Training Like Olympians: Highlights from Our Elite Experience

Alto Swim Club attended our annual training trip at the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center (OPTC) in Colorado Springs, Colorado from Sunday, December 29th - Monday January 6th. Our group of 34 athletes spent the week training, learning and bonding with each other through various activities in and out of the pool. The OPTC provides dorms for the athletes, an amazing dining hall, a world class strength and conditioning center, and a 50 meter pool for swimming. 

Athletes adjusted to altitude with some single-day training sessions in the pool at the start of the trip, in addition to a fun experience ice skating in Acacia Park. Some swimmers on Alto can certainly move fast in or on any type of water and others... should stick to the pool. Our morning training sessions became more rigorous as the week went on and the afternoon training sessions featured a combination of work as well as a significant amount of video review via underwater cameras. Coach Alec provided quite a few videos of some Olympic/World Championship level swimmers as examples for skills we were trying to emulate and the athletes' progress during this portion of the camp was significant.

While at the OPTC, a majority of the athletes tested their velocity with Dr. G (Dr. Genadijus Sokolovas), a leading sports scientist who has worked with many Olympic champions. Dr. G helped the swimmers view their improvement in the strokes in a different lens; through his use of velocity curves to measure areas in the stroke where drag is increased, which provided a new insight for swimmers to see their decrease in efficiency. He also provided multiple presentations for our team about technique and skill development. 

Athletes left the OPTC feeling more connected through their shared experiences and eager to get back to regular training!