Sun Yang swims to victory in the men's 400m freestyle at last week's national trials for the Shanghai World Championships in Wuhan. Sun, whon won four golds at the trials, is one of the best examples of a current go-West campaign among the top swimmers in China. He is coached by Dennis Cotterell, mentor of the Australian Olympic great Grant Hackett. [Photo by Cui Meng / China Daily]

International coaches are raising Chinese swimming to a new level

BEIJING - Whether in regional competitions or on the world stage, Chinese swimmers have made waves in the pool in recent years.

With more and more local athletes and coaches going abroad for training and some Western coaches coming to China, Chinese swimming is joining the world, a development experienced coaches describe as "a winning combination".

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"We have people like Sun Yang and Zhang Lin go to Australia and others to the United States. They are picking up a lot of things which they didn't know before," David Lyles, the British head coach of the Shanghai swimming team, told China Daily.

"That is really helpful. It's a combination. Nobody is saying foreign coaches are better but in the West we share and learn together. Now China can participate in that.

"If you put that information with the facilities and the number of coaches and great swimmers in China, you can't lose."

Zhang, China's first male world champion swimmer, is the first successful example of the benefits of training abroad. From 2007 to 2009, Zhang was sent to train in Australia with Olympic great Grant Hackett's mentor, Dennis Cotterell.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Zhang won a silver medal in the men's 400m freestyle. This was the first Olympic medal won by a Chinese male swimmer. A year later, Zhang was crowned a world champion when he won the men's 800m at the Rome World Championships.

"I've learned a lot from Dennis and improved a lot in recent years," Zhang said. "The most important thing is that I've become more confident after training with foreign swimmers."

Following Zhang, China's rising star Sun Yang, went to train with Cotterell for two months earlier this year. The young Asian Games champion was delighted with his visit.

"I achieved a lot from training in Australia this time," said Sun. "The atmosphere there is totally different from that at home. The training there strengthened my muscles a lot. I will go back in December."

The Chinese team sent more swimmers abroad recently. After training in the US since January, China's men's butterfly veteran Wu Peng defeated Olympic superstar Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly at the Michigan Grand Prix last Saturday. It was Wu's first victory over Phelps.

Having worked with the Shanghai team for five years, Lyles has witnessed the progress of China's swimming. Recently, more Western coaches have been invited to come China to help its swimmers.

At the end of 2009, Michael Bohl, coach of Australia's double Olympic medley champion, Stephanie Rice, was among four Australian coaches signed to help Chinese swimming.

The other coaches were Ken Wood, Cotterell and Otto Sonnleitner, a former chairman of the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association, who was appointed head coach at the Chinese national reserve team'.

"The vast amount of research, publications, magazines and internet is written in English. I think in the past it was a big problem because English is not widely spoken in China. Now we have two or three foreign coaches in China," said the 43-year-old Lyles.

"It's important for Western swimmers to see how hard Chinese swimmers are working, and just as important for Chinese people to see what Western people are doing.

"It's not that one thing is better. It's a combination. If you get the best of every country together, then you improve."

Lyles picked up several young swimmers to train with him from the very beginning in China and now there are seven swimmers training with him in the local team.

"In my country it's very rare to pick up a young swimmer and stay with them through their whole career, but in China you can," he said. "I have a lot of ideas and I really want to try them out. It's a really enjoyable experiment at the moment because it's quite successful."

Lyles' swimmers praised his training methods.

"His training methods are very new as he can communicate with advanced foreign coaches," said Ji Liping, who has been training with Lyles since the end of 2008. Ji won the women's 100m breaststroke at the Asian Games last year.

"His training methods are very creative and we never get bored."

China Daily