cardiovascular system is, or how fi t you might be out of the water, you won’t be able to maintain a high swimming speed. The next factor a wannabe champion needs is the discipline to
develop and maintain fantastic technique. Drills and specialist equipment, such as fi ns and paddles, play a part in this, but Furniss says good technique should be integral to all swimming. “Your swimming technique is the ultimate limiter to your speed,” says Furniss. “We work on technique all the time. There’s always something you can improve, to move your swimming to the next level, however good you are. If I ask my swimmers to complete a long-distance endurance set, I expect them to do it with perfect technique,” he says. “It’s no point having perfect technique if your stroke falls to pieces at race speed or as soon as you get tired. You have to ingrain great technique under race-stress conditions.” Luck also plays a part. Olympian and former world record holder Mark Foster says he started in swimming with a set of lessons with a certain Mrs Hardcastle, mother of champion swimmer Sarah Hardcastle. Mrs Hardcastle saw something in Foster’s swimming and encouraged him to go further. “If it had been a diff erent club at a diff erent time and in a diff erent place it might not have happened and I might not have gone past swimming lessons,” he says. Foster is a sprinter and spent years training his body for short bursts of incredible speed. He freely admits he’d probably not be much use at open water swimming (“It’s too far and I’d freeze,” he says) but he still has some good advice for would-be champions. “The body’s an amazing thing. You can train it for all sorts of things, but you have to train it for what you want to use it for,” says Foster. For open water swimmers, that means covering a lot of distance at an aerobic pace, but who wouldn’t like to throw in a burst of Foster-like speed every now and then to break away from the mob at the start, or to snatch a couple of places in a sprint fi nish? Champion swimmers will prepare themselves for this in training
by mixing up some sprints into their training sets. They will also most likely be able to do this while remaining totally relaxed. This apparent contradiction between relaxing while pushing your physical limits is the hallmark of many top athletes. “If you watch anyone doing anything
well, they make it looked relaxed,” says Foster. “The ones that are tense, tighten up and slow down. Watch Usain Bolt on the track, he just looks fl owing. He’s using the power in a relaxed manner.”
When it comes to making more champions – a thought on many of our minds in the run-up to the Olympics, there is one sure way to improve chances – more opportunities. As no one can become a champion without hours and hours of training, Mark Rose would like to see a swimming pool within walking distance of everyone in Manchester, along with community clubs where children can learn to swim. “If someone wants to swim, we should provide for them. And, yes, not everyone is going to be elite, but everyone needs that opportunity.”
37 Photos © Speedo/ Simon Wilkinson
TALENT IS GROWN, NOT GIVEN... ANYONE CAN BE AN EXCEPTIONAL PERSON
For the rest of us, whether we want to take on the Ocean’s Seven (see page 24) or complete a fi rst open water mile, the traits and work ethics described here can help us acheive our goals. While spending 20-plus hours per week training is an impossibility for many of us, we can still make the most of the time we devote to swimming by tailoring our eff orts to match our ambitions, remaining inquisitive about what we’re doing and learning to relax. ○
These interviews were conducted at Everyone Active Sporting Village (
everyoneactive.com). Bill Furniss is a Speedo coach – for more information go to
speedo.co.uk
Coach Bill Furniss (leſt ) and Olympian Mark Foster know the secrets of becoming a champion
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