Perth... and Western Australia

Perth…former home to Shane Gould, triple gold medalist (1972) and former world record holder in the 100 to the 1500 free, simultaneously)… oh yeah, club team (West Coast Swim Club) of Eamon Sullivan (silver medalist 2008, and former world record holder in the 100 free).
Challenge Stadium is the site for West Coast Swim Team. This facility has THREE 50 –meter pools. Two are outdoors (an 8-lane and a 10-lane), and one is indoors a 10 lane. They also have an outdoor water polo pool and an indoor diving tank. There are a total of 57, 50-meter pools in the state of Western Australia. To give you an idea of size of the state, WA (Western Australia) takes up 1/3 of the entire country. They have about 2 million people that live in the state, with 1.5 million living in Perth.
I worked with Roger Bruce. He has been an Australian Olympic coach for the Athens, Commonwealth Games, and multiple World Championships. He was the coach of Olympian Jennifer Reilly, one of Australia’s best IMer as well as his daughter Tamara who holds the record for the fastest English Channel Crossing by an Australian (male or female). He is also a member of the WAIS (Western Australia Institute of Sport) coaching panel. He has been coaching forever, but has the unique ability to still “think outside the box.” He gave me some really interesting stroke drill ideas for butterfly and breaststroke. Mel Tantrum, the head coach was in Beijing with two club swimmers competing in the Paralympics. Grant Stoelwinder, coach of Eamon Sullivan will be moving to Sydney after the Beijing Games.
Practices were 5:30-7:30am, and 4:30-6:30pm. Arriving at the pool in the morning was an amazing site. Challenge Stadium is all lit up (because it is dark at 5:30am… see picture above). You can see the steam rise up toward the lights blocks away from the Stadium. This site is also the host of “net ball”, a female professional game similar to basketball (nets with no backboard), the Western Australia Institute of Sport (more about that later), rowing, kayaking, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, water polo, diving, open water swimming, swim school (huge lesson program), Masters swimming, and triathlon training. Club Fees are pretty high: up to $235 per month for the first swimmer in the family, then $210, and $185 for the second and third family member. This feel also includes membership at the pool.
WAIS (Western Australia Institute of Sport) Program Coordinator is Simon Jones. I spent some time with Simon, getting a tour of the facility and hearing about the type of support a swimmer would receive if they were sponsored by the Institute. WAIS is housed at Challenge Stadium. According to Simon, unlike other areas in Australia, facilities are not the issue. One of the reason’s WA is not a prominent or doesn’t have as many Olympians is the structure. Money comes down from the state, and there is not enough going to the Institute. There is no “Head Coach” at the Institute, either. This is not necessarily the case in the eastern part of the country. Private coaches come in and run their programs (i.e., Mel Tantrum with West Coast). The coach to swimmer ratio is not what it should be to get swimmers to the Olympics. According to Simon, the best ratio is no more than 1:5. For coaches here, they need huge squads to make a living and then need more coaches, b/c they can’t handle all the numbers. Another issue is the learn-to -swim programs. They generate money but they are not good feeders for competitive swimming. They are not learning “competitive swimming technique”.
Presently, there are about 6 or 8 swimmers that are supported by WAIS. Type of support includes, utilizing the best boimechanist in t he country, funding to attend Nationals ($250.00), lactate testing, physio work (weights-dryland), connections to the doctors, trainers and scientists associated with the Institute. Eamon Sullivan was one of those sponsored. According to Simon he is pretty high maintenance. A typical training day for Eamon would be, morning practice ending about 7:30am, breakfast, weights (4x/week), recovery swim or stretch-out, massage, eating, sleeping, and then back for another training session. So high maintenance means a lot goes into his day to get him to go as fast as possible. Grant Stoelwinder (Eamon’s coach) and the WAIS have an underwater camera that is in the pool (water) all the time. They wheel out this cabinet to view a flat panel TV that shows what they are doing underwater at any time.
The WAIS has chambers where they can get cyclist and rowers, etc. to train in environmental conditions similar to Beijing… a heat and humidity chamber… doesn’t that sound fun? Specialists associated with WAIS include: Physician/Doctor, Physiotherapists, Massage Therapist, Sport Psychologist, Nutritionist, Exercise Physiologist, Athlete and Career Education Advisor, Biomechanist/Performance Analysis specialist, and strength and conditioning coordinator.
On the non-swimming end, saw a whale off of City Beach, Perth; seals in the Margaret River region, beautiful cliffs and awesome waves!