They came to Vancouver as 14 of the most talented male swimmers in Canada.<\/p>\n
After an intensive eight-day training camp, they left forged into the nucleus of a men\u2019s team that has expectations of success on the international stage.<\/p>\n
The national women\u2019s team showed their talent and depth by winning six medals at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Swimming Canada is now focused on developing strategies to enhance the performance of the men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Since many of the nation\u2019s top men are spread across the country, Swimming Canada decided bringing them together for a camp would benefit them both in and out of the pool. Not only would the camp have them train together, it would allow them to get to know each other on a personal level while building bonds of understanding and trust.<\/p>\n
Martyn Wilby<\/strong>, Swimming Canada\u2019s Senior Coach, Olympic Program, said many of the athletes who participated will not only be racing at this summer\u2019s FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, but at the 2020 Olympics and beyond.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, if this is the core group we are moving forward with, they are going to develop that camaraderie, so when we got to an international meet there isn\u2019t that feeling out process,\u201d said Wilby.<\/p>\n \u201cYou already know your teammates. You are already part of the team before you get on the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n Although swimming is largely an individual sport the concept of team is still important for success.<\/p>\n \u201cYou swim more than for yourself,\u201d said Jeremy Bagshaw<\/strong>, who trains at the High Performance Centre \u2013 Victoria. \u201cYou\u2019re swimming for the rest of the guys around you and who you are training with. When you train with them every day you get a better feeling of that kind of camaraderie that has kind of been lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s about \u201cknowing that other people have been putting in the same work as you and you are working together,\u201d said the 25-year-old freestyler, who made his first senior national team in 2015. \u201cGetting to work together is a big part of it and helps moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The camp was held at the new UBC Aquatic Centre prior to the recent Mel Zajac Jr. International Swim Meet. The sessions incorporated relay and individual training along with team-building exercises such as yoga, a ropes course, mental performance workshops and a talk delivered by former Olympic team member Scott Dickens.<\/strong><\/p>\n Richard Funk<\/strong>, who first made a senior national team in 2013, said the camp was beneficial in learning new training methods and getting to know other members of the team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the first time since I\u2019ve been on a national team we\u2019ve got a group of guys together just for the sole purpose of training together and building some camaraderie,\u201d said the Edmonton breaststroker who now trains at the High Performance Centre \u2013 Ontario. \u201cI met a lot of new guys I probably normally won\u2019t have known. From that standpoint it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n Funk also was able to pass on some of his experience to the younger swimmers.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s what I got out of it, just passing on what I\u2019ve learned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At 19 years old, Josiah Binnema<\/strong> is a newcomer to the men\u2019s team. The camp gave him a chance to rub shoulders with veterans and watch their training methods.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re seeing people who have been to the Olympics or been on these teams so many times,\u201d said the butterfly swimmer from Prince George, B.C. \u201cThe sort of training they do every day, that\u2019s the sort of training you need to do if you are going to get to that level and swim with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Markus Thormeyer<\/strong> said functioning as a team buildings success in the relays.<\/p>\n \u201cRelay takeovers, it\u2019s a big part knowing the person,\u201d said the 19-year-old Delta. B.C., native who trains at the High Performance Centre \u2013 Vancouver. \u201cBringing everyone together, you\u2019re just not swimming for yourself, you\u2019re swimming for the team.<\/p>\n \u201cYou build trust with people. Part of it is training the mechanics. Part of it is training the emotional passion.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilby pointed to Michelle Toro<\/strong> as an example of someone putting team ahead of themselves.<\/p>\n Toro swam in the morning to help the women\u2019s 4\u00d7100-m freestyle relay team reach the finals at Rio. She then cheered on her teammates to a bronze medal in the evening.<\/p>\n \u201cShe bought into what her role was on the relay,\u201d said Wilby. \u201cI think the women at the Olympics did an amazing job of that. They all knew their roles and they went about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Veteran coach Tom Johnson<\/strong> said the camp allowed the men to lay a foundation to build future success.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know each other on a different level now as opposed to just knowing each other in the competitive environment,\u201d said Johnson, head coach of the High Performance Centre \u2013 Vancouver.<\/p>\n \u201cOut of that comes an identity. We\u2019ve established those base lines (that) underpin where we are going to go in the future. The values and the beliefs and the behaviours have been established and that\u2019s how we are going to go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Thormeyer said he left the camp feeling different from when he started.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest thing for me is we became a men\u2019s team instead of a just a bunch of individuals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Press release courtesy of Swimming Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They came to Vancouver as 14 of the most talented male swimmers in Canada. After an intensive eight-day training camp, they left forged into the nucleus of a men\u2019s team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":258693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[61863,61862,37716,25618,25053],"class_list":["post-258690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-bonding-experience","tag-intensive-training-camp","tag-markus-thormeyer","tag-richard-funk","tag-swimming-canada"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n