Inside the World Sprint Center 2000

The race to the land down under

By: Jeff Croghan

By the time swimmers are swimming competitively at the national level, they are usually swimming four to six hours a day, and averaging 14-16 thousand yards. Training intensifies, becoming more focused, and tailored to an individual swimmer and event  for the period leading to a national or international competition. Steve Morsilli, head coach for the Pleasanton Seahawks, a competitive USS team that sent four swimmers to the Olympic trials this year, points out that that there are some issues to consider both as swimmers and parents of swimmers when considering the specialized training of sprinters. When we asked Steve if the fear was that sprinting, and being "the fastest" was perceived as glamorous, and may keep young swimmers from developing a good overall base, he responded:

"I think the real fear is that those NOT genetically predisposed to sprinting will want to train like sprinters, because 'shorter' is perceived as 'easier.'"

Steve also points out that the other issue is that they all want to get into that type of training way too early in their careers. 

"If my memory serves me, even Gary Hall Jr. was at Juniors in the 500 many years ago.  Muscle mass should determine when they begin to do "real" sprint training, and generally they don't get the mass until they're in college (or close)."

Richard Thornton, coach of the San Ramon Valley Aquatics, a team that sent  five swimmers to the trials adds that although he does not know about Mike's program, he does know that he is working with a very distinct group of older male athletes, and that alone poses some challenges, especially in keeping the swimmer motivated and self confident.

"Mike takes time to make his athletes better.  They spend time on starts, turns, strength, power, and stroke.  And let us not forget confidence.  All that leads to speed.  He spends a great deal of time on catch and tempo. They do not do what everyone else does but they work very hard at what they do." 

Mike himself, acknowledges the challenges of the older swimmer by adding this perspective:

"It is true that older athletes have a new set of challenges that come with increased responsibility and an increased awareness of a future without swimming. Both of these realities add pressure and stress that must be taken into account. Jon Olsen had an incredible summer! He captained the world sprint team from a one bedroom apartment with swimmers living in apartments on each side of him and his coach living in the apartment above him. He lived with His wife who was 7 months pregnant and his newly adopted daughter.

At times during the summer as in laws claimed their visitation rights the Olsen clan would grow to as many as 5 people in that one bedroom apartment. Jon always had time for the other guys on the team. The team relied on him not only as a leader but as a counselor and coach. Anthony called Jon several times from Sydney to get his support. Jon was successful this season because he knew what he wanted to get out of the season.

Part of coaching the older athlete is to help them understand what they are really trying to accomplish in the final swim seasons of their careers."
 

At EastBaySports.Com, we asked Jeff Croghan, to give us a birds-eye view, on exactly what they did do at the World Sprint Center to become the fastest at this year's Olympics.  Here's what he reported.

A lot of people might think that sprint swimmers are just a lazy group group of talented swimmers who can jump in a pool and do a 50 in 22 seconds cold, but believe me they are all wrong. The World Sprint Team would work six and a half days out of the week, twice a day. Their training was anything but an easy load. An average day hanging around the guys would be like this:

7:00 AM - Wake up call. This is about the time everyone would all wake up to make the 8:00 AM practice. Mike was the one who usually came knocking on the door to wake everyone up and make sure they all had a healthy breakfast. When it got up to a few weeks before trials the guys would get up at 6:00 AM to adjust  to Indianapolis  time. 

8:00 AM - This is the time that practice started every day. We would arrive at the Phoenix Swim Club and head straight to the weight room. Once in the weight room the guys would take a shelf full of  health food supplements that helped them stay fit and gave them the required energy they needed to get through the day. Supplements  included  pills and energy drinks, like muscle milk, that helps your body maintain weight during intense training.  The sprint team was used as a test subject to try a new product called Platinum Performance.  These were little energy bars that had never been used on humans but rather race horses.    The outside of the bag of these bars read  "For veterinary use only," giving everyone  a big kick. The swimmers would immediately follow their feeding with a 20-30 minute stretch and exercises to work  on abdominal muscles and stroke work. Once this was over they would head out to the pool. 

9:00 AM - The sprinters would get into the pool and start warming up as soon as they could. Once in the pool they did  warm-ups that emphasized stroke work  and body positioning drills that worked on correct ways to place your body so you could move faster and obtain more water.  They also did a lot of work on starts. This workout would last for 2 hours.  The workouts were pretty much the same everyday with the exception that Mike would identify certain areas of concentration and modify his workouts accordingly. At the end of the workout they would get out of the pool, eat a few more horse bars, and get ready for lunch. 

12:00 AM - Lunch was provided at the complex to insure  at least one good meal a day. Everyday was a new treat ranging from chicken to burritos , pot pies and even pasta. After eating most swimmers would head home to nap,  watch TV, or do something relaxing , like hanging out in the hot tub. 

3:30 PM - This is the time when everyone would get up again to start the second practice of the day.

4:00 PM - Back at the Phoenix Swim Club for the afternoon session, heading straight for the weight room again. Here swallowing all those dang supplements again would be the first challenge. Then a good set of stretches would take place. Then came weights and other fitness exercises. The team always had a lifting plan to follow and would switch off upper muscles one day and lower muscles the next. The  lifting would last for about 2 hours. Then more "green pills and horse food" before heading out to the pool. 

6:00 PM - Once in the pool the team worked a lot on speed and body positioning. As sprinters, they did a lot of drills to get their stroke rates up and starts to make sure they were leaving the blocks fast and clean. Then they would get out, take their last dose of supplements, which by the way,  we counted one day as 20 pills and a muscle milk shake, and then head home.  Basically whatever they didn't get to in the morning practice they would attend to in the afternoon. 

8:00 PM - Home now and usually very tired. Most nights we would all go out for dinner and just hang out with each other watching TV or playing video games like Tony Hawk or FIFA.

10:00PM - Time to hit the sack so they  can wake up tomorrow and repeat the same thing all over. 

This was their typical day, except once a week they would do a big circuit that was a non stop workout for 2 hours both in and out of the pool. It usually consisted of running, swimming, jumping, and even a little basketball. Saturday was the day off, and on Thursdays they would go in for a rub down and to consult their mental trainer. They would follow that up with around an hour of warm down swimming. 

Every thursday night we would all go to Gary Hall's house for dinner and to have group discussions. This helped to bring the team closer together and to let everyone voice their opinions on the training or anything that was on their minds. Mike used this time to prepare the swimmers for interviews, talk about their past and future workouts, and to bring in doctors and sponsors to talk about their roles with the team and what they planned to do to help. 

 "The good thing about this", according to Gordon, " is that when we are here training together we have so much fun that I don't worry about how fast I am going to be at the end of the year. I know that I would rather be here than anywhere else." 

If Mike's challenges were indeed in training an older group of athletes, and keeping them motivated, then perhaps there are three people to share this year's gold medal, or even ten or eleven!
 
 

Part 1: The Team