First practice was only at 5:45am, since it was a Saturday. Peter Bishop is the head coach of the Norwood Swim Club. He coaches Hayden Stockel (the Aussie that broke the Olympic record in the semis of the 100 back). He also coaches Matt Cowdrey (push 50 meters free in 26 +). He is swimming 8 events at the Paralympics in Beijing. Matt is an amputee from the elbow down on his left arm. He leaves for training camp with Peter today. Matt is FAST. He should be coming back with a few golds. Peter also has a female swimmer, Shelley Rogers, with CP and she has made the Aussie Paralympic team was well. She will be swimming 200 IM. Peter seems to be a fantastic coach. He was highly recommended by numerous other coaches as well as the CEO of the Australian Swim Coaches and Teachers Association. He really coaches… stops them when they are not training technically the way they should be. His swimmers seem to respect and enjoy what he puts into the practices. Again, very quality focused, no garbage yardage. Today they went quality swimming focusing on stroke tempo and stroke count. They went a total of about 4200 SC meters. The pool today was one that they prefer not to use… warmer water and poor air circulation . So their quality sets were a little shorter in duration than what they might be at the other pool (Monday’s practice). The Norwood Swim Club also has a HUGE learn to swim school, they have about 1500-2000 kids come through the school every year. The Australian push to have everyone know how to swim is amazing. I understand that they are all around water, but the parents have to want to have their children in these programs even if they live inland.
Monday we trained at the Adelaide Aquatic Center on the north side of the city. I followed Shelley Camy, a new coach from the UK, who has just moved to AU and take over the Burnside Swim Club. I think she has been here for only 11 weeks. She brought with her one of the Olympians from her former team. It seems that big name swimmers help the club to grow. I am still getting a kick out of the Australian news. The big news was that Stephanie Rice “might” be Michael Phelps’s new girlfriend. When interview, Stephanie said that they had briefly met and she is “so impressed with what Michael has accomplished”. So, she might not be his new girlfriend, but I am sure she will read his new memoir that he announced he would be writing. All the commercials on the television are also sport related. There is one with Brooke Hansen with a laptop at the pool. She comes over in her swim suit and picks up the lap top and starts typing. Then someone splashes her, and spills water on the lap top and she turns the lap top over, the water pours off and then she says “be careful”. I think she got lots of money for that. The Olympics is 24 hours on the TV, ABC, channel 7. They are into it.
Practice on Monday.
First practice with Burnside was and afternoon practice. They had FOUR teams using the pool at the same time. The pool is amazing, however. 8 lane 50-meter, with separate diving and water polo pool. The diving area has four 3-meters, four 1-meters and tower with10-meter on down. They have a dryboard and do trampoline work as well. I guess Adelaide is known for their divers. They have nothing to do with Burnside swimming, they are a separate entity. I saw some really impressive divers. There seemed to be about four different coaches and athletes ranging from 6 years old to 18-20 years old. The water polo program is again separate from the swimming club. The program I was watching was H.S. Swimmers on Burnside (and anyone that uses this pool) needs to be a member of the Aquatic Center and then also pay fees for the swim team. Then the Aquatic Center charges the teams for lane use. Seems like a little double dipping to me. Some teams charge club fees of up to $190/month where others are as reasonable as $200/3 months. They have their state meet this weekend. Entry fees are $11-12 per EVENT! Some kids were swimming 8 or 9 events. Yikes!
Probably one of the most surprising things with this first practice, was a swimmer that I met. He was a study-abroad college swimmer from Denison, Matt Newton. He had been in Adelaide for about 4 weeks and swims with Burnside three times per week. We chatted after practice about swimmers I knew that attend Denison and the unique aspects of Australia that can make an American a little nutsy.
The training was a massive threshold set: 24x100 (SCM) at threshold @1:45. Threshold was PB plus 10-15 sec. The last one was from a dive and all out. This was the first set I witnessed that was somewhat similar to typical American training. She still had a focus of stroke count per 50, and a certain number of kicks off the wall. This program was less developed than the other two and younger. With Shelly only being there for 11 weeks, I could easily see the difference. A unique aspect of training here is that for a recovery after a threshold or lactate set, the coach has the swimmers put fins on and kick a fast 600 fly kick. This is supposed to remove lactate faster than just easy swimming. The swimmers were not real “keen” (Aussie language) on this.
There were also some unique aspects to coach’s pay. I was told (by someone not from Burnside) that the previous Burnside Coach earned $100-110/year. However, only $40K was paid in cash. It was very typical for someone to come in with a case of wine (if their family owned a vineyard), or petro vouchers, or bartering for free groceries if the family owned a grocery store. This was all in exchange for coaching fees.
The next practice was a morning practice (5-7am). Again, the pool being shared but not as many teams or people. The squad is expected to do anywhere from 5-10 sessions per week. It seems that a virus had been going through and numbers were a little low b/c of this. From morning practice they all head out to school. Most schools start at 8:30am. For afternoon practice they actually can get a pass to be let out :30 minutes early from school to attend swim practice. These are H.S. students… I was blown away by this. That is how swim club and swim training is viewed by schools and by the country.
Yardage was a little higher here than with Norwood or Nunawading in Melbourne. I think there is more of a similarity between UK training and American training. Lots of pulling and they use bands like the other two teams did.
Aside from swimming stuff, I fed Kangaroos (see picture), pet a Koala, saw some of the most beautiful coastline with Kangaroos just roaming around, obtained a new addiction for Iced Coffee (apparently they think Dr. Pepper is disgusting and I have only found it at one market, for three dollars a can), and there is certainly no shortage of baked goods here (pastries galore).
Monday we trained at the Adelaide Aquatic Center on the north side of the city. I followed Shelley Camy, a new coach from the UK, who has just moved to AU and take over the Burnside Swim Club. I think she has been here for only 11 weeks. She brought with her one of the Olympians from her former team. It seems that big name swimmers help the club to grow. I am still getting a kick out of the Australian news. The big news was that Stephanie Rice “might” be Michael Phelps’s new girlfriend. When interview, Stephanie said that they had briefly met and she is “so impressed with what Michael has accomplished”. So, she might not be his new girlfriend, but I am sure she will read his new memoir that he announced he would be writing. All the commercials on the television are also sport related. There is one with Brooke Hansen with a laptop at the pool. She comes over in her swim suit and picks up the lap top and starts typing. Then someone splashes her, and spills water on the lap top and she turns the lap top over, the water pours off and then she says “be careful”. I think she got lots of money for that. The Olympics is 24 hours on the TV, ABC, channel 7. They are into it.
Practice on Monday.
First practice with Burnside was and afternoon practice. They had FOUR teams using the pool at the same time. The pool is amazing, however. 8 lane 50-meter, with separate diving and water polo pool. The diving area has four 3-meters, four 1-meters and tower with10-meter on down. They have a dryboard and do trampoline work as well. I guess Adelaide is known for their divers. They have nothing to do with Burnside swimming, they are a separate entity. I saw some really impressive divers. There seemed to be about four different coaches and athletes ranging from 6 years old to 18-20 years old. The water polo program is again separate from the swimming club. The program I was watching was H.S. Swimmers on Burnside (and anyone that uses this pool) needs to be a member of the Aquatic Center and then also pay fees for the swim team. Then the Aquatic Center charges the teams for lane use. Seems like a little double dipping to me. Some teams charge club fees of up to $190/month where others are as reasonable as $200/3 months. They have their state meet this weekend. Entry fees are $11-12 per EVENT! Some kids were swimming 8 or 9 events. Yikes!
Probably one of the most surprising things with this first practice, was a swimmer that I met. He was a study-abroad college swimmer from Denison, Matt Newton. He had been in Adelaide for about 4 weeks and swims with Burnside three times per week. We chatted after practice about swimmers I knew that attend Denison and the unique aspects of Australia that can make an American a little nutsy.
The training was a massive threshold set: 24x100 (SCM) at threshold @1:45. Threshold was PB plus 10-15 sec. The last one was from a dive and all out. This was the first set I witnessed that was somewhat similar to typical American training. She still had a focus of stroke count per 50, and a certain number of kicks off the wall. This program was less developed than the other two and younger. With Shelly only being there for 11 weeks, I could easily see the difference. A unique aspect of training here is that for a recovery after a threshold or lactate set, the coach has the swimmers put fins on and kick a fast 600 fly kick. This is supposed to remove lactate faster than just easy swimming. The swimmers were not real “keen” (Aussie language) on this.
There were also some unique aspects to coach’s pay. I was told (by someone not from Burnside) that the previous Burnside Coach earned $100-110/year. However, only $40K was paid in cash. It was very typical for someone to come in with a case of wine (if their family owned a vineyard), or petro vouchers, or bartering for free groceries if the family owned a grocery store. This was all in exchange for coaching fees.
The next practice was a morning practice (5-7am). Again, the pool being shared but not as many teams or people. The squad is expected to do anywhere from 5-10 sessions per week. It seems that a virus had been going through and numbers were a little low b/c of this. From morning practice they all head out to school. Most schools start at 8:30am. For afternoon practice they actually can get a pass to be let out :30 minutes early from school to attend swim practice. These are H.S. students… I was blown away by this. That is how swim club and swim training is viewed by schools and by the country.
Yardage was a little higher here than with Norwood or Nunawading in Melbourne. I think there is more of a similarity between UK training and American training. Lots of pulling and they use bands like the other two teams did.
Aside from swimming stuff, I fed Kangaroos (see picture), pet a Koala, saw some of the most beautiful coastline with Kangaroos just roaming around, obtained a new addiction for Iced Coffee (apparently they think Dr. Pepper is disgusting and I have only found it at one market, for three dollars a can), and there is certainly no shortage of baked goods here (pastries galore).
1 comment:
You're amazing. It sounds like you're learning so much! It must be so much fun.
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