Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Has 'King Shark' Federico Bocchia changed swimming forever?
I can't see how swimming ever goes back to being the same after the stunt King Shark just pulled. From now on, anyone with a glimmer of hope in a final needs to come out in full costume and headgear. Tracksuits and swimming caps just won't cut it any longer. The public will now demand more King Sharks, give the people what they want!
(Huge h/t to Swimming World and the Bolzano International Swim Meet for the video)
PS. An assist needs to go to Gary Hall Jr, he blazed this trail years ago.
Ian Thorpe opens up on BBC Radio
Fascinating stuff from Ian Thorpe, talking for an hour on BBC Radio (starts at 26:00) . Thorpie is erudite and candid as he opens up about the highs and lows of his swimming life.
Audio can be downloaded here
State of the nation: British Swimming
London 2012. The British nation came together like never before and celebrated their incredible sporting success. Riding high in the medal tables, punching above their weight, the team came through on the biggest stage, under the brightest spotlight. However, one sport was conspicuous in its absence of national heroes. Swimming.
What Went Wrong?
The British team called all the shots prior to the Olympics, they held their first trials in the Olympic pool and had access to the pool before the games for a training camp. They had the support of a vociferous home crowd, the importance of which we were constantly reminded of from swimmers, coaches, team management and commentators in the build up to the games. All of this, however, was not enough to drive the team onto the kind of successes achieved in other sports such as Cycling, Rowing, Athletics, Equestrian and Boxing.
The numbers paint an unpleasant picture
Further reasons have been highlighted for the under-performance:
Not enough race practice beforehand - This does make sense, although tell that to the Loughborough swimmers who raced the Mare Nostrum tour shortly before the Olympics.
Head coach Dennis Pursley not being British - Having a coach that understands the British swimming environment is solid reasoning. Nobody can doubt Dennis Pursley's credentials, but he wasn't able to transfer his success in the US to Britain. The collegiate system and US Grand Prix circuit offer something entirely different to what we have in the UK. If Pursley truly believed that the US model is the most robust in world swimming, he should have tried to move the GB system closer to it by improving the competitive aspect of university swimming and increasing the number of domestic meets attracting top talent from Europe and further afield.
Michael Scott, the performance director, spending too much of his time in his native Australia - The role of performance director is crucial to the nation's successes in the pool. At the very least it is full-time job, it doesn't seem like to ask for the incumbent to be based full-time in Britain. Ultimately Scott's reputation lives and dies by the his results at the Olympics, that is the reality of our sport. In London he did not deliver enough to keep his job.
The men's team haven't been GB's strength for some time now but London unearthed a new star in Michael Jamieson. The 24 year old Scot should be a medal contender in major championships for years to come, although he does face strong competition from Daniel Gyurta and new world record holder Akihiro Yamaguchi (who wasn't in London).
There are a number of talented British youngsters coming through, several gaining valuable experience in London. With the retirement of a number of team regulars, men's swimming in Britain is now hugely reliant on these swimmers to make the jump to the next level and vying for international medals.
The Women
London 2012 was tailor-made for the British women to deliver strong results. Four years had passed since Rebecca Adlington became a household name and raised the bar for swimming in this country. Britain came to the Olympics with a strong stable of medal hopes, and significantly, international success from a number of swimmers in the intervening years. They just needed to kick on from that success in front of a home crowd.
Six major prospects weren't able to match their earlier form from 2012. Why did that happen? Was the pressure of making the team so great, that it became counter productive and ended up surpassing the main job at hand?
The Review
Now comes the inquest into the team’s failure. It is a curious group of individuals. Registering highest on the curiosity scale is the aforementioned Michael Scott. The decision to allow the performance director to judge his own credentials is an odd one. You can’t help but think when Scott’s own performance is reviewed, there will be a muffled Australian voice in the background saying ‘he did fine, move on’.
Also on the panel, Thomas Lurz. A tremendous open water swimmer, tremendous character, but an expert on a nations open water programmes? We will have to see. Conor O’Shea, the director of rugby at Harlequins and former national director of the English Institute of Sport, is also on the panel. He’s been called upon for his knowledge of sport science, medicine and coaching.
A late addition to the review board was Bob Bowman. Bowman is the biggest name in coaching and his presence does add some gravitas to the panel, but this is also the same man that only coaches American swimmers at NBAC, a new found passion to improve British Swimming is odd.
Mentality
The panel will come to it’s own conclusions, but for me the key problem was a mental one.
Frank Busch, head coach of the US team, made a telling statement after the Olympics. Referring to the team's viral 'Call Me Maybe' video he stated, "When I saw the video, I knew we were going to be good." This level of confidence is instilled at all levels of US Swimming and it filters down to the team, inspiring them to take their performance to a new level. The US were favourites as they often are and weren't burdened by the weight of expectation. This can't simply be explained by the collegiate system or increased competition.
This level of confidence also cannot be simply attributed to being an 'American thing'. The British cycling team has it. The British rowing team has certainly has it. Rowers Zack Purchase and Mark Hunter were inconsolable after their silver medal, breaking down in tears on live television because they came for gold and ended up with silver.
Ultimately the question the review will need to address is whether the top brass of British Swimming instill the same level of confidence in the British swimmers as their rowing and cycling counterparts? If they do not, then changes need to be made. Although British swimming is in a much better place than in the early 2000s, it has also enjoyed huge funding recently, enough to expect returns on a scale of Britain's more successful sports in London.
What Went Wrong?
The British team called all the shots prior to the Olympics, they held their first trials in the Olympic pool and had access to the pool before the games for a training camp. They had the support of a vociferous home crowd, the importance of which we were constantly reminded of from swimmers, coaches, team management and commentators in the build up to the games. All of this, however, was not enough to drive the team onto the kind of successes achieved in other sports such as Cycling, Rowing, Athletics, Equestrian and Boxing.
The numbers paint an unpleasant picture
The British team had a highly encouraging trials in March. Had they made the steps forward that other nations did from their trials the medal table would have looked a lot healthier. This is a serious problem. Coaches need to go away and have a hard look at their training regimes. Their job is to to put athletes in a position to perform at their absolute peak on the biggest occasions and this didn't happen. The blame for such a wide-scale slow down from March to August lies squarely on British Swimming and the home coaches.
The most likely result of the current review into British swimming will be to move trials for major championships much closer to the event. This works for the US, the challenge will be implementing it successfully in a nation with a smaller talent pool to dip into. One hopes that this isn't the only major change that is made.
Not enough race practice beforehand - This does make sense, although tell that to the Loughborough swimmers who raced the Mare Nostrum tour shortly before the Olympics.
Head coach Dennis Pursley not being British - Having a coach that understands the British swimming environment is solid reasoning. Nobody can doubt Dennis Pursley's credentials, but he wasn't able to transfer his success in the US to Britain. The collegiate system and US Grand Prix circuit offer something entirely different to what we have in the UK. If Pursley truly believed that the US model is the most robust in world swimming, he should have tried to move the GB system closer to it by improving the competitive aspect of university swimming and increasing the number of domestic meets attracting top talent from Europe and further afield.
Michael Scott, the performance director, spending too much of his time in his native Australia - The role of performance director is crucial to the nation's successes in the pool. At the very least it is full-time job, it doesn't seem like to ask for the incumbent to be based full-time in Britain. Ultimately Scott's reputation lives and dies by the his results at the Olympics, that is the reality of our sport. In London he did not deliver enough to keep his job.
The Men
The men's team haven't been GB's strength for some time now but London unearthed a new star in Michael Jamieson. The 24 year old Scot should be a medal contender in major championships for years to come, although he does face strong competition from Daniel Gyurta and new world record holder Akihiro Yamaguchi (who wasn't in London).
There are a number of talented British youngsters coming through, several gaining valuable experience in London. With the retirement of a number of team regulars, men's swimming in Britain is now hugely reliant on these swimmers to make the jump to the next level and vying for international medals.
The Women
London 2012 was tailor-made for the British women to deliver strong results. Four years had passed since Rebecca Adlington became a household name and raised the bar for swimming in this country. Britain came to the Olympics with a strong stable of medal hopes, and significantly, international success from a number of swimmers in the intervening years. They just needed to kick on from that success in front of a home crowd.
Six major prospects weren't able to match their earlier form from 2012. Why did that happen? Was the pressure of making the team so great, that it became counter productive and ended up surpassing the main job at hand?
The Review
Now comes the inquest into the team’s failure. It is a curious group of individuals. Registering highest on the curiosity scale is the aforementioned Michael Scott. The decision to allow the performance director to judge his own credentials is an odd one. You can’t help but think when Scott’s own performance is reviewed, there will be a muffled Australian voice in the background saying ‘he did fine, move on’.
Also on the panel, Thomas Lurz. A tremendous open water swimmer, tremendous character, but an expert on a nations open water programmes? We will have to see. Conor O’Shea, the director of rugby at Harlequins and former national director of the English Institute of Sport, is also on the panel. He’s been called upon for his knowledge of sport science, medicine and coaching.
A late addition to the review board was Bob Bowman. Bowman is the biggest name in coaching and his presence does add some gravitas to the panel, but this is also the same man that only coaches American swimmers at NBAC, a new found passion to improve British Swimming is odd.
Mentality
The panel will come to it’s own conclusions, but for me the key problem was a mental one.
Frank Busch, head coach of the US team, made a telling statement after the Olympics. Referring to the team's viral 'Call Me Maybe' video he stated, "When I saw the video, I knew we were going to be good." This level of confidence is instilled at all levels of US Swimming and it filters down to the team, inspiring them to take their performance to a new level. The US were favourites as they often are and weren't burdened by the weight of expectation. This can't simply be explained by the collegiate system or increased competition.
This level of confidence also cannot be simply attributed to being an 'American thing'. The British cycling team has it. The British rowing team has certainly has it. Rowers Zack Purchase and Mark Hunter were inconsolable after their silver medal, breaking down in tears on live television because they came for gold and ended up with silver.
Ultimately the question the review will need to address is whether the top brass of British Swimming instill the same level of confidence in the British swimmers as their rowing and cycling counterparts? If they do not, then changes need to be made. Although British swimming is in a much better place than in the early 2000s, it has also enjoyed huge funding recently, enough to expect returns on a scale of Britain's more successful sports in London.
Monday, 8 October 2012
London 2012 - The Scandinavian Story
For the Nordic countries in general the London Olympic Games was a giant let down. Following great expectations, the Scandinavians as a whole delivered no medals, and for Norway: not even a semi final.
Even though the Scandinavian countries greatly resemble each other in terms of population and way of life, the reasons, and reactions, to the Olympic failure are diverse.
Sweden is traditionally the best swimming-nation in Scandinavia. However they have been surpassed by arch rivals Denmark. At what could be perceived as the last big test before the championship - the World Championship in Shanghai last year, the Danes won two golds and a silver, while the Swedes were one gold behind them.
Having failed to get a single medal at the last Olympics the expectations and weight on the Swedish swimmers selected to London were great. Sarah Sjöström looked strong for number of the four years leading up to the Olympics - and for her to not get a medal in London is pretty close to unfathomable in Sweden.
Tragic background
Norway also got a gold in Shanghai last year, and was the best Scandinavian nation in Beijing. However Norway does not have the same strength in depth as their neighbouring countries. So when tragedy strikes, as they did with my good friend Alexander Dale Oen in May, it strikes us hard.
The tragic happening might be some of the reason as to why the debate following the bad results from our swimmers in London have been a lot more subtle, and less heated, than in the two other swimming-communities. To talk about catastrophe for something as trivial as sporting results is just plain wrong in that context.
Danish claim unfavourable treatment
The Danes delivered the best results, with a couple of fourth place-finishes. Rikke Möller-Pedersens 200 meter breaststroke was impressive, just unlucky for her three others performed out of this world. Still there was a storm brewing after the championships.
The authoritarian leadership style of Dutch national team coach Paulus Wildeboer has been greatly criticized by those who have national team athletes that are not a part of Wildeboers squad at the National Training Centre. (NTC)
Amongst claims that the athletes at the NTC get favorable treatment to those who chose to train with a different coach, there is a largely increasing sense that the resources is taken out of the clubs and into the NTC-system.
The fact that Wildeboer demanded all athletes who were to compete at the Olympics to leave their daily training environment and follow his regime for the last months leading into the Games has also attracted criticism.
The merited coach could of course hide behind the fact that the NTC-swimmers in general performed quite well. It was the swimmers from various clubs around Denmark and Faroe Islands, swimmers who left their normal way of training who failed - and some of them quite extensively. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Changing training three months before the Olympics is seldom a successful formula.
Wildeboer's success as a national team coach in Denmark is, however, not up for question. The results have been flat out impressive for the nation of 6 million.
Norwegian unity, but not enough man-power
Norways national team head of sports, Petter Løvberg, is also widely regarded as the most successful national team coach ever. A long string of medals at every international championship was broken at the London Olympics. Mainly because the main man was missing.
His success formula though has been different. Løvberg, of Vadsø - almost as north as you get in mainland-Norway, is not a coach in that sense of the word. He is more of a coordinator. He includes every coach who has a national team-swimmer to be part of the team. The coaches with the most (or best) national team-swimmers get the most time with the team on camps and similar, but everybody gets an input.
Norway has no training centre, and Løvberg is very much aware of the fact that the work is being done at the clubs, and the coaches need to be involved.
Pre-Løvberg the Norwegian mentality said that if you qualified for international championships you were good. After he took over in 2001 "Pete" as he is called has instilled a mentality saying that if you are there - you want to take the next step. Making semi-finals and finals. In London there were none.
It's hard to get by the big gap of a man that was not there. Not only was Alexander Dale Oen an almost guaranteed medal (gold would have been tough, albeit possible, considering Cameron van der Burgh's amazing swim), he was a man who made his presence known.
Almost the only form of criticism that has occurred after the Games has been questions why he did not bring a larger team. Not because the swimmers left out would have been able to perform any better than those there, but because of the effects a bigger team could have at those who were there.
Ingvild Snildal (100 butterfly) and Sara Nordenstam (200 breaststroke) were European Champions in the weekend championship earlier this year, but both performed better there, despite not being as tapered as they would be in London. The reason might have been the record-large team Norway sent to that meet. Although most of them did not make their presence known on the top half of the results, being a large team might have helped, following the traumatic experience in Flagstaff.
Leading up to London Snildal and Nordenstam was only accompanied by rookie backstroker Lavrans Solli. It might have been to small a team, left with a lot of time to think. The reports from pre-camp in Croatia was that of a team close to peak condition - but judging by results in London only Solli delivered what could be expected - and he was there mainly to learn.
Swedish shortage of men - and talent
Sweden fired their Australian national team coach, Greg Salter, in May. They did not start looking for a national team coach before in September. The Swedish Swimming Federation has taken its time figuring out which direction they wanted to take the sport to next.
In retrospect, the limbo this left the swimmers in looks to have been not favourable for their results in London. Sjöström was just a pale resemblance of herself, while Therese Alshammar (who does her own thing anyway) only had one race where she had a shot in the Olympics. When she has injury-trouble it gets tough.
The main discussion points in Sweden following the failure is that of recruitment. The women-side is at an acceptable level, however for the men the situation is pretty near disastrous.
Lars Frölander (38!) and Stefan Nystrand (31) were the only Swedish men competing in London. For the first time since 1956 Sweden did not feature a relay for the men. A part of that story is that Simon Sjödin (24) should have been selected for London. His performances earlier this year would have taken him to a semi-final in London.
Sweden has mainly produces sprinters in the latter years, raising concerns that the «sprint-ism» has spread too far down in the system. That the low-mileage, quality before quantity, way of training is implemented in such a way that it deprives the young talent from the necessary background - if their talent is more suited for middle- or long-distances.
A quick read at the discussion board at simma.nu (the joint Scandinavian site where I manage the Norwegian part of it) shows a general consensus that the swedes are to nice with each other, and themselves. A more rough, never-say-die attitude is needed. Go faster, and harder - and more often. Training volume needs to go up - on a larger scale.
Twists and turns
The expression goes: All roads lead to Rome. If anything the Scandinavian failure in London, with three distinctly different lead-ups, and follow-ups, shows that a lot of roads lead elsewhere as well - or at least that some roads take a bit longer to get to Rome.
The Norwegian national team coach has responded to the criticism by making the time-marks to be part of the national team even harder - making the team in general smaller than last year. The Swedes are looking for their new national team coach, at the same time as coaches for their new HPC (High Performance centre). The Danes seem to be more of the same, but have hired Mikkel von Seelen as a new Head of Sports. That signals a restructuring, as his predecessor Lars Sørensen, had the title of Head of Elite Sports (Elitechef).
Now we wait for who has found the right and fastest way to Rome. The Danes have one big thing going for them: their recruitment of young talent seems to be working better than that of their neighbours. That might shine through in Rio in four years. The other two countries, and perhaps Norway in particular, seem to be more reliant on particular individuals for success, although the Norwegian seem to have closed in on Sweden in particular - judging by results at the Nordic junior championships.
Speed Endurance Adds New Talent: Introducing Sander Englund Smørdal
This is an exciting moment for all at Speed Endurance HQ as we welcome a new author to the site... and he's a good one.
Sander Englund Smørdal is a Norwegian national swimmer and current holder of the Norwegian short course 50m (21.89) and 100m (48.40) free national records. This makes Sander officially the fastest writer at Speed Endurance.
Sander also publishes the Simma.nu site as well as working for TV2 in Norway. Check him out on Twitter too.
As you have probably noticed, this blog has been extremely quiet recently, but we are about to undergo a phoenix-like rise from the ashes.
First up will be a detailed look at the major swimming nations post-London. What went right, what went wrong and what the future holds.
As always with Speed Endurance, you might not read too many breaking news stories here, but we do hope that what you read hasn't been written before anywhere else. Giving unique takes and analysis is always the goal.
Sander Englund Smørdal is a Norwegian national swimmer and current holder of the Norwegian short course 50m (21.89) and 100m (48.40) free national records. This makes Sander officially the fastest writer at Speed Endurance.
Sander also publishes the Simma.nu site as well as working for TV2 in Norway. Check him out on Twitter too.
As you have probably noticed, this blog has been extremely quiet recently, but we are about to undergo a phoenix-like rise from the ashes.
First up will be a detailed look at the major swimming nations post-London. What went right, what went wrong and what the future holds.
As always with Speed Endurance, you might not read too many breaking news stories here, but we do hope that what you read hasn't been written before anywhere else. Giving unique takes and analysis is always the goal.
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Monday, 17 September 2012
New World Record: Akihiro Yamaguchi Sets New Mark in 200m Breaststroke (With Video)
Get used to this name... Akihiro Yamaguchi. You should be hearing plenty more from him in the coming years.
After a stunning 2:07.01 at the Japan Open, the 18-year-old is now the fastest man to ever swim the 200 breaststroke long course. His last 50m was particularly impressive, splitting nearly a second faster than Daniel Gyurta's closing 50m in his Olympic winning and previous world record time of 2:07.28.
Japan has incredible depth in the 200 breast with 9 men in the world top 50, and now they have someone sitting on the top of the world pile. Talk about picking up Kosuke Kitajima's mantle and running with it.
Unfortunately John Leonard couldn't be reached for comment, otherwise we would know what illegitimate steps Yamaguchi took to finish his race off so well.
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Does John Leonard Owe Ye Shiwen An Apology?
The Guardian have a poll up asking readers whether John Leonard owes Ye Shiwen an apology. If you've been following Speed Endurance on twitter (which I strongly suggest you do) you'll know where I stand on this issue.
My maths is a little shaky, but with 98% of Guardian readers believing the answer is yes, I think it is safe to say where the public stand on this issue too.
Here are some more 'gems' from Leonard today, I guess that apology is a long way away...
On Ye's final 50m of the 200 IM being slower than the final 50m of the 400 IM...
"She backed off, obviously," - Ah, he was joking all along, nobody could seriously make this claim... what's that? He really means it? Oh dear...
"She never took a hard stroke at any point in time [in the final 50]. She was told to do what it takes to win, nice job – but if you look at tape from the 400 IM, it's two totally different swims." - This is nonsense. I did look at the tape and she certainly looks like she's trying as she pulls ahead of Alicia Coutts on the 200 IM...
"When she was coming from behind [against American Elizabeth Beisel] she held an eight-beat kick all the way through the 400. That's extremely tiring. In the 200 she used a simple, soft, six-beat kick to get home." - Ah ha, the classic 'easy' six beat kick... Ye Shiwen's kick on the final 50m of the 200 IM did not look simple or soft...
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