elbow angle prior to catch

[azamy]

Originally Posted by CharlesCouturier

Likewise, you'd be amazed to spend a year witnessing what these guys do.

Right. That's the reason he's getting all this attention and credit.

Originally Posted by Jeffinhawaii

I'm sure world record holders strive to improve every practice and every stroke and at this point sun is probably his own best coach and probably his own harshest critic too. The thought of sun reading and getting something fron t.i. Forums is really funny. I liked that one.

I second Andy's remark ;-)

Originally Posted by andyinnorway

We can be Rocky to his Drago (Rocky 4, heart and mind vs science and technology) :)

To get something from the TI forums his English has to be very good and if he isn't that good he'll need a 6th person to translate :D haha

By the way anyone has any idea if he speaks English or not? Just curious

[Richardsk]

Hi Azamy

Sun trains part of the time in Australia with an Australian coach and it would be very difficult for him to do this with no English unless the coach speaks Chinese, which I think is unlikely. Of course he could have a personal interpreter, but more likely he knows enough English to understand his coach. If there were enough demand for Australian coaches to coach Chinese swimmers it would no doubt be worth their while to learn Chinese, as it seems the Chinese pay big money for good coaching.

[azamy]

Originally Posted by Richardsk

Hi Azamy

Sun trains part of the time in Australia with an Australian coach and it would be very difficult for him to do this with no English unless the coach speaks Chinese, which I think is unlikely. Of course he could have a personal interpreter, but more likely he knows enough English to understand his coach. If there were enough demand for Australian coaches to coach Chinese swimmers it would no doubt be worth their while to learn Chinese, as it seems the Chinese pay big money for good coaching.

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. I didn't know about his part time training in Australia. Sun is lucky he has all the support he needs to be the athlete he is.

[Richardsk]

Azamy

I found an article on line entitled "Inside Sun Yang's Success" and tried to provide a link to it but for some reason I was unable to do so.

Perhaps if you search for it under this title you will find it. It mentions the huge sums spent by Sun's team on his training in Australia.

Obviously they think the money was well spent.

Here is an excerpt:

According to the Beijing Evening Newspaper, Sun's top-notch training came at great cost, requiring a huge financial commitment from his team. Retaining Cotterell, one of Australia's top coaches, required roughly 1 million yuan (US$156,991) per year. Additionally, sponsorship of Sun Yang and his accompanying staff of trainers and assistants costs approximately 300,000 yuan (US$47,098) per month. So far, Sun's team has spent nearly 10 million yuan (US$1.57 million) for his two years of training down under.

Despite the huge price tag, a Chinese industry veteran says Cotterell's expertise was worth every bit spent. "He has taught a lot of world-class long distance freestyle stars such as Grant Hackett throughout his long teaching career. He has [compiled] an effective training method, which has made us convinced."

[CharlesCouturier]

In fact, this guy is now so expensive than Australia herself can't afford him, hence the fact that Australia was not anywhere close to a podium in distance events in London 2012.

[CoachSuzanne]

Originally Posted by CharlesCouturier

In fact, this guy is now so expensive than Australia herself can't afford him, hence the fact that Australia was not anywhere close to a podium in distance events in London 2012.

And there is a lot of animosity among australias national team coaches because Cottrel is coaching Sun. My understanding is that Sun trains alongside the Australians on his squad as well, and that there was thought that his "finishing" would take place in China due to this disagreements and conflicts of interest. That was my take on the article that I read.

I find it all pretty fascinating. China spends this kind of money on a single swimmer, granted a world champion, yet a friend of mine who was a top US single sculler and placed 9th in singles sculling in the Barcelona (??) Olympics was not given any monetary support nor even given team USA health insurance benefits and funded her entire trip on her own credit cards!

Think of how much more time she could have devoted to training had she not been funding pretty much everything herself ...

Fact check here. ;)
https://www.google.com/search?q=jennifer+divine

[andyinnorway]

Funding is a great topic.

I think the current UK view is that 1 million per gold medal is a reasonable budget but this is spread out over all the athletes and coaching teams.

Here is the UK funding criteria which seems pretty generous, but then the disastrous performance of the Barcelona Olympics was a big catalyst for sport regeneration. A podium athlete can expect around $120,000 in support and living expenses from the government.

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/how-the-funding-works/

[Jeffinhawaii]

It is pretty funny that tech suits were banned to keep competition more "fair" but the discrepancies in training budgets far outstrip any advantage in the pool.

What I want are some goggles that show real time video while you swim so you see your stroke while you are doing it. Sort of a floating hologram image and a little number in the corner that measures speed and drag. It can't be far off the way technology is moving. Kind of like a portable personal swim studio.

Maybe there's an app for that.

And maybe I could get some helium injected into implants in my legs to improve my kick. Do they have secret flotation implants yet for Olympic swimmers?
Sort of like mechanical doping?

[Richardsk]

It's all a far cry from the old Olympic ideal, isn't it? But even in the old days there was some government support in some countries - athletes were often members of the armed forces or students supported by grants or scholarships.

[CoachSuzanne]

Originally Posted by Richardsk

It's all a far cry from the old Olympic ideal, isn't it? But even in the old days there was some government support in some countries - athletes were often members of the armed forces or students supported by grants or scholarships.

There is an elite US military team, where elite athletes can train full time and earn their Army salary...I'm not sure if it's just army but I think it's for all armed forces.