Hurley: FINA World Cup's Rapid-Fire Format Invaluable to Top Swimmers
Hurley: FINA World Cup's Rapid-Fire Format Invaluable to Top Swimmers
Decorated swimmer Australian swimmer Bobby Hurley describes what it's like to swim a rigorous FINA World Cup schedule.
Australian swimmer Bobby Hurley is giving FloSwimming an inside look at the demanding schedule of the FINA World Cup as he competes against some of the top athletes across the globe.
For the past two months, the best swimmers in the world have been gathering to compete for not only the gold but also for a whole lot of money as well. The seventh of nine FINA World Cup events on the 2016 tour just concluded, this time in Singapore on October 21-22. It has been a long season for many of the world's top swimmers who competed at the Rio Olympic Games and continued on for the short-course season. But even for myself, who wasn't in Rio, the rapid-fire format of the World Cup, featuring two days of racing followed by just two days for travel and rest, has proved to be extremely exhausting and exhilarating at the same time!
The first cluster of events started in late August with competitions in Paris-Chartes, Berlin, and Moscow. After a 25-day break, the World Cup moved on to dates in Beijing, Dubai, and Doha, before taking a 10-day break ahead of the final events in Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. For Australians and many other countries, we then have to compete in our home nationals championships, which double as selection trials for the World Short Course Championships in Windsor, Canada, in December.
Many people wonder how swimmers can perform at their best so frequently while traveling long distances all over the world. But the high-level competition -- mixed with swimming multiple events usually back-to-back -- is a form of training in itself. Where else can you find that much high-intensity, race-pace volume under pressure against some of the best swimmers in the world? This philosophy is being made famous by the "Iron Lady" Katinka Hosszu, who can swim (and win) up to seven races per night. Don't forget that she also swims heats for all those events in the morning, meaning she is stepping up on the block over 20 times per competition. On the men's side, Vlad Morzov is blitzing many of the sprint events across all strokes and even breaking the 100 IM world record twice in Europe, and Daiya Seto is showing his versatility over the middle distance races. Seto has now won medals in the 200 distance over all four strokes and has the fastest 200 IM time this year.
The World Cup can also prove extremely valuable to those who don't have the repertoire of four-plus events. With nine successive meets racing heats and finals back-to-back, it is your chance to execute your main event 18 times and have time in between to review your performance and make the necessary changes. By the time many of the World Cup veterans get to Windsor in December, they will know their race plans inside and out, which is especially important in the short-course format. Knowing exactly how many dolphin kicks need to be done off each wall, how many strokes per lap, and where to take a breath in the race simplifies the race plan for the athlete and makes it easier to execute under pressure.
The FINA World Cup is where champions come to race and get battle hardened with the bigger moment in mind.
For the past two months, the best swimmers in the world have been gathering to compete for not only the gold but also for a whole lot of money as well. The seventh of nine FINA World Cup events on the 2016 tour just concluded, this time in Singapore on October 21-22. It has been a long season for many of the world's top swimmers who competed at the Rio Olympic Games and continued on for the short-course season. But even for myself, who wasn't in Rio, the rapid-fire format of the World Cup, featuring two days of racing followed by just two days for travel and rest, has proved to be extremely exhausting and exhilarating at the same time!
The first cluster of events started in late August with competitions in Paris-Chartes, Berlin, and Moscow. After a 25-day break, the World Cup moved on to dates in Beijing, Dubai, and Doha, before taking a 10-day break ahead of the final events in Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. For Australians and many other countries, we then have to compete in our home nationals championships, which double as selection trials for the World Short Course Championships in Windsor, Canada, in December.
Many people wonder how swimmers can perform at their best so frequently while traveling long distances all over the world. But the high-level competition -- mixed with swimming multiple events usually back-to-back -- is a form of training in itself. Where else can you find that much high-intensity, race-pace volume under pressure against some of the best swimmers in the world? This philosophy is being made famous by the "Iron Lady" Katinka Hosszu, who can swim (and win) up to seven races per night. Don't forget that she also swims heats for all those events in the morning, meaning she is stepping up on the block over 20 times per competition. On the men's side, Vlad Morzov is blitzing many of the sprint events across all strokes and even breaking the 100 IM world record twice in Europe, and Daiya Seto is showing his versatility over the middle distance races. Seto has now won medals in the 200 distance over all four strokes and has the fastest 200 IM time this year.
The World Cup can also prove extremely valuable to those who don't have the repertoire of four-plus events. With nine successive meets racing heats and finals back-to-back, it is your chance to execute your main event 18 times and have time in between to review your performance and make the necessary changes. By the time many of the World Cup veterans get to Windsor in December, they will know their race plans inside and out, which is especially important in the short-course format. Knowing exactly how many dolphin kicks need to be done off each wall, how many strokes per lap, and where to take a breath in the race simplifies the race plan for the athlete and makes it easier to execute under pressure.
The FINA World Cup is where champions come to race and get battle hardened with the bigger moment in mind.