A CHAT WITH COACH GREGG TROY

Swimming Technique, Jan-Mar 2005 by Whitten, Phillip

(This is the seventh in a series of mini-interviews with some of the world's leading coaches. Our interview this issue is with Coach Gregg Troy, head men's and women's coach at the University of Florida. Troy has reinvigorated the Gator program, elevating one of the most storied collegiate programs in the U.S. to even higher levels,. In six seasons with the women's team and five with the men's, he has produced more than 40 SEC titles and more than 150 SEC Academic Honor Roll selections. Nearly 60 athletes have combined to earn All-America honors more than 330 times, in his career, he's tutored 39 Olympians and coached athletes to more than 150 U.S. and international records. We spoke with Coach Troy recently on the role technique plays in his program.)

Swimming Technique: Coach Troy, you've had tremendous success as a coach wherever you've gone. How much emphasis do you place on proper stroke technique?

Coach Gregg Troy: I take a bit of a different approach to technique. Technique is involved in 100 percent of what my swimmers do.

ST: How?

Troy: Typically, in many programs a lot of the rest between repeats and sets is fluff time. Most of our rest is "active rest," which I use for stroke drills. There is no easy swimming in our workouts. The stroke drills often carry over to the first set or the first part of a set, where we continue to practice drills, usually on the clock.

Now, "on the clock" doesn't necessarily mean "fast." I allow sufficient time to do the drill correctly. One of the fallacies in our sport is that we often let our kids swim slowly incorrectly. Everyone can do drills correctly. The challenge is to transfer that technique to race conditions, and to do them correctly-even when you're fatigued.

ST: How do you get your swimmers to do that?

Troy: It depends.

ST: On what?

Troy: On the swimmer. Some respond to "reward"-like praise or recognition among their peers. Others respond better to "punishment." The important thing is to let them know it's important.

ST: You've coached at different levels during your career. I believe you were at Bolles for 20 years and won several national high school titles. Do you teach technique differently to athletes in high school and college?

Troy: The technical information and skills I try to convey are not dramatically different. The issues are the same, and the drills are the same or similar. What differs is the presentation of the information. With younger swimmers, you just need to tell them what to do. With older athletes, you need to explain things in greater detail and provide justifications for what you're asking them to do. Essentially, you need to explain why.

ST: ...And you do this-you keep up this emphasis on technique-throughout the entire season?

Trcry: Yes, although the percentage of practice time devoted strictly to technique is greatest at the beginning and end of the season. You want your athletes to start out right, with correct technique, and you don't want to see flaws when they're competing in the "Big Meet" at the end of the season-the meet that should be the culmina' tion of everything they've worked for throughout the year.

ST: Are there any "universals" in technique-aspects of stroke that everyone has to do if they want to be successful?

Troy: Sure, though there may not be as many as most coaches think. To begin with, there's streamlining. Every swimmer has to streamline his or her body as much as possible. You can't allow yourself to be slowed by drag that can be avoided.

ST: OK, but on the other hand, one of the things I've noticed in our sport is that there's a tendency to impose the same technique on individuals who are built very differently from each other. I'm not just talking women versus men here, but different body types.

Troy: Yes, I'd agree with you. A lot of what we consider "flaws" are actually accommodations by swimmers with lessthan-ideal body types. We need to recognize this as a fact of life and leave lots of room to accommodate different body types.

ST: How do different body types affect stroke technique?

Troy: I don't believe the same stroke dynamic is operating for the athlete who is 5-7 and 140 pounds versus the athlete who is 6-0 and 140, leave aside the issue of gender. And I think it's fairly obvious that the ideal way for a Matt Biondi to propel himself through the water is quite different from the ideal for a Janet Evans. And, of course, if you look at their strokes, you see dramatic differences. Yet both individuals achieved remarkable success, in part because their coaches were wise enough not to impose preconceived ideas on what constitutes an ideal stroke. We need to learn from examples such as these-there are so many of them in our sport.

ST: So you're saying...

Troy: We need to leave a lot of room for variation. For the coach, I'd say it's essential to know your athlete.

ST: Now you have an athlete, Ryan Lochte, who has already achieved great success, but who, I feel, has barely begun to tap his potential. What makes him so good? Is he another once-in-a-generation athlete like Michael Phelps, who just happened to come along in the same generation as Michael?