Kenny To visit to Team Abbotsleigh, January 15th 2014
Summary – by Leanne Speechley
Part 1 – His Journey!
- Everyone should race IM
- He was not instantaneously amazing – had to work really hard – especially due to his 171cm height
- Made a lot of great friends through swimming as a youngster which made him want to come to the pool more often
- Focused mainly on swimming from the age of 12
- From age 6 to 11 was very bad at swimming
- To overcome his fears of racing bigger and stronger swimmers he focused on himself and on being the best swimmer he could be.
- He made sure he trained harder and smarter than everyone else
- 14 years – 7-8 sessions per week, 16yrs added gym and now does 9 sessions plus gym.
- Found the transition from open to age tough. From racing 18 year olds to Michael Phelps and Ryan Locte
- His favourite Australian swimmer is Ian Thorpe (the boss) – a lot of respect for him for what he did at such a young age and was chuffed to break his IM record at 16.
- Making his first Australian team was like nothing he could have imagined. “I hoped and dreamed and now it’s a reality. It’s really special”
- However it has not always been smooth sailing…….There has been a lot of disappointments along the way
- “Missing Olympics in 2012 (after being the favourite leading into trials) made it clear to me I needed to be able handle disappointment and use the experience to move forward and not harp on them.”
- You need to always look forward, to the next day. Always have goals – don’t harp on failure or success.
- His current goal is to make the Commonwealth Games Team and swim well at trials.
Part 2 – Main Topic he wished to discuss
A quote by Robert Kiyosaki:
- “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream and how you handle disappointment along the way”
- You must have a strong burning desire. A passion for swimming.
- The size of your dream should help motivate you. Help bring out the best in you. Force you to challenge yourself. Inspire you.
- How you handle disappointment – it’s very important to be prepared. To have coping strategies. Manage injuries.
- Swimming is a big part of our lives so we need to be prepared, focused and enjoy it.
Part 3 – Questions
- School vs. swimming – He handled the balance by focussing on time management, worked very hard on school work and swimming. Never made excuses he had exams – just made sure he was organised.
- Realised if he wanted to be successful at swimming he had to put the time and work in.
- You need to make choices day to day. E.g. – “do I go to Macca’s every day during the holidays with my mates or do I go swimming training?
- Swimming is not a part time thing – it is like a job.
- He avoided other sports that would affect his swimming. He did a bit of tennis, basketball and water polo.
- SC vs. LC – he loves SC. Loves the action pack style of it. Loves all the turns. He would make Olympics short course if he could! He does realise LC is more important due to teams being LC.
- He missed out on little things like a party or a movie here and there but now is travelling the world and has great mates and great people in his life.
- His favourite stroke is Fr. He would love to be a 50M freestyler!
Part 4 – His IM strategy
- Fly – Let it flow
- Bk – fast rating
- BR – long and legs
- Fr – balanced and build
- All turns – you must focus on the turn a good 10-15 metres out from the wall and commit to the turn. Use the underwater dolphin kick as it’s the fastest way to travel in water. Keep arms strong on wall and don’t collapse and rest on walls.
Kenny finished his visit with swimming and turn demonstrations, coaching and a very gracious thank you. His parting message to the swimmers as they gathered around him hanging off every word was;
“I have enjoyed this visit the most out of any visits. Please don’t just take the information and forget it – please try and practice the things we have discussed and focus on getting better than you are today. Make it happen. Work at it!”