This is not news to readers of this blog, as it was suggested here september 29th…

Townsville Bulletin, australian newspaper, reveals Ian Thorpe´s superdupersecret coach:

IAN Thorpe has been working in Los Angeles with renowned stroke technician Milt Nelms, an expert described as “a swimming whisperer” by the Olympic champion’s coach, Tracey Menzies.

Thorpe said in a television interview in August that he was working with “a number of different experts from around the world”, but he did not name them for fear of media disruption to his training schedule.

Thorpe originally went to the US in July to spend three months working with leading coach Dave Salo at the University of Southern California.

However, Thorpe’s manager, David Flaskas, said yesterday that ongoing media interest in his LA sojourn had interfered with the smooth running of Salo’s squad, and Thorpe felt it better for everyone if he developed a separate training regime.

He is due to return to Australia next week to resume training with Menzies before the world championship trials in Brisbane in December.

Flaskas confirmed that Thorpe had used a variety of “resources” in Los Angeles including Nelms, who is the partner of former Olympic champion Shane Gould.

Nelms has also worked closely with 100m backstroke world record holder Natalie Coughlin.

Thorpe was presumably introduced to Nelms through Coughlin and her coach, Teri McKeever, who attended a training camp with Menzies and Thorpe at the Sutherland pool in Sydney in the lead-up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

At the time, Coughlin also spent several days working on her stroke efficiency with Nelms and Gould.

Nelms, an American, is known for his unorthodox approach to swimming technique, based on improving the body’s posture and balance in the water.

He is critical of training programs that focus too much on long mileage and techniques that stress the body by putting it in unnatural positions.

His philosophy teaches swimmers to overcome the natural instincts of land-based creatures and develop a more relaxed and efficient technique.

According to Menzies, Nelms “observes and manipulates and results come quickly”.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 5th, 2006 at 6:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.