SWIMMING IN AUSTRALIA – May-June 2005 ST: On what? Troy: On the swimmer. Some respond to “reward”-like praise or recognition among their peers. Others respond better to “punishment.” The important thing is to let them know it’s important. ST: You’ve coached at different levels during your career. I believe you were at Bolles for 20 years and won several national high school titles. Do you teach technique differently to athletes in high school and college? Troy: The technical information and skills I try A CHAT WITH COACH GREGG TROY to convey are not dramatically different. The By Phillip Whitten – [email protected] issues are the same, and the drills are the same This article appeared in Swimming Technique or similar. What differs is the presentation of January-March 2005 the information. With younger swimmers, you just need to tell them what to do. With older (This is the seventh in a series of mini-interviews athletes, you need to explain things in greater with some of the world’s leading coaches. Our detail and provide justifications for what you’re interview this issue is with Coach Gregg Troy, asking them to do. Essentially, you need to head men’s and women’s coach at the University explain why. of Florida. Troy has reinvigorated the Gator ST: And you do this—you keep up this program, elevating one of the most storied emphasis on technique—throughout the entire collegiate programs in the U.S. to even higher season? levels. In six seasons with the women’s team Troy: Yes, although the percentage of practice and five with the men’s, he has produced more time devoted strictly to technique is greatest at than 40 SEC titles and more than 150 SEC the beginning and end of the season. You want Academic Honor Roll selections. Nearly 60 your athletes to start out right, with correct athletes have combined to earn All-America technique, and you don’t want to see flaws honors more than 330 times. In his career, he’s when they’re competing in the “Big Meet” at the tutored 39 Olympians and coached athletes to end of the season—the meet that should be the more than 150 U.S. and international records. culmination of everything they’ve worked for We spoke with Coach Troy recently on the role throughout the year. technique plays in his program.) ST: Are there any “universals” in technique— Swimming Technique: Coach Troy, you’ve had aspects of stroke that everyone has to do if they tremendous success as a coach wherever you’ve want to be successful? gone. How much emphasis do you place on Troy: Sure, though there may not be as many proper stroke technique? as most coaches think. To begin with, there’s Coach Gregg Troy: I take a bit of a different streamlining. Every swimmer has to streamline approach to technique. Technique is involved in his or her body as much as possible. You can’t 100% of what my swimmers do. allow yourself to be slowed by drag that can be ST: How? avoided. Troy: Typically, in many programs a lot of the ST: OK, but on the other hand, one of the rest between repeats and sets is fluff time. Most things I’ve noticed in our sport is that there’s a of our rest is “active rest,” which I use for stroke tendency to impose the same technique on drills. There is no easy swimming in our individuals who are built very differently from workouts. The stroke drills often carry over to each other. I’m not just talking women versus the first set or the first part of a set, where we men here, but different body types. continue to practice drills, usually on the clock. Troy: Yes, I’d agree with you. A lot of what we Now, “on the clock” doesn’t necessarily mean consider “flaws” are actually accommodations “fast.” I allow sufficient time to do the drill by swimmers with less-than-ideal body types. correctly. One of the fallacies in our sport is We need to recognise this as a fact of life and that we often let our kids swim slowly leave lots of room to accommodate different incorrectly. Everyone can do drills correctly. The body types. challenge is to transfer that technique to race ST: How do different body types affect stroke conditions, and to do them correctly—even technique? when you’re fatigued. Troy: I don’t believe the same stroke dynamic is ST: How do you get your swimmers to do that? operating for the athlete who is 5-7 and 140 Troy: It depends. pounds versus the athlete, who is 6-0 and 140, SWIMMING IN AUSTRALIA – May-June 2005 leave aside the issue of gender. And I think it’s Troy: Yes, the whole dynamic of head position fairly obvious that the ideal way for a Matt is a good example. It’s good we’ve revisited it. Biondi to propel himself through the water is However, I believe there still is a tendency quite different from the ideal for a Janet Evans. toward a one-size-fits-all philosophy. We need to And, of course, if you look at their strokes, you understand that technique will vary because see dramatic differences. Yet both individuals swimmers’ bodies are different. achieved remarkable success, in part because ST: What about cases where we’ve gone from their coaches were wise enough not to impose “correct” to “incorrect” then, whoops, back to preconceived ideas on what constitutes an ideal “correct” again? stroke. We need to learn from examples such as Troy: Right. Take the issue of training volume. these—there are so many of them in our sport. There are always more efficient ways to do ST: So you’re saying... things, but we have to face the fact that, in this Troy: We need to leave a lot of room for sport at least, there’s no easy way to be variation. For the coach, I’d say it’s essential to successful. We’ve had a tendency to go know your athlete. overboard when something new has come along, ST: Now you have an athlete, Ryan Lochte, who resulting in very wide swings of the pendulum. I has already achieved great success, but who, I like to compare the situation to the art of feel, has barely begun to tap his potential. What cooking a steak. If you burn it, it’s no good to makes him so good? Is he another once-in-a- anyone and you have to throw it out. If it’s too generation athlete like Michael Phelps, who just rare, you can send it back and recook it, but it happened to come along in the same generation will never be as good it could have been. What’s as Michael? best is to sear it on both sides, then cut it open Troy: I would agree that Ryan’s potential is to see how red or pink it is versus how you want almost unlimited. Here’s a kid who can swim it. Then, if need be, you go back to the grill and any stroke, any distance, almost all at a world- make the minor adjustments that will give you class level. His best stroke is Backstroke, but at that perfect steak. Swimming is the same. SECs, he swam both the 50 and the 1650 Swimmers still need to build a solid aerobic Freestyle last year. And he did quite well. At base. Only after that base has been established Olympic Trials last July, he swam both the 100 can a coach tweak the swimmer a bit, make and 1500 Freestyle. You don’t see that kind of adjustments to fit individual athletes—a little versatility very often. As for what makes him more distance for one, more sprinting and special, technically ... in Freestyle, I’d say it’s anaerobic work for another. his hand placement. Theoretically, you might ST: Any other pendulum swings you’d like to look at him and say he’s a little short in his comment on? placement. But he creates less splash than any Troy: Yes. Recently we’ve tended to become a other athlete I’ve ever seen. He also has great talent-dominated sport. There’s nothing wrong body roll so he generates almost no turbulence. with that per se, but we’ve tended to miss the Now, on the other hand, his Breaststroke classic overachiever—Tom Wilkens is a perfect mechanics are not really all that sound, and, in example. Of course, the greatest athletes are general, when he gets tired, his stroke those who combine tremendous natural talent mechanics degenerate. A couple of years ago he with an overachiever’s mentality. Michael was videotaped by USA Swimming in Colorado Phelps and Ian Thorpe fit that mould. So, too, I Springs, and they concluded he was not very think, does Ryan Lochte. But in our search to good. And it’s true that sometimes he does not identify those who are physically gifted, we’ve look very good technically when he’s not rested. tended to overlook the overachievers who can This is especially true for a leg-driven athlete, will and train their way to the top—athletes who which Ryan is. But he’s much different when combine some talent with an extraordinary he’s rested. A coach who really knows his desire to win can achieve great things, and we athlete can look at mediocre technique and need to make sure we don’t exclude them.