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Kelly And The Craft Of The Coach

Sep 19, 2011  - Craig Lord

When Sean Kelly asked, not once but three times, his elite, well-funded Stockport shoal to volunteer for rigorous altitude training in the Sierra Nevada last winter, just one hand went up for pain in Spain: Keri-Anne Payne.

For most coaches that would mean dropping plans and settling for compromise while knowing that out in the world rivals were hard at work leaving no stone unturned. As head of one of Britain's five Intensive Training Centres (ITC), Kelly had a choice: he left the rest of the squad behind in the capable hands of assistant coach Lars Humer and a team of sports scientists and other staff, and matched Payne's commitment with his own.

Born at over 5,700ft in Johannesburg, Payne could withstand a workload on the third day in the Sierra that most swimmers would take a week to 10 days to build up to as their bodies adjusted to high-altitude conditions. The end result was one of the most commanding world-title victories of any in pool or open water in Shanghai back in July, when Payne controlled the pace and then destroyed the field in the closing phase of a race in which she retained the 10km crown. In so doing, she became the first British athlete in any sport to qualify for a home Olympic Games in London next summer.

Payne's thanks for her coach's "commitment and sacrifice", prompted Kelly to reply in kind. The first coach to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at Britain's annual Speedo Splash Awards at the Hurlingham Club in London last Friday night, said: "Last season when I went away with Keri-Anne alone to altitude, the rest of squad just didn't want to go and didn't see the value in it and didn't want to be away from home. I said 'I'm going with the one who wants to go'. I asked a second, then a third time and each time we went alone. 

"I'm 46, she's 23. We don't have a lot to talk about together. It's hard doing the yards but the down time is the hardest part. She's away from David [Carry, fellow swimmer and the man she will marry a year from now] and they're head over heels in love but she is prepared to do that and it is what sets people apart."

That said, commitment, sacrifice and even hard work are not enough and do not explain Payne's success, Kelly noted in a week in which Stockport accounted for three of the top four Splash awards, Payne voted open water swimmer of the year, teammate James Goddard male swimmer of the year and Nottingham's Rebecca Adlington, the double Olympic champion who claimed her first world title, over 800m freestyle, in Shanghai in July, the top female swimmer of the year once more.

Asked to list lessons learned, Kelly, who includes Olympic medallists Graeme Smith, Stephen Parry and Cassie Patten among successes down the years and spearheaded Britain's move into open water swimming in the lead-up to the inaugural Olympic marathon in 2008 that saw British swimmers win half of all six medals on offer, said: "I've changed enormously in terms of what I believed to be important. Hard work, commitment, discipline and the like are just standard things. 

"I once thought of them as the most important things but actually they are simple obligations. What makes the difference in winning, in getting to and staying at No1, is being healthy and happy. If you're not happy at home … well, its a hard old sport is swimming and I try to make it as fun as I possibly can in training."

Fun includes getting things right - with pinpoint accuracy. "One thing I've become convinced of is the critical role of biomechanics and the study of races," says 46-year-old Kelly, who answered his calling beyond a search that took him through jobs as a tax officer, bank clerk, motor cycle courier, life guard, swimming teacher and finally a role coaching in Sydney, Australia, by the time he was 27. 

"We work on as close an analysis of every aspect of races as possible, where we make mistakes and where we can make gains, the things you have to work on," says Kelly before citing a fact obvious to the naked eye at the world championships back in July but confirmed in stark numbers by careful meter-by-metre analysis of the 200m medley final. Out of the cauldron in which Ryan Lochte beat US teammate and Olympic champion Michael Phelps in world-record time and Hungarian Laszlo Cseh, triple Olympic silver medallist each time behind Phelps in 2008, took bronze, Goddard emerged 0.1sec shy of the podium in fourth.

"Ryan Lochte's swim velocity is slightly slower than James's but he turns, measuring from 3m going into the wall and to 10m out of the turn. is 1.61sec faster. Given that in the 200m backstroke last year James was 1.4sec slower that Lochte [Olympic 200m backstroke champion], you can see where huge difference could be made." Americans have led the way on what former Britain director Bill Sweetenham dubbed "the fifth stroke" from 2007 onwards, while Britain has only turned its full attention to the problem in the past year, according to current head coach Denis Purley. 

The most obvious gain was that seen in Payne in the pool: world No 1 over 10km, she also claimed a medal in the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m (gold and national record) at British Championships last spring. Her success raises a question for London 2012. "She has a desperate desire to be on the pool team. I'm keen to see her do well in the 800m but the only issue I have if she qualifies is what to taper for. I would want to use the 800m as preparation for the 10km - that's the big one, the way I see it. I think she does too."

Goddard also has a choice: 200m backstroke, an event in which he has been Commonwealth champion twice (2002 and 2010) and in which he finished a frustrating fourth at the 2004 Olympic Games, or 200m medley. Kelly favours the latter as the London 2012 focus for three key reasons: Goddard's shoulder niggles are aggravated by a pure backstroke focus; both 200m events fall in the same semis and finals sessions at London 2012; and on medley the podium potential if that fifth stroke can be harnessed, is obvious after a Shanghai race in which the Beijing 2008 medal winners claimed the prizes once more.

London 2012 is likely to be Goddard's swansong. He intends to make it count - and Kelly intends to leave no stone unturned trying to help one of the most naturally talented swimmers ever to emerge from Britain. While there is to be a greater focus on turns and breaststroke, Goddard's freestyle technique is to be fine-tuned through consultation with coach Ian Grayson. "He's a great technician, especially on freestyle. I used to watch his kids at age-groups and think how beautiful and efficient he got then to swim," said Kelly. "With a couple of adjustments to stroke, James could make significant gains."

And when the job is done and London wakes to a post-Olympic dawn, Kelly will open a new chapter, just as he has with each passing Olympic cycle for the past five. After Athens 2004, many of his older swimmers came to the end of their racing days, including Olympic medallists Smith and Parry. The changing of guard in any programme can seem like a loss, or at least leave those left behind with a longing for what has been, the kind of feeling best summed up by the Portuguese word 'saudade'. 

"I will probably be left with very few athletes capable of making a big podium post-London… I've had James for 16 years, been about 10 with Kerri-Anne. It's a long time. I remember after Athens, when Graeme, Steve and Adi [Adrian Turner] retired, it felt really empty at the pool. I'm getting ready for it this time."

Post-London, Kelly may wave goodbye to the likes of Goddard and Payne, though the marathon world champion told SwimNews in Shanghai that she will go "when it feels right for me and not just because of a moment on a calendar linked to an event".

The event this time round is like no other for any involved in any British sport. Kelly recognises the potential of an immediate post-Games period, let alone one that follows a once-in-a-lifetime home Olympics campaign, to be something of an anti-climax. His plans are not yet baked but he sees a future battling for Britain in the race pool and in open water at a time when the 2012 host will wish to use its moment in the spotlight as a stepping stone to even better days.

There is a more immediate job to be done and Kelly and his heroes will start week five of their season with a lift in pace and intensity. "We've just done week four of the season and until now its been a steady build up. We'll be at full tilt Monday morning. I always find in Olympic year that I have to hold them back because they get really excited. They have to balance that and not overtrain and drive themselves into a hole. I feel like a jockey, sometimes reining them in, then letting them go."

There will be a few tests along the way, such as a couple of world cup stops this side of Christmas, but the next time that Stockport's charges will have their reins loosened they will be racing for places on a home Olympic squad in March at the London Aquatics Centre.