Top Trinidad and Tobago swimmer George Bovell never shies away from a challenge.
Source: www.trinidadexpress.com By Mark Pouchet
When he popped his knee in a team Paint Ball activity back in 2004, soon after he had won the Athens 200 metres Individual Medley (IM) bronze medal, George "The Hammer" Bovell changed specialty.
He went from one of the most difficult races, the 200m Individual Medley involving all four competitive strokes, all muscle groups and energy systems, to the 50m freestyle sprint.
And he splashed to top rankings in that event, culminating in a fourth spot world ranking last year.
That was akin to 1980 and 1984 Olympic champion Daley Thompson abandoning the decathlon for the 100m dash and being among the top eight in the sprint.
So when Bovell, disappointed by a string of poor results over the last two years, decided to quit the state-of-the art facilities, world-ranked training partners and easy access to world-class competition in the United States for training by himself in run-down, dated pools and in an environment where he lacks top competition, he faced another challenge.
"Yeah, it's (training in T&T) much harder in certain respects. There is more energy when you have training mates and are competing with them day in and out. Now the challenge is to draw the energy from yourself, it's intrinsic and I have noticed to do things fast, I feel as if I don't really know how fast I am. But that's what my coach Anil Roberts is for," said Bovell.
He certainly has a good base from which to work.
The Olympian scored the highest in athletic functionality tests performed by the world renowned athletic conditioner Vern Gambetta two weekends ago.
"I am afraid I made some of the track athletes look bad, but I have really been focussed on a full-body programme in weight training, medicine ball and plyometrics training. It's all towards making me a better athlete," he said.
Bovell, who says he is entertaining the idea of inviting former training partners like Olympic champion and world record holder Brazilian Caesar Cielo here, said Roberts, the ASCA Level five swim coach and tv/radio show host who is now Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, was the man to take him back to his fast-swimming ways.
"Anil also supplies motivation where a team environment would have provided it before. It has been good so far and I am looking forward to see what we can do later this year. He is a really positive presence at big meets....He is there to give me a pump-up speech, a race critique, someone to tell you, "you looking good" when you not swimming so fast, and of course his expertise in coaching. Coaching is as much an art as a science and Anil has proven himself to be a real artist," said Bovell.
Bovell, who said Tobago's YMCA eight-lane 25 metre pool is "the best pool in the country", is tweaking his technique with Roberts' help and is already seeing some "little improvements and little mistakes" that he is making.
"I am going to fix them. I think my 50 freestyle technique is where I need to be but now I am working to get back my 100 free technique. I think the banned high-tech suits gave a lot of swimmers a false sense of ability. Without them, there is nothing to lift you, without the suits you have to create your own lift and we are focussing on stroke efficiency, doing the fastest time with the least amount of strokes which is going to force us to become swim efficient.," he stated.
Bovell added that preparing for the 100 will set him up nicely for the 50m free at the London 2012 Olympics.
More short term though, Bovell will next prepare for the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Dubai in December.
For 2011, the 2010 CAC gold medallist is looking to peak for the Mexico 2011 Pan Am Games and the Shanghai 2011 World Long Course Championships in October and July respectively.
Between those meets and the Olympics, Bovell is looking to get in as much racing as possible.
And the challenge is to progress to 21.6 seconds in 2011, and to 21.3 seconds in 2012 to set up a shot at the gold medal in the Men's 50m free.
"I think that time will win gold. A matter of three more tenths and two years of solid racing and coaching to the rare air of a gold medal," he concluded.