Brisbane, Queensland

Brisbane, Pro-Ama Miami Swim Club (team of Annie Williams, Australian swimming captain for the 2008 Paralympics swimming 50/100free and 100 fly and Emma Snowsill, gold medalist in the women’s triathlon, Beijing). Denis Cotterell and Raelene Ryan are the coaches. Denis has been there since he started the club in 1977. Raelene has been there since 1997. Denis has a memory like no other person. His sets are very detailed, he is very demanding and calls it like it is. He was one of the CHINESE ast. coaches at Beijing… coaching the male silver medalist in the 400 free. The facilities were awesome…Two 50-meter pools, both outdoors (one eight lanes and one 10 lanes). It seems like all the 10 lane pools start with the first lane being #0 and the last lane being #9, therefore making 10 lanes. The pools are constantly filled with swimmers, triathletes, surf swimmers (those that lifeguard at the surf, do surf races and open water swims). There are also the fitness swimmers and the recreational patrons.
The last practice I saw was a morning swim after a monsoon! It was raining so hard and so windy, I thought for sure it was a tropical storm. I arrived at the pool late, after the storm…still before 6am. When I got there, they were swimming full steam. It was a Friday morning and the “pool swimmers” (swim team people and non-surf/tri/or lifeguards) had the morning off. There were at least 20 men (looking in age of 19-29) swimming a series of 40x50’s on ascending intervals, but increasing speed. They were totally cranking it out. I come to find out that none of these men were team swimmers. They were all beach lifeguards… training because of their job. Some of their fastest 50’s were :25 (from a push, lcm). Another non-swim team person training away was Emma Snowsill (Beijing gold medalist triathlete). She has been back from Beijing for a little over a week and she was there doing the whole workout. She can run a :33 10k after the swim and bike. She was an age-group swimmer to start then moved to triathlon.
5:30-7:15am, 4:00-6:30pm, with gym work until 7:30 on Tues./Thurs. This schedule was probably the most intense of the programs I visited. If you are not feeling well, or shoulders sore, etc… go to lane 9. If you bail out of a set… there is a verbal price to pay. He doesn’t yell, he doesn’t need to. The team starts in the team room before practice… socializing hanging out. When he gets there, it is like clock-work. They know what they are supposed to do, even though he speaks quietly and says the warm-up set once. Swimmers come from all over Australia to train with Denis. One moved from Perth, others drive pretty far each day to attend practices.
Workouts were pretty amazing. I saw a 15 year old girl do a set of descending 4x150/1x400 IM three times through with the 150’s being 100fly/50back, 50 fly/100 back x 2… then repeat for back and brst for set two and three. Her 400 IM started out at 5:18 and she descended down to 4:50 (lcm, from a push). He wants all his female swimmers under :30 pulling (lcm, push). They are a different breed and will be Australian’s future Olympians. They are serious kickers. One guy did a set of free kick (no fins), 1x300 easy @5:20 followed by 1x200 FAST for a total of three times. His 200’s were between 3:01 and 3:08.
I witnessed my first Australian club meet (see photo above). It was not much different than our US club meets. However, they do make a bigger deal out of medaling. There is an awards stand with medals, etc. Kids were running around like crazy, playing sort of a hackey-sack came, wearing team face paint, and they all were in club uniforms (either parkas, dry-fit type short-sleeve collared shirts, team cap and suit). They have a “spoken” rule that they are all to be in team uniforms when at meets.
It wasn’t all hard work swimming…I was staying 100 meters from the beach, saw some really great surfers. These people always surf where there are huge rocks. I guess the rocks help sustain the best waves. Too crazy for me. I think Australia is not the best place to “learn to surf”. Therefore, I stayed on the beach.