ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SWIMMING

Marie Sadler part 5

Marie Sadler – part 5

This was written for me by a swimming coach and a very good friend of ours Juicy Lucy from the UK swimclub.

She told me of one incident in Munich a couple of years earlier. There was a wall surrounding the pool which was about two and a half feet high. Swimmers came out of the changing room and climbed over the wall to get to the poolside. Marie was the only one who refused to do this. She walked the length of the 50m pool and walked through a small gate at the end. She didn’t want to risk twisting her foot if she landed badly on the other side. Again, another example of doing her own thing.

I went with her on a few swim clinics. These were evenings speaking to age-group swimmers and also masters swimmers. She always told them at the beginning of the evening to think like a champion. That meant being different to the person sitting next to you. Half way through the evening I went out of the room, taking one of the swimmers with me. (This would usually be one of the older boys or girls – one of the best swimmers in the club, who the rest of the swimmers looked up to).

While we were waiting outside, Marie would tell the audience that while talking to them in a few minutes time, she would pick up a glass of water and put it to her mouth. This was the signal to everyone to stand up! She explained that the boy outside would not know what was happening, but would also stand up. Of course, everyone was keen to see what would happen. I came in again with the swimmer and we both sat down. The boy was sitting at the front. After a few minutes Marie raised the glass of water. On cue, everybody stood up. All eyes were on the boy sitting at the front. He saw everyone on their feet and joined them. Of course Marie asked him why he stood up. He replied, “Because everyone else did.” We’d spent almost an hour explaining that you should not be influenced by others yet this swimmer certainly was. This happened on every occasion without fail, at other clinics we attended.

Marie explained a lot about race day preparation. She was mentally prepared for anything that could go wrong. On the way to the pool (she did this for every competition) she would write down experiences that she would encounter). Simple things that the rest of us would take for granted would be on her list, such as, the smell of chlorine that hits you as soon as you enter the building, the constant noise from the crowd and other swimmers, the sound of the starter’s gun, the announcer’s voice over the tannoy system, the splash when swimmers entered the water. Nothing would be unexpected. There would be no surprises waiting for her.

A few years ago I spent a day in London with Grant Hackett, the Australian olympic gold medallist. He told me he did exactly the same. I’ve since found out that many top swimmers go through this routine, but keep quiet about it. They don’t tell others because then they will then have the same advantage as themselves.