In late January Australian coach Shannon Rollason was hired to take over the coaching duties at the Danish National Training Centre. Since arriving in Denmark he has had a short time to assess his new environment and shared his initial impressions in an interview with Danish Swimming.
Rollason discussed his impressions of the facilities in Denmark, his evaluation of the training centre athletes, the environment at the NTC and what he has seen when it comes to the mindset of Danish swimmers.
Rollason told the interviewer that he was impressed with the facilities in the country, comparing them to what you would see in Australia, with the exception being the Australian Institute of Sport.
He commented that he has had a chance to start to evaluate how the older athletes train and has spoken with them about the training they have done in the past and some of his plans for the future,
He also complimented both Paulus Wildeboer and Mark Regan for the environment that they had built at the NTC during their time in the country.
“My impression was that a lot of the swimmers had a tougher mentality.”
Shannon Rollason
“Some swimmers in Australia only like to do one race at a swim meet where as the Danish swimmers were doing two, three in a short turn around.”
One of the most interesting comments came after Rollason told the interviewer that he was impressed with the Danish athletes’ toughness, when asked whether he could compare the Danish swimmers mentality to that of the Australians, he had a straight forward answer, ”My impression was that a lot of the swimmers had a tougher mentality,” said Rollason.
“They were more willing to do good work. Some swimmers in Australia only like to do one race at a swim meet where as the Danish swimmers were doing two, three in a short turn around.”
The interview can be seen in its entirety on the Danish Swimming site
Not the subject of the article but new crazy last weekend for the young American talents.
13-year-old Michael Andrew has again smashed his PB. 46.06 in the 100 free, 51.05 in the 100 back, 57.03 in the 100 breast and 1.50.54 in the 200 IM. The NAG records will be destroyed next SCY season.
11-year-old Sam Smith has swum 23.00 in the 50 free and 50.96 in the 100 free.
11-year-old Destin Lasco and Vinny Marciano have responded to each other in their backstroke races with very impressive times. 26.37, 56.25 and 2.06.18 for Destin Lasco. 26.65, 57.01 and 2.05.45 for Vinny Marciano. NAG records will be broken next season.
16-year-old Andrew Seliskar confirms he’s the best versatile young American of the moment. He has swum a great new NAG record in 53.26 in the 100 breast and a fast 4.18.97 in the 500 free.
13-year-old Isabella Rongione has swum 9.43.69 in the 1000 free and 16.12.69 in the 1650 free.
The next big thing on women’s American fly, 13-year-old Cassidy Bayer has swum 53.70 in the 100 fly.
And 17-year-old Janet Hu, as a warm-up before her NCSA junior nationals this week, has swum a promising 22.35 in the 50 free.
The crazy times period will probably continue this week with the NCSA junior nationals. Big names are there. The women’s sprint for example will be very impressive with almost all the best young Americans : Simone Manuel, Lia Neal, Kristen Vredeveld, Janet Hu… The women’s distance freestyle will also be fast with Becca Mann. And on the men’s side Jack Conger, Andrew Seliskar, Carsten Vissering, Gunnar Bentz, Reed Malone or Caeleb Dressel are in Orlando for this meet.
So why did you put it in ?
Toughness is not the big area for improvement in Danish swimming. They have a number of very fit, hard working athletes. They could, however, benefit from more refined technical ability across the board.
Well Shannon’s best ever swimmer by a mile was Jodie Henry who almost never trained & who did not like to race either. Worked for her.