carballido, 79, ESP 24 4:48.63 934 EASIA MAY Yuko Nakanishi, 81, JPN 25 4:48.74 933 ESPLC APR Georgina Bardach, 83, ARG 26 4:49.06 932 CHNLC APR Jiaying Pang, 80, CHN 27 4:49.09 932 GBRLC APR Holly Fox, 84, GBR 28 4:49.26 931 WORLD 01 Sara Nordenstam, 83, SWE 29 4:49.39 930 WIEN APR Simona Paduraru, 81, ROM 30 4:49.45 930 CANLC MAR Carrie Burgoyne, 81, CAN 52 4:52.44 914 AUSLC MAR Megan McMahon, 82, AUS 60 4:53.14 911 AUSGP JUN Hayley Lewis, 75, AUS 78 4:54.46 904 EASIA MAY Yvette Rodier, 81, AUS 88 4:55.02 901 TGP1 MAY Lori Munz, 79, AUS 90 4:55.37 899 AUSAG APR Jessica Davis, 82, AUS 93 4:55.44 899 MELB JAN Georgina Bartlett, 82, AUS

103 4:56.71 892 AUSLC MAR Karen Hunt, 81, AUS 120 4:57.92 886 AUSAG APR Charnelle Crossingham, 84, AUS 129 4:58.85 881 AUSAG APR Travis Nederpelt, 86, AUS 134 4:59.31 879 NSW JAN Bianca Conwell, 80, AUS 135 4:59.36 879 NSW JAN Alissa Searston, 85, AUS 144 4:59.67 877 AUSAG APR Chris Allum, 86, AUS 147 4:59.94 876 TXSR JUN Rachel Harris, 79, AUS

WO

MEN

’S 4

00 M

ETR

ES IN

DIV

IDU

AL

MED

LEY

150 5:00.11 875 NSW JAN Skye Bloffwitch, 84, AUS

Rec: 3:58.30 United States, USA, 2000 1 4:01.50 1001 WORLD 01 Australia, AUS 2 4:01.81 1000 WORLD 01 United States, USA 3 4:02.63 995 WORLD 01 China, CHN 4 4:03.06 992 WORLD 01 Germany, GER 5 4:06.44 972 WORLD 01 Japan, JPN 6 4:06.66 971 WORLD 01 Great Britain, GBR 7 4:06.77 970 CHNLC APR Zhejiang, CHN 8 4:07.58 965 WORLD 01 Russia, RUS 9 4:08.10 962 WORLD 01 Canada, CAN

10 4:08.69 959 WORLD 01 Denmark, DEN 11 4:10.04 951 WORLD 01 Sweden, SWE 12 4:11.06 945 WORLD 01 Romania, ROM 13 4:11.24 944 WORLD 01 Netherlands, NED 14 4:11.53 942 WORLD 01 Italy, ITA

WO

MEN

’S 4

x100

MET

RES

M

EDLE

Y R

ELA

Y

15 4:13.24 932 RUSLC JUN Moscow, RUS

Rec: 3:36.61 United States, USA, 2000 1 3:39.58 998 WORLD 01 Germany, GER 2 3:40.80 990 WORLD 01 United States, USA 3 3:40.80 990 WORLD 01 Great Britain, GBR 4 3:41.18 987 WORLD 01 Sweden, SWE 5 3:41.32 986 WORLD 01 China, CHN 6 3:41.76 984 WORLD 01 Australia, AUS 7 3:43.07 975 WORLD 01 Japan, JPN 8 3:43.58 972 WORLD 01 Italy, ITA 9 3:45.44 960 USALC MAR Univ.of Texas, USA

10 3:45.68 958 SCOLC JUN Loughborough, GBR 11 3:45.77 957 CHNLC APR Shanghai, CHN 12 3:46.03 956 WORLD 01 Canada, CAN 13 3:46.54 952 WORLD 01 Netherlands, NED 14 3:48.52 939 SCSC JUN Texas AquaticsA, USA

WO

MEN

’S 4

x100

MET

RES

FR

EEST

YLE

REL

AY

15 3:49.08 936 USALC MAR Auburn Univ., USA

Rec: 7:55.47 German Dem.Rep, GDR, 1987 1 7:58.69 998 WORLD 01 Great Britain, GBR 2 8:01.35 990 WORLD 01 Germany, GER 3 8:02.37 987 EASIA MAY China, CHN 4 8:02.97 985 WORLD 01 Japan, JPN 5 8:03.88 982 WORLD 01 Australia, AUS 6 8:05.02 979 WORLD 01 United States, USA 7 8:06.23 975 WORLD 01 Italy, ITA 8 8:06.42 975 WORLD 01 Canada, CAN 9 8:06.55 974 WORLD 01 Spain, ESP

10 8:09.73 965 CHNLC APR Zhejiang, CHN 11 8:12.68 956 WORLD 01 Russia, RUS 12 8:13.01 955 CANLC MAR Pacific Dolphins, CAN 13 8:13.34 954 CHNLC APR Shanghai, CHN 14 8:14.90 949 USALC MAR U.Southern California, USA

WO

MEN

’S 4

x200

MET

RES

FR

EEST

YLE

REL

AY

15 8:15.05 949 FRALC MAY Toulouse Dauphins, FRA

PRETORIA UNIVERSITY CLUB SOUTH AFRICA

We are looking for a Coach (in a hurry) for an Age Group Program with a contract of 3 years.

The Coach should be Level 2 or higher … preferably single, and will receive the whole support infrastructure and essentials like accommodation, vehicle, mobile phone, office – plus a decent salary in South African terms. The ideal candidate is … young (or close to retirement) … looking for a unique experience for a limited time in an English speaking country … looking at gaining experience (but is not a beginner) through being part of a coaching staff but taking responsibility for certain squads. Ideally, the candidate would be looking at renewing the contract by the end of 3 years or would be pursuing the type of results that would make them sought after both in South Africa and abroad. The coach will be in one of the best (if not the best) club environments in South Africa with the complete infrastructure and support services of the Uni at the club’s disposal. The club is currently in the Top 10 in South Africa on Age Group level. It has a number of swimmers in the top 10 on Senior National level and is now starting a scholarship scheme to attract more senior swimmers. The candidates look very promising for 2002. Our deadline to have the candidate here is by December/January or SOONER.

Rocco Meiring [email protected]


~~ 73 ~~

Reproduced from Vol. XXVIII No.10

25th August 2001

FINA BUREAU MEETING IN FUKUOKA OLYMPIC REQUEST – FINA has presented to the International Olympic Committee Olympic Program Commission its wish to obtain for Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the addition of the 10km event for both men and women in Open Water Swimming, to increase the number of teams from six to eight in Women’s Water Polo and to add the 50m Backstroke, 50m Breaststroke and 50m Butterfly for both men and women in swimming. 179 NATIONAL FINA MEMBERS – three national swimming federations joined the FINA Family by unanimous decision of the Bureau … Benin, Burkina Fast and Liberia. The total number of FINA members is now 179. MOSCOW 2002 (April 3-7) – the 6th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) will take place in the Olympiiskiy swimming pool. The deadline for the preliminary entries is December 15, 2001. For media accreditation form, they must be sent before February 1, 2002. Alexander Polinsky, Executive Director, presented the report. Marina Bantsekina, Deputy Executive Director, will be responsible for the Press Services. BARCELONA 2003 (July 15-27) – following the example of Fukuoka, the organisers of the next FINA World Swimming Championships (10th edition) assured to present an event of high quality with the support of all Spanish authorities. A consortium has been established under the presidency of Albert Batlle. ATHENS 2004 (August 13-29) – the report of ATHOC, the Organising Committee of 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, was presented by Spyros Capralos, Executive Director, accompanied by Yiannis Giannouris, Manager Sport Competition and former international and then famous water polo coach, and Petros Tsiallas, Aquatics Assistant Competition Manager. They announced that the daily competition schedule of the next Olympic Games will be presented to the IOC in December 2001.

INDIANAPOLIS 2004 (October 6-10) – the 7th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) will be organised in a temporary pool in a modern complex. All hotels will be walking distance from the venue. SWIMMING – the FINA Points Table Ranking System 25m and 50m have been approved. • The updating of the FINA Swimming Officials

List No.11 was adopted. • A FINA Swimming Officials Seminar will be

organised in Manchester (GBR) in 2002. EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS – to add a section administration of blood tests to FINA Doping Rules and modify other FINA rules, an extraordinary congress will be called for 2002. It will take place in Moscow (RUS) on April 2, 2002 before the World Championships (25m). CODE OF CONDUCT – the FINA Code of Conduct will be included in the new FINA Handbook 2001-2005 in the By-Laws. CALENDAR • In 2005, the 11th FINA World Swimming

Championships will take place in Montreal (CAN).

• The 2nd FINA World Open Water Swimming will take place in Sharm El Sheikh, in Egypt, on November 4-9, 2002 with the following program – 4 Nov: 5km – 6 Nov: 10km – 9 Nov: 25km.

2001 FINA TECHNICAL CONGRESSES

SWIMMING – Approximately 60 proposals were presented to the ratification of delegates from 108 National Federations. The principal new amendments are as follows… • All disqualification will be subject to the decision

of the referee. • In future, only the one-start rule will be applied.

The two-starts rule disappears. Some other technical precision were adopted… Backstroke – During the finish, it shall be possible for the swimmer to be completely submerged. During the turn, when the body has left the position on the back, any kick or arm pull must be part of the continuous turning action. Breaststroke – The elbow shall be under the water except for the final stroke not only before each turn but also during the turn and for the final stroke.


~~ 74 ~~

Butterfly – All up and down movements of the legs must be simultaneous. The position of the legs or the feet does not need to be on the same level, however they shall not alternate in relation to each other. A Breaststroke kicking movement is not permitted. OPEN WATER SWIMMING – new definitions of long distances swimming – any competition in open water swimming events up to a maximum of 10km (instead of 25km) – and marathon swimming – any competition over 10km (instead of 25km) – were adopted. For best identification by the audience, judges and referees, the caps or the heads will now display on each side the “international three-letters country code” and will display the swimmer’s national flag.

FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP 2001/2002 RULES AND REGULATIONS 1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1.1 The FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP will

consist of eight (8) events. 1.2 The FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP will be

open to all FINA affiliated Federations. All the events included in the FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP will be conducted according to FINA Rules.

1.3 The designation should be made by the FINA Bureau.

1.4 The Meet Organiser must be the National Federation or Member of the National Federation and must agree to abide by the Rules of FINA.

1.5 Each FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP Meet Organiser must sign a Contract with FINA in which duties and rights of all parties are listed.

2. PRINCIPLES OF DISTRIBUTION 2.1 The FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP should

consist of a minimum of six (6) meets and a maximum of eight (8) meets in three zones (Zone 1-Americas, Zone 2-Asia/Oceania, Zone 3-Europe) as follows… Zone 1: AMERICAS BRA Rio de Janeiro 16-18 November 2001 CAN Edmonton 23-24 November 2001 USA New York 27-28 November 2001 Zone 2: ASIA/OCEANIA CHN Shanghai 03-04 December 2001 AUS Melbourne 07-09 December 2001 Zone 3: EUROPE FRA Paris 18-19 January 2002 SWE Stockholm 22-23 January 2002 GER Berlin 26-27 January 2002

3. VENUE REQUIREMENTS 3.1 The Venue capacity should be a minimum of

2,000 seats.

3.2 The meets will be organised in 25 metre swimming pools with minimum of eight (8) lanes.

3.3 Seating for athletes in accordance with FINA Rules. Seating positions along the side of the pool shall be provided for all competitors, team officials and unassigned technical officials, from which they may properly observe training and competitions.

3.4 At each venue there must be an additional warm-up pool.

3.5 Timing: Automatic Officiating Equipment should be available, together with semi-automatic back-up timing.

3.6 Equipment: Scoreboard control unit with a scoreboard – of a minimum of 10 lines containing 32 digits (or scoreboard as described in Rule FR 4.6.1). The scoreboard must be able to display all recorded information and the running time.

3.7 Media facilities and procedures for Press and photographers should comply with the FINA Media Guide.

3.8 Doping control tests shall be conducted by a FINA Representative and analyses must be performed at an IOC Accredited Laboratory. The cost of the control, the despatch of samples and their analyses will be borne by each Meet Organiser. FINA will inform each Meet Organiser of the minimum number of doping control tests to be conducted.

3.9 Liability insurance must be provided by the Meet Organiser for event, venue, swimmers, officials and spectators.

4. PARTICIPANTS For all the meets included in the FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP, entries will be accepted only from National Federations affiliated to FINA. National Federations may choose to send a National Team or Club Representatives, not both. Exception: the Host Federation may accept club entries from within its own Federation. 5. ENTRIES 5.1 Preliminary Entries

Each participating Federation or Club must send its preliminary entries at least 6 (six) weeks before the event (number of male swimmers, number of female swimmers, number of officials).

6. COMPETITION PROGRAM 6.1 The FINA Bureau will designate the venue and

dates of the FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP meets.


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6.2 The program of the FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP will consist of the following individual events for both men and women…

Freestyle 50m, 100, 200m, 400m, 800m(W), 1500m(M)Backstroke 50m, 100m, 200m Breaststroke 50m, 100m, 200m Butterfly 50m, 100m, 200m Individual Medley 100m, 200m, 400m In the events of 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m

there shall be heats and finals. The 400m Individual Medley, the 800m and/or 1500m Freestyle, may be swum as timed finals, with the slow heats in the preliminaries session and the fastest heat in the finals session.

The one start rule will apply for all events. 7. TECHNICAL MEETING On the day before the first competition of each event, a technical meeting has to be held at an appropriate timing (between 6pm and 8pm). This will be the only opportunity for last-minute entry changes (any withdrawals, but additional entries only for duly entered members of national teams – no additions for club representatives). In the case of withdrawals, the FINA Rules will be applied. 8. MEET ORGANISERS FINANCIAL AND

ORGANISATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS 8.1 Bid Fee

A non-refundable bid fee of US$25,000 will be paid by the Federation to FINA. This amount will be used for the payment of the overall FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP prize money.

8.2 Prize Money Each Meet Organiser of a FINA SWIMMING WORLD CUP meet will provide prize money of minimum US$60,000.

Per Meet (Local Races Winners) At each meet, there are 34 races. For each

race… Winner US$1,000 Second US$500 Third US$250 Total US$1,750

Total per meet: US$1,750 x 34 = US$59,500 Plus a reserve of US$500 for local awards (each LOC – Local Organising Committee – to decide – best coach/swimmer/journalist prize … or whatsoever), making a total of US$60,000 per meet. In case of ties, the prize monies will be shared – e.g. 2 winners = US$750 each, etc. This must be the same at each of the 8 meets. Any other additional award can be offered on top by the LOC (best swim, best local swimmer, etc.).

8.3 Financial Statement Each Meet Organiser must provide FINA with

a financial statement of the World Cup meet, especially with regard to the use of the minimum required amount of US$60,000 – for prize money and/or other distribution they may choose. The financial statement must be submitted to the FINA Office no later than 10 days after the completion of the meet.

9. BUDGETS 9.1 Local budgets

Each Organising Federation or LOC to provide US$60,000 in cash for the races top three. There are 8 meets, meaning a total of local prize money of US$480,000.

9.2 FINA budgets For the overall winners US$200,000, plus for the world records a maximum of US$40,000, making a total of overall prize money of US$240,000. Funding: (a) US$25,000 from each Organising Federation (non-refundable bid fee) x 8 = US$200,000. (b) Sponsorships US$70,000 Total = US$270,000 Reserve for further activities = US$30,000 + left over from previous years (c) FINA = US$25,000

9.3 Grand total The grand total of prize money for the FINA Swimming World Cup 2001/2002 amounts of US$720,000. 10. PRIZES 10.1 World Cup Awards 10.1.1 Overall prizes (World Cup Winners)

US$200,000 will be used for the winners and US$40,000 maximum for world record breakers.

10.1.2 FINA Swimming World Cup overall winners (Men and Women, two separate rankings)

Winner US$50,000 Second US$30,000 Third US$20,000 Total US$100,000 Men + Women = US$200,000

For this scoring, the FINA points table will be used as reference. The best swim achieved by a swimmer will be counted. Only the swims performed during the finals will be considered. Each swimmer will be ranked once only, event if he/she swims several races.

Only swimmers participating at one meet in each zone will be eligible for the FINA SWC overall prize money.


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In case of tie, the second best swim is taken as a tie-breaker (any other swim during the whole series, at any meet, finals only).

10.2 World Record Bonus A maximum prize fund of US$40,000 is made available. For a top limit of 10 World Records, there will be a US$4,000 bonus for each New World Record. Should more than 10 World Records be broken, these US$40,000 would be shared equally – i.e. 11 World Records: US$3,640 each; 12 World Records: US$3,332 each; etc.

If in one same race (heat or final) two or more swimmers better the World Record, only the winner of that race will receive the bonus.

World Records achieved at a split will not be considered for this bonus – i.e. World Record for a 50m achieved at the 50m Split of a 100m race. Any World Record bonuses will be paid for performances over the actual event distance. No bonus is due if a World Record is equalled.

WORLD RECORDS

The following performances have been approved by the FINA Honorary Secretary… 50m Pool – MEN Roman Sloudnov RUS 100m Breaststroke 1:00.26 June 28, 2001 Moscow (RUS) Roman Sloudnov RUS 100m Breaststroke 59.97 June 29, 2001 Moscow (RUS) 25m Pool – MEN Franck Esposito FRA 200m Butterfly 1:51.58 January 14, 2001 Antibes (FRA)

FINA CALENDARS OF EVENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS, WORLD CUPS, GAMES 2001 Dec 3-4 Swimming World Cup

No.4 Shanghai CHN

Dec 7-9 Swimming World Cup No.5

Melbourne AUS

Dec 13-16 European Short Course Swimming Championships

Antwerpen BEL

2002 Jan 18-19 Swimming World Cup

No.6 Paris FRA

Jan 22-23 Swimming World Cup No.7

Stockholm SWE

Jan 26-27 Swimming World Cup No.8

Berlin GER

Mar 15-19 South American Senior Swimming Championships

Belem BRA

Mar 24-Apr 4 9th FINA World Masters Championships

Christchurch NZL

Apr 3-7 6th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m)

Moscow RUS

Apr 4-14 7th South American Sports Games

Cordoba ARG

Jun 7-12 4th Oceania Championships

Suva FIJ

Jul 25-Aug 4 26th European Swimming Championships

Berlin GER

Jul 26-31 XVII Commonwealth Games

Manchester GBR

Sep 29-Oct 13 14th Asian Games Pusan KOR Nov 5-9 2nd FINA World Open

Water Swimming Championships

Sharm El Sheikh EGY

Dec 12-15 European Short Course Swimming Championships

Montpellier FRA

2003 Jul 15-27 10th FINA World

Championships Barcelona ESP

2004 Aug 13-29 Olympic Games Athens GRE Oct 7-10 7th FINA World

Swimming Championships (25m)

Indianapolis USA

2005 (TBA) 11th FINA World

Swimming Championships

Montreal CAN

MEETINGS 2002 March 23 FINA Masters Congress Christchurch NZL Apr 8-9 14th World Sports

Medicine Congress Moscow RUS

Apr 8-10 FINA Bureau Meeting Moscow RUS 2005 (TBA) FINA General Congress Athens GRE (TBA) FINA Technical Congress (TBA)

BIDS FOR FINA EVENTS For the 12th FINA World Championships in 2007 bids must be presented before 31st July 2002. For each of the following events, bids must be presented no later than 31st December 2001… • 3rd FINA World Open Water Swimming

Championships 2004 • 10th FINA Masters World Championships 2004 For all these events, bids must be addressed to the FINA Office in Lausanne (SUI). NOTE: For further details, Federations can contact the Executive Director of FINA, Mr Cornel Marculescu, at the FINA Office in Lausanne.


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WSCA NEWSLETTER WORLD SWIMMING COACHES ASSOCIATION

1st Floor, 461 Olive Street, Albury NSW 2640 Phone: (02) 6041 6077 – Fax: (02) 6041 4282

E-mail: [email protected]

(The following articles have been reproduced from ASCA

Newsletter, Vol.2001 Issue #7) OLYMPIC TRIALS PROJECT

By Genadijus Sokolovas, PhD INTRODUCTION

Only the best swimmers can achieve performances to qualify at the Olympic Trials. Therefore, analysis of background information provides some interesting data for coaches and athletes to optimise their training. The averages are worthwhile for comparison with the individual data of your swimmers. As a coach, you can use this information to better evaluate swimming and dryland workload volume in light of parameters such as age started swimming and age year-round swimming.

BACKGROUND PARAMETERS Background information collected included the following variables… • Age started swimming • Age started year-round swimming • Average hours spent swimming per week • Average hours spent on dryland per week • Average workouts per week • Average yardage per week • Improvement in the last year These variables were analysed relative to gender and swim stroke categories (Freestyle sprinters, Freestyle distance swimmers, Backstrokers, Breaststrokers, Butterflyers, and Individual Medley). The numbers of athletes in each event are presented in Table 1. The averages of demographic data are presented in Tables 2 and 3.

AGE STARTED SWIMMING The age females started swimming is close in all events – the average is between 5.6+2.3 for Butterflyers and 6.8+3.1 years for Breaststrokers. The average of age started swimming is 6.5+2.7 years in all swim strokes for females. There are no statistically significant differences between females

(p>0.05). Males were similar in age they started swimming. The average age started swimming is 6.5+2.9 years for males. This parameter varies between 5.0+2.2 for Individual Medley and 7.6+3.0 years for Breaststrokers (p<0.05).

AGE STARTED YEAR-ROUND SWIMMING Typically, the more important parameter is the age athletes started swimming year-round. It is at this time that athletes finish Learn-to-Swim programs and begin their career training. The average of this parameter is similar for genders – 9.0+2.9 years for females and 9.4+3.9 years for males. The oldest average age of initiating year-round swimming for females is for Breaststrokers – 10.2+3.2 years and the youngest is for Butterflyers 8.1+2.2 years. The oldest for males are Freestyle sprinters 11.6+4.9 years, the youngest are Individual Medley swimmers – 6.5+1.3 years. Statistically, the male sprinters are significantly older than distance swimmers in the age they started swimming round year (p<0.05). There are no statistically significant differences between other swim strokes (p>0.05).

HOURS SWIMMING PER WEEK Hours spent swimming per week are close for females and males, 18.8+4.8 and 19.6+4.1 respectively. Amongst females, these parameters are the lowest for Freestyle sprinters and Backstrokers – 17.4+4.8 and 17.4+1.3 hours, respectively – the highest is for Freestyle distance swimmers – 22.3+3.4 hours. Amongst males, the lowest hours spent swimming per week are for Butterflyers and Freestyle sprinters – 18.2+1.9 and 18.7+4.9 hours respectively. The highest hours spent swimming per week are for distance swimmers – 22.3+4.8. In general, females and males swim the same amount of hours per week. There is a statistically significant difference between sprinters and distance swimmers … distance swimmers swim about four hours more per week than sprinters.

DRYLAND HOURS PER WEEK There are no differences between females and males in the average number of dryland hours per week … 4.7+2.2 and 4.6+2.0 respectively. For females the fewest hours was evidenced for Backstrokers – 3.4+0.5, and the most was for Individual Medley swimmers – 5.5+3.0. For males, this parameter varies from 3.5+2.0 hours for Freestyle distance swimmers to 5.6+2.0 hours for Freestyle sprinters. These differences between events are statistically significant (p<0.05).

WORKOUTS PER WEEK Average number of workouts per week is similar for females and males – 9.2+1.3 and 9.8+2.0 respectively. There are no statistical differences between genders. For females, the lowest number of


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workouts per week is for Butterflyers and the highest is for Freestyle distance swimmers. For males, the lowest number of workouts per week is for Butterflyers and the highest is for Individual Medley swimmers. The differences are statistically non-significant (p>0.05).

WEEKLY YARDAGE There are no statistically significant differences between females and males in weekly yardage but differences between events are significant (p<0.05). Female Butterflyers swim the lowest yardage per week (53833.3 + 8558.2 yards) and Freestyle distance swimmers (76850.0 + 9369.1 yards) the most yardage. Similar tendencies were found for males. Male Butterflyers swim the lowest yardage per week (56000.0 + 11686.4 yards) and Individual Medley and distance swimmers swim the highest yardage (84000.0 + 5656.8 and 73916.7 + 12228.6 yards, respectively).

IMPROVEMENT IN THE LAST YEAR This was calculated by comparing the athlete’s best time from 1999 to his/her best time for 2000, including performance at the Olympic Trials. The average improvement is 0.51+1.62% for females and 0.63+1.46% for males. For female Backstrokers and male Individual Medley swimmers, this improvement was negative, meaning best time for 2000 was slower than it was for 1999. The greatest improvement among females was for distance swimmers – 1.31+1.58%. The greatest improvement amongst males was for Butterflyers – 1.28+1.19%. All differences in improvement were statistically non-significant (p>0.05). It shows that performance progression for elite level athletes is very slow. Tracking of this parameter in long-term training is helpful for evaluation of workload’s effectiveness. RELATIONS BETWEEN BACKGROUND PARAMETERS In addition to assessing means, it is beneficial to look at relations between different background parameters. Since sprinters and distance swimmers have different swimming and dryland workload volume, we analysed the correlation between the background parameters for two groups of swimmers – Freestyle sprinters (females n=23, males n=22) and distance swimmers (females n=11, males n=16). Coefficients of correlation (quantitative value of the relationship between variables) for female sprinters and distance swimmers are presented in Tables 3 and 4. There are several significant coefficients of correlation that are worthy of our attention. The age sprinters started swimming year round is closely related to the age they started swimming (r=0.802). The number of dryland hours per week is related to the age of female sprinters (r=0.551). The older the

swimmers are, the more time they spend on dryland. But it does not seem to have an influence on performance progression since there is a negative relationship between improvement and dryland hours per week (r=0.448). Thus, this data suggests that female sprinters may want to work not only on dryland but also on transition from dryland to the water, which is especially important for the older female sprinters. Hours spent swimming has a negative relationship with last year improvement (r=0.328). Yardage does not relate to the last year improvement, too (r=0.092). It indicated that female sprinters improved because of quality of workload instead of quantity. The age started swimming and year-round swimming have negative relationship with yardage (r = -0.325 and r = -0.240, respectively). It shows when the younger female sprinters started to swim the higher yardage. Hence, if female sprinters started to swim earlier they tend to adapt to the higher workload volume and need to swim more for higher performance. There was also a significant relationship between improvement and the age the athlete started swimming year-round (r=0.442). Since coefficient of correlation is positive, the later swimmers started swimming year-round the greater the improvement. This makes sense because the later one begins long-term training the greater we find the rate in performance progression to be. Coefficients of correlation of background parameters for female distance swimmers are presented in Table 4. Results indicate that female distance swimmers do not increase the number of dryland hours per week with age as sprinters do (r = -0.150). there was a relationship between improvement and weekly yardage (r=0.528), suggesting that the greater workload volume the higher improvement in performance. It means that distance swimmers’ performance improvement depends on weekly yardage. Higher weekly yardage induces higher performance progression in elite level swimmers. Similar to what was found for sprinters, the age the distance swimmers started swimming year-round is closely related to the age they started swimming (r=0.738). The age started swimming year-round has negative relationship with dryland hours (r=0.411). It indicates that the later distance swimmers started their long-term training (year-round swimming) the less hours they spend on dryland. It seems that swimming workload volume has higher impact on performances in distance events than dryland workload volume. Hours spent swimming per week have negative relationship with dryland hours (r = -0.347).


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Coefficients of correlation for male sprinters and distance swimmers are presented in Tables 5 and 6. In general, the coefficients of correlation for male sprinters are lower than for female sprinters. There is some tendency year-round (r=0.384). Hence, the later male sprinters started swimming year-round the more hours they spent on dryland. Also, weekly dryland hours are related to the age (r=0.299). Thus, the older swimmers are, the more time they spend on dryland. Weekly swimming hours have negative relation with age started swimming and age started year-round swimming (r = -0.413 and r = -0.301, respectively). The yardage has negative relationship with age started swimming and age started swimming year-round r = -0.334 and r = -0.184, respectively). It means that the younger male sprinters were when they started to swim, the higher weekly workload volume they have. But last year improvement has negative relation with workload parameters … weekly swimming hours (r = -0.376) … weekly dryland hours (r = -0.129) … weekly workouts average (r = -0.166) … and weekly yardage average (r = -0.365). It shows that performance progression for elite male sprinters does not depend on workload volume, but depends on quality of work in workouts. For male distance swimmers weekly swimming hours, number of workouts, and weekly yardage have positive relation with age started swimming (r=0.615, r=0.361 and r=0.502 respectively) and age of year-round swimming (r=0.518, r=0.305 and 5=0.439 respectively). The older male distance swimmers began training the higher workload volume they swim. Weekly dryland hours depend on the age of athletes (r=0.402). Since this coefficient of correlation is positive, the older athletes spend more time on dryland than younger. This tendency is similar for male sprinters as well. But weekly dryland hours have negative relation with last year improvement (r = -0.282). Therefore, distance swimmers should spend less time on dryland and more in water. Weekly dryland hours depend on age started swimming and age started swimming year round (r=0.317 and r=0.226 respectively). This means, that the older male distance swimmers were when they started long-term training, the more time they train on dryland. However, there is negative relationship between dryland workload and last year improvement. Last year improvement has a tendency to be lower for older swimmers than for younger r = -0.251). This corresponds to the data about the age of peak performance – distance swimmers tend to be younger than sprinters (Sokolovas G., Herr L., 2000). Last

year improvement has negative relation with the age started swimming year-round (r = -0.237). It means, that the older male distance swimmers were when they started year-round swimming, the less is last year improvement.

IMPLICATIONS Based on background information there are following conclusions of relevance for coaches and athletes. The average age started swimming is 6.5 year for females and males. There are non-significant differences between swim strokes for females as well for males. The average age started swimming year-round has small differences between events. Male distance swimmers have a statistically lower starting age when compared to sprinters. It shows that sprinters can begin their long-term training later than distance swimmers. Sprinters and distance swimmers have similar average weekly dryland hours and number of workouts per week. But distance swimmers have significantly higher weekly swimming workload volume and number of hours spent swimming than sprinters. It means that distance swimmers swim higher workload volume in workouts than sprinters, as expected. Female and male Olympic Trial qualifiers have similar swimming and dryland workload volume. There are no significant differences in workload parameters between females and males. But male Freestyle sprinters have significantly higher dryland workload volume than female Freestyle sprinters. Female sprinters as well as male sprinters and distance swimmers have a tendency to increase dryland workload volume with age. But it does not seem to have an influence on performance progression since there is a negative relationship between improvement and dryland hours per week for sprinters as well as distance swimmers. Therefore, athletes should increase dryland workload carefully with age, especially distance swimmers. Coaches and athletes should make a decision about increase of dryland workload based on evaluation of relation between dryland workload and performance progression. In some cases, higher strength on dryland can lead to the reduction of performance because of higher drag in water. Thus, this data suggests that sprinters should work not only on dryland but also on transition from dryland to the water (swimming with resistance, surgical tubing, paddles, etc.), which is especially important for the older swimmers. As data shows, the later swimmers started long-term training (age started swimming and age started swimming year-round) the more they tend to work on


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dryland. However, it seems that dryland workload volume is not related to performance improvement for distance swimmers as well as for sprinters. Therefore, swimmers should pay more attention to the swimming workload instead of dryland workload. There was a significant relationship between improvement and the age the athlete started swimming year-round. This data suggests that the later a swimmer begins long-term training the greater we find the rate in performance progression to be. Last year improvement has no relation with average of weekly swimming yardage for sprinters. It suggests that sprinters should pay more attention to quality of work instead of quantity. For distance swimmers, especially females, last year improvement

has positive relation with average of weekly swimming yardage. Therefore, based on the distance swimmers’ data from this study, the greater workload volume the higher improvement in performance. The age started swimming and year-round swimming has negative relationship with weekly yardage in sprinters, while these parameters have positive relationship in distance swimmers. Hence, if sprinters started to swim earlier they tend to adapt to the higher workload volume and need to swim more for higher performance. If distance swimmers started to swim earlier they tend to swim lower workload volume.

Table 1 – Number of Swimmers in each Event

Gender Freestyle Sprinters

Freestyle Distance

Swimmers Backstroke Breaststroke Butterfly Individual

Medley

Female n=77 23 11 5 13 14 11 Male n=67 22 16 6 9 9 5

Table 2a – Demographic Data (Females)

Stroke and Distance

Age Started Swimming


Year-Round

Hours Spent Swimming/

Week

Dryland Hours/

Avg Week

Workouts/ Avg Week

Yardage/ Avg Week

Last Year Improvement

% Freestyle Sprinters 6.7 + 2.8 9.3 + 3.7 17.4 + 4.8 4.2 + 2.0 9.1 + 1.5 59625.0 +

18821.5 0.06 + 1.19

Freestyle Distance

Swimmers 6.3 + 3.1 8.7 + 2.3 22.3 + 3.4 4.6 + 1.8 9.7 + 1.2 76850.0 +

9369.1 1.31 + 1.58

Backstroke 6.8 + 1.9 9.8 + 3.4 17.4 + 1.3 3.4 + 0.58 8.8 + 0.9 68333.3 + 20207.3 -0.79 + 2.47

Breaststroke 6.8 + 3.1 10.2 _ 3.2 18.5 + 3.8 5.3 + 2.0 9.1 + 1.3 57100.0 + 113211.5 1.00 + 2.18

Butterfly 5.6 + 2.3 8.1 + 2.2 18.2 + 3.0 4.6 + 1.4 8.6 + 1.1 53833.3 + 8558.2 0.59 + 1.28

Individual Medley 6.6 + 2.0 8.4 + 1.0 21.6 + 4.8 5.5 + 3.0 9.6 + 1.3 66250.0 +

14380 0.55 + 1.36

All Strokes 6.5 + 2.7 9.0 + 2.9 18.8 + 4.8 4.7 + 2.2 9.2 + 1.3 60906.8 + 16763.9 0.51 + 1.62

Table 2b – Demographic Data (Males)

Stroke and Distance



Year-Round


Week

Dryland Hours/

Avg Week

Workouts/ Avg Week

Yardage/ Avg Week

Last Year Improvement

% Freestyle Sprinters 7.1 + 3.0 11.6 + 4.9 18.7 + 4.9 5.6 + 2.0 9.9 + 3.1 55421.0 +

19311.2 0.48 + 1.38

Freestyle Distance

Swimmers 6.0 + 3.1 7.5 + 2.6 22.3 + 4.8 3.5 + 2.0 9.8 + 1.0 73916.7 +

12228.6 0.78 + 1.20

Backstroke 6.8 + 3.1 9.3 + 2.5 19.1 + 2.2 5.3 + 1.5 9.4 + 0.9 56400 + 3877.5 0.58 + 1.48

Breaststroke 7.6 + 3.0 10.2 + 3.9 19.6 + 3.0 3.7 + 1.5 9.8 + 0.7 62571.4 + 9378.3 0.96 + 1.98

Butterfly 5.3 + 2.0 8.0 + 1.9 18.2 + 1.9 4.3 + 1.4 9.4 + 0.7 56000.0 + 11686.4 1.28 + 1.19

Individual Medley 5.0 + 2.2 6.5 + 1.3 19.4 + 2.0 4.5 + 1.6 10.0 + 2.9 84000.0 +

5656.8 -0.87 + 1.54

All Strokes 6.5 + 2.9 9.4 + 3.9 19.6 + 4.1 4.6 + 2.0 9.8 + 2.0 61811.3 + 16409.5 0.63 + 1.46


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Table 3 – Correlation between Background Parameters (Female Sprinters, n=23)

Age, Years Age Started Swimming


Year-Round


Week

Dryland Hours/ Avg Week

Workouts/ Avg Week

Yardage/ Avg Week

% Improvement from previous

year Age, Years 1.000 Age Started Swimming 0.225 1.000


Year-Round 0.218 0.802* 1.000


Week 0.214 0.139 0.185 1.000

Dryland Hours/ Avg Week 0.551* 0.033 0.039 0.321 1.000

Workouts/ Avg Week 0.186 -0.158 0.010 0.330 0.240 1.000

Yardage/ Avg Week -0.025 -0.325 -0.240 -0.255 -0.177 0.403* 1.000


year

-0.076 0.242 0.442* -0.328 -0.438* 0.028 0.092 1.000

* Indicates significance of correlation at p<0.05 level.

Table 4 – Correlation between Background Parameters (Female Distance, n=11)



Year-Round


Week


Workouts/ Avg Week

Yardage/ Avg Week


year Age, Years 1.000 Age Started Swimming -0.059 1.000


Year-Round 0.048 0.738* 1.000


Week -0.269 -0.053 0.021 1.000

Dryland Hours/ Avg Week -0.150 0.035 -0.411 -0.347 1.000

Workouts/ Avg Week 0.003 0.102 -0.174 0.239 0.014 1.000

Yardage/ Avg Week 0.118 0.154 0.116 0.504* -0.076 0.504* 1.000


year

0.014 0.256 0.214 0.050 -0.080 0.005 0.528* 1.000


Table 5 – Correlation between Background Parameters (Male Sprinters, n=22)



Year-Round


Week


Workouts/ Avg Week

Yardage/ Avg Week




Year-Round 0.286 0.531* 1.000


Week -0.201 -0.413* -0.301 1.000

Dryland Hours/ Avg Week 0.239 0.107 0.384* 0.064 1.000

Workouts/ Avg Week -0.230 -0.373* 0.151 0.423* 0.357* 1.000

Yardage/ Avg Week -0.197 -0.334 -0.184 0.785* 0.128 0.525* 1.000


year

-0.304 0.200 0.082 -0.376* -0.129 -0.166 -0.365* 1.000



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Table 6 – Correlation between Background Parameters (Male Distance, n=16)



Year-Round


Week


Workouts/ Avg Week

Yardage/ Avg Week




Year-Round 0.218 0.781* 1.000


Week 0.050 0.615* 0.518* 1.000

Dryland Hours/ Avg Week 0.402* 0.317 0.226 0.303 1.000

Workouts/ Avg Week -0.206 0.361 0.305 0.545* 0.470* 1.000

Yardage/ Avg Week -0.002 0.502* 0.439* 0.725* 0.752* 0.669* 1.000


year

-0.251 -0.045 -0.237 0.191 -0.282 0.048 0.044 1.000


By Bill Nelson - Australia

As with many things we experience, the process of a team coming together takes time. The amount of time for each team to come together relies on a variety of circumstances. • History of the individual team members. • Understanding of their roles and

responsibilities. • Understanding and commitment to the desired

outcomes. • Strength of leadership, either individual or

combined. • Effective communication. Of course there are many other influences that are not listed and we could easily spend a few pages outlining them and even more time discussing them. But the area I want to look at today is the area of effective communication within the team. Team communication, as everything else within the team, goes through an evolutionary process. I believe there are three levels of the evolution in the communication of a team.

1. Rubbish 2. Safe 3. Real

What are the three areas about and what does it mean to the team to communicate at each of these

levels? First, let’s look at each one of these levels in detail so we get an understanding of each.

Rubbish Exactly what the name implies. The communication process is full of rubbish items. Maybe not to the individual, but certainly in the context of helping the teams develop and move towards their desired outcomes. The content at this level has very little to do with anything that is going to help the team. There is very little and, in most cases, nothing that is going to be communicated that will rock the boat of a particular individual or the team as a unit. Topics of discussion can be … • The weather • What you did last night • Why you bought brand A car as opposed to

brand B • Why you think is going to win one of the

national sporting competitions The “rubbish” level is the introductory part of the team’s evolution. That is, the team is either new or there are a lot of team members that are new that make this type of communication necessary. Yes, necessary. The team has to go through this process, as it is all about finding out what makes each individual tick and what type of communication will bring this team together. A smart leader will observe this part of the team’s evolution with great interest as it can give a great insight into the individual team members but also a great insight as to how the team is going to evolve and how long that process may take. However, the team does not want to be operating at this level of communication for too long. There are other areas that need addressing … there are jobs that need to be done. Let’s move through the getting-to-


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know you stage so that our team can develop and operate at maximum efficiency.

Safe Individually and combined the team has to start finding things out. These will include areas such as … operation standards, the rules of engagement, the how-to … in their areas of operation. So the communication is now structured to gather and disseminate information. But still this is done in a very safe manner. There are usually no personal comments or attacks made. The majority of information is gathered through the asking of questions. Because most feel comfortable communicating this way and believe it to be the safest way. Why do we use a low-pressure gun to wash this piece of machinery? Well, as management explained it to me, this particular piece of equipment is coated in special Teflon to reduce wear and tear and to reduce friction. If we were to hit it with too hard a spray we may take this coating off. Why do you think we should use a larger capacity gun to remove the grease and grime? Not sure, I think we will just see how this goes first. Safe talk. Question number one was asked to find out why, rather than just giving an opinion that maybe the gun pressure was too soft. Answer number one was given by removing themselves from the answer. “As it was explained to me.” Very rarely does someone give a direct comment or give their opinion or take a stand in front of the team. Rarely, if at all, does anyone say directly to anyone else what he or she thinks of them or their performance in carrying out their role in front of the team. This is not to say, as the team gets to know one another, that certain things don’t get said behind closed doors. Obviously, as the team evolves, friendships and camaraderie between individuals will grow and groups will form. With this change in structure, there will also be a change in the type of communication. It is still safe talk, because you can trust the person you are talking to, as you feel they believe the same things you do. Therefore, your views are not going to cause friction as the people who probably need to hear what you have to say, never will. It is only your friend or colleague who you feel comfortable with and believe to have the same views as yourself who will hear what you have to say. When the team operates at this level, information is being exchanged but the team is still a long way from where they really need to be. No one wants to say anything that is going to upset anyone else. The team has evolved past the “rubbish” stage and it realises the need for information and relevant

information to get the job done and to evolve. But the communication continues to be done in the safest possible manner.

Real This is where things that need to get said get said. Opinions are aired, concepts discussed, arguments or heated discussions evolve but the bottom line is that things usually get done because of the communication process. First and foremost though this freedom of speech does not mean that the team is just constantly going after one another and that things just get said whenever. There must be a process so that effective communication can be developed. All team members need an understanding of what needs to be said at what time, in what structure and in what way. The team then structures the communication so that everyone is understanding of each other and understanding of the need for an open communication philosophy.

It takes a special group of individuals to come together and work together towards a common direction. But it takes something extra – both individually and as a combined group – to be able to openly communicate with each other in a structured manner so that what needs to be said, gets said, in a way that it never becomes a personal attack on any individual. If there is, then that person knows that the attack is to help and benefit the team, its members, and its future. As much as they probably don’t like it at the time, they understand the philosophy behind it. The best statement I have heard in relation to team communication came after one of the teams I work with had one of these real talk sessions. Admittedly, it was one of our first real talk sessions and the team was still looking at the rules of engagement, when one of the team members stood up and said,

“In this team, what doesn’t get said just gets worse.”

That statement just sums it up beautifully. It is important to say what the team needs to say, but it is equally if not more important to have the structure or the how, when and why we are going to openly communicate in place. Have a look at where your team is operating as far as the three levels of team talk are concerned.

1. Rubbish 2. Safe 3. Real

Then look at what it is you need to do to get the team communicating openly and honestly with each other but in a structured way so that all team members are happy to openly communicate with each other.


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The success of the team will depend upon each individual recognising and understanding the benefit to the individual, to the team and to the organisation in having an open communication policy.

Unnatural Selection Genetic engineering is about to produce a new breed of athlete who will obliterate the limits of human performance

By E.M. Swift and Don Yaeger, Sports Illustrated In an unmarked cage in the bowels of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Physiology crawls the future of sport. It is a genetically altered mouse. We’ll call him He-Man because a creature of such importance should be known by a name, not a number. Soon after He-Man was born, a team of Penn researchers led by Dr. H. Lee Sweeney injected its muscles with a synthetic gene that instructed its muscle cells to produce more IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1). IGF-l is a protein that, in a nutshell, makes muscles grow and helps them repair themselves when they’ve been damaged. It is indispensable to the formation and maintenance of strong physiques. For the most part, when those of us under 30 exercise vigorously, our bodies start producing lots of IGF-1. Our muscles get bigger, and we get stronger. As we age, the muscles stop producing IGF-1 in the quantities we need to keep our muscles looking as they did when we were younger. They sag, and they don’t repair themselves as effectively as they used to. We get slower and weaker. “Even if you train,” says Sweeney, “you lose speed.” It happened to Carl Lewis, Wayne Gretzky and Jerry Rice, among others. But it hasn’t happened to He-Man. Because of the gene that was injected two years ago, the mouse grew exceptionally large muscles, and those muscles keep producing IGF-l. He-Man, in the throes of mouse old age, remains as mighty as he ever was, an Arnold Schwarzenneger of mice. His muscle mass is 60% greater than that of a normal mouse. He effortlessly climbs a ladder with 120 grams of weights – equal to three times his body weight – strapped on his back. “We showed that with a onetime injection of this gene we can get bigger muscles in young animals and that, as they get older, the muscles never change,” says Sweeney, whose research is funded by the National Institutes of Health. “The muscles maintain their size through the whole life of the animal.” The implications for athletes are not lost on Sweeney. Implant this IGF-1 gene into the proper muscles and Olympic sprint champion Maurice

Greene might be as fast at 48 as he is at 24. Randy Moss might still outrun and out-jump defensive backs in 2020. Pavel Bure might be skating as fast 30 years from now as he does today. Fanciful? Don’t bet against it. Whether in one year, three years or five years – the last of those being the prediction of most experts – the first genetically engineered athlete will be secretly competing. “It’s not rocket science,” says Theodore Friedmann, director of the gene-therapy program at UC San Diego and a member of the medical-research committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). “If you asked any molecular biologist, or even his students, how he would implant genes to change muscle function, within half an hour he could write down three or four ways to do it. The same would apply if you asked him … How would you improve oxygen transport? How would you change athletes so they could jump higher and run faster? Be taller, stronger, whatever? Because of the whole Human Genome Project (a federally funded effort to identify the estimated 100,000 genes in human DNA), synthetic genes are available, and putting genes into people to express new functions is becoming reality.” “If this is being done on mice and rats, humans aren’t far behind,” says Bengt Saltin, a Swedish professor of human physiology at the University of Copenhagen and a member of WADA’s special committee on gene doping. “The only thing keeping it from happening today is the control problem. For example, you can insert a gene to increase EPO production” – EPO is a hormone some athletes inject to illicitly boost the production of red blood cells thus enhancing their endurance – “but you can’t shut {that production) off when you want to.” When the technology is developed that will enable us to turn hormone production on and off at will, says Saltin, “we’ll have real problems.” Sweeney believes the IGF-1-inducing gene will slow the muscle deterioration brought on by muscular dystrophy, and he had hoped to have a clinical trial on humans under way by this spring. But he has delayed seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because of the 1999 death of a patient in a different gene-therapy trial at Penn. If approval is granted, as is expected, and the synthetic IGF-1 gene proves safe in the muscular dystrophy trial, the next step would be to conduct a trial of the gene’s ability to maintain a person’s muscle strength as that person ages. “All this is being driven by our aging population,” Sweeney says. “As people get old, they get weak, and if they have an injury, (the muscle involved) doesn’t repair itself, so they lose even more muscle. They lose their mobility. The ability to


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maintain muscle mass is (hugely important) for an aging society.” “When (Sweeney’s work) is done, it will decrease the incidence of hip fractures in the elderly,” says Gary Wadler, associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine and an advisor to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “But you’d better start inventorying the genes because athletes will be trying to get them. That’s the plain truth. His work has the potential to be misused. It won’t be long before someone does a kinesiologic study of a pitcher’s motion, say, to determine which muscles should be enhanced for throwing a baseball. Then with the injection of the IGF-1 gene you create a super-pitcher. The only way you’ll be able to prove an athlete is cheating is through a muscle biopsy, and that’s not going to happen.” WADA, a two-year-old organisation that was founded by the International Olympic Committee odd), is so worried about the possible impact of genetic research on sport that it’s hosting a symposium on gene manipulation in September in Cold Spring Harbour, NY. The purpose is to discuss the ethics of the matter. Is gene therapy, the medical use of genes to repair an illness or injury, acceptable for Olympic athletes? Is gene enhancement, the implantation of genes to increase the performance of a perfectly healthy body, unacceptable? Are there grey areas somewhere in-between? “I am very clear on this,” says IOC Medical Commission vice chairman Jacques Rogge of Belgium, an orthopaedic surgeon who may succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch later this year as head of the Olympic movement. “Genetic manipulation is there to treat people who have ailments, not there to treat a healthy person.” However, the IGF-1 gene repairs and enhances muscle tissue. It also keeps the muscles churning out insulin-like growth factor-1 indefinitely, which theoretically could allow the athlete to perform at an optimal level years past what is now considered his prime. Is WADA going to forbid the injured athlete from using that particular form of gene therapy – one that may well be available to the public – on the grounds it might fix him better than new? In fact, there’s a tremendous upside to these forays into the genetic minefield that even the nay-sayers see. “This gene manipulation is not all bad,” says WADA’s secretary general, Harri Syvasalmi of Finland. “We have to accept that some of these enhancements will be wonderful, especially for athletes who are injured.” It isn’t only professional athletes who stand to benefit. Weekend warriors could see a marked improvement in the quality of their lives and athletic

performances. More than 100,000 anterior cruciate ligaments are torn annually in the US. Damage to knee cartilage is also common. Stress fractures account for 15% of all injuries to runners. These statistics are cited in a February 2000 report published by three researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Freddie H. Fu, Dr. Johnny Huard and Vladimir Martinek, who write that their early findings show recovery from sports-related injuries involving slow-healing tissues can be significantly sped up and enhanced through gene therapy – specifically, by introducing genes, like the synthetic IGF-1 gene, that express growth factors. “One day injured tendons, cartilage or ligaments will be repaired through an injection,” says Wadler. “It will be like a salamander regrowing a tail.” Bobby Orr, his knees crippled from six operations, would not have had to retire at age 30. Joe Namath would not have limped off the field for the last time at 34. His elbow pain gone, Sandy Koufax could have pitched past 30. Tantalising, yes? A little frightening, too. As at the dawn of any age, man’s venture into genetic engineering will have its champions and its detractors. But it won’t be stopped. Time will tell whether we are on the brink of enrichment or the brink of disaster. “The sports world was not prepared for anabolic steroids,” says Syvasalmi. “We can’t get behind (on a doping trend) again. By looking at gene enhancement now, we hope to raise the ethical issues and appeal to the ethics of athletes.” The ethics of athletes? That’s a good one. If history has taught us anything, it’s that athletes will do anything, try anything and risk everything to win. “Go all the way back to the ancient Greek Olympics and you’ll find stories,” says Saltin. “Man has always believed there was something he could put in his mouth to help him win. Gene manipulation is only the next step. I guess I’m naive, but I hope that ethics will win out. If I’m wrong, it’s the end of sport as we know it. Sport will be a circus of unbelievable performances.” Norwegian speed skater Johann Olav Koss, a triple Olympic gold medallist in 1994, knows something about both unbelievable performances and the nature of athletes. A recent graduate of the University of Queensland medical school in Australia and an athlete’s representative to both the IOC and WADA, Koss doesn’t know whether to be frightened of gene manipulation from an athlete’s perspective or a doctor’s. “Athletes should realise the research that’s been done in this field is absolutely not good enough to know the risk of long-term damage,” he says. “Don’t let the doctors tell you differently. There is no knowledge about the potentially damaging side


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effects of genetic changes.” Saying that, we also know some athletes don’t care about long-term risk. “This is an ethical question, not only for sport, but for the human race,” Koss continues. “You are tinkering with nature. How far are you going to go? What is acceptable? What will be the effect long-term? Why shouldn’t we create something genetically that is much smarter, stronger and better than a human? Why shouldn’t we put wings on a human? Why shouldn’t we give humans the eyes of a fly? Then we are no longer human, we are something else. You could eliminate the human race. There are many reasons that we should not go down that road. Trouble is, world-class athletes, even without genetic enhancement, are a different breed. “An atmosphere has been created in which it doesn’t matter if you cheat,” says Koss, “as long as you win.” Over the years sports officials from many countries have proved they’re as prone to embrace that mentality as the athletes they oversee. East Germany’s state-run steroid program, which has come to light in the last couple of years, exacted a terrible physical and psychological toll from a generation of that country’s athletes. No nation’s ruling sports bodies are above suspicion, including those from the US. Small wonder, then, that among WADA’s long-term fears is state-sponsored cloning. “It’s a real issue for sport,” says Saltin. “If you’re a country, why not take the chance and clone Pele – or 25 Peles – and engineer an entire team?” A Quebec company called Clonaid may have already begun human cloning experiments. Using the DNA of a dead infant, the company is supposedly trying to clone another child for bereaved parents for $500,000. Since DNA can be obtained from a strand of hair, the imagination races with visions of molecular biology students of an entrepreneurial bent swooping in to gather hair after Tiger Woods leaves a barbershop and then selling the strands for underground cloning experiments. “I honestly believe that if the Soviet Union hadn’t fallen apart, it would be genetically altering humans by now,” Sweeney says. “The Soviets were always more willing to push the envelope than we’re allowed to here. And the next generation of athletes, give their children altered genes to determine all kinds of talents, then watch them grow. Who knows where it would go?” No one. Athletes, though, are sure to step forward for many of the experiments. Even after knowing the potentially damaging, sometimes fatal, side effects of the performance-enhancing drugs now available, athletes of all cultures have not hesitated to experiment with steroids, EPO, human growth hormone, blood doping and God knows what else.

They’re 21st century Fausts, willing to bargain future health for present glory. Sweeney has certainly discovered that. He has already been contacted by several athletes, most of them weightlifters, who have heard about his research and wonder if he’s looking for human volunteers on whom to test the IGF-1 gene. “They wanted to know what I thought it would do for them and what the safety issues were,” Sweeney says. “Then the main question was how they could get it. I told them I had no safety data on humans whatsoever, but based on the mice; I didn’t think it was a big risk. They were fine with that. Safety data didn’t mean anything to them. They basically said they were willing to do it right now. I told them the FDA wouldn’t be fine with that and I could go to jail if I helped them.” What are the risks of genetic engineering? The theories range from Koss’s worries about the elimination of the human race as we know it, to only slightly less apocalyptic scenarios involving genetically altered viruses running amok and genes spinning out of control. Right now the preferred delivery vehicle for a gene like the one Sweeney implanted in He-Man is a common virus. Essentially, the virus is denuded of its illness-causing characteristics and all genes, then stuffed with a synthetic gene and injected into a particular muscle or organ. If all goes well, the new gene will live harmoniously within the host for the rest of the host’s life, reproducing itself in the new cells it helps create and merrily expressing whatever function it was selected to express. If things go badly, the gene could sit sullenly in its new home and refuse to express. Far worse, the body’s natural defence mechanisms could kick into gear and attack the virus or the synthetic gene, as happened in the gene-therapy trial at Penn two years ago, when a young patient who’d had a gene injected into his hepatic artery died after his body’s immune system shut down his liver. Then there are the control issues to which Saltin referred. Who’s calling the shots, you or your new gene? What if in its enthusiasm, your new gene overdoes it and gives you too much of a good thing? Be careful of what you wish for. Visions of 12-foot-tall basketball players come to mind, and football players with muscles so immense and powerful that they can’t be supported by the surrounding tendons and skeletal structure. Genetically altered houseflies demonstrated a variation of the latter problem. Researchers found that they could genetically enhance a fly’s flight muscles so that they were 300% stronger than normal. That was the good news. The bad news was


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that the fly couldn’t get off the ground. “The fly actually lost power because it couldn’t make its wings move fast enough,” explains Sweeney. “It’s a good example of why we need to learn more about how muscle groups work and interact.” Try to explain that to a college lineman yearning to be drafted by the NFL, who learns that with one injection of something called growth-hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) he could gain 70-80 pounds of muscle. “If athletes are willing to take HGH (human growth hormone),” says Sweeney, referring to a banned substance believed to be widely used among Olympic athletes, “this is, in my opinion, safer, cheaper and probably gets better results. GHRH will be the next great problem for athletics.” In research conducted by Dr. Robert Schwartz of Baylor College of Medicine, piglets injected with GHRH grew 37% heavier than their siblings and had 10% less fat. The pigs were stronger and leaner. GHRH is different from HGH in that it sends a signal to the pituitary gland to start cranking out growth hormones. And keep cranking. The growth hormones aren’t introduced externally, so the body tends to accept them. “This has got the pig farmers all excited, but I know that athletes read many of these scientific journals,” says Sweeney. “So I’m sure some out there are already looking into it. The only thing I’d advise is to be sure to put it into a muscle you’re not too fond of, in case one day you want to stop growing, you could just cut that muscle out.” One thing is clear. We’ll all share an interest in genetic enhancement, whether for something as simple as a hair-growth gene to end our baldness or as potentially life-changing as the ability to remain mobile, even spry, in our dotage. “The public will accept genetic interventions because it will want them,” says Sweeney. “I see a day when this is going to be commonly used in the population because the population does not like getting old and weak and ending up in a wheelchair. Once society accepts it, the Olympic committee is going to have to deal with it. The days that it can try to stop it are numbered.”

Even My Eyebrows Hurt!

By Edward H. Nessel, R.Ph., M.S., M.P.H. Just about everyone who strives to be the best they can be develops sore muscles at some time, so it is amazing that this is still mostly a mystery. Consider this … we don’t really understand the main source of pain, we don’t understand why it takes so

long to show up, most of the treatments suggested don’t work consistently, and there is no reliable way to prevent the problem except taking it easy. If you overdo any kind of physical effort ... working out longer than usual or harder than usual ... about 12-48 hours later you will develop very stiff, sore muscles. In the sports medicine community, this is called delayed onset muscle soreness, known as DOMS for short. Those of us who taper for the big Meets, swimming faster than usual, can attest to the fact that everything hurts ... even the eyebrows. This can bring on a disconcerting feeling of “I’m in trouble; I don’t feel good even in the taper; how can I ever do well at the Meet?” This seems to be the price we pay for swimming fast; but pain is still a signal that something is wrong, so let’s see what you can do to minimise the problem. Muscle Damage and Soreness Hard exercise causes muscle damage. In fact, this is the principle you have to follow to increase muscle size. “Muscle damage must precede size increases. The repair process causes increased muscle size,” says William Evans, Ph.D., at Penn State University. If you looked under a microscope at your sore muscles after a hard or fast workout, you would see torn and ruptured individual muscle cells, and breakdown of the membranes between them. There are some components of cells that are too large to escape from normal cells, but when cells are beaten up and have broken membranes, the large molecules escape and end up in your bloodstream. This is useful to researchers, because they can study muscle damage by taking blood samples rather than muscle biopsies. An enzyme called creatine kinase (CK) is an example, which is often used as an index of muscle damage. Another enzyme called lactate dehydrogenase is an example of a molecule that comes from the breakdown of the lipid cell membranes themselves, and it also leaves its “footprints” in the blood. Concentrations of these “escaped” enzymes are seen to rise as high as 2-10 times normal in the blood depending upon type, duration, and intensity of training bouts. Muscle cell damage not only leaves you stiff and sore, you also lose some muscle strength; you won’t be able to move as well as normal, and you may have swelling. The kind of exercise you perform can affect how you feel. Sometimes your muscles stretch and return to their original size; this is called eccentric exercise. (If the muscle has not been pre-stretched before use, the limited range-of-motion (ROM) will allow tor eccentric activity to predominate.) Other times your muscles contract and return to their original size … this is called concentric exercise. (Here, pre-stretching will prevent muscle tearing as


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the muscle tries to move through its accustomed range-of-motion.) Lifting weights in an arm-curl is concentric; letting the weight down to lengthen the arm is eccentric. Almost all current theories acknowledge that eccentric action is the primary initiator of muscle soreness. Many studies over the years have compared concentric, eccentric, and static muscle actions, with those performing eccentric activity having, by far, the most muscle soreness. A rather clear-cut study was undertaken in the 1980’s having test subjects run on a treadmill for 45 minutes on two separate days. Initially, they would run on a level grade. Another day they would run on a 10% downhill grade. No muscle required extensive eccentric action, resulted in considerable soreness within 24-48 hours, even though the blood lactate levels, previously thought to cause muscle soreness, were much higher with level running. High-intensity, speed workouts can also affect how you feel. Muscles become sore after faster movement, even if the force and work levels were higher at slower speeds, according to studies from East Carolina University and the University of Wyoming., Sometimes you may hear that protein loss is a factor in sore muscles, but this is not the case. It is true that exercise increases protein turnover because some is broken down and is replaced during repair, but the amount is much less than most would believe. Most Americans get about 15% of their total calories from protein, which is about twice the recommended dietary allowance. Generally, they don’t need extra in their diet, or protein, or amino acid supplements for that matter. But those engaged in high-intensity, strength-demanding athletic endeavours; probably do need more protein than the average. As much as one gram of protein per pound of body of weight might be needed to build and sustain muscles and the power they generate. Preventing DOMS is Tough Researchers have worked hard to try to prevent muscle soreness, but usually their ideas haven’t worked. For example, when you work out, you breathe faster because you need more oxygen to burn muscle fuel faster. Some of the extra oxygen causes an increase in reactions that produce free radicals, which can cause damage even with anti-oxidant vitamins, but they don’t reduce muscle soreness. Vitamins C and E and Beta-Carotene made no difference to the after-effects of intense training of a rower at Cal Berkeley. There are similarities between sore muscles and inflammation, which causes pain, redness, stiffness, and swelling. It would sound logical to use anti-

inflammatories in this situation; the results have been very inconsistent; sometimes they seem to help, but more often they do not. Topical products that contain counter-irritants, such as menthol, seem to stimulate blood flow. Other topicals contain anti-inflammatories such as trolamine salicylate, a relative of aspirin. Both kinds of products may help a little by making you “feel” better with a counter-irritant effect, but there is no evidence that they actually promote healing. Cold applications also provide no actual healing but may keep swelling and in-sight bleeding down to a minimum immediately after activity; this could indirectly help the situation. But muscle spasm and contraction can result from intense cold, so cold (cryo) therapy should be limited to short-term immediate after-use application. On the other hand, adding heat such as with a heating pad (moist heat being better than dry heat) some hours later does provide for muscle-relaxation and increased blood flow, allowing for accelerated muscle repair. Minimising DOMS Good training habits help. First, start with slow warm-up. Cold muscles suddenly put to work are more likely to become damaged than warmed-up ones. Also, warm-ups help you relax, and put you in a right frame of mind to tackle a challenging workout. Warm-ups gradually increase your heart and breathing rates, and increase the flow of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles before you begin to work them hard. They also allow a gradual increase in the speed and strength of muscle contractions, and a decrease in joint stiffness. About 15 minutes should be allotted to each workout for this most important of rituals. Ideally, holding the stretch for about 30seconds. This overcomes the body’s resistance to stretching and allows for the muscle’s full-range-of-motion. Wise athletes cool down after workouts or races. If you suddenly quit, your heart and breathing rates will soon go back to resisting levels, but your muscles retain by-products such as lactate. If you continue to exercise at a lower intensity (about 60% of maximum effort), you keep your heart pumping at a somewhat higher than resting level. This keeps the supply of nutrients coming to help clear out your muscles. The main causes of DOMS are sudden increases in intensity or duration of workouts, or hard races. Large forces intensely-applied to the relatively small cross-sectional area of a muscle produced cell-membrane rupture, leakage of calcium and eventually necrosis (cell death) that peaks about 48 hours after the exercise. To build a training program logically, keep your training intensity and duration during the


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same week. These guidelines will allow your body to recover properly, and adapt slowly to improve performance levels. The military, on the other hand, is not famous for its logic and chooses to condition its recruits with just the opposite tactic … intense exercise every day with the expectation that eventually pain and stiffness will dissipate. You cannot over-emphasise the importance of adequate recovery from one workout before you begin your next; following hard workouts with easier ones is one way to implement this. And remember to eat a high-carbohydrate, low fat diet so your muscles have plenty of fuel. Handling Sore Muscles If you follow the ground rules but end up sore anyway, what then? Conventional injury treatments don’t seem to work well for DOMS, and there is now some evidence that the anti-inflammatories (Motrin, Aleve, etc.) may actually retard healing due to their prostaglandin inhibition (prostaglandins allow the body to trigger natural responses to infection and injury). Relief provided by these medicines seems to come mainly from their analgesic (pain-relieving) properties and from reducing the attendant swelling surrounding the inflamed area. You can try massage; most who do find it makes them feel good, even though it hasn’t been proven to speed healing. A series of tests have shown that when athletes worked out hard and followed up two hours later with 30 minutes of massage, their blood CK levels were lower, a kind of white blood cell called neutrophils that helps fight inflammation increased, and the athletes reported lower levels of DOMS, compared to a placebo treatment with “medication.” You can expect best results from a certified massage therapist, but self-massage and the use of hand-held massagers are also good. Small amounts of moderate exercise (active recovery) are much better than inactivity (passive recovery). You want to give your body a prod to stimulate natural healing processes, but not enough to cause more damage. Usually, one recovers in a few days from intense activity and is the better for it. Hard races need more caution, but in a multi-day championship, recovery must be timed to allow for repeat competition. A prescribed warm-down after each swim would be the most beneficial, along with massage at the end of the day’s events. There is one more area of thought that I want to present even though to traditionalists it may seem a bit of a “stretch” (pun intended) in physiologic reasoning: the eating of certain fruits which contain enzymes that reduce oedema (swelling) and inflammation and break up dead and damaged tissue to help heal and repair muscles sooner for the next

bout of exercise. Pineapples contain bromalains; papaya, mangos, and passion fruit contain papace and papain. These fruits (must be fresh, not processed) eaten daily can provide that little bit of added help in allowing the body to recover faster. In fact, for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the coaches of the German National Team have mandated the eating of such fruits to allow their athletes to train and race harder and then aid them in the recovery process. They are also using a product called Wobenzym N, which contains the enzymes pancreatin, papain, bromelain, trypsin and chymotrypsin plus the antioxidant rutin in the hopes of ensuring that all the athletes get the necessary quantities of these reparative enzymes. Ask anyone who has weathered the multi-swim battles at zones or nationals. They are usually so beat-up that even their eyebrows hurt! References: 1. Abernethy P.J., Thayer R. & Taylor A.W. (1990). Acute and

chronic responses of skeletal muscle to endurance and sprint exercise. SPORTS MEDICINE, 10; pp.365-389.

2. Armstrong R.B., Warren G.L., & Warren J.A. (1991). Mechanisms of exercised-induced muscle fiber injury. SPORTS MEDICINE, 212, pp.184-201.

3. Ebbeling C.B., & Clarckson P.M., (1989). Exercise-induced muscle damage and adaptation. SPORTS MEDICINE, 7, pp.207-234.

4. Kuipers H., Keizer H.A., Verstappen F.T.J., & Costill D.L., (1985). Influence of a prostaglandin-inhibiting drug on muscle soreness after eccentric work. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE, 6, pp.336-339.

5. Talag T.S. (1973). Residual muscular soreness as influenced by concentric, eccentric, and static contractions. RESEARCH QUARTERLY, 44, pp.458-469.

6. Wilmore Jack W., Costill David, (1994). PHYSIOLOGY OF SPORT AND EXERCISE, Human Kinetics, pp.78-80.

7. Sports Supplements; PHARMACIST’S LETTER, vol.16, no.9; September 2000; page 53.

(The following articles have been reproduced from American Swimming Magazine, 2001/Issue 2)

Boys By John Leonard Well everyone has suddenly woken up. The topic du jour is “what’s wrong with American Boys?” Everywhere you look nowadays, there is an article on boys. How to raise ‘em, how to graze ‘em, how to make ‘em whole. We have caught on to the fact that male college admissions are way down, male sports participation is way down, and male dysfunctional behavior is way up. The Media is alert to the problem. Club swim coaches have been well ahead of the media curve for 10 years now. They see up to 80% of their teams being dominated by girls. Why?


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“Boys want to act like boys, behave like boys, and it is different than many girls.”

Pet theories abound 1. Males don’t want to be measured by traditional

sports. (Hence the rise of “extreme [non-measured] sports.”)

2. There is too much competition for the male athlete from other sports, especially those that can earn real money. (What’s different? It’s always been like that.)

3. There are fewer “serious” sports for women. (Seen USA Today lately? Where’s the lack?)

4. Boys don’t like the discipline inherent in swimming practice. (Hence the threat from video games ... instant reward.)

5. Boys are into video games. Cheap thrills, no risks. And cool technology. (These things don’t appeal to girls? Seemingly not as much as to boys.)

6. Boys hate Speedos. (For a variety of reasons ... the fact that short suits are 180 degrees from today’s fashion trend for one.) What will the rise of the long Speedo Spiderman suits mean to this?

7. Boys hate structure. Girls love structure. Most swim coaches are providers of highly structured and disciplined programs. Hence, we attract girls and repel males.

8. No male role models in the sport. The media loves female swimmers, especially from Atlanta Olympic Games. We see Jenny, Dara, Amy, and so on all the time (and well earned). Less often do we see Josh, Lenny, and Tom Wilkens. This is self-fulfilling. Fewer male swimmers, fewer make it to the top of the world.

9. Success in the female side of the sport is easier to come by since more countries take men’s swimming seriously.

10. Boys don’t like getting their butt whipped by girls all the way from age 8 to age 14 or later. Until the great equaliser of puberty kicks in, boys can’t stay with girls in training or much of anything else.

Are they true? There is probably some truth to all of them, and in many examples, the problem is regional, with importance depending on where you are. The Trend Busters

Like all trends some people spot them first, and some people find a way to counteract them first. The point of this article is to highlight some of those coaches and programs that are bucking the trend and being highly successful with males in the sport. Bob Bowman of North Baltimore reports that they re-look at and sort of “re-invent” their program each year. About 18 months ago, they devised some new groups, with all the 9-13 year old boys in one group,

and split the ladies into two groups, one for 9 and 10 year olds, and the other for the 11-14 group of girls. The boys do one day less a week than the older girls, and go fifteen minutes less a day. They also do training programs that are more technique oriented and contain less volume than the ladies. “We worried in the beginning that the older girls group might get too social, but with the boys out of it, it actually went the other way, and they are now a very serious training group. Meanwhile, the boys’ team has grown because they bring their buddies into an all-male workout. We assigned John Burke, one of our full-time coaches who is very enthusiastic, to the group. He’s been key to making the boys successful.” Bob himself is coaching the older girls group. Bob also noted that with changing coaches in the groups each year or season, they keep the overall program fresh. The older girls were in the water for 1:45 per session, the boys group, 1:30 per session. This season, with a new pool coming into play, they will have the boys group and the younger girls group at the same time schedule in the same pool, in different groups. “The boys get a bit more leeway in the discipline areas” said Bob, “and they do a bit less volume of training, with a greater technique emphasis. Meanwhile, the older girls have become a serious training group and get a bit more coaching pressure to perform, which is good for them, at their age.” With Tom Himes off developing a satellite program for North Baltimore, and Bob Bowman, Murray Stephens and John Burke working with the original team group, North Baltimore is courageous in trying out some new models for development in young men. So far, it’s paying dividends. At the High School level, Coach Kirk Price at Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, CO had some great insights; “today, some of the difficulties in getting boys in sports start right at the school level. With political correctness, it seems like the schools try to get the boys to act like the girls in school. Now that’s not all bad, but it is in a number of ways. Boys want to act like boys, behave like boys, and it is different than many girls. When you have an all-boys team, the interactions are different than when you have a school team comprised of both boys and

girls.” Coach Price coaches 50-60 boys in high school swimming each

year, as well as 180 male tennis players. He thinks that in many places both sports are seen as “wimpy” and not masculine, but at his school, a lot of hard work and good thinking have gone into making both sports hard work, and more importantly, something the boys can take real pride in, being a part of the


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team. Coach Price says he puts a lot of effort in having the older athletes on the teams (seniors and juniors) mentor the freshmen and sophs. This connection with the older males is of vital importance to swimmers coming out for the team the first time. Coach Price offered one more compelling observation; “I have an open phone line to the parents, and I keep what we talk about totally private. Today, swim parents have had their children involved in sports for a long time and have some knowledge. To shut them out is wrong, so we work hard at communicating with them. And teenage boys would rather die than tell you, the coach, when they have a problem. So if you have a thick enough skin to talk with parents, you can learn a lot about which boy is having a problem with what item.”

Doping in Sports Symposium

Hormonal Doping and Androgenization of Athletes: A Secret Program of the German

Democratic Republic Government Part 1

Werner W. Franke – Division of Cell Biology/0110, German Cancer Research Centre, 1m Neuenheimer Feld

280, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. Brigitte Berendonk – Holderlin High School, Heidelberg,

Germany. Several classified documents saved after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1990 describe the promotion by the government of the use of drugs, notably androgenic steroids, in high-performance sports (doping). Top-secret doctoral theses, scientific reports, progress reports of grants, proceedings from symposia of experts, and reports of physicians and scientists who served as unofficial collaborators for the Ministry for State Security (“Stasi”) reveal that from 1966 on, hundreds of physicians and scientists, including top-ranking professors, performed doping research and administered prescription drugs as well as unapproved experimental drug preparations. Several thousand athletes were treated with androgens every year, including minors of each sex. Special emphasis was placed on administering androgens to women and adolescent girls because this practice proved to be particularly effective for sports performance. Damaging side effects were recorded, some of which required surgical or medical intervention. In addition, several prominent scientists and sports physicians of the GDR contributed to the development of methods of drug administration that would evade detection by international doping controls.

A Global Experiment in Secrecy One of the largest pharmacological experiments in history has been running for more than three decades, namely, the administration of drugs to athletes to enhance performance in many different kinds of sports. Notably, androgenic-anabolic steroids were

used with particular success for virilization of adolescent girls and female athletes. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this large and still ongoing global experiment is its widely accepted clandestine nature. Although the drug experiments involved many thousands of athletes, physicians, scientists, and sports and government officials, and although the success of these programs has been publicized through print, radio, and television, the nature of the program and its results largely have been kept inaccessible to direct scientific, medical, or judicially valid investigation. Since the mid-1970s, the use of androgenic steroids and other hormonal performance-enhancing drugs has been officially banned by sports authorities, and their usage has been controlled through analysis of urine samples taken at the time of competition … i.e. after drug withdrawal, a rather inefficient and insensitive method. In addition, in many countries the use of such drugs in sports has been declared illegal and prosecuted. But these measures have had relatively little impact. Occasionally, some athletes tested positive and were banned from competition for a period, but these occurrences were generally considered exceptions, and the athletes caught were regarded as “black sheep.” The reasons for this secrecy and misinformation of the public are multifold and may include the desire to protect the clean image of international sports for political and mercantile purposes. Athletes and coaches deny publicly and tenaciously the use of these drugs – not only because of the official ban and the recognition that such use is a violation of the principles of fairness and openness in sports, but also because athletes and sports organisations do not want to acknowledge that their achievements were not “all-natural” … i.e. solely due to individual talent and effort, but instead were drug-dependent. Consequently, deception is basic to doping, and athletes, coaches, physicians, and officials have frequently and emphatically denied any use of androgenic hormones, even before these drugs were officially banned. The role that scientists and physicians have played in this clandestine system is particularly sad, not only because these professionals actively contributed to the worldwide cheating, but also because they violated scientific and medical ethics. Remarkably, only a few of the physicians involved in doping have been held accountable for their misconduct and unethical behaviour.


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After a period of scientific controversy, it is now clear that androgenic-anabolic hormones are effective in enhancing performance in sports. Moreover, as has been demonstrated through scientific and official court documents, including secret doctoral theses and scientific reports, the positive effects of these and other hormonal drugs on muscle strength, aggressiveness, and performance in elite sports were common knowledge and had been in practice since the early 1960s for male athletes and since 1968 for female athletes. By far the most extensive and detailed documentation of this systematic drug abuse has come from the secret government files of one of the most successful sports nations of all times, the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Documents of the GDR Governments Doping System

All documents of the governmentally organised and controlled hormonal doping in the GDR sports system were classified and accessible only to selected persons (“cadres”). The security was controlled by the Ministry for State Security. After the political turn (“die Wende”) in late 1989, some information about a systematic doping system in the GDR, although undocumented, leaked to the Western press. At the same time, some of the officials of the GDR sport system apparently took care to assure that all compromising documents were either destroyed or collected by the Sports Medical Service. Many documents ‘disappeared” from official libraries, including several doctoral theses. Some documents were saved, however, particularly those stored at the Medical Academy of the National People’s Army in Bad Saarow, east of Berlin. We, the authors of this article, succeeded in acquiring several of the secret doctoral theses (for the degrees of Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Medical Sciences) that report the results of the effects, side effects, and damages observed during controlled administrations of steroids and certain peptide hormones to students, world-class athletes, and minors. Most of this work had been performed in Saxony, at the Research Institute for Physical Culture and Sports in Leipzig, and at the Central Doping Control Laboratory in Kreischa. In addition, one of us (W.W.F.), who in late 1990 served on a committee of the German Science Council that evaluated the research institutes of the former Academy of Sciences of the GDR, identified and copied some classified documents showing the involvement of the GDR research ministry and some of the Academy of

Science institutes in the development and administration of doping drugs in sports, in particular, the Central Institute for Microbiology and Experimental Therapy in Jena and the Institute for Research on Active Agents in Berlin. Also found were a series of scientific reports from the FKS and the research centres of the various sports associations and (a handwritten protocol book, giving the times and dosages of administration of androgenic-anabolic steroids to hundreds of male and female athletes. In addition, the Deputy Director and Chief Physician of the SMD (and the GDR doping system), Manfred Hoppner, himself sold some of the most incriminating documents to the weekly magazine Stern. Furthermore, since 1994, highly classified reports have been found that identify MDs and PhDs of the GDR sports system who acted as “unofficial collaborators” with the MfS and security police, Stasi; in this capacity they regularly reported (under a code name) “problems,” notably, those related to international sports affairs, the doping system, and possible signs of impending defection of persons from the GDR. These Stasi reports, some of which cover >30 years and >1000 pages, like other Stasi reports include examples in which a “friend” spies on a friend, a coach on his athletes, a physician on his patients, or even a husband on his wife; some also spied on their colleagues in other countries. Altogether, >150 documents have been discovered that deal with the systematic doping in the GDR sports system. These documents provide detailed information – e.g. type of drugs, times of administration and of pre-competition withdrawal, annual and daily dosages, damaging side effects to specific athletes – of the specific doping drug programs of >400 individual athletes. We have documented this evidence in several recent publications, including an expert report published by the Bundestag, the German parliament.

The Early Phase, 1966-1974: An Irresistible Temptation for a Prestige-Seeking Government

In the 1960s the GDR was a relatively obscure country with a Cold War image and dominated by the “Iron Curtain” surrounding it. GDR politicians soon discerned that athletic performance would be one of the fastest and cheapest means of obtaining international prestige for a country with a population of only 17 million. Great efforts were made to improve athletic success, from the systematic selection of talented children for special sports schools to the systematic use of illegal drugs. All of


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these efforts were organised efficiently and with totalitarian security measures. Success was real and obvious; from 1972 on, the small GDR was consistently in the top ranks of the medal counts, along with the US and the Soviet Union. Most of these medals were won with the help of banned drugs used for performance enhancement. Oral-Turinabol, the androgenic-anabolic steroid produced by the state-owned pharmaceutical company, VEB Jenapharm (Jena, Thuringia, GDR), was the compound most frequently used. This steroid, a chlor-substituted version of methandrostenolone, had been introduced for clinical use in 1965; by 1966, it was already being abused and administered to male athletes in the GDR sports system to enhance muscle strength, aggressiveness, and performance. At that time, androgenic steroids were already in widespread use among athletes proficient in muscle strength-dependent events in many countries, notably the US. In their preparations for the Olympic Games of 1968, however, GDR officials crossed another ethical barrier and administered androgenic hormones to female athletes. The results of the administration of Oral-Turinabol to male and female athletes during the 1968-1972 Olympic cycle were systematically evaluated in various kinds of events. One of the most important documents, a 1973 secret report by prominent doctors and coaches on the “on-off’ analysis of drug effects in the shot-put and throwing events in athletics shows the drug-induced enhancement of performance for 40 world-class athletes. Figure 1F1 presents a spectacular example, the drug effects on a woman shot-putter, and shows how her performance was reproducibly increased by -2m after daily intake of two tablets (10mg) of Oral-Turinabol for only 11 weeks. Similarly marked effects were reported for other athletes, particularly women, and starting in 1969, this effect was further enhanced by the administration of increasingly higher doses of the drug discontinuously in cycles of a few weeks each (Figure 1cF1). In their report, these authors also introduced new terminology to code the substances used. They proposed henceforth to refer to these drugs as Unterstutzende Mittel (UM … i.e. “supporting means”), stating, “Under UM we refer exclusively to anabolic steroids.” The use of the drug rapidly spread to other kinds of sports, and according to Hoppner, many, if not all, medal-winning GDR athletes in strength- and speed-dependent events at the Olympic Games of 1972 in Munich had been treated with Oral-Turinabol. The effects of the treatment with androgenic hormones

were so spectacular, particularly in female athletes in strength-dependent events, that few competitors not using the drugs had a chance of winning.

Figure 1. Effects of an androgenic-anabolic steroid, Oral-Turinabol, on the shot-put performance (in metres, y-axis) of a female athlete (code identification 1/68 in a, 1/69 in b, and 1/72 in c) directly photographed from the secret scientific report of Bauersfeld et al., as one of the numerous examples documented, chosen here because of its historic importance as the first documented case of androgenic doping of a woman. (a) 1968. The rectangle from July 28 to October 13 shows the period of drug administration, and the numbers above each date show the number of tablets taken per week (here, 14, or 10mg per day). The curve presents the results of the specific competitions, showing the increase of strength and performance in a fully trained woman. At the time of the first drug application in 1968, the athlete had been well trained for almost 14 years. Under the influence of the drug, however, she gained unprecedented muscle strength and improved her records dramatically within a few weeks. (b) 1969. The steroid was given in three cycles and at various dosages, from 7 to 21 tablets per week (i.e. 5-15mg daily). Without the drug, she could not reach 18m but when taking the drug, she improved her world record once more, to 20.10m. (c) 1972. She took even more of the androgenic hormone, with daily dosages of up to 7 tablets per day (35mg), in four cycles, for a total androgenic load of 1450mg for the year. This led to her top performances in the winter indoor season (left curve) as well as in the summer (right curve) and another personal best (20.22m). Note the much lower performance at times off the


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drug or after only short periods of androgenization. Also, after four years of systematic androgenization, her basic strength level even when not taking the drug had also increased by –1m, indicative of a residual effect. In the GDR of the 1970s, the use of this and other androgenic hormones became customary among athletes, including minors. For a talented female athlete, it was a no-win situation: They could either take it (the drug) or leave it (give up competitive sports). The dosages were also drastically increased, at least until the late 1970s, when some of the damaging side effects became so overt that in the swimming events of the Olympic Games in Montreal 1976, where the GDR won 11 out of 13 events, journalists were inquiring about the strangely deep-sounding voices of the broad-shouldered GDR female swimmers. In a summary report to the Stasi on March 3, 1977, SMD Deputy Director Hoppner (Vol.II of his Stasi reports under the code name “Technik,” pp.243-44), described the GDR results and concluded… “At present anabolic steroids are applied in all Olympic sporting events, with the exception of sailing and gymnastics (female), ... and by all national teams. The application takes place according to approved basic plans, in which special situations of individual athletes are also considered. The positive value of anabolic steroids for the development of a top performance is undoubted. Here are a few examples... Performances could be improved with the support of these drugs within four years as follows … Shot-Put (men) 2.5-4m; Shot-Put (women) 4.5-5m; Discus Throw (men) 10-12m; Discus Throw (women) 11-20m; Hammer Throw 6-10m; Javelin Throw (women) 8-15m; 400m (women) 4-5sec; 800m (women) 5-10sec; 1500m (women) 7-10sec. Remarkable rates of increase in performances were also noted in the swimming events of women. From our experiences made so far it can be concluded that women have the greatest advantage from treatments with anabolic hormones with respect to their performance in sports. Especially high is the performance-supporting effect following the first administration of anabolic hormones, especially with junior athletes.”

Since the early 1970s many athletes of the GDR, notably females, were given not only oral androgenic steroids but also injections with androgenic hormones, including nandrolone esters or, most frequently, testosterone esters. The strong virilizing side effects of injectable testosterone esters were accepted by most female athletes, but some refused to participate in this additional testosterone injection program. Moreover, several other classes of doping drugs, from stimulants (e.g. amphetamines) to oligopeptides (e.g. oxytocin), were also used. Because the effect of doping with androgenic hormones was so spectacular in female athletes, the abuse of such drugs rapidly spread not only to Eastern Bloc countries but also, since the mid-1970s, to countries of the Western world, including West Germany and in particular the US. Thus, the women with natural ambiguity of sex characteristics, who had played a significant role in female sports until the introduction of sex test controls in the late 1960s, were soon followed by the pharmacologically induced ambiguous sex characteristics. The androgenic changes in phenotype were obvious in 1968 at the Olympic Games in Mexico City, and one of us (B.B.), a finalist in the discus throw there, later described in several articles the imminent threat of androgenization to women’s sport and proposed out-of-competition control by analysing athletes’ urine with gas chromatography. This alarming prediction and the proposed solution were met with hostile silence and were not adopted for almost two decades. Figure 2 – Decreased performances in women’s strength-dependent events worldwide, after implementation in 1989 of some (though still insufficient) out-of-competition doping controls: ordinates present metres of performance of the world best (upper curve) and the average of the 10 best (lower curve) athletes in the javelin throw (A), discus throw (B), and shot-put (C) for the years 1987-1993. This decrease since 1989 has further continued until today. In 1996, for example, no woman put the shot beyond 21m, only two reached 20m, and the average of the 10 best is now only 19.89m. In 1996, many athletes were 2m or more below their personal best from previous years. In the discus throw, no woman in 1996, including the Olympic champion, threw beyond 70m, well short of the junior record of 74.40m set in the GDR in 1988 by the then 18-year-old champion to be. And the best javelin throw of 1996 was shorter than the 1988 world record by >10.50m(!).


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This abrupt decline in performances after the introduction of random out-of-competition testing has been passed over in painful silence, even in scientific journals, but cannot easily be overlooked. For example, the best result of the 1996 Olympic gold medal winner of the shot-put in Atlanta, GDR-derived athlete Astrid Kumbernuss, would have finished only in sixth place at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, almost 2m behind the GDR winner at that time, who tossed for 22.56m. This trend of decline, however, does not prove that today’s best athletes are free from doping; it merely suggests that there is less doping than previously. In particular, the studies of GDR scientists established that “androgenic initiation” has permanent effects in girls and women: After a critical period of androgenization and an increase in muscle strength, a higher performance level is reached that does not return to pre-treatment values after the drug is withdrawn (see also Figure 1F1). In this respect, many of today’s top athletes still profit from their previous androgenization.

1974: The GDR Organises and Controls Systematic Doping

In 1974, GDR sport officials and the government faced an emerging dilemma. On the one hand, the effectiveness of androgenic hormones in most sporting events implied that to be internationally competitive one had to take these drugs as long as even a few of one’s competitors did. On the other hand, the GDR, which, like most other countries, had officially denied the administration of such drugs and repeatedly pledged to fight against doping, was now being exposed to the problem of drug testing for androgenic-anabolic steroids at major international competitions.

In fact, analyses of urine samples for androgenic steroids were announced for the 1974 European Athletic Championships in Rome, but no positive results were published. Obviously, what the GDR Government feared most were positive test results from their successful athletes at international sporting events,3 which would damage not only the image of the GDR as a “sports nation” but also the whole concept of the superiority of the socialist system as the better and more humane way. Therefore, a general strategy and a centrally organised system were developed to secure both efficient hormonal doping and evasion of detection. Because of the political importance of the problem, a crucial decision was taken at the governmental level … i.e. by the Central Committee of the reigning Socialist Party. The final government bill, classified Top Secret, was discussed and approved on October 23, 1974, by the Commission for High-Performance Sport of the ZK. Great care apparently was taken that all copies of the 9-page bill and the original protocol of the session were destroyed; ironically, however, a single copy made a few days before by the MfS survived in the Stasi files and now provides evidence that the final decisions were made at the highest governmental level and enacted by government order. The bill of 1974 provided, among other things, that the administration of doping substances, notably androgenic steroids, to male and female athletes should… 1. Be an integral part of the training process and of

preparations for major international competitions 2. Be organised tightly and centrally, including

regular evaluations of the results obtained and the


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experiences made by the sports physicians involved

3. Be directly controlled by the SMD, including the establishment of a centralised drug distribution and documentation system

4. Be further developed and optimised by research on doping in high-performance sports, with special emphasis on the development of new substances and the most efficient patterns of administration, considering both the requirements of the specific sporting event, the time of drug administration and withdrawal, and other methods to avoid detection at international meetings

5. Be taught to sports physicians and coaches in special documents and courses

6. Take place in absolute secrecy and be classified as an Official State Secret

It was also agreed that the research in this area should be coordinated by the FKS in Leipzig as a “Working Group Supporting Means” in a special research program financed by special government SKS grants. This comprehensive and, by GDR standards, well-funded program was originally called “Research Program 08” and later “State Plan Research Theme 14.25”. Medical records of most doped athletes were kept in the central office of the SMD in Berlin and at the SMD Institute in Kreischa, which consisted of a research hospital and the ZDKL (Claus Clausnitzer, Director), a laboratory accredited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The ZDKL was of increasing political importance, being primarily used not to detect drug abuse but to avoid the detection of drug abuse by GDR athletes in international doping controls. Therefore, after the positive doping case of shot-put star Ilona Slupianek in 1977, every GDR athlete was required to provide a urine sample a few days before departing to an international competition at which doping controls would be performed; these pre-competition samples were taken by a special delivery system to the ZDKL and analysed. The results were transmitted, in coded fashion, first by telephone and then in written form to Hoppner and the sports officials, and athletes testing positive were excluded from participation (for cases involving misuse of testosterone, however, see below). This screening system, commonly called Ausreisekontrolle (“departure control”), was apparently effective and resulted in a number of last-minute exclusions, including some prominent athletes. The activities of seven ministries were integrated in this doping and research program, and the Central

Working Group for the Protection of State Secrets of the Stasi developed a network of >1000 sport collaborators, informants, and spies (“unofficial collaborators”). The final version of the improved Security Concept of January 10, 1979, was approved by a Stasi general and included “operative espionage” in sport and research institutions of other countries, especially in relation to developments in improved methods for detection of doping drugs. In this drug administration program, >2000 athletes preparing for international competitions were treated each year. In addition, numerous “cadre B and C” and junior athletes, including minors, were also treated with androgenic hormones and with substances such as human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and clomiphene, which stimulate endogenous testosterone synthesis, depending on the specific sporting event. For example, in weightlifting, the “official” steroid treatments were usually started at age 16 or 17, although cases of administration to younger children have been also documented in events in which minors could be world-class athletes: In swimming, girls of 14 or younger were given androgenic hormones; 14-15-year-old girls and boys were also hormone-doped in canoeing and kayaking, rowing, and various winter sporting events. All hormone-treated athletes, including minors, and the physicians and coaches involved were sworn to keep the state secret. Care was taken that adolescents swallowed the Oral-Turinabol tablets, described as “vitamin pills,” in the presence of their coaches; they were not allowed to take the tablets home or talk about such treatments with anybody, including their parents. Injections of steroids or of other drugs were also explained as necessary medications or prophylaxis. In special “secrecy instructions” for physicians and scientists working in this program, the Director of the SMD identified those persons allowed to be informed about the doping details and determined the procedures for controlling the secrecy. Remarkably, the secrecy was, by and large, maintained, despite the large numbers of athletes, physicians, scientists, coaches, and officials involved. How hormone doping was organised within the individual sport associations is documented in detail in the May 1979 Stasi report of Hans-Henning Lathan (under code name “Klaus Muller”), chief physician and international representative of the GDR Weightlifting Association…


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In the DGV a first agreement is obtained by the head coach, the special coaches, and the team physician as to which athlete should receive “UM”. A detailed conception for drug administration is then worked out by the team physician in a written form and sent, via the classified document office of the FKS, to Dr. Hoppner and the classified document office of the SMD of the GDR. From the central SMD office in Berlin the individual sports medical district advisory offices of the SMD in the individual counties are informed which athlete shall participate in the drug program. A selected sports doctor is then nominated as the responsible MD for all doping drug (UM) problems in each of these county offices. This central county office doctor will inform the corresponding doctors in the sports clubs and sports associations about the decision concerning the drug administration to a specific athlete and will swear them to absolute secrecy. When information is given by telephone the doctors talk in coded terms; in the DGV the UM drugs are usually called “vitamins.” The sports doctors will swear the athletes and the coaches to secrecy and this will be recorded in special “secrecy books” for classified information. The sports doctors will then hand out the weekly doses to the specific coach who in turn will give the drugs to the athlete. This conception is controlled at all levels by random checks of the amounts of drugs distributed, consumed, and leftover. In the DGV, the athletes usually know that the drugs they receive are anabolic steroids. Here the special problem exists that so many athletes … i.e. all members of the cadres A, B and C, are part of the anabolic steroid program, so that secrecy leaks could occur. The drug dosages of the DGV weightlifters were very high, sometimes exceeding, in the upper weight categories, 10g per year. In 1979, for example, one GDR weightlifter took 11.550g of Oral-Turinabol plus 13 injections of testosterone esters and hCG. Altogether, the specific drug consumption of 400 GDR athletes is now well documented, including numerous world-record holders and medal winners at Olympic Games and World and European Championships. These athletes included most GDR gold medal winners in the swimming events since the 1976 Olympic Games and all GDR gold medal winners in the throwing events of the 1988 Games.

Annual dosage, mg Events 3680 Shot-put 3190 Discus 2900 Shot-put 2615 Shot-put 2590 Shot-put 1670 Sprint 1560 Hurdles 1480 Hurdles 1474 Sprint 1460 Sprint 1450 Shot-put 1405 Sprint 1380 Heptathlon 1375 Sprint 1340 Heptathlon 1255 Discus 1230 Heptathlon 1230 Hurdles 1185 Javelin

Table 2 – Some documented dosages of androgenic-anabolic steroid (oral-Turinabol) taken by female GDR medal winners (track and field) in Olympic Games, World Championships, and European Championships. The androgenization of girls and young women was a most effective part of the GDR doping program. The doses given were surprisingly high, and many of the top women in track and field events and in swimming took amounts of androgenic steroids that were higher than the doses taken by male athletes in the same or comparable events. For example, several female gold medal sprinters took higher amounts of male hormone than did the male GDR sprinters. The leading female athlete in one track event (sprint) was given a maximum annual dosage of 1460mg, more than double the dosage recorded for the leading male GDR athlete in the same event. Mestanolone, which was available only as an experimental preparation from the research institute ZIMET, was also given to female gymnasts and handball and volleyball players without having been approved for administration to humans, not even in clinical phase 1 trials. Hoppner reported it to the Stasi as something he was not willing to be held responsible for. However, the person responsible for the illegal use of STS646 and other steroids, a pharmacology professor, was even honoured for his supportive role in the GDR doping system.


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Figure 3 – Examples of the analyses of the performance-enhancing effects of the first-time administration of the androgenic-anabolic steroid Oral-Turinabol (OT), alone or together with mestanolone (STS646), in two junior athletes: a female long jumper (W61, left panels) and a decathlete (MK12, right panels). The upper panel shows the best performances (L.Leistung) in the seasons from 1980/81 to 1983/84 (x-axis) in the long jump in metres (m, ordinate) and in the decathlon in points (Pkt, Punkte). The middle panel presents in a histogram the annual dosages of androgenic steroids (mg OT: additional STS doses shown in dotted bars). In addition to the OT-tablets the long-jumper was in 1984 twice injected with 25mg of testosterone propionate, and the male decathlete received additional testosterone propionate injections totalling 30mg (3x10) in 1982 and 1983 and 320mg (3x100, 2x10) in 1984. The bottom panel presents the corresponding curves of the developments of certain test performances such as maximal muscle strength (MK), speed power (SK), sprint speed (S), and endurance at high speed (SA) at different intensities (I). This is a direct photograph of Fig.21 of the scientific report of Dietrich Nicklas and colleagues of the research institute FKS in Leipzig (37).

Legend text translated … “Relationships of the major training means used, performance development and anabolic steroid (AS) administration before and after the year of the first AS application, using the example of a demale long jumper and a male decathlete.” At the time of the first treatment with a total of 935mg OT, the long-jumper was still a minor. Her example was presented by these authors to show that in young girls relatively low drug dosages can be effective for top achievements in the jumping events. The treatment of young girls with androgenic hormones was especially rewarding in the medal-rich swimming events, where it secured consistent international success. Although most of the physicians involved were aware of and documented the damaging side effects of the drugs, and even found this treatment unethical (as they reported to the Stasi), they were subservient to the political system. Consequently, the treatment of talented swimmers in the mid-1980s with androgens started usually at age 14, with a total annual dosage of 670mg given in three cycles with maximal daily doses of 10mg. Considering the strictly central and tight organisation of this program and its control by the Stasi, even in such a totalitarian system, a “black market” for doping drugs existed. Drugs like Oral-Turinabol and other compounds were so much in demand that the top-cadre athletes and their coaches often wanted more than the allotted dose, and second-class athletes and coaches of minors in so-called training centres (in some cases this involved 9-12-year-old-boys and girls) tried everything to obtain “the stuff” unofficially on the black market. The driving force behind these efforts to obtain doping drugs through illegal sources was the importance attributed to success in sports in the GDR society, which provided increased salaries and privileges such as travel abroad for both the athlete and the coach. The Chief Physician of the DGV repeatedly complained about the craving of the coaches for more and more steroids.


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Preparing for the Million Dollar Challenge

CChhuucckk RRiiggggss oonn DDiissttaannccee TTrraaiinniinngg

(Notes by Michael Brooks, 1978) In one of the innovative programs in Sports, USA-Swimming has put forward a program called the Million Dollar Challenge for USA athletes in the 2004 Athens Olympics. If a male in the 1500, or a female in the 800, both wins the Gold Medal and sets a world record, they will receive $1m from USA-Swimming. Their coach will receive a half million in payment. This, designed to encourage and stimulate American Distance swimming, which languished in the doldrums from 1976 to 2000, has already excited many people and given focus and goals to some existing talents. ASCA will provide a section at the World Clinic 2001 in New Orleans on Distance Training past and present, with the idea that clues from the past may well lead up forward. In the same light, we will present historical articles relating to the same topic in this magazine over the next few years. This article, by Coach Chuck Riggs in 1978 (Coach of Sippy Woodhead, one of our greatest distance Freestylers in history) is a classic and our first offering. ENJOY – LEARN – TRAIN – GET WEALTHY

Riggs’ Philosophy of Swimming Training Riggs was Sippy Woodhead’s coach at Riverside in California. Riggs points out that though he will talk about Woodhead’s training program, it is the program from last year, so it will not be what she is doing this season, “because we will try to improve our program and make it even better.” Important questions: “Can you have a distance program without going 20,000 yards or metres per day? Do you have to go that massive yardage in order to have an effective distance-swimming program?

My answer to this question is, that you do not, if your program is a quality one, which means swimming at race pace on a daily basis. I feel that it is possible to swim distance events by swimming fast in practice on a regular basis. The Riverside distance program is based on the concept of distance through QUALITY not QUANTITY.” Riggs acknowledges he used ideas from other coaches … Ron Ballatore, Tony Turner, Dick Jochums, and Don Swartz. And he cautions… “It would be a mistake for you to listen to what I have to say, then go home and try to do exactly what we do. You have to develop your own program. You have to be comfortable with what you are doing. Don’t copy others – take their ideas and make them fit into your own creation.”

“Distance through Speed” “Our program changed a great deal in the 77-78 season from the previous one. We went from a very high mileage program to a lower mileage, higher quality program. The main reason we made the big change is that I do not think swimmers can handle the massive yardage physically and mentally year after year. My swimmers could not have done it again. I think that it was more mental than physical. Physically, I think that I could have beaten them through it again, but their minds would not have been ready for it.” Riggs breaks the team into groups after a long warm-up and some hard kicking together … a Distance and Middle Distance Group; Sprinters; Breaststrokers; Butterflyers and Backstrokers; IM’ers. Sippy did not do the distance group every workout; instead, she did some with distance, some with IM, some with Butterfly, some with sprinters. “Each swimmer was on a rotating schedule.” They didn’t work out on Monday mornings, so they worked that much harder the other 11 workouts. He had a published schedule so each swimmer knew which group he would be swimming with for each workout.


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He wanted them to train for more than one event, to be able to swim many events well, to keep variety in their training programs and keep them from getting bored, and to enable them because of the variety to swim at race pace every workout. “I believe swimmers have to swim fast in workout if they want to swim fast in a meet. I reinforce this concept on a daily basis. I felt that my swimmers could swim fast all the time and this is what I expected of them everyday.” A lot of the motivation to swim fast resulted from Riggs having his swimmers do different workouts. “They were not labelled into a particular group each workout. This type of program enabled all of the kids to give a 100% effort all of the time. You have to swim fast in practice if you expect to swim fast in the Meets.” “Each workout was broken up into groups after the 2000 to 3000 warm-up. Our warm-up was designed to get them fired up, and ready to go. We would swim fast, short sets to get them going. The warm-up was always done with all but the Breaststrokers rotating daily; Breaststrokers swam mostly Breaststroke … seven out of 11 workouts. Sippy swam five out of 11 workouts Middle-Distance; one Distance; two Sprint; one IM; two Butterfly; and once in a while she would swim Breaststroke. “I believe that if a swimmer swims fast (quality) in practice on a regular basis, they can swim an event or distance without doing massive yardage. We never went over 15,000 in any one day this year; Sippy probably averaged 13,000 a day. The times she swam in practice were very fast.” “All season long there was a lot of variety in the workouts. We did a lot of broken swims, descending sets, negative splits, and we tried to never repeat a workout. I try to make every workout a challenge and a creation. My goal was to challenge them to do their best each and every day. You have to convince the kids that there is only one way to be great, and that is to work hard. Once you get them to believe that it does not make any difference what you do in workout as long as you are giving it a 100% effort, then, you will have swimmers swimming at ‘Race Pace’ on a daily basis, which is really the key to our program.” “If the set is a descending set of four, then #4 should be as close to their race pace as possible. A

descending set of four does not mean three easy and one hard; it means starting at a particular speed then dropping your time one or two seconds in a controlled fashion. The swimmer decides how much he wants to drop the time on each swim before the set begins. I will often give them a goal to go for on the descending sets. This will challenge them and also let them know what is expected of them. Man will do only what is expected of him; very seldom will he exceed what is expected of him.” Examples of Sippy’s sets in practice. “Both Sippy and Jennifer Hooker swam great races that were planned ahead of time. We try to swim the races in practice, as close to our race pace as possible. What they do on their swims in practice has to have a direct relation to the way they want to swim their races in meets. We try to reinforce the concept you can swim fast all the time in practice, and you should swim as close to race pace as possible.” “We often do descending sets which try to get the swimmer to descend down to the actual pace they would like to swim for the second and third 100’s of their 400 metre race. This makes the kids think about their races at all times and also gives some purpose to the sets that they are doing that day. Thus, the swimmers have rehearsed their races time and time again. The Meets are a cinch after all this rehearsing! Our swimmers can go to Meets and know what to expect, because they have swum the race so many times in practice.” Broken 1650, all at race pace: 1000 for time, negative split; 200 easy, then 5x100 on 1:00; 100 easy, then 3x50 on :30. Animal Set: 4x200 on 4:00; for each second over a swimmer’s best time, he receives an animal point, with the swimmer amassing the fewest points the winner.

Dryland Training Riggs’ team doesn’t have fancy weight training equipment. “However, we do work very hard with what we have. I have always been a very strong believer in weights for swimming. There is only one way that a swimmer can achieve true potential as a swimmer and that is to be as strong as possible.” The kind of weights you do doesn’t really matter. “A swimmer will gain strength with whatever you have available, which is the only limiting factor for any of us.”


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Weights three times a week for 45 minutes, consisting of circuit training with no rest between sets. A circuit with 30 stations, including mini-gym, free weights, universal gym, stretch cords, and sled. They do the exercises correctly, and hard, or they leave. “All weights are lifted with the negative lift concept” … i.e. letting the weight down slower than you pushed it up. “We try to make our weight program apply as much as possible to what we want to happen in the pool. We try to always have them explode the weight up (positive action) as fast as possible and then let it down slowly. We are training our swimmers to be fast, not slow and sluggish. We consider the weights a very important part of that day’s workout and they are expected to give 100%.” There are five stretching stations spaced throughout the circuit. “I emphasise that they do the weights correctly or they don’t do them at all. The only way swimmers are going to do the weights correctly is for the coach to stand on top of them and closely supervise. Do not ever leave the weight room, if you want to make sure everything stays in one piece.” Riggs emphasises negative lifting for two reasons … it helps keep kids from getting injured while lifting weights; and they gain more strength by negative lifting. Every sixth weight workout they do a test set … the greatest weight they can lift three times, very fast and explosively on the way up, and slowly down. “We do this heavy weight set only every sixth weight workout. I am not trying to build big bulging muscles, so most of our weight training is done with a lighter weight and fast repetitions.” “Our weight program is set up to make each kid as strong as possible, per pound of body weight. We have a contest once a month that gives us a measure of this. Much of the success our swimmers have had this year is partially credited to our weight program. I have always believed in the value of weight training and I am constantly looking for ways to improve our program.”

The Donut “The Donut” is a very important part of the program. When combined with paddles and a pull buoy, this creates tremendous drag, so coaches should start the swimmers with only a very little yardage and add stress gradually. “The Donut helps the swimmer develop strength in a symmetrical fashion because it keeps the legs straight and helps

keep the stroke smooth. The resistance created by the Donut is equivalent to pulling a 30-pound weight down the pool. I demand that swimmers have long perfect strokes at all times while they are using the Donut.” If they shorten their strokes, they will not gain as much strength, and they are more likely to hurt or strain their shoulders. “We don’t try to swim fast with the Donut; we try to swim strong and feel the water, with long, perfect strokes.” Its real value is building swimming strength; it is much more difficult than swimming with a tube. They stop wearing the Donut six weeks before the big meet.

Stroke Counting Riggs counts their strokes for a 25 or a 50, both in practice and in races. “Basically, it makes them aware of their pace and their feel for the water. It also shows them how much stronger they are getting when they are able to go faster times during the taper with fewer strokes. I have also found that it helps in detecting failing adaptation.” Counting strokes helps the swimmers keep their strokes efficient.

Recap “You have to expect the maximum of each swimmer; they won’t strive for any more than is expected of them. The coach has to challenge each swimmer to be the very best possible him’ in every workout.” “There is no substitute for hard work! There are no magic wands, no easy way. Swimmers have to think about what and how they are doing their swims in each and every practice. Every stroke, every turn, and every start done in practice should be perfect. Thus, you are working on stroke at all times and not just at the end of the season. Why practice something all year long that you are not going to do in your big meet? The coach and the swimmers have to be positive about what they are doing if they want to get the most out of their efforts.” The Riverside distance program philosophy … Distance swimming through swimming

at race pace quality.


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Questions What does Riggs do if a swimmer breaks down under the intensity of the load? “You are on top of it all the time. They are expected to swim fast. Some days they just can’t do it ... I’m not afraid to back off. I’m not afraid to say, take it easy tonight.” How many kids in his group? No more than 30, and 20 is probably the most he can handle efficiently. “Since I have five to eight different workouts every night, I make up the workout so that during the different sets I am able to stand over each lane. I try to hit every workout group every night to be really on top of them. That’s why I said that each workout is a creation.” On the importance of doing weight workouts right… “I feel that they have to do it right or it is not worth doing. I throw them out of the weight room if they don’t want to work. They’re wasting my time – and theirs!” Could Sippy have had such a successful season in the quality type program without having done the distance base of 20,000 to 25,000 the year before? “Obviously the 20,000 did not hurt her. Physically, she was capable of doing it. Mentally, I could not have gotten her to do it again this year for love or money. I won’t really know the answer to that question until some of the new kids, who started the program this year, are a couple of years into it. But I really feel that you can do a distance program with quality! The concept is to put stress on the body. If the body is stressed to the maximum, what more can you do to it? Sippy did have a strong distance base background before the fact. I don’t know the answer.”

Einstein’s GOLF LESSON

By Anne Cain Golf Magazine, October 2000

Let me tell you a true story about Professor Albert Einstein. In the late 1930s, Dr. Einstein was invited to join the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton University. The institute’s founder was an avid golfer and he encouraged Einstein to give the game a try. At first, Einstein said no, but after continued urging from his peers, he visited nearby Springdale Golf Club. He arranged a lesson with a young, energetic pro. The first lesson covered chipping and putting. While Einstein was famous for his mind, he was not very skilful with his hands. The pro soon realised he had a formidable task and, after each of Einstein’s failed attempts to contact with the ball, gave him more instructions. As the lesson progressed, Einstein became confused and frustrated. He finally asked his instructor to hand him a few balls. The pro gave the professor a puzzled look and handed him four. Einstein threw all the balls at the instructor and shouted, “Catch!” The pro waved his arms furiously, but failed to catch a single ball. Einstein paused a moment, raised his finger, and said, “Young man, when I throw balls, you catch nothing! So when you teach, make only one point at a time!” A student of mine, Dr. Robert Lewis, of Princeton New Jersey – now 84 years old – told me about this failed attempt at golf instruction. It provides a simple, but profound, message about teaching or learning any difficult task, including golf.

Keep your thoughts simple and work on one key at a time. Anne Cain is an instructor at The Golf Club of Amelia Island in Amelia Island, Florida.


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