Brett Hawke sits down with Olympic gold medalist Cam McEvoy and his coach Tim Lane to explore the groundbreaking journey that led to Cam’s victory in the 50 Free at the Paris Olympics. Discover how their unique partnership, innovative training methods, and emphasis on mental and physical well-being redefined what it takes to achieve excellence.
OUR SWIMMING PARTNERS:
EO SWIM BETTER: Analyse your stroke technique with eo’s SwimBETTER handsets. Go to eolab.com/SwimBETTER, and use code BRETT at checkout to get 9 months free on a single gold annual membership with any handset purchase.
https://www.eolab.com/swimbetter
BRATTER PA, IMMIGRATION LAW FIRM
Exclusive Immigration and Agency Representation of Athletes, Entrepreneurs, Artists, Investors and Entertainers
https://www.bratterpa.com/
BEINE WELLNESS BUILDING & GENETIC TESTING: Individualize your nutrition with personalized plans from Erica Beine. Eat, supplement, and recover based on your genetics!
SWIMSTRONG DRYLAND: SwimStrong Dryland inspires and changes the lives of competitive swimmers through strength training, leadership training, motivation and care.
IMAGINE SWIMMING: NYC’s Premier Swim School is looking for instructors and coaches!
Lessons for all ages, from Baby Swim to adults, along with competitive club teams.
https://www.imagineswimming.com/
INTL SWIMMING HALL OF FAME: Keep our sport’s history alive by joining the 1 in 1000 Club!
https://www.ishof.org/one-in-a-thousand/
WHOOP: A wearable fitness tracker that provides continuous physiological data to help users optimize training, recovery, and overall health.
http://join.whoop.com/Sprintrevolution
Subscribe to this YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUnIPHpA60QccvbkmCa4kzw?sub_confirmation=1
Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-with-brett-hawke/id1498116036
#swimming #worldaquatics #sprintrevolution
00:00 Welcome & Congrats
02:00 Relationships
03:15 Who is Tim Lane?
06:15 How Cam & Tim met
11:00 Adding resistance work
14:30 Training together for just 1 event
21:00 Cam’s team
25:53 Drastically cutting volume
33:00 Just go home
36:30 72 hours
37:30 Early learnings
40:00 Cracking the code in Fukuoka
42:30 Pivoting goals
45:00 Going from Prelims to Semis to Finals
48:24 Max is Max
50:30 Vlad Bukhov
52:00 Ben Proud
52:30 Losing to Vlad Bukhov
54:10 Reducing the noise
55:30 Mental fatigue
01:01:00 Bulgarian method
01:02:00 Staying home
01:06:30 Bruno Fratus text message
01:11:00 2016 Cam vs. 2024 Cam
01:21:00 How’s Dean Boxall?
01:22:00 Releasing the details
01:25:00 Short course money meets
01:27:00 Extremely proud
01:28:00 Australian speed
Key Points Discussed:
Relationship with Tim Lane: A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the deep and unique relationship between Cam and Tim. They describe it as a partnership rather than a traditional coach-athlete relationship. Tim played a crucial role in providing the right environment, mental guidance, and mentorship, which Cam attributes as being integral to his success. Cam emphasizes that without Tim, his achievement wouldn’t have been possible.
Training Philosophy: The interview highlights their holistic approach to training, focusing on quality over quantity. They moved away from traditional volume-based training, instead prioritizing neural conditioning, resistance training, and specific, targeted work aimed at maximizing performance in the 50 Free. This method involved constant adaptation and feedback, with Cam having significant input into the training regimen, allowing him to thrive.
Mental and Psychological Approach: Cam and Tim discuss the psychological toll of high-intensity training, especially when aiming to maintain peak neural output over extended periods. They navigated this by allowing for periods of mental rest and reducing the volume of training to ensure Cam remained motivated and mentally fresh for the Olympics.
Strategic Decisions: Leading up to the Olympics, they made strategic decisions, such as keeping Cam away from the media and social distractions, allowing him to focus entirely on his preparation. They also chose to delay joining the Australian Olympic team camp to maintain the specific training environment that worked best for Cam.
Handling Pressure and Expectations: Cam compares his experience at the Paris Olympics to previous competitions, noting how the new approach reignited his passion for the sport and allowed him to handle the pressure with a renewed mindset. His experience, the partnership with Tim, and their innovative approach contributed to a more relaxed and confident performance, ultimately leading to his victory.
15 Comments
You owe Pan a sincere apology.
Could you ask him how to get under 6s in 15m from dive?
Cam McEvoy had spoken a lot about off pool training – Rock Climbing, Running, Weights….would be good if he throw some more light along with his in-pool training
Hitting like bottom before I watch it.
How is it game changing when the times are the same? Less yardage but times are not light years ahead of the field
Are there plans to get the gang together for a post-Olympic round up of the swimming events? The preview show was both funny and informative, might be interesting to look back at the predictions and talk about the current and future state of swimming.
I am an "old" swimmer – and my new goal is this "concept" and how fast can I go ??? I have been through the "endurance" training regime twice – youngster to Olympic medal – mid-late 30s Olympic trials … now way too long – 14y – of zero training … starting from zero – and people underestimate how much us old folks lose … nobody just stays fast 🙂 — I now see the sport as way way too much focus on endurance – even from an early age – its all reps and vol and most reps at poor technical quality — older folks too always just count yardage and slow grinding … one of the most surprising facts – sprint focus puts MUCH less wear and tear on your shoulders … and I have had a torn labrum …
What an epic talk. This guys the new sprinting pioneer.
How important is the base? Swimming thousands of laps under traditional coaching methods has to be factored in. Would this method work for a younger swimmer?
100 free stopped everybody
this is a great interview
This is is quality
It would be really great if you could reach out and get Pan and his coach for a talk like this one.
If you remember there was a certain disbelief when David Popovici broke the 100 WR but then when you sat down with him and his coach everyone got to know him so well.
It’s nice seeing athletes and coaches willing to step outside traditional concepts to chase performances.
Thank you for the amazing in-depth interview, Brett!!! 🙏🏼
At around 1:09:20 Cam was saying that the miniscule stroke rate change between 30 & 35 m felt terrible, although it was in reality gold-medal-fast.
Is it sometimes the case that swimmers have to force themselves to apply certain techniques which don't necessarily feel natural nor comfortable because the data simply show that these techniques / stroke rates / etc. simply yield the best empirical result?