Preparing for Athens

Three years ago, Pieter van den Hoogenband of Holland was one of the top performers at the Olympic Games in Sydney, collecting four medals-two gold and two bronze. With just one year before the next Olympiad, Swimming Technique spoke with Pieter's coach, Jacco Verhaeren-as well as Pieter, himself-to discuss the star swimmer's preparations for Athens.

In 1993, PSV Eindhoven hired Jacco Verhaeren, a young and ambitious coach, to take its regional- and national-level athletes and train them to become more competitive on the international level. It turned out to be a golden choice.

Among the 40 swimmers Verhaeren coached his first year was 15-year-old Pieter van den Hoogenband. That year, Verhaeren implemented the same training program for the whole team. By the next summer, it resulted in the club's first international success-Hoogie won three gold medals at the 1994 European junior Championships in Pardubice, Czechoslovakia.

Verhaeren recalls: "After that meet, we started with a more individual approach and narrowed the team down to 15 to 20 swimmers. This resulted in eight swimmers participating in the 1995 European Championships. Never before did our team have so many swimmers competing at the international level.

"Until the Sydney Olympics, the number of swimmers at international competitions stayed about the same, but eventually, the numbers increased, resulting in more swimmers making finals and even collecting medals."

Among those swimmers were double Olympic bronze medalist Kirsten Vlieghuis, Marcel Wouda and Inge De Bruijn. Wouda and De Bruijn were also trained in the United States-Wouda by University of Michigan's Jon Urbanchek and De Bruijn by Paul Bergen.

Nine of Verhaeren's 12 swimmers made it to the Sydney Olympics and accumulated an astonishing eight medals, including five gold. Swimming World magazine chose van. den Hoogenband and De Bruijn as its World Swimmers of the Year for 2000, unofficially making Verhaeren the best coach of the world that year.

Team Verhaeren

After Sydney, Verhaeren trimmed down his team even further-to only four swimmers. he explains, "You need new motivation every four years. We decided to start the professional Philips Swimming Team to optimize a one-on-one coach-swimmer relationship and to be able to work more on all of the details of each swimmer's training. We wanted to make sure our athletes will perform at 100 percent again at the next Olympics, so we sought the help of four training specialists."

Verhaeren meets with these specialists every eight weeks to discuss the current physical condition of the swimmers. They include professor of physiology Jan Olbrecht, nutritionist Joris Hermans, weight training instructor Luc van Agt and fluid dynamics specialist Wieger Mensonides-all considered to be experts in their fields.

Hermans also works with professional speed skaters and the soccer players of PSV Eindhoven. Verhaeren and Hermans discuss the different phases of training, then Hermans speaks with the athletes individually, recommend' ing the optimal diet for each swimmer during his or her specific training phase.

Exercises for dryland training are provided by van Agt, the fulltime weight training instructor of the PSV Eindhoven soccer team.

Verhaeren explains, "I tell him what we're going to do in the pool and talk with him about the types of dryland exercises we could do to support the swim workouts. We try to strengthen the individual weaknesses of the swimmers in our dryland program."

Olbrecht has a Ph.D. in physiology and biomechanics, and he analyzes the lactate tests of the swimmers of the Philips Swimming Team once every eight weeks. he provides Verhaeren with the swimmers' aerobic and anaerohic thresholds, so Verhaeren can fine-tune their workouts based on those tests.

For the technical video analyses of his swimmers' technique, Verhaeren works closely with Mensonides, a 1960 Olympic bronze medalist in the 200 meter breaststroke and now an expert in fluid dynamics. "We work especially on correcting the little flaws in body position and propulsion patterns, and we try to minimize drag," says Verhaeren.

"Team Verhaeren" also includes team physician Hans van Kuyk, physiotherapist Wilfred Sip and team manager Patrick Wouters.

Verhaeren is very pleased with the composition of his team: "We contacted some of these experts before the Sydney Olympics-especially for Pieter-but everything is now on. a more frequent basis. In our meetings, we discuss each swimmer's progression. Sharing knowledge with these experts leads to cross-fertilization. As a coach, I am able get a good overview of the strengths and weaknesses of each swimmer. I can use that information to optimize the individual training programs."

Verhaeren adds, "Once in a while, we consult other experts, such as track start specialist Dean Hutchinson. We work in cycles of four years. After the Sydney Olympics, we started using the track start-a big change for a swimmer at this level. We wanted to hear from an experienced swimmer how it felt to start with a track start.

"We all know that van den Hoogenband's start is not his strong point, but since we started using the track start, his start has become more consistent. With the grab start, he clocked between 5.8 and 6.2 seconds at 15 meters. Now he's regularly under 6.0 seconds. He's still not the fastest starter, but that's a fact we need to accept. But we do know he has the fastest last 25 meters of anyone in the 100 free."

Diversified Workouts

After Sydney during the year preceding the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, van den Hoogenband trained less and tried some new things in training. Verhaeren felt that Pieter needed to recharge his battery in a post-Olympic season.

In 2002, Hoogie returned to his normal training-doing the same kind of work he did two years before Sydney.

"But this year, we raced more and swam in almost all of the World Cup meets," reports Verhaeren. "I believe it's good to gain experience in competition, but looking back, Pieter probably raced too much. he wasn't 100 percent at Barcelona (for this summer's World Championships). Next year, the Olympic Games is the only thing that matters.

"If you want to keep your swimmers at a high level for a longer period of time and keep them motivated, you have to change your program every year," believes Verhaeren.

Pieter, who turned 25 last March 14, agrees with his coach: "The diversity in our workouts keeps us motivated; the mood on our team is always good."

The Philips Swimming Team is a professional team-the swimmers don't depend on a job or a college stipend to make a living, like almost all other Dutch swimmers. But that doesn't mean they're working out the whole day. Verhaeren has built in a lot of rest in between workouts-yardage alone is not the goal.

The coach elaborates, "In a regular week, we have eight to ten workouts per week, in addition to three dryland sessions. Two of them are weights on Monday and Wednesday, and the last one on Friday is more specific-such as circuit training in and around the pool or using stretch cords."

Van den Hoogenband adds, "Obviously, swimming is the most important part of our training. But during these specific dryland sessions, I use stretch cords to do exercises that help prevent injuries."

"During the year, Pieter trains for the 200 freestyle," Verhaeren says. "About five weeks before a major competition, we change our focus to the 100, his main event. One of the sets we do around this time is a 4 x 50 at maximum speed on two minutes. he needs to be on his 100 pace, so we should see times in the 23-second-high range.

"Another set we do a few weeks before competition is a 2 x (2 x 100) on 3 minutes, in which he has to average 52-low-his 200 meter pace. Ten days before the competition, he's doing a 100 at maximum speed in which he should stay about a second above his world record time.

"The goal in these meet-specific workouts is to make that pace. The sets aren't always the same-we may need to change the distance or the amount of rest if he doesn't have the speed. In an average week, we'll swim about 40-45 kilometers (40,000-45,000 meters) long course."

Hoogie says his favorite training set "is a 10 x 100 freestyle max on 2 minutes. This set is followed by swimming with fists and catch-up drills. Afterward, when I do an easy freestyle pulling set, concentrating on technique, it feels like I'm floating.

"To keep myself motivated during the hard sets, I think about the goals I've set. We have a saying on our swim team: 'After suffering comes progress.'"

Room for Improvement

In addition to the straight swimming sets, Hoogie also uses a variety of training aids, although not many.

"During the year, we work on all four strokes," says Verhaeren, "but the majority for Pieter is done freestyle. Part of the workout (about 400 to 500 meters) is drills. Pieter doesn't feel comfortable using a lot of equipment, but we do use Zoomers for freestyle and butterfly kicking, and monofins to work on his underwater dolphin kick. The basic kicking sets are done with a kickboard. However, the specific sets with fins or sprints are done without a board in order to work on body alignment."

Van den Hoogenband adds, "I regard equipment as training aids. I trust the people advising me about them, but I only use what I think is the most important."

Recently, Verhaeren started using the Omega Wave. "We started working with the Omega Wave this year to measure the effect of the workouts. We haven't collected enough information from it yet to incorporate it into all of our workouts, but with this machine, you can see how fast the swimmer recovers. It's a promising tool for coaches."

Although van den Hoogenband is a double Olympic champion, he still keeps working on improving his stroke. Verhaeren explains, "If we look at Pieter's strengths and weaknesses, it's clear that he is not winning because of his starts and turns. We practice quite a bit on starts and turns to get them more consistent. They need to be decent in every race, not just when he's lucky."

Pieter's strengths are also very evident. Verhaeren believes van den Hoogenband's stroke, technically speaking, is among the best in the world. he also notes that Hoogie has a high physical endurance.

"Tests in Hamburg showed that his height and body composition are ideal for swimming," says Verhaeren. "He has a very flat body-if you look at it from the side. That-in combination with his feel for the water and his body position-makes him as fast as he is today."

Verhaeren likes to spend the last two or three months preceding a major international competition in training camps: "There you can concentrate solely on swimming while getting enough rest. During competition, you always need to focus on your own race to swim the best race possible. That should be the goal of every swimmer-to improve yourself instead of wanting to win."

From van den Hoogenband's perspective, he doesn't feel any stress before a major race: "I'm just focusing on my race and pumping myself up. Swimming is a sport in which you can't do more than perform at 100 percent, so why should you worry? You shouldn't complicate things too much."

Before the "big race," Hoogie likes to get plenty of sleep as well as finding enough time to prepare himself mentally. "I'm not stressed by the fact that others are better starters and turners-the swimming will take care of itself. Everything adds up to the final time, and the only thing that matters is the final time."

But the way Verhaeren sees it, achieving your best "final time" still comes down to one simple, but critical element: "Even at this level, technique is still the most important.

"Until the day of the competition, we keep working on the little details, such as reducing drag by improving body position and by working on technique. We also try to learn something from every workout. Everything you do needs to have a purpose. I want to see the effect of every set.

"As a coach, I can learn the most from my team of experts, but if you look around, you can learn from everyone. You can gain a lot of experience by talking to other coaches at meets. I can even get ideas by looking at the warm-up set of another swimmer."

How much Verhaeren and his prize pupil, van den Hoogenband, have learned will become apparent next year when Pieter's quest for more Olympic gold continues in Athens.

Oene Rusticws is an editor for the Dutch swimming magazine, Zwcmkroniek,and an age group coach for De Dolfijn SPAX in Amsterdam.

Copyright Sports Publications, Inc. Oct-Dec 2003
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