| Stephen
Peterson has been swimming with North Shore Swimming Club for three years,
under the coaching of Jan Cameron and Igor Polianskaia. His specialty
stroke is breaststroke. Stephen teaches swimming and attends university
while he pursues his amateur sporting career. It's the sort of sport,
where, in a good year, you are looking at a spot on the Olympic team,
and Steve is determinedly keeping that option in mind if he can provide
himself with the opportunity. The following interview was conducted via
email.
How many hours a day, on average, do you
train?
I train on average 5 hours a day, but that is less
than a lot of the other guys that train in the squad. Most do 4 hours
in the pool and 1.5-2.5 hours on the land. Thats on Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday and Friday. On Wednesdays and Saturdays we are given the afternoon
off. For swimming I would train about 25 hours a week, but surf club
training is on top of this.
What sort of cross
training do you do? (Weights? Running? Other sports?)
At the moment I do 3 one hour weights sessions
a week. What we do here depends on the cycle of training we are in.
Also in some parts of the training cycle, instead of swimming for 2
hours in the afternoon, we do land sessions with running, jumps and
strength and flexibility work. I also do surf club and most of the squad
are involved in this in some way. Wednesday nights is training for board
paddling, ski paddling and swim training but i can only make this session
a couple of times a month. On sunday mornings we train for a couple
of hours at the beach.
How early do you start?
6 o'clock on 6 mornings a week. I get up at 5 because
it takes 1/2 an hour to get there.
How many competitions do you compete in per
year?
There are 2 national Open competitions in April and
September and these are what we prepare ourselvwes for. There are several
small regional competitions, and a trip to Australia once a year. The
top level swimmers travel alot more than this. They compete in 4-5Ê
international trips a year.
Do you have a specific season?
No, training is done in around 12-15 week cycles
in preparation for a major competition. Then we have around 2 weeks
off after a cycle.
How much does it cost you each year? Do
you get sponsorship?
No sponsorship.... this is only for carded athletes.
It costs around $140 every month for fees. plus around $300 a year for
meet entries.$ 3000-4000 for travel and competitions out of town. As
it's so far to traing, $75 a week in gas.
What keeps you going?
Friends in the squad. Doing good times gives the
motivation to keep going. I want to be the best and I hate losing. At
the moment I dont really know what I'd do if I didnt swim, as it takes
so much time that it is really hard to give up.
Well, this isn't the sort of sport we usually talk
about on Northern Canoe Polo, but it is nice to gain some form of inspiration
from our fellow amateur athletes. If you'd like to see more information
on swimming, visit Swiminfo.co.nz
and check out the latest results. We wish Steve all the best in his
future competitions and thank him for giving us an insight into a sport
that, in spite of it's Olympic Status, is still in a familiar position
to those of us in canoe polo.
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